Answers
Jan 02, 2012 - 08:53 AM
um... what dvd are you on... have you finished all of them????
Jan 02, 2012 - 02:01 PM
If you need extra help with Spanish, I recommend using www.studyspanish.com as an additional resource. It has a paid version, but the free part is just as useful. It's a great site for reenforcement of what you're learning. I've taken 5 years of Spanish in school, and it has always been of great use!
Jan 03, 2012 - 09:52 AM
As someone who lived in Latin America for a year and a half, I'd argue that the subjunctive tense isn't actually that important to communicate. While the subjunctive is indeed used all the time, I find that you can generally understand the tense based on the context surrounding it. Additionally, not using the subjunctive yourself will never get in the way of being understood. I personally chose to simply not worry about learning the subjunctive because it is such a difficult concept (there is no equivalent in English) and not knowing it had essentially nil impact on my ability to communicate.
When developing our programs, we're constantly asking ourselves "Now that we've covered this, what's the next most important thing to learn?" At a certain point, the subjunctive tense will certainly be the answer to that question, but I don't think it is at any point during Spanish 1-5. I certainly think the perfect tense is much more important than the subjunctive, and I imagine it would therefore be taught first. I can't say, however, that it would make its way into Fluenz Spanish 6 because we haven't started developing that yet :)
When developing our programs, we're constantly asking ourselves "Now that we've covered this, what's the next most important thing to learn?" At a certain point, the subjunctive tense will certainly be the answer to that question, but I don't think it is at any point during Spanish 1-5. I certainly think the perfect tense is much more important than the subjunctive, and I imagine it would therefore be taught first. I can't say, however, that it would make its way into Fluenz Spanish 6 because we haven't started developing that yet :)
Jan 03, 2012 - 06:46 PM
Thanks Eric, indeed the subjunctive and the perfect tenses are both important parts of the Spanish grammar. I will refer to texts or other courses to master those parts. Thank you.
Jan 08, 2012 - 09:20 AM
I am a former teacher of German and recently spent 3 years in Mexico and 1 year in Uruguay (teaching English). I rarely heard the subjunctive used in normal speech and occasionally heard errors. For example, in Mexico I heard a bishop say in a sermon: "Es importante que el hombre tiene fe." Should have been "tenga." As I study and study the subjunctives I come to the conclusion that is is impossible that an ordinary person master it in colloquial speech. I look forward to other comments. redmanrt - arroba - yahoo.com
Jan 14, 2012 - 05:55 PM
It is possible for ordinary people to master the subjunctive. In California, I hear adults use it and children too.