Hi everyone and welcome, good ... morning, afternoon, evening, it depends on when you watch this video.
My name is Damián (my name in Spanish with the Spanish orthography)
and today I'd like to talk about a topic I wanted to talk about for weeks, if not for months
that is, is Spanish an easy language or not?
After the studies of other languages like Polish, Russian and Egyptian Arabic, I will talk about it.
The reason I'm doing this video is that now, I don't know when/which day I exactly started to learn it:)
But 4 years ago in April 2014 I started to learn Spanish
Spanish was the first language I learned on my own as an adult.
Therefore before commenting this video, I'll say that Spanish together with Russian was the most difficult language,
because I didn't have any experience with the studies of a foreign language.
And well, I had the support of two professors as I had two language courses at university.
Russian was the first language I had learnt completely on my own, so I didn't have any help, while I had it for Spanish.
Spanish was difficult for me as I didn't have any experience, but I will talk from a let's say neutral point of view
from someone who doesn't speak other languages but his own and English or only English,
because (s)he is from the U.S. or the UK.
Let's start like this: Spanish and English are related as English had French and Latin influences since the Middle Ages and the centuries beyond.
So you already speak a language as almost everyone which is related with Spanish.
Spanish has Latin roots like French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian.
When I talk about foreigners and if it's easy or not, I don't talk to them, because for them it indeed is easy,
it is a language highly related to French and Italian.
I'll talk about Poles, Chinese, English and so on,
for the ones who don't speak a Romance language like the French.
Let's see, it has a phonetic alphabet, yes, it's spoken in 20 or so countries.
So you have a lot of people who speak the language and the probability that you will encounter someone speaking Spanish
is high, yes, it's very high. (*alta, una probabilidad muy alta)
Spanish is fighting with Chinese for the second place after English or rather the third with French,
let's see who will win, but for me Spanish is better.
But yes, Spanish has a phonetic alphabet, Latin origins,
but what I don't like are these comments which say: Spanish is easy, because while Polish is difficult, because
or Arabic or Chinese are difficult, because.
It's all a matter of perspective.
I talked about all of this with a friend from Slovakia and we spoke in Polish.
And yes, Polish is easier for us, he speaks Slovak, me Serbian and Russian,
therefore for us Polish is easier than for someone from Germany or Spain
while for someone from France or Italy Spanish or Castillian (the other official name of the language)
will be easier than Polish, so it's all a matter of perspective and linguistic distance,
because, I already said it, English has Latin influences, Spanish derives from Latin
so they indeed have connections and common words,
but what I don't like is, talking about Spanish or English, as if the words or phrases were due to a magic way easier
than in Polish or Arabic, it's, I said it already, this linguistic distance.
But what is very important and maybe foreigners exaggerate with all of it and well, me, too
and I think it happens to all of us. (*pasa a todos nosotros)
It's ... what do we associate with Spanish?
We associate happiness, dance, music, men and women, as if they didn't exist in other parts of the world.
So we associate happiness, a 24/7 smile, we associate something positive with something like Spanish.
If it makes us happy, if it transmits happiness, so something or Spanish in this case will be easier than...
well, what do we associate with Polish? I won't talk about vodka or something like that.
What do we associate with Polish, Chinese or Arabic, except for God is great!? What do we associate with THESE languages?
While with Spanish we associate joy, so ... if something makes us happy, if we really want to learn it,
because we are motivated, it makes us happy and we truly want to learn something,
it will be easier than something we struggle with, something we sincerely don't want to learn,
something we cannot motivate ourselves for, something we are even annoyed with
It's all that, this linguistic distance, the perspective, association, passion
and I will not talk about... well, there are easy aspects in all languages (*todos idiomas), not only in Spanish,
I already said it, it's not like the words or phrases were due to a magic way easier in Spanish than in Chinese.
There are easy and difficult aspects in every language of the world,
so this tal... these comments, this language is easy, because... no no no.
Saying it's easy, because is wrong, just like Chinese is difficult, because is.
Talking about Chinese, well, I haven't learnt it, but there are indeed people who have
It's not difficult, it's different for me, like the alphabet, the words, the phrases,
the language family, because, well, China is far away from Europe.
So it's very distinct from Spanish, so for us learning a language like Spanish will be easier than Chinese,
because Spanish is closer to our language or a language we already speak and to our culture
while China is very far away.
But sincerely for me learning something distinct like Arabic enriches me more than, let's say now Italian,
what happens is I learn the differences between French, Spanish and Italian, for me Italian is not a new language,
while Arabic enriches me, like the letters, the words, even the ways (*manera, not façon)
of expressing something and you realise that there are distinct languages,
not just the language of your culture.
And ... well, I will not go deeper into this topic:)
It's just that there are difficult and easy aspects, this linguistic distance is very important
and of course the images we have in our mind.
And that's it!
If we, if one truly wants to learn something, it will always be easier than something we truly don't want to.
And that's it!
So I hope that you liked the video
and well, if you have some doubts about "do I want to learn Spanish or not?",
I hope that it has helped you a bit at least.
Learning Spanish is a good choice and for me reading newspapers what I currently intend to do
and of course talking with my friends always makes me happy.
Spanish makes me happy, even after 4 years.
So if you want to learn Spanish, it's a good idea and
I don't doubt that with all this passion and the images in your head you will speak Spanish well (*vayáis a hablar)
between 6 months and a year.
I don't doubt it, you will speak well during this period.
I hope that you have liked it. See you!
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