Learning Languages: Tips on Spanish and more

I was sitting in a sauna and as usual I chat to everybody I meet.

Romanian
A Romanian girl spoke good English. I asked her where she had learned English and if it's hard or easy for a Romanian and if Romanian is easy to learn.

Romanians, Italian, Spanish and Latin.
She told me that Romanian is similar to Latin. So for her it was easy to learn English, Italian and Spanish.

Missing Subject
One difference in sentence structure is the lack of subject. English sentence structure goes: subject, verb, object. Romanian is like Italian. And Latin. You can drop the I because the end of the sentence is enough to tell you who is speaking.

Romanian, Russian and German
Romanian, unlike Russian and German, has the same present continuous tense. I am walking is different from I walk.

Subjunctive
Another similarly is the subjunctive. If I were you ... If I were is not the same as if I was. I were is future, likelihood, possible. Was (in conjunction with I)is past tense.

So Romanians don't have problems learning it and understanding the concept. They don't have trouble using it. They just translate directly.

Romanians and Romance Languages
Surely there must be some difference between Romanian and English? Yes. Romanian is like French and other European languages regarding adjectives coming after the noun. In French you would say Moulin Rouge. The English is Red Windmill. In English the adjective is before the noun.

Learning Spanish
Her other useful tip was about learning Spanish. I said that I had gone back to German on Duolingo, rather than making Spanish my first choice of language if I had five minutes to spare, because I had trouble with Spanish pronunciation particularly rolling my r.

Latin American and Mexican Spanish
She said that it is easy to learn either Latin American Spanish or Mexican Spanish. The pronunciation is easier. That applies to the r and the th.

What's more, if you watch films from Argentina or Mexico, you will find them easy to follow, and helpful in learning conversation.

The Romanians learn Russian in school. I started Russian on Duolingo. Russian lacks a and the. No wonder people speaking other languages have trouble using a and the in English. Foreign speakers don't drop the a and the because they can't decide which to use. They are translating directly from their own language, so they have no a and the.

I must go - off to Duolingo to practise my German and revive my Spanish - the Latin American sort.

I might take a peek at Romanian, too. And why not peep at Polish? The first page of the course on any language in Duolingo gives you an overview of the grammar, pronunciation and spelling. A useful quick guide and an entertainment.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.