Speech Therapy

Well, I've been practicing trilling my "rr's" and I've had completely no success. I've tried zillions of different methods with nothing to be proud of. Every time I try practicing trilling my "rr's", I end up feeling more frustrated and eventually I get a bad headache and must lay down after trying so hard. Tons of my friends can do this, which doesn't make it any either, showing off in front of me. I'm on the verge of collapse and giving up my Spanish studies all because I can't trill the "rr". Does anybody here think seeing a speech therapist about this problem would do anything? Has anybody here seen a speech therapist about trilling and have come out with success? Please Help!

I certainly know how frustrating it can be when you can't speak Spanish the way you'd like to, but please don't think that your success with Spanish depends upon your being able to trill your rr's. That's simply not so. Sure, you may not sound like a native speaker, but people will still be able to understand you whether or not you trill your rr's. I know lots of people who have learned English and speak it well even though they have never managed to make the "th" sound that most native speakers take for granted. That doesn't stop them from communicating very successfully in English, just as the absence of a trilled rr won't prevent you from speaking well in Spanish.

I have to agree. I think a lot of folks whose english is not native to them sound sophisticated and pleasing, even though they don't have the neutral "Mid-western" style of pronunciation. After hours of research on the subject of how to make the rr trill sound and more hours practising and practising my rr sound, my 17 year old son still says I sound "lame." Not too encouraging! Don't give up because the rr sound is off. The best point of view, in my opinion, is to either lower your phonetic expectations or just take the outlook that you'll table the rr trill project until you have mastered the other higher priority subjects like grammar and vocabulary. Just wait until you're at the advanced level of everything else before you concern yourself with trilling.

Buddy Ol' Pal, I forgot to add that I can trill now (pretty good I think), I posted the news on two other forms, just not this one. It happened the other day, I was so proud of myself. Thats all I have been doing the past couple days, now my tounge is really sore--go figure....... The money making exercise is on the following link..... http://www.wikihow.com/Discussion:Roll-Your-%22R%22s Theres a bunch of different exercises or activities you can do to help improve or get your "trill" going. The following post on that website is the one that got me trilling!!!!!!! _Okay, I've been trying this for a few months, and I can do it...sorta sometimes. I tried a variation of the "pdactice" method, and pronounced "perro" as "pededo." Then I put in more d's and said it really fast "ped-d-d-d-doh." It wasn't really working, and I was close to throwing in the towel. So one evening I got mad at it and basically screamed "PE-D-D-D-D-D-DOH" at the top of my lungs, and my tongue trilled it a little by itself! I think it worked because I was angry (so I was loud) and I was so mentally tired out from the day that I wasn't thinking enough to jinx myself by tensing my tongue and ruining it. I felt much better after that, because I knew that it's at least possible. I pdacticed it a little more. and now I can sort of roll the r, but I'm successful only about 60% of the time, and it trills ONLY for a split second, and ONLY if I'm making a sound in part of a word, and ONLY if I'm fairly loud. sounds that I pdactice: Perrro Verrro Uuunnna RRRRRaaaza! aaa-hoorrrra Grdrdrrrddacias (or any gr word) When I get consistent at this type of trill, I'll try again for the big enchilada -- the full trill that you get from blowing alone. gdacias all. _ *[b]BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I HEARD A TRILL ON THE FIRST TIME I SAID "PDACTICE", IT REALLY WORKED FOR ME! HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEONE THATS STRUGGLING, TRUST ME KEEP PRACTICING NO MATTER HOW FRUSTRATED YOU GET, I WAS THERE! * [/b]In case you were wondering nohablo, i'm matumic on the LSLC form.

[quo]*Quote from * Oli0084 In case you were wondering nohablo, i'm matumic on the LSLC form.[/quo] Yes, I figured that out. :D