No habla espanol

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So I just came back from a small family vacation in Puerto Rico and it was good and bad. Good because I love going down there to see the sites, go to the beach, and eat the food. Bad because I had to deal with my distant realtives.

You see I'm Puerto Rican and PRs speak Spanish (though more people down there are speaking English as well). I don't know how to speak Spanish because I never learned and I did'nt talk English until I was around 5. So to say that being around my relatives that mostly speak Spanish was awkward to say the least. They treated me like I was stupid and I hated it and I finally told them (IN English) to go f**k themselves. Well I guess they understand that because they felt sorta bad and my mother had to sort things out.

So yeah I did'nt get along with them on vacation. I am learning little by little about Spanish and stuf and I can speak some certain phrases, but I still suck at it. Are there any other people with the same problem I have?

I took German throughout high school, got A's in all my classes, although my German-speaking abilities are marginal at best, even though I can put together some simple phrases. But I have an even greater difficulty understanding it when spoken since they seem to speak a whole lot faster than most of us seem to speak English...

Spanish, like the other Romance Languages, are the easiest to learn.

You should get a "Learn to speak Spanish language DVD for your computer or take a college course at a community college if
it is offered in your community. In my hometown, there are many Spanish immigrants and they teach the Spanish language in
several coffee bars to anyone who wants to learn.

Having family relatives who speak Spanish is helpful in learning to speak Spanish and become fluent in every day conversation...you can learn to speak Spanish well, if you really want to. Besides, it is one way you can stand up to your relatives...and assert yourself in Spanish!

Good luck!

No, I don't have this problem but it sounds like your distant relatives don't sound all that pleasant from what you said. I don't know them though so not trying to judge. I personally wouldn't want to be around anyone like that, but I guess it's different for families.

I know how you feel - my first language is English whereas my family's is Portuguese and during family vacations my siblings and I couldn't say much at all. They would talk to us in Portuguese and we would answer in English...niether understanding eachother very well. It was good for some laughs.

Yo hablo espanol, mas bueno y yo tengo amigos de todos paises en America de Sud.

Escribir una mensaje privado para me y yo enseno espanol!

(Write me a PM and I will teach you spanish)

I want to learn Catalan one of these days.

I speak Spanish, but so badly it makes people laugh. They will learn English just to keep me from making a mess of their language.

Through lack of use I forget everything, it takes a month living in a Spanish speaking country till my ear picks it up again. About the time I start learning rapidly, speaking it naturally, I leave.

I found a Spanish workbook in the clutter at Jack's house for English-speaking people to learn Spanish and I'm already learning some Spanish. I feel like a bit of a slow learner though. I wonder how long it takes the average English person to learn Spanish. I hope I don't get it confused with French, which I speak a bit of and have been taking classes in from kindergarten through grade 11.