Easy to Learn Spanish?

Is it easy to learn Spanish? Well, yes and no.

Let me explain. In a nutshell, it's easy to get the basics for tourism, and there IS work in learning to become really fluent.

To get the basics of Spanish for a vacation trip really is quite easy. Spanish and English share many words, and you can pick up a good amount of Spanish in a few weeks of listening to mp3 files, like Rocket Spanish. Then when you take your trip, you can find opportunities to practice everywhere -- in restaurants, hotels, with taxi drivers, you name it.

So, at a  beginning level, yes, it is easy to learn Spanish.

At an advanced level, though, Spanish does have its difficulties. Here are some things that I have found challenging:

• Numerous verb tenses
• Subtleties of pronounciation
• Using tu and Usted, the two singular forms of "you" along with the plural form or forms, depending where you are in the Spanish-speaking world
• Remembering whether a noun is masculine or feminine
• Making your adjectives agree in number and gender with your nouns
• Connotations of words, such as when to use  muy padre and why you shouldn't use madre. At least not in Mexico!

Regarding this last point, if you knew a little Spanish, you might have thought that father and mother would be straightforward enough!

Maybe they are outside of Mexico but in Mexico padre also means "cool," not in the sense of temperature but in the sense of being with it. You can also say muy padre for "very cool." As for madre, the polite thing is to say mamá. (If you think of some of the rude uses of "mother" in English, they can be even stronger in Spanish.)

I would have to admit that with all this, I have not found Spanish exactly easy to learn. But then, I never expected it to be a piece of cake. I do enjoy getting more capable and more able to communicate or read. It's no doubt simpler to learn than Mandarin or Arabic, to name two other main languages of the world.

So is Spanish easy to learn? Now you see why I say yes and no.

Ultimately, the question comes down to how much effort you put into it, and how effective that effort is. For tips on how to make your Spanish easy to learn, do sign up for my free e-book Five Keys to Learning Spanish Rapidly from the sign-up box on the  right of the pages.