| Welcome
to Vol. 15 of the Spanish Online Newsletter! Your weekly Spanish
learning with sound samples, as well as links to Spanish cities
and more. This week's letter contains more of an article than a
lesson (don't worry next week will be more grammar...)
- as I get emails every week asking me what I think the best way
to learn Spanish is, and how fast a person can become fluent. Here
I share my personal view along with some of my experiences with
learning and teaching languages.
How
long does it take to learn Spanish?
Language
acquisition can be a funny thing - how fast you can learn a language
depends on finding your own best method for remembering and being
able to apply the things you've learned. For most people, a combination
of studying the structure of the language and then being immersed
is the best combination. But since taking off to Costa Rica for
a month or 2 isn't possible for everybody - most people have to
find ways to simulate immersion, either through music, videos, watching
Spanish news, speaking with natives, etc. Music can be particularly
effective because you form an emotional connection to the songs
- and it also stimulates a different section of your brain than
speech (article about
learning through music).
In 2 or 3 months of seriously studying a language most people can
be at least conversant. Fluency can take anywhere from 6 months
to years, depending on the person. The best advice I can give a
Spanish student is to try to find people to actually speak with
at least once a week - and don't be afraid of making mistakes! The
best language students are always the ones who jump right in and
learn by trial and error.
I remember
when I was first in Mexico I used to say "hablo muy mal
pero hablo mucho!" (I speak poorly but
I speak a lot!) Despite some occasional mangling of the language,
my Mexican amigos seemed delighted with my attempts.The key is to
just plunge ahead despite fears that you may not sound perfect,
and try to be creative in combining whatever words you do know rather
than keeping silent until your grammar feels more solid. As an English
teacher in Buenos Aires I taught a group of engineers at one office,
and a group of lawyers at another. Can anyone guess which group
was easier to teach? While several of the engineers had excellent
grammar, overall they were very preoccupied with not making mistakes
and with learning rules. The lawyers just wanted to talk - a LOT!
But interestingly enough while they probably studied less than the
engineers, their language skills were as good or better, probably
more by trial and error. Here are a few more pointers:
- try to
avoid looking up words in the dictionary - rather, try to find
the meaning through the context of the situation
- don't
focus on vocabulary - you'd be surprised how few words you need
in order to be conversant
- verbs
are KEY: start with the AR verb patterns for present
and past tense
- that will help you begin using verbs immediately
- make
thinking in Spanish part of your daily life - is that a TV you
are watching, or a televisión?
Are you going to the store, or a la
tienda? Are you looking at a computer right now, or
mirando una computadora?
Say the words out loud!
Quiz:
Spanish
learning techniques
Go
to Spanish Online Learning Menu
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Copacabana,
Bolivia
Nestled on the
shores of Lake Titicaca, one of the highest lakes in the word at
12,725 ft above sea level, this place is stunning! On a clear day
the lake shimmers a bright royal color of blue. The little village
has a lovely white church and can serve as a base to explore things
like the floating reed villages, or as a stopover point on your
way to La Paz. For more pictures, click
here. For more on Bolivian history, click
here.
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Travel
Talk Spanish
Tape, Phrase Book, & Dictionary
60-minute
audio cassette in both English and the target language with a handy
fold-out audio guide and Lonely Planet Phrase book/Dictionary
- Audio cassette
provides key words and phrases with accurate native pronunciation
- Audio transcript
for quick on-the-spot reference and reinforcement
- Phrase book
features clear and comprehensive grammar chapters, an extensive
dictionary, information on local culture plus travel tips
(regularly $22.99, here for $19.99)
read
more
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