I Need to Learn Spanish!

Mark

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Georgia
More and more of our population is going to be people that speak Spanish. In some areas like Tampa, you better know how to speak it.

Maybe I'm missing out on some clients because I don't speak it. Maybe this could be a niche market. Anything that I can do that other agents can't will help.

I wish I had that program on TV, but it cost a lot of money.


Are any of you going to learn SPanish just for your business?
 
Mark, it is too late for and old fart like me but it would be smart if you learn Spanish. You have a large hispanic population in your region.
 
Years ago our spanish teacher told us in order to learn a foreign language, you actually have to learn it twice. You learn the words and the sentences etc. THEN you have to be around the Mexicans who speak it in order to get the hang of it.
 
I know enough Spanish to refer them to another agent I trust to help the client out. Wish I could sell them but I wouldn't be doing them any favors with my limited command of la lengua español.
 
There are several dialects/versions of Spanish. What type of Spanish would you like learn?

I get this because like you, I used to think the same thing. The truth is, right here in my own commuinity, there are a LOT of Spanish people. However, just ask most of them and they will tell you that a lot of the times they can't understand what the other Spanish person is saying.

That is because there are from what I understand several different dialects/versions of the language. The Puerto Ricans seem to be speaking their own version these days, at least in this area. Other Spanish speaking people that I have talked to claim they are making new words up. They get downright angry.

Funny, I was watching a show once with a guy who own a company that sets men up with foreign brides. In the interview, they asked the guy about the language barrier. His response was, "well I was married to a woman who spoke perfect English for 15 years and to this day I never understood a word she said." He went on to say something to the effect regarding his new bride, "me and (insert name here) communicate just fine. When we have to we just use hand signals". :twitchy:

Ever try talking at length with a guy that speaks what I guess I would call 'Texan'. Hell, you think they were speaking in tongues or something.

If you want to give it a go though, I have heard a few things about Rosetta Stone I believe it is called. I'm not going to bother. I think at the rate the human race is going, just a matter of time before we stop speaking. Everybody will be texting each other. I think all this texting and emailing has caused a lot of serious communication problems and people are having a hard time verbally expressing themselves with one another. Don't even get me going on that! :1arghh:
 
I can sympathize, living in Los Angeles where Spanish is almost as prevalent as English. And yes it is a huge percentage of the population. There are a number of good online courses you can take. Rosetta Stone and Rocket Spanish are ones I have heard are pretty good. I think Rocket Spanish is less money and is pretty thorough. You should have no problem finding people to practice the language with!
 
Years ago our spanish teacher told us in order to learn a foreign language, you actually have to learn it twice. You learn the words and the sentences etc. THEN you have to be around the Mexicans who speak it in order to get the hang of it.

I can confirm that from my experience.

I learned most of my English in school and university, watching movies, music etc... But I never had any conversations with English speaking people. And I thought my ability to watch movies without my local language translation, or translating CNN/BBC news to my dad was good enough for me. How wrong was I?

When I was honored to work with US personnel, at first I couldn't understand a word when they were talking to each other. It took few weeks until I started to get a grip on their slangs, accent and less common words. As time went by, I managed to perfect my accent and now I have no problems in communicating with English-speaking folks.


'djeetyet (only Mark could decipher this slang :) )
 
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