Humph! I’m close to two years learning Spanish on and off. I have been to two evening courses and I do what I can when I am free. I reckon I get on ok with Spanish locals, provided they speak slowly and give me a little time to reply. I’ve tried it and it is great getting corrected as I speak.
However, I have hit a wall. A very high one. I love the language and so want to speak it, like a second language. I “think” I am ok with the present tense..as in “the now”. Future tense…I take the easy way out and say “I am going to ….” rather than “I will…” and that is fine and well. Past tense..forget about it! If someone asked me “So what did you do today?”, I am instantly stuck. Maybe it is practice makes perfect? I was the same with French and Irish in school..I was never confident with conjugating verbs, whether they are regular or irregular. What do you reckon?
Clearskies Camino 
Present and future should serve most of your needs. Maybe just pick a couple of important past tenses like “lost”, “saw”, “dropped”, “left” (both left something and left town) and master them.
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Aha..good points. Maybe I am looking at the bigger picture rather than focusing on two or three verbs and knowing how to use them. I found the verbs “to be, “to see”, “to want” and “to leave” to be the most used verbs while in Spain last May.
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David, I’m new to your blog and will read through older posts as time permits, but this post caught attention. Spanish…I speak it fluently because I’ve spent a lot of time in Spain and Latin America and because I married into a Mexican family. Translation: skip the courses and go for immersion. Learn enough of the grammar to get you going…equating Spanish grammar and verb tense to what you use every day in English, but otherwise just get out there and talk… don’t overthink the structure. Focus on imitating what “they” are saying, and how they’re saying it. What phrases do they tend to use in what circumstances? And don’t worry about making mistakes…you’re from the UK right? Lots of immigrants. They make brutal mistakes in English and guess what? Nobody laughs at them and they get by, and they get better.
Suerte, Peregrino!
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Thanks for the visit Drew! My time in Spain has been limited to 5 weeks over 3 years so I haven’t got much exposure to the language. I converse by email to Spanish friends and like yourself, they say it is better to talk than write. I guess I need to get over the fact that I will make mistakes while conversing. I’m from Ireland myself but your point is still relevant 🙂
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