Why are there so many words?

Written by Kyle . Feelin' annoyed

Ok, so I am learning Spanish for 5 hours a day plus homework plus whatever it is our host family is telling me (mostly the little girls telling me something about a show with witches and magic books...unfortunately a lot of words I don´t learn in my class). It makes my head hurt.

Surprisingly, I understand a lot, which is half the battle, but unfortunately I can not express my self very well unless it is in the present tense and using words that I know. So, in other words, I can say things like "The food I am eating is good." If I wanted to say "This food is really tasty and reminds me of this restaurant we went to in Chicago.", I think my head would explode. That would be a terrible mess to clean up.

The thing that gets me is that there is a word for everything. I mean seriously, everything. Why can´t we just make things simpler and describe them? Wheel becomes "those round things below a car¨and a roof becomes ¨that thing above me when I´m in a building¨. It seems much easier to me and would surely help me a lot if the rest of the Spanish speaking world would change to use this method instead.

And then there are verb tenses. Those are rediculous, too. There has to be a way to abolish these as well. I propose to use the modifiers "before now" (any past tense), "now" (any present tense), and "after now" (any future tense). That would save me a lot of work.

If I can´t get any of these changes to happen within the spanish language, I propose going back to the caveman era and drawing on walls. I mean, even now, it is understandable, right?:

there is a large animal
there are people with pointy sticks
the pointy stick people use the sticks to kill the animal
the pointy stick people eat the animal
the pointy stick people are happy

I mean really, what else do we really need to say in our lives?

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Real Life Telenovelas »

February 06, 2008 DADDIO: Go out for the evening. Sing and dance and eat and make merry to forget your head pain. Soon your lessons will be finished and you will be free to continue limping through the language wishing you still had the teacher along for the rest of the trip! Great photos of Xela. Looks like lots of exploring fun. I'll ship a snow shovel to you guys with a little tag " wish you were here! " You could try to sell it in the market. HA! HA! HA! DADDIO

February 06, 2008 mom: Kyle, there is not one paragraph that did not have me laughing harder than the last. What you say is SO logical that I MUST totally agree with you. But, alas! I am but one gringa - and who cares about what I say? My dear son-in-law, if you continue to employ your sense of humor in like fashion whenever you are similarly annoyed, you're gonna be JUST FINE!

February 06, 2008 Mr. Z: Kyle, you must learn to say "Como se dice....", then use hand gestures to describe what it is. In your "roof" example, you simply say, "como se dice...", then put your hands in the shape of a roof and you have your answer. Seems like a much easier way, and saves words, which I know you prefer. THANK YOU for this amazing website. You are a genius. Keep on making memories.

February 07, 2008 Kyle: Ya. Some day, as a joke, I will ask "Como se dice ´How do you say´". That should confuse them.

February 07, 2008 Auntie Donna: Hmmm...."those round things below a car" & "that thing above me when I'm in a building" ....kinda sounds like the indirect result of a lifetime of 'aluminum laden deodorant' usage. Any way.....enough of my subtle humor. I have to get in the thing with four wheels that you ride in on the street and go to the place that gives me check every week. LOL LOVE YA

February 07, 2008 Susan: I can identify with everything you say! I start a 5 day a week Spanish course a week from Monday. I needed to get other things out of the way first. I have tried now for 5 years or so to master this language. And, this is considered an easy language. Hopefully, with more time down here, I can get it in my head better. The buses here in PV are not as good looking as the ones in your pictures.One I was on last week had a minor fender bender and everyone had to get off and get on the next bus. It was more than standing room only! Hey, this is looking way ahead, but we have made our plans for next year and will be here from Jan 6 through April 6 of 2009. I tell you this just in case it would work for you to come our direction at that time. We will have an extra bedroom next year too. Have fun!

February 07, 2008 Kyle: The buses get worse? A Dios mio!

February 09, 2008 Linda: Ah verb tenses!! French is the same way and I like your idea of a one tense language with modifiers! When we are in Quebec, everything I attempt to say must be in the present tense as it is the only one I remember. I'm also unsure are to why nouns must be masculine or feminine....seems like a needless extra thing to have to remember. Maybe we should start a campaign to Americanize all foreign languages to accomodate us.....I'm sure all of the countries of the world, who so love Americans, would be happy to comply. (Smile) XOXO Linda