This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Saturday 29 September 2012
Spanish Acquisition Through Total Immersion - II
Posted on 01:08 by the khali
Many Spanish learners, who can afford it, often travel to a Spanish-speaking country seeking the ultimate immersion experience and quick fluency. To be honest, I second this philosophy because being surrounded by only Spanish-speakers for an extended span of time is really a hell of an immersion strategy. There is, however, just one small drawback with this technique. The depth of immersion that comes with living in a Spanish-speaking society is not really such a great idea for absolute rookies. Expect swift demotivation if you start living in a Hispanic society with absolutely no knowledge of the language whatsoever.
So, how do we go about immersing in Spanish with zero prior knowledge? It’s simple. Build a near-perfect immersion environment around you right where you live and it will be a decent groundwork before you finally take the big plunge. I know this is easier said than done, but there are ways to approach this problem as closely as it gets some of which have already been discussed in a previous post, Spanish Acquisition Through Total Immersion I. Let’s check out some more here.
Listen to only Spanish music. Yes, music is the easiest thing to enjoy despite the language barrier so, this should come as your natural first stem. Painful as it might sound, you must get rid of every single album in your library that is not in Spanish. Treat this like a quit-smoking program. Set yourself on a challenge to not listen to any non-Spanish song for the next, say, ten months. The good news, however, is that the Latino music scene is way richer than you would expect. No matter what your taste, every known genre is richly represented in this language; reggae, metal, pop, trance, rock...you name it!
In fact, this site has quite a few articles discussing music for learning Spanish in much greater detail. Hence, if you are truly keen on exploring the idea further and find out what bands are recommended or how to maximize absorption listening to Spanish songs, head straight to the section for learning Spanish through music.
Read only Spanish newspaper and read everyday. And no, you can no longer procastinate saying, “my local newsstand doesn’t have non-English papers.” With the Internet, it is now possible to subscribe to almost any newspaper in the world digitally. A number of feed readers exist for this purpose. The best part about digital feeds is that you don’t even need to have a computer; RSS feeds can easily be read on almost any smartphone known to mankind today. I recommend El Universal® as one of the most respected Latin-American newspapers; closer home in Europe, you have El Mundo® or El País®.
Reading Spanish newspapers is an excellent way to not only acquire some authentic Spanish but also to stay abreast with the latest goings-on in the Hispanic world. It won’t hurt to make an online Spanish news site of your choice your home page. This way, you’ll pick up bits and pieces of Spanish subconsciously every time you go online. Every step matters, no matter how small!
Read lots and lots of Spanish comic books. Comic books are an excellent source of contemporary Spanish and interesting stories. The cartoon images not only add to the fun aspect of reading, they also make retention of new vocabulary easier as human brain retains pictures more naturally than plain words. Hence, it goes without saying that comic strips are the best way to acquire new phrases and remember them using picture association. If comics are your weakness, I would strongly urge you to check out my article exploring the possibilities at length at Spanish Trips Through Comic Strips.
Write. Yes, extensive writing is another wonderful retention technique. Write about anything. Your daily routine, your favorite recipe, a dummy letter to yourself, a description of your local mall, just any nonsense. What matters is that your writing exposes you to more Spanish and any amount of exposure is good exposure. It’s alright if you need to use the dictionary or grammar book before every sentence. I bet you’ll need them less often with time.
I hope it would help to state here that English is not my native tongue and writing has played an infinitely important role in shaping up my English during my childhood. It was my father who must get away with all credits here as he would constantly nudge me to write letters to our relatives in other towns in English. His idea was that I should just write, regardless of whether it makes sense or whether it is grammatically correct. He would make me write leastwise a dozen letters every month when I still went to elementary school. That practice, albeit somewhat forced, built my English so gradually and organically that I was speaking in the language quite fluently long before most Indian kids do. Spanish is no different and the same technique worked just as efficiently when I was learning this language; though this time, the letters were not mailed to my relatives to save them from the ensuing confusion.
Make Spanish-speaking chat-buddies. I can’t speak enough on the impact having native Spanish-speakers as friends can have on your Spanish acquisition process. They will not only correct you whenever you make mistakes, but rather prove to be immensely interesting reservoirs of colloquial lingo, the street Spanish! This is the easiest way of picking up some Spanish online.
The best part is that even if you don’t actively participate, you will still absorb quite some Spanish just sitting quietly reading what others are chatting. During my initial days learning Spanish I used to spend almost half an hour everyday logged into a Hispanic chatroom passively reading other chatters’ comments and looking up intriguing phrases on Google® or elsewhere. This seemingly time-killing activity had a huge contribution to my knowledge of Spanish. As with everything else, though, consistency and persistence is the key.
Basta por hoy (enough for today). We hope these immersion techniques help you sink deeper in Spanish. Do note that that the stress is on acquiring Spanish instead of learning it. That’s what we did with our native tongues as infants. And smooth acquisition comes with better absorption. And the farther you move from English (or your native language, if it’s non-English), the better you absorb.
So, how do we go about immersing in Spanish with zero prior knowledge? It’s simple. Build a near-perfect immersion environment around you right where you live and it will be a decent groundwork before you finally take the big plunge. I know this is easier said than done, but there are ways to approach this problem as closely as it gets some of which have already been discussed in a previous post, Spanish Acquisition Through Total Immersion I. Let’s check out some more here.
Stealthy immersion through Spanish music
Spanish music is the stealthiest immersion tool Photo credit: Alan Levine licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
In fact, this site has quite a few articles discussing music for learning Spanish in much greater detail. Hence, if you are truly keen on exploring the idea further and find out what bands are recommended or how to maximize absorption listening to Spanish songs, head straight to the section for learning Spanish through music.
Immersion through Spanish language newspapers
Spanish language newspapers immerse, educate, and entertain Photo credit: Caterina Moranti Vilariño licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Reading Spanish newspapers is an excellent way to not only acquire some authentic Spanish but also to stay abreast with the latest goings-on in the Hispanic world. It won’t hurt to make an online Spanish news site of your choice your home page. This way, you’ll pick up bits and pieces of Spanish subconsciously every time you go online. Every step matters, no matter how small!
Spanish comics for some light-weight immersion
Read lots and lots of Spanish comic books. Comic books are an excellent source of contemporary Spanish and interesting stories. The cartoon images not only add to the fun aspect of reading, they also make retention of new vocabulary easier as human brain retains pictures more naturally than plain words. Hence, it goes without saying that comic strips are the best way to acquire new phrases and remember them using picture association. If comics are your weakness, I would strongly urge you to check out my article exploring the possibilities at length at Spanish Trips Through Comic Strips.
Writing in Spanish: That old-school immersion technique
Writing Spanish drills it in you real deep Photo credit: OUCHcharley licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
I hope it would help to state here that English is not my native tongue and writing has played an infinitely important role in shaping up my English during my childhood. It was my father who must get away with all credits here as he would constantly nudge me to write letters to our relatives in other towns in English. His idea was that I should just write, regardless of whether it makes sense or whether it is grammatically correct. He would make me write leastwise a dozen letters every month when I still went to elementary school. That practice, albeit somewhat forced, built my English so gradually and organically that I was speaking in the language quite fluently long before most Indian kids do. Spanish is no different and the same technique worked just as efficiently when I was learning this language; though this time, the letters were not mailed to my relatives to save them from the ensuing confusion.
Internet as your alternative world
Make Spanish-speaking chat-buddies. I can’t speak enough on the impact having native Spanish-speakers as friends can have on your Spanish acquisition process. They will not only correct you whenever you make mistakes, but rather prove to be immensely interesting reservoirs of colloquial lingo, the street Spanish! This is the easiest way of picking up some Spanish online.
The best part is that even if you don’t actively participate, you will still absorb quite some Spanish just sitting quietly reading what others are chatting. During my initial days learning Spanish I used to spend almost half an hour everyday logged into a Hispanic chatroom passively reading other chatters’ comments and looking up intriguing phrases on Google® or elsewhere. This seemingly time-killing activity had a huge contribution to my knowledge of Spanish. As with everything else, though, consistency and persistence is the key.
Basta por hoy (enough for today). We hope these immersion techniques help you sink deeper in Spanish. Do note that that the stress is on acquiring Spanish instead of learning it. That’s what we did with our native tongues as infants. And smooth acquisition comes with better absorption. And the farther you move from English (or your native language, if it’s non-English), the better you absorb.
Friday 28 September 2012
Chat Up Spanish-Speaking Strangers Like Natives
Posted on 20:47 by the khali
Learning Spanish is a tad boring. But flirting is fun. So, when you have a chance to do so with them sizzling hot Latinas either in real-life or online, why not make it perfect with some real Spanish? Let’s face it, a touch of Spanish goes a long way in impressing those pretty native-speakers and surely helps your linguistic skills, greatly accelerating your learning. It is also a no-brainer that learning Spanish calls for a great deal of motivation and what could possibly be more motivating than getting to learn how to hit on strangers in Spanish? What is fun is also useful and, more often than not, socially rewarding.
In this article, we’ll learn a bunch of Spanish pick-up lines (frases para ligar) to help you break ice with those natives effortlessly. I am sure learning Spanish will get more motivating and less frustrating with these phrases.
To flirt – Flirtear/Coquetear
I noticed you and wanted to find out what you were like – Te noté y quería averiguar cómo eres
I like you a lot – Te gusta mucho
I want you – Te deseo (careful, this one’s rather intense!)
Are you single? – ¿Estas soltero/a?
Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? – ¿Tienes novio/a?
I have never seen anyone as good looking as you – Nunca he visto a nadie tan guapo/a como tú
You are very handsome/pretty – Eres muy guapo/a
I love being with you – Me encanta estar contigo
You drive me crazy – Me vuelves loco/a
I am crazy about you – Estoy loco/a por ti
You have a beautiful smile – Tienes una sonrisa muy bonita
You have beautiful eyes – Tienes unos ojos muy bonitos
You have the prettiest eyes in the world – Tienes los ojos más bonitos del mundo
Let’s dance – Bailamos
I would like to buy you dinner – Te invito a cenar
I would like to invite you to drink something – Te invito a tomar algo
Why don’t we go someplace quieter? – ¿Por qué no vamos a un sitio más tranquilo?
I am having a great time with you – Me lo estoy pasando genial contigo
Can you give me your telephone number? – ¿Puedes darme tu número de teléfono?
I’ll call you – Te llamaré
Shall I give you a ride home? – ¿Puedo llevarte a tu casa en mi carro?
Would you like to come in for a coffee? – ¿Quieres entrar para un café?
I am really looking forward to seeing you again – Tengo muchas ganas de verte otra vez
I would like to see you again – Me gustaría volver a verte
Do you want to do something tomorrow? – ¿Quieres hacer algo mañana?
Warning: Use the following with utmost caution; Better don’t until you are sure about a certain level of intimacy with your acquaintance!
So many dangerous curves and me without brakes! – ¡Tantas curvas peligrosas, y yo sin frenos!
Screw me if I'm wrong but you want to sleep with me, don’t you? – Que me jodan si mi equivoco, tu quieres acostarte conmigo, ¿verdad?
My underwear is edible – Mi ropa interior es comestible
That’s a nice dress! It sure would look good on my bedroom floor – ¡Qué vestido tan bonito! Quedaria precioso en el suelo de mi habitacion
You look like a candy; the wrapper is cute but it’s what’s inside that’s really tasty – Pareces un bombon; es muy bonita la envoltura pero lo rico es lo que está adentro
Walk in the shade because candies melt in the Sun – Camina por la sombre porque las bombones se derriten al sol
Now, I understand these might not be the most creative pick up lines invented by mankind but they will certainly put you on the right track to making friends with native speakers. They might not turn you into the Barney Stinson of Latin America but they will surely have you charming your way right into the hearts of those native speakers, well enough to initiate a healthy conversation and even friendship! Was that not the point of the whole exercise anyway? Acquiring Spanish vocabulary calls for total immersion and making acquaintances with those who speak nothing but Spanish is a surefire method.
It might be intimidating at first but a sure-fire way of not only accelerating your learning and winning some life-long friends along the way. If you are in or close to a Hispanic community it’s even easier. Just walk into a bar or any such place where Latinos are known to frequent more or less exclusively, and chat up anyone sitting at the bar using your rudimentary Spanish and see your initiative win you accolades and snowball into an experience of a lifetime.
If you are far from such communities, help is still not far. There are plenty of chatrooms exclusively meant for Latinos. Just sign in and get going. In fact, there’s a slight advantage here in that you will find the experience less intimidating than a real-life interface. Also, watching Hispanic chatters use native Spanish to break ice amongst themselves will enrich your experience way more than just learning a bunch of phrases listed above.
Just be sure you know that the basic principles of flirting and chivalry apply in Spanish as much as the do in English or any other language or culture. While healthy flirting is harmless, even a slightly wrong usage or context could make your acquaintance uncomfortable and pretty much ruin your evening. So, tread with caution and make your Spanish work for you, not against you.
Ice-breakers in Spanish
In this article, we’ll learn a bunch of Spanish pick-up lines (frases para ligar) to help you break ice with those natives effortlessly. I am sure learning Spanish will get more motivating and less frustrating with these phrases.
To flirt – Flirtear/Coquetear
I noticed you and wanted to find out what you were like – Te noté y quería averiguar cómo eres
I like you a lot – Te gusta mucho
I want you – Te deseo (careful, this one’s rather intense!)
Are you single? – ¿Estas soltero/a?
Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? – ¿Tienes novio/a?
I have never seen anyone as good looking as you – Nunca he visto a nadie tan guapo/a como tú
Learn Spanish quick...for them Latinas!! |
Photo credit: prayitno licensed CC BY 2.0 |
I love being with you – Me encanta estar contigo
You drive me crazy – Me vuelves loco/a
I am crazy about you – Estoy loco/a por ti
You have a beautiful smile – Tienes una sonrisa muy bonita
You have beautiful eyes – Tienes unos ojos muy bonitos
You have the prettiest eyes in the world – Tienes los ojos más bonitos del mundo
Let’s dance – Bailamos
I would like to buy you dinner – Te invito a cenar
I would like to invite you to drink something – Te invito a tomar algo
Why don’t we go someplace quieter? – ¿Por qué no vamos a un sitio más tranquilo?
I am having a great time with you – Me lo estoy pasando genial contigo
Can you give me your telephone number? – ¿Puedes darme tu número de teléfono?
I’ll call you – Te llamaré
Shall I give you a ride home? – ¿Puedo llevarte a tu casa en mi carro?
Would you like to come in for a coffee? – ¿Quieres entrar para un café?
I am really looking forward to seeing you again – Tengo muchas ganas de verte otra vez
I would like to see you again – Me gustaría volver a verte
Do you want to do something tomorrow? – ¿Quieres hacer algo mañana?
Extreme flirting
Nothing motivates like romance |
Photo credit: Andy licensed CC BY-ND 2.0 |
So many dangerous curves and me without brakes! – ¡Tantas curvas peligrosas, y yo sin frenos!
Screw me if I'm wrong but you want to sleep with me, don’t you? – Que me jodan si mi equivoco, tu quieres acostarte conmigo, ¿verdad?
My underwear is edible – Mi ropa interior es comestible
That’s a nice dress! It sure would look good on my bedroom floor – ¡Qué vestido tan bonito! Quedaria precioso en el suelo de mi habitacion
You look like a candy; the wrapper is cute but it’s what’s inside that’s really tasty – Pareces un bombon; es muy bonita la envoltura pero lo rico es lo que está adentro
Walk in the shade because candies melt in the Sun – Camina por la sombre porque las bombones se derriten al sol
Just talk and connect
Now, I understand these might not be the most creative pick up lines invented by mankind but they will certainly put you on the right track to making friends with native speakers. They might not turn you into the Barney Stinson of Latin America but they will surely have you charming your way right into the hearts of those native speakers, well enough to initiate a healthy conversation and even friendship! Was that not the point of the whole exercise anyway? Acquiring Spanish vocabulary calls for total immersion and making acquaintances with those who speak nothing but Spanish is a surefire method.
It might be intimidating at first but a sure-fire way of not only accelerating your learning and winning some life-long friends along the way. If you are in or close to a Hispanic community it’s even easier. Just walk into a bar or any such place where Latinos are known to frequent more or less exclusively, and chat up anyone sitting at the bar using your rudimentary Spanish and see your initiative win you accolades and snowball into an experience of a lifetime.
If you are far from such communities, help is still not far. There are plenty of chatrooms exclusively meant for Latinos. Just sign in and get going. In fact, there’s a slight advantage here in that you will find the experience less intimidating than a real-life interface. Also, watching Hispanic chatters use native Spanish to break ice amongst themselves will enrich your experience way more than just learning a bunch of phrases listed above.
Just be sure you know that the basic principles of flirting and chivalry apply in Spanish as much as the do in English or any other language or culture. While healthy flirting is harmless, even a slightly wrong usage or context could make your acquaintance uncomfortable and pretty much ruin your evening. So, tread with caution and make your Spanish work for you, not against you.
Learn Spanish Body Parts Using Visualization
Posted on 13:00 by the khali
Since Spanish vocabulary is the key ingredient of any Spanish learning endeavor, let’s take a moment to think of the words we were taught as kids during our very early vocabulary-building years. Chances are, other than the words for father and mother, it would be the names of our body-parts. Though not necessarily the most important aspect of our vocabulary, they eventually become indispensable to any language learning regimen. Sooner or later, we must develop the ability to talk about our bodies in Spanish and a basic knowledge of what our organs are called is key to using Spanish more rapidly in quite a few contexts.
Let’s see how creative imagination can help us easily learn and remember the names of some common body-parts in Spanish in a matter of minutes. The list below has visual cues in parentheses against every word in Spanish. It is this cue that will help the word and its meaning both anchor well in your memory. Retaining and recalling couldn’t get any easier!
arm — brazo (imagine a giant medieval statue with brass arms holding a torch and a tablet reminding you of the Statue of Liberty)
back — espalda (that girl wearing a backless dress doing a seductive pole dance revealing her bare back)
brain — cerebro (if you remember your tenth grade Biology, cerebrum is the scientific term for brain in English)
breast, chest — pecho (imagine Schwarzenegger’s chiselled pecs)
buttocks — nalgas (visualize a man with a huge ass that looks full of anal gas, or fart! I know, sounds gross but if that makes it stand out, so be it)
calf — pantorrilla (imagine seeing a short-pants-clad gorilla flaunting his strong calf muscles)
ear — oreja (imagine a mentally deranged serial-killer who has his victims’ ears stored in a glass jar! Why ears? Maybe he lost his hearing in an accident when young and that scarred him for life?)
elbow — codo (how would the English alphabet sound if it started at “l” instead of “a” and except for the first letter, ended in an /o/ sound? It would go somewhat as, “el-bo-co-do...” instead of “ay-bee-cee-dee.”)
eye — ojo (picture the 2 o’s of ojo as 2 eyes and the j as nose! Besides, doesn’t ojo look like an owl with large eyes if you look hard enough?)
finger/toe — dedo (don’t your fingers feel numb and dead in Antarctica?)
foot — pie (imagine dashing across the room in a rush and accidently stepping upon a dish of apple-pie lying on the floor; your mom made it with so much love and you messed it up; you, reckless you!)
hair — pelo (you are losing a lot of hair if you see strands on your pillow)
hand — mano (Robinson Crusoe’s right-hand was Man Friday)
head — cabeza (that ugly monster’s head looks like a cabbage)
heart — corazón (remember the song by Ricky Martin? In case you don’t, think of your heart as the core zone of your body; without it, you are dead)
hip — cadera (I know someone so huge that his hips got stuck in the caldera of Mount Vesuvius...some giant, fire-proof monster who lives inside a volcano and emerges from its mouth once in a year?)
knee — rodilla (walking down the road, I met a gorilla kneeling on his knees; he could be trying to impress me so I would throw some fruits at him)
leg — pierna (if you remember that pie is foot then pierna should be easy to remember too)
mouth — boca (ever heard of the buccal cavity in Biology?)
neck — cuello (the English word, collar, has the same Latin root as the Spanish cuello so it should not be difficult to correlate and recall)
nose — nariz (an accident in Arizona gave me a broken nose)
shoulder — hombro (imagine a man, un hombre, with broad shoulders; anyways, its generally accepted that men have broader shoulders than women)
skin — piel (how would you feel having your skin peeled off? Painful? Let this pain help you retain and recall this word)
thigh — muslo (imagine a sprinter’s muscular and well-toned thighs and this time, let your envy help you remember the word)
throat — garganta (gargling is good for sore throat)
tongue — lengua (to speak any language, you need a tongue that’s why your native lingo is called your mother tongue)
Spanish vocabulary with visualization and mnemonics is a recipe for success. Compared to traditional methods, they work like charm and last a lifetime. I have often stressed that the visualization cues or mnemonics given here are personal to me. I invented them so, by nature, it’s me who’s going to benefit the most from them. Why? Because human minds are highly personalized and work differently when it comes to imagining things. an image that might be familiar to one person’s mind might be totally alien to another. these differences in perception are driven by many factors and your cultural background and mother tongue are two of those.
Hence, the lesson here is that while I have given you the cues that worked for me, I would encourage you to use these hints purely for the purpose of understanding the trade and then invent your own personalized cues. That way, you will benefit more and recalling new vocabulary would get less stressful. Whatever you choose to do, make sure your visuals are as vivid and uncanny as it gets.
Parts of your body in Spanish |
Photo credit: Translation from English drawing via Wikimedia Commons licensed CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL |
The parts of our body
arm — brazo (imagine a giant medieval statue with brass arms holding a torch and a tablet reminding you of the Statue of Liberty)
back — espalda (that girl wearing a backless dress doing a seductive pole dance revealing her bare back)
brain — cerebro (if you remember your tenth grade Biology, cerebrum is the scientific term for brain in English)
breast, chest — pecho (imagine Schwarzenegger’s chiselled pecs)
buttocks — nalgas (visualize a man with a huge ass that looks full of anal gas, or fart! I know, sounds gross but if that makes it stand out, so be it)
calf — pantorrilla (imagine seeing a short-pants-clad gorilla flaunting his strong calf muscles)
ear — oreja (imagine a mentally deranged serial-killer who has his victims’ ears stored in a glass jar! Why ears? Maybe he lost his hearing in an accident when young and that scarred him for life?)
elbow — codo (how would the English alphabet sound if it started at “l” instead of “a” and except for the first letter, ended in an /o/ sound? It would go somewhat as, “el-bo-co-do...” instead of “ay-bee-cee-dee.”)
eye — ojo (picture the 2 o’s of ojo as 2 eyes and the j as nose! Besides, doesn’t ojo look like an owl with large eyes if you look hard enough?)
finger/toe — dedo (don’t your fingers feel numb and dead in Antarctica?)
foot — pie (imagine dashing across the room in a rush and accidently stepping upon a dish of apple-pie lying on the floor; your mom made it with so much love and you messed it up; you, reckless you!)
hair — pelo (you are losing a lot of hair if you see strands on your pillow)
hand — mano (Robinson Crusoe’s right-hand was Man Friday)
head — cabeza (that ugly monster’s head looks like a cabbage)
heart — corazón (remember the song by Ricky Martin? In case you don’t, think of your heart as the core zone of your body; without it, you are dead)
hip — cadera (I know someone so huge that his hips got stuck in the caldera of Mount Vesuvius...some giant, fire-proof monster who lives inside a volcano and emerges from its mouth once in a year?)
knee — rodilla (walking down the road, I met a gorilla kneeling on his knees; he could be trying to impress me so I would throw some fruits at him)
leg — pierna (if you remember that pie is foot then pierna should be easy to remember too)
mouth — boca (ever heard of the buccal cavity in Biology?)
neck — cuello (the English word, collar, has the same Latin root as the Spanish cuello so it should not be difficult to correlate and recall)
nose — nariz (an accident in Arizona gave me a broken nose)
shoulder — hombro (imagine a man, un hombre, with broad shoulders; anyways, its generally accepted that men have broader shoulders than women)
skin — piel (how would you feel having your skin peeled off? Painful? Let this pain help you retain and recall this word)
thigh — muslo (imagine a sprinter’s muscular and well-toned thighs and this time, let your envy help you remember the word)
throat — garganta (gargling is good for sore throat)
tongue — lengua (to speak any language, you need a tongue that’s why your native lingo is called your mother tongue)
Imagination is a personal faculty
Spanish vocabulary with visualization and mnemonics is a recipe for success. Compared to traditional methods, they work like charm and last a lifetime. I have often stressed that the visualization cues or mnemonics given here are personal to me. I invented them so, by nature, it’s me who’s going to benefit the most from them. Why? Because human minds are highly personalized and work differently when it comes to imagining things. an image that might be familiar to one person’s mind might be totally alien to another. these differences in perception are driven by many factors and your cultural background and mother tongue are two of those.
Hence, the lesson here is that while I have given you the cues that worked for me, I would encourage you to use these hints purely for the purpose of understanding the trade and then invent your own personalized cues. That way, you will benefit more and recalling new vocabulary would get less stressful. Whatever you choose to do, make sure your visuals are as vivid and uncanny as it gets.
Street Spanish: Colloquial Greetings
Posted on 09:18 by the khali
It is every Spanish learner’s dream to be able to speak effortlessly like the natives. While not advisable for novice learners, it is fun and useful to understand some of the most common elements of Spanish colloquialism and be conversant in what is typically known as “street Spanish.” Colloquialism and slangs are what set those natives apart from even the most fluent foreign speakers. Why? Because the Spanish spoken in the streets and living rooms is a far cry from that written in El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha; also popularly known just as Don Quixote).
In this post (and many more subsequent ones), we will explore many such palabras y frases (words and phrases) that constitute real-world Spanish. You will definitely sound less foreign if you choose to speak this lingo instead of cookie-cutter, phrasebook Spanish. Like any organic language, colloquialism is integral to all aspects of any Spanish conversation starting with greetings and introduction. For example, when you meet a native speaker, at least in Mexico, you would greet them with a “¿Que onda?” if you are speaking the real, street Spanish and a “¿Cómo estas?” if your Spanish is coming from grammar books and dime-store phrasebooks.
How you wish to sound is up to you but if natural, native Spanish is your dream, you cannot and must not escape colloquialism. And no, Latinos are sweet people and won’t crucify you if you speak Spanish as taught in the books. But if you could pull off authentic, colloquial Spanish with calculated caution, you will surely be a step closer to the inner-circle of native-speakers!
This is but a very, very small subset of some of the most commonly phrases used by native speakers while greeting each other. Depending on which part of the world you are in, you might find some phrases used more heavily than others. No blog or book can teach you such intricacies and native speakers are the best teachers when it comes to street Spanish, but knowledge of some of the more ubiquitous colloquialisms could prove a good starting-point.
Hey! – ¡Hombre!
How are you? – ¿Cómo andas? / ¿Qué onda? (Mexican slang)
How’s it going? – ¿Cómo te va?
How’s everything? – ¿Cómo te va todo?
How’s life? – ¿Cómo te va la vida?
What’s up? – ¿Qué tal andas?
What’s going on? – ¿Qué pasa? / ¿Qué hay?
What’s new? – ¿Qué hay de nuevo? / ¿Qué me cuentas?
If there can be a colloquial way to greet, there’s got to be a colloquial way to respond once greeted, isn’t it? Here's a list of some of the most ubiquitous responses to common greetings heard and understood in almost every corner of the Spanish-speaking world. Rest assured, you can’t go wrong with them.
Same as ever – Como siempre / Aquí estamos / Aquí andamos
Awesome! – ¡Genial! / ¡Fenomenal! / ¡De maravilla!
Awful! – ¡Fatal! / ¡De pena!
Everything’s good! – ¡Todo va bien !
Can’t complain! – ¡No me quejo!
Getting by – Tirando
It is what it is – Es lo que hay
Not great – Vaya, no muy bien
Leave me alone! – ¡Déjame en paz!
I’m in an awful mood – Vengo encabronado
By no means are these lists conclusive, nor even partially so, because like any language, Spanish is alive and behaves in subtle different ways everywhere it is spoken. Every country, region, city, even village, has a flavor of Spanish that is unique to that place and the differences could make for an interesting social research! Ideally, the best way of picking up such subtleties is not mugging up lists like these but by interacting with locals who speak real Spanish. Learning Spanish can take an entirely new dimension if you have native speakers as chat-buddies or classmates giving you a consistent dose of what’s spoken in their neck of the woods.
So, go out, venture into Hispanic neighborhoods (if your city has one) or make Spanish-speaking friends on the Internet, and use them as some of the best resources a Spanish-enthusiast could ever afford! When you are starting out learning Spanish, it is very important that you ask questions. Be careful and understand every new slang thoroughly with more than enough context and examples before you actually decide to incorporate them into your speech. Depending on where you are, words can have a very subtle and inherent undertone which often cannot be expressed by dictionaries and thesauruses. While the dictionary can tell you that a word is “bad” or non-standard, or slang, you need to know, understand, and appreciate “how bad” it is in the real world. Why? Because that is the only way for you to know what contexts are best suited for the word in question without taking away from the originally intended meaning and sense. While learning Spanish, you must appreciate that any word, phrase, or sentence can have several shades of the same central theme depending on where it’s spoken and even on who is speaking. Whatever you do, please do not rely blindly on what that touristic-looking pocket phrasebook would have you believe. The Spanish of the books is, more often than not, clichéd and unlike what you are likely to hear in real barrios (neighborhoods) and aldeas (villages).
Please feel free to drop in your comments if you found this post any bit useful. And, if at all you happen to be a native speaker, everyone including me would love to benefit from your experience. Just add in any colloquialism that could add value to this collection as I am sure there is as much diversity in Spanish colloquialism as there are regions with Spanish as their primary language!
Colloquialism is indispensable |
Photo credit: Visentico/Sento licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
How you wish to sound is up to you but if natural, native Spanish is your dream, you cannot and must not escape colloquialism. And no, Latinos are sweet people and won’t crucify you if you speak Spanish as taught in the books. But if you could pull off authentic, colloquial Spanish with calculated caution, you will surely be a step closer to the inner-circle of native-speakers!
Greetings in street Spanish
This is but a very, very small subset of some of the most commonly phrases used by native speakers while greeting each other. Depending on which part of the world you are in, you might find some phrases used more heavily than others. No blog or book can teach you such intricacies and native speakers are the best teachers when it comes to street Spanish, but knowledge of some of the more ubiquitous colloquialisms could prove a good starting-point.
One of the many colloquial greetings in Spanish |
Pphoto credit: Stevenson O'Connor licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
How are you? – ¿Cómo andas? / ¿Qué onda? (Mexican slang)
How’s it going? – ¿Cómo te va?
How’s everything? – ¿Cómo te va todo?
How’s life? – ¿Cómo te va la vida?
What’s up? – ¿Qué tal andas?
What’s going on? – ¿Qué pasa? / ¿Qué hay?
What’s new? – ¿Qué hay de nuevo? / ¿Qué me cuentas?
Colloquial responses to greetings in street Spanish
If there can be a colloquial way to greet, there’s got to be a colloquial way to respond once greeted, isn’t it? Here's a list of some of the most ubiquitous responses to common greetings heard and understood in almost every corner of the Spanish-speaking world. Rest assured, you can’t go wrong with them.
Same as ever – Como siempre / Aquí estamos / Aquí andamos
Awesome! – ¡Genial! / ¡Fenomenal! / ¡De maravilla!
Awful! – ¡Fatal! / ¡De pena!
Everything’s good! – ¡Todo va bien !
Can’t complain! – ¡No me quejo!
Getting by – Tirando
It is what it is – Es lo que hay
Not great – Vaya, no muy bien
Leave me alone! – ¡Déjame en paz!
I’m in an awful mood – Vengo encabronado
Feel like scouring the streets?
Local streets are goldmines of colloquial Spanish |
Photo credit: Katrin Lorenzen licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
So, go out, venture into Hispanic neighborhoods (if your city has one) or make Spanish-speaking friends on the Internet, and use them as some of the best resources a Spanish-enthusiast could ever afford! When you are starting out learning Spanish, it is very important that you ask questions. Be careful and understand every new slang thoroughly with more than enough context and examples before you actually decide to incorporate them into your speech. Depending on where you are, words can have a very subtle and inherent undertone which often cannot be expressed by dictionaries and thesauruses. While the dictionary can tell you that a word is “bad” or non-standard, or slang, you need to know, understand, and appreciate “how bad” it is in the real world. Why? Because that is the only way for you to know what contexts are best suited for the word in question without taking away from the originally intended meaning and sense. While learning Spanish, you must appreciate that any word, phrase, or sentence can have several shades of the same central theme depending on where it’s spoken and even on who is speaking. Whatever you do, please do not rely blindly on what that touristic-looking pocket phrasebook would have you believe. The Spanish of the books is, more often than not, clichéd and unlike what you are likely to hear in real barrios (neighborhoods) and aldeas (villages).
Please feel free to drop in your comments if you found this post any bit useful. And, if at all you happen to be a native speaker, everyone including me would love to benefit from your experience. Just add in any colloquialism that could add value to this collection as I am sure there is as much diversity in Spanish colloquialism as there are regions with Spanish as their primary language!
Spanish Acquisition Through Total Immersion - I
Posted on 04:40 by the khali
As is the case with any foreign language, the key to native-level Spanish is simple: Absolute immersion. Immerse yourself as deeply as possible. Build Spanish around you. Bit by bit. Word by word. Phrase by phrase. Until Spanish becomes a second nature to you; until you start thinking in Spanish. When I was new to this idea, I didn’t take it much seriously as it seemed way too easier said than done. But after a few months of experimenting with various techniques of Spanish language immersion, the results were far from disappointing! Read on and I bet learning Spanish will never seem a dead-beat exercise to you anymore.
I understand it can get a tad frustrating in the beginning when you immerse too deep and have to refer to the dictionary way too often to understand every word. But give yourself time and it won’t be difficult to notice the drop in the frequency with which you need to open the big, fat word-bank. In this post, we explore some immersion ideas which should be a part of your Spanish learning process like your life depended on it. Learning Spanish is not as rewarding as absorbing it passively. And absorption is only possible once you immerse completely – Stop learning Spanish and start acquiring it.
The first step, though painful, is to switch to Spanish on that computer of yours. I know that hurts but believe me, it won’t take you more than a week to get comfortable with doing everything on your computer in Spanish!
If you are reading this article on your computer, I would assume you are spending a significant portion of your time everyday communicating with it. Since total immersion means every minute counts, why not start capitalizing on this time? Even if no one else around you, you can surely make your computer talk to you in Spanish and get some serious input with little effort! This comes out of personal experience.
I don’t know if it is easy on Windows®, since my experience is on Apple® systems. Apple® makes it really easy to switch to any language without downloading anything. Just open System Preferences and hit the Language and Text module to be able to change the default system language to Spanish. I did this right in the beginning and I must admit that this simple step went a long way in cutting down my learning curve.
Next, if possible, switch over to Spanish-only channels on your television. At least for once, in the context of learning Spanish, you can safely assume that the couch potato is the winner here. Yes, the more you watch TV, the denser your input; and converting all that input from your TV into Spanish could mean a never-ending reserve of crisp, authentic Spanish right in your living room!
Now, this one, while easy to do in most countries in Europe, North America, and South America, might be an impractical idea for the rest of the world. India, for one, does not have a single channel with Spanish programming. For such learners, the next best thing would be to acquire as much Spanish media (the Internet is a rich resource) as possible and quit watching regular television. Again, this will get frustrating and demotivating as the Spanish on those movies and shows is rapidfire and absolutely incomprehensible to unaccustomed ears. My two cents, just be patient and consistent and give yourself time. My previous post talks more about how to use Spanish media for immersion.
Reading is a less frustrating and an equally enriching immersion strategy. Acquire a few Spanish books (best are collections of short stories) make it a point to spend time reading leastwise two to three pages everyday. read the same snippet for a few days before moving on the the next one. This is to allow your learning to sink deeper and help you absorb the new grammar constructs and vocabulary better. No need to depend on your local bookstore; Amazon is the richest source of quality reading materials in Spanish or any other popular language. I would also recommend Flipkart®, especially for those in India.
In order to ensure you stay in the game for longer and eliminate any chances of a burn-out, fatigue, or boredom, opt for easy reads, such as small children’s books of fairy tales, fables, graphic novels, or graded readers for kids in elementary schools. Whatever you read, make sure there is loads of pictures or graphic illustration. This will ensure you understand the context better even if not opening up the dictionary for every second word. If possible, newspapers could also serve the purpose while being informative and interesting at the same time.
However, I would strongly advise against e-books or online readers unless you are a Kindle user. The reading experience is most fulfilling if done the traditional way, i.e., real, paper books. The computer screen with it’s radiation glare is far from suitable for long reading sessions.
Another thing is consistency. No matter how much time you dedicate to each of these activities, it is important to stay consistent if you intend to maximize the benefits. No amount of motivation is going to help if you stay immersed for hours on one day and not at all for the next three days. I would also not give you any magic number when it comes to the number of hours you should dedicate to these tasks every day. Because that wouldn’t be immersion. Total, absolute immersion means you should live Spanish every moment of your waking life. So, it does not matter how much time you spend reading as long as you read only Spanish and nothing else whenever you do, even if only for a few minutes. Similarly, it does not matter how much time you spend watching TV as long as it is only Spanish on the screen whenever you turn on the TV and not English or any other language. And trust me, this is far from overkill!
More strategies will be discussed in a future continuation on learning Spanish through total immersion. In the interim, I invite all of you to share with me your views on total immersion as a Spanish-acquisition tool through your comments. Your comments will not only enrich my experience but will also help you share best practices amongst yourselves.
I understand it can get a tad frustrating in the beginning when you immerse too deep and have to refer to the dictionary way too often to understand every word. But give yourself time and it won’t be difficult to notice the drop in the frequency with which you need to open the big, fat word-bank. In this post, we explore some immersion ideas which should be a part of your Spanish learning process like your life depended on it. Learning Spanish is not as rewarding as absorbing it passively. And absorption is only possible once you immerse completely – Stop learning Spanish and start acquiring it.
Make your computer speak Spanish
A Mac® can easily be made to speak Spanish |
If you are reading this article on your computer, I would assume you are spending a significant portion of your time everyday communicating with it. Since total immersion means every minute counts, why not start capitalizing on this time? Even if no one else around you, you can surely make your computer talk to you in Spanish and get some serious input with little effort! This comes out of personal experience.
I don’t know if it is easy on Windows®, since my experience is on Apple® systems. Apple® makes it really easy to switch to any language without downloading anything. Just open System Preferences and hit the Language and Text module to be able to change the default system language to Spanish. I did this right in the beginning and I must admit that this simple step went a long way in cutting down my learning curve.
Make your TV speak nothing but Spanish
Unleash the couch potato in you |
Photo credit: Aapo Haapanen licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Now, this one, while easy to do in most countries in Europe, North America, and South America, might be an impractical idea for the rest of the world. India, for one, does not have a single channel with Spanish programming. For such learners, the next best thing would be to acquire as much Spanish media (the Internet is a rich resource) as possible and quit watching regular television. Again, this will get frustrating and demotivating as the Spanish on those movies and shows is rapidfire and absolutely incomprehensible to unaccustomed ears. My two cents, just be patient and consistent and give yourself time. My previous post talks more about how to use Spanish media for immersion.
Read nothing but Spanish
Read Spanish...anything in Spanish! |
Photo credit: Enokson licensed CC BY 2.0 |
In order to ensure you stay in the game for longer and eliminate any chances of a burn-out, fatigue, or boredom, opt for easy reads, such as small children’s books of fairy tales, fables, graphic novels, or graded readers for kids in elementary schools. Whatever you read, make sure there is loads of pictures or graphic illustration. This will ensure you understand the context better even if not opening up the dictionary for every second word. If possible, newspapers could also serve the purpose while being informative and interesting at the same time.
However, I would strongly advise against e-books or online readers unless you are a Kindle user. The reading experience is most fulfilling if done the traditional way, i.e., real, paper books. The computer screen with it’s radiation glare is far from suitable for long reading sessions.
Another thing is consistency. No matter how much time you dedicate to each of these activities, it is important to stay consistent if you intend to maximize the benefits. No amount of motivation is going to help if you stay immersed for hours on one day and not at all for the next three days. I would also not give you any magic number when it comes to the number of hours you should dedicate to these tasks every day. Because that wouldn’t be immersion. Total, absolute immersion means you should live Spanish every moment of your waking life. So, it does not matter how much time you spend reading as long as you read only Spanish and nothing else whenever you do, even if only for a few minutes. Similarly, it does not matter how much time you spend watching TV as long as it is only Spanish on the screen whenever you turn on the TV and not English or any other language. And trust me, this is far from overkill!
More strategies will be discussed in a future continuation on learning Spanish through total immersion. In the interim, I invite all of you to share with me your views on total immersion as a Spanish-acquisition tool through your comments. Your comments will not only enrich my experience but will also help you share best practices amongst yourselves.
Thursday 27 September 2012
Stop Learning, Start Acquiring
Posted on 10:07 by the khali
Learning Spanish is easy. We would all have a common answer if asked how we learned our native language and that would almost unanimously be, “Just like that!” Nobody is born with skills of any kind, let alone linguistic abilities. And yet by the time we turn four, we are more than reasonably fluent in at least one language, our native tongue. All this at a time when we were yet to face the grammar-boogie at school! How come? The key is, we didn’t learn our mother tongue – we just absorbed it. We acquired it organically, gradually, steadily, in fits and starts. And we can acquire some easy Spanish in the same fashion!
Why then, must we struggle to acquire a second (or third, or fourth) language when we did none of that for the first? The most natural language acquisition tool is at everyone’s disposal and yet largely ignored. If kids can learn their native language doing nothing beyond listening for the first 2-3 years of their life, why can’t adults?
Yes, the laziest way to learn Spanish is essentially the most effective and optimal unless all you aspire is being able to greet some foreign tourists and order a cerveza (beer) in a foreign restaurant. My attempts on this blog are more relevant to those who intend to be “fluent” in Spanish, indistinguishable from the natives.
Do you know what the easiest part of learning a foreign language is? It is the acquisition of every possible resource (books, media, etc.) around the activity and browsing through the first few pages of more than a dozen grammar books and phrasebooks. Now, over to the hard part. The hardest bit is choosing the right resource to start with and then sustaining the learning process with consistency. Let’s try to sort out this problem before proceeding with our learning.
Alright, so we have already established that the most effective learning strategy for a native-like proficiency is to maximize input (listening and reading) in the target language, in this case Spanish. However, since we are no longer kids, it is extremely easy for boredom and demotivation to set in once we have received a few hours of incomprehensible input in an alien language. That’s where our conventional learning resources (grammar books and dictionaries) kick in. Note that the idea here is to learn “in context”. Traditionally, we are taught to mug up vocabulary and grammar before we even consider any application of the acquired language in a practical context. And the idea being discussed here is exactly the opposite. First, get the context and then use grammar to understand the speech in that context.
In layman’s terms, the approach would be to focus on maximizing input in the target language first and then use dictionaries and grammar to understand the sentences and words. This way, retention would be more permanent in nature in contrast to mugging up rules and meanings. Acquire a collection of Spanish videos (movies or shows) and not more than one grammar book and one dictionary. Everything you do from here on must be single-mindedly geared toward “acquiring” Spanish and not just learning it. What’s the difference, you ask? Well, huge. Learning is what you do in a classroom where you do things like homework, mugging up, reading, writing, and recitations against your will. You do those things not because you want to be fluent in the language but because you have been asked to do them by your teacher and because you need to do them in order to pass your tests. Acquiring is different. As an infant, you didn’t have to pass any test, nor were you under any teacher’s mandate to cram up words after words off that dictionary. You just absorbed what you heard being spoken all around you, all the time. No reasoning. No analysis. Just plain and simple absorption. Word-by-word, syllable-by-syllable, and phrase-by-phrase. Until you developed the capacity and confidence to produce them for yourself after a few years of intense input. This, my friend, is acquisition and it is way more interesting, natural, and effective than dead-beat learning.
In today’s world of the ever-pervasive Internet, this excuse lo longer holds water. An entire industry spends billions of dollars every year, year after year, to ensure you get as much Spanish in your life as you are satisfied with. The showbiz. There are hundreds and thousands of Spanish language movies and television shows the showbiz industry dishes out every year. Why shouldn’t you be exploiting this perennial source of some of the most authentic Spanish to your advantage?
Maintain a strict regimen of watching the same movie or show leastwise three to four times every day. Tempting as it might get, avoid touching the dictionary or grammar reference or even turning on the subtitles while watching the video on the first day. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the visuals and try to relate the story as a dumb kid. On day two, watch the show with Spanish subtitles. Not English! Sporadically, refer to the dictionary to look up unfamiliar words and refer to the grammar book for the correct construction of certain words indicated as verbs in the dictionary. Continue with the same movie for at least a week before changing for the effect to sink in.
Sounds mundane, doesn’t it? Just be patient and hang on for a couple of months and you’ll notice subtle improvements in your comprehension. Work toward that reward and you won’t be disappointed. It is true that learning Spanish calls for discipline and patience – Spanish should be all around you at all the time! In the coming posts, we will review some innovative ways to retain the newly acquired Spanish vocabulary and grammar concepts.
Until then, wish you luck!
The laziest way to acquire Spanish
More grammar don't necessarily mean more Spanish |
Photo credit: James Bon Tempo licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Yes, the laziest way to learn Spanish is essentially the most effective and optimal unless all you aspire is being able to greet some foreign tourists and order a cerveza (beer) in a foreign restaurant. My attempts on this blog are more relevant to those who intend to be “fluent” in Spanish, indistinguishable from the natives.
Do you know what the easiest part of learning a foreign language is? It is the acquisition of every possible resource (books, media, etc.) around the activity and browsing through the first few pages of more than a dozen grammar books and phrasebooks. Now, over to the hard part. The hardest bit is choosing the right resource to start with and then sustaining the learning process with consistency. Let’s try to sort out this problem before proceeding with our learning.
So, is grammar totally useless?
Alright, so we have already established that the most effective learning strategy for a native-like proficiency is to maximize input (listening and reading) in the target language, in this case Spanish. However, since we are no longer kids, it is extremely easy for boredom and demotivation to set in once we have received a few hours of incomprehensible input in an alien language. That’s where our conventional learning resources (grammar books and dictionaries) kick in. Note that the idea here is to learn “in context”. Traditionally, we are taught to mug up vocabulary and grammar before we even consider any application of the acquired language in a practical context. And the idea being discussed here is exactly the opposite. First, get the context and then use grammar to understand the speech in that context.
This will work only if you are learning Spanish for a test |
EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
But nobody speaks Spanish around me!
Movies are an excellent source of unfettered Spanish input! |
Photo credit: Franco Folini licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Maintain a strict regimen of watching the same movie or show leastwise three to four times every day. Tempting as it might get, avoid touching the dictionary or grammar reference or even turning on the subtitles while watching the video on the first day. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the visuals and try to relate the story as a dumb kid. On day two, watch the show with Spanish subtitles. Not English! Sporadically, refer to the dictionary to look up unfamiliar words and refer to the grammar book for the correct construction of certain words indicated as verbs in the dictionary. Continue with the same movie for at least a week before changing for the effect to sink in.
Sounds mundane, doesn’t it? Just be patient and hang on for a couple of months and you’ll notice subtle improvements in your comprehension. Work toward that reward and you won’t be disappointed. It is true that learning Spanish calls for discipline and patience – Spanish should be all around you at all the time! In the coming posts, we will review some innovative ways to retain the newly acquired Spanish vocabulary and grammar concepts.
Until then, wish you luck!
Isn't She Gorgeous!
Posted on 01:29 by the khali
Spanish vocabulary is a pain in the neck, isn’t it? The Spanish for leather is el cuero and en cueros is, unsurprisingly, a Spanish slang term for naked. Cuero is also a Latin American adjective meaning gorgeous; so, effectively, es un cuero would mean, ‘she is a babe/stunner’ or ‘he is a hunk!’ Confused? Well, bear with me, for visualization is the tool for the laziest of learners the world has ever seen and it is this technique that we are going to see at work today. Let’s see if it’s possible to remember all these meanings the lazy way. We are going to establish here that the mind absorbs best when left uncluttered.
Just close your eyes and picture a sexy, beautiful girl going to Cuba in an aeroplane. Try to add as much nonsense to this imagery as you can comfortably manage. The girl could be wearing a certain top in your favorite color (an animal-print thong, maybe?), she could be a blonde or a brunette, she could be wearing your favorite perfume, or she could have that raspy-voice that turns you on...just let your imagination run wild. The whackier and more outrageous your imagination, the stronger the visual handle and consequently, the stronger the retention.
Helps? This is what they call visualization. Just visualize the image for 10 to 15 seconds and you are done! This is the power of the sub-conscious. You tend to remember words more naturally this way because human mind retains pictures and videos better than words. You might need to repeat this exercise with some words over a few days or maybe weeks to ensure permanent retention; nevertheless, vocabulary acquired this way not only sticks for longer, it also takes relatively little effort to begin with! And the energy thus saved could well be channelized into acquiring more Spanish by other means. One infinitely useful way of utilizing this time would be watching Spanish programming on television, YouTube®, or elsewhere to maintain a steady inflow of lots and lots of Spanish.
Visual association is also important for you to acquire Spanish vocabulary independent of a corresponding English meaning. Why is this important? So, if we know that a ‘car’ is carro in Spanish, isn’t it just wise and less complicated to just memorize the extremely simplistic word-to-word association and get done with it? Well, in this example, maybe yes. But heaven knows that every language is unique. In every aspect. Spanish wasn’t carved out of English nor the other way around. So, more often than not, words in Spanish don’t always “stand for” a specific word in English. It’s the same story when translating from English to Spanish as well. That’s the reason why reps are never such a good idea for learning Spanish words.
Take an example, ser. If you look it up in a Spanish-English dictionary, you will soon know it’s the Spanish for the ubiquitous English verb, ‘to be’. However, if you assumed ser means ‘to be’ and hence ‘to be’ means ser, you are way off-base because what’s ‘to be’ in English can be expressed in Spanish in two different ways depending on the context and while one way is using ser, there exists another one using estar. Did you see how your word-to-word cramming technique falls flat in this example? Now, I don’t intend to confuse you with the ser-estar dilemma; that discussion is interesting though but warrants an article of its own. For now, it just serves to drive home the idea that the only logical way to acquire Spanish vocabulary is by understanding and memorizing (using the visualization technique illustrated above, if you will) the context and the “idea” that word stands for.
So, its always a better idea to understand and remember that carro is a motorized vehicle with gears and four wheels that is not different from a car. But it is “not” a car! Carro exists in Spanish regardless of whether or not ‘car’ does in English. I know this seems to be a stupid way of remembering a word that means nothing but ‘car’ in English but in doing this, you are developing a habit that will only help you deal with the ambiguity thrown by words such as ser. What all this philosophical talk means is that learning Spanish should be independent of your knowledge of English or any other language and visualization helps you achieve just that.
The key, once again, is that your Spanish must not depend on your English! So, while your dictionary might say that an olla stands for a ‘saucepan’, you’d be better off using whatever visual aid you can muster to understand and learn that it is essentially a rather cylindrical utensil with a long handle often used for boiling milk, etc. Could this be the reason why kids all over the world are taught using picture-books or picture-dictionaries regardless of what language they are learning? Even your mind is known to retain and recall pictures more comfortably than written words. We are naturally wired for such retention. Of course, word-to-word associations do exist, especially words from Spanish and English that share a common origin. But even for such words, using visualization would only help fluency because while producing Spanish, you wouldn’t be translating your thoughts from English into Spanish.
How much Spanish could we absorb in 10 seconds?
¡Es un cuero! |
Photo credit: Peretz Partensky licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Helps? This is what they call visualization. Just visualize the image for 10 to 15 seconds and you are done! This is the power of the sub-conscious. You tend to remember words more naturally this way because human mind retains pictures and videos better than words. You might need to repeat this exercise with some words over a few days or maybe weeks to ensure permanent retention; nevertheless, vocabulary acquired this way not only sticks for longer, it also takes relatively little effort to begin with! And the energy thus saved could well be channelized into acquiring more Spanish by other means. One infinitely useful way of utilizing this time would be watching Spanish programming on television, YouTube®, or elsewhere to maintain a steady inflow of lots and lots of Spanish.
Spanish and English don’t map word-for-word!
Visual association is also important for you to acquire Spanish vocabulary independent of a corresponding English meaning. Why is this important? So, if we know that a ‘car’ is carro in Spanish, isn’t it just wise and less complicated to just memorize the extremely simplistic word-to-word association and get done with it? Well, in this example, maybe yes. But heaven knows that every language is unique. In every aspect. Spanish wasn’t carved out of English nor the other way around. So, more often than not, words in Spanish don’t always “stand for” a specific word in English. It’s the same story when translating from English to Spanish as well. That’s the reason why reps are never such a good idea for learning Spanish words.
Take an example, ser. If you look it up in a Spanish-English dictionary, you will soon know it’s the Spanish for the ubiquitous English verb, ‘to be’. However, if you assumed ser means ‘to be’ and hence ‘to be’ means ser, you are way off-base because what’s ‘to be’ in English can be expressed in Spanish in two different ways depending on the context and while one way is using ser, there exists another one using estar. Did you see how your word-to-word cramming technique falls flat in this example? Now, I don’t intend to confuse you with the ser-estar dilemma; that discussion is interesting though but warrants an article of its own. For now, it just serves to drive home the idea that the only logical way to acquire Spanish vocabulary is by understanding and memorizing (using the visualization technique illustrated above, if you will) the context and the “idea” that word stands for.
So, its always a better idea to understand and remember that carro is a motorized vehicle with gears and four wheels that is not different from a car. But it is “not” a car! Carro exists in Spanish regardless of whether or not ‘car’ does in English. I know this seems to be a stupid way of remembering a word that means nothing but ‘car’ in English but in doing this, you are developing a habit that will only help you deal with the ambiguity thrown by words such as ser. What all this philosophical talk means is that learning Spanish should be independent of your knowledge of English or any other language and visualization helps you achieve just that.
The key, once again, is that your Spanish must not depend on your English! So, while your dictionary might say that an olla stands for a ‘saucepan’, you’d be better off using whatever visual aid you can muster to understand and learn that it is essentially a rather cylindrical utensil with a long handle often used for boiling milk, etc. Could this be the reason why kids all over the world are taught using picture-books or picture-dictionaries regardless of what language they are learning? Even your mind is known to retain and recall pictures more comfortably than written words. We are naturally wired for such retention. Of course, word-to-word associations do exist, especially words from Spanish and English that share a common origin. But even for such words, using visualization would only help fluency because while producing Spanish, you wouldn’t be translating your thoughts from English into Spanish.
Wednesday 26 September 2012
Visual Vocabulary
Posted on 08:13 by the khali
The concept is simple. Just pick a Spanish language word and imagine it as related to something familiar and then try to remember this visual key to the new word’s meaning. The visual association thus created has been empirically proven to stay in memory more permanently and more readily available for instant recall. If you are learning Spanish, or any language in the world, you will soon find that this trick is indispensable for an extremely easy Spanish vocabulary acquisition. Sounds too simplistic to be true? This article discusses the concept of visualization at length, illustrating it with some interesting examples.
Take the Spanish word, excusado (toilet) for instance. Just visualize a naughty little kid asking his teacher, “Excuse me, I want to do it in the toilet!” This way, every time you hear excusado, you will also recall this visual aid and get the meaning instantly. No more mugging up!
Simple, isn’t it? But, excusado was too simple an example. I mean, it already sounds too similar to something familiar in English and that made the visual correlation a cakewalk. Can this trick be used on all foreign words? We’ll see. Let’s take another example, a more unfamiliar-sounding word this time: Arroz (rice). Now arroz doesn’t sound similar to anything in English. Or, does it? If we expand our visual landscape beyond arroz and rice, we can easily draw a more familiar picture. Here, you can imagine camping in a medieval wildlife reserve having a cup of instant rice when some illegal poacher suddenly starts shooting arrows at you mistaking you for, say, a boar. The more vivid your imagination, the better your retention.
Got the idea? Mentally associating a foreign word to a known imagery or thing to memorize the meaning. This is no rocket-science, friends, and it shouldn’t surprise you to know that this is how most of us learned difficult words in our native languages when we were kids! This is not my invention. This is not even a discovery. I am just recycling a very commonplace concept after enjoying its benefits first-hand while learning Spanish myself. Listed in the following section are a few more Spanish palabras (words) along with visual cues.
Blanco (white) - The white, snow covered peak of Mont Blanc
Amarillo (yellow) - A yellow armadillo; the rhyming endings should be sufficient visual hook
Nevado (snowy) - Mont Blanc or Sierra Nevada, snow is everywhere
Soleado (sunny) - Imagine a bright, sunny day and a small villa with huge solar panel installed on the rooftop, shining in sunlight
Calor (hot) - Calorie, heat...rings a bell?
Fresco (cool) - Picture yourself in your balcony, enjoying the fresh and cool evening air!
Helado (freezing) - It was a freezing rainy night and there was a sudden hailstorm and you had nowhere to hide
Viento (wind) - A well-ventilated room feels windier
Esposo/a (husband/wife) – We all know what a spouse is, don’t we?
While it might get quite tempting to include examples like the ones illustrated above in your own vocabulary-building regimen, I would personally advise against such practice. The reason is more common-sense than linguistics or science. The thing is, these visual cues are my own. I am the one who imagined them and built those mental bridges and hence the cues are, in more ways than one, personal to me. No, I am not going to claim any copyright or demand any royalty against every word you learn using my cues. But the fact that these are personal to me means they might not have the same efficacy in your context. Our minds work differently and what might be a visual aid to my mind might be an alien idea to your and forcing your brain to assimilate an image that it didn’t invent in the first place might be the equivalent of learning by rote. Not the best outcome.
What I suggest, instead, is that you invent your own visual cues well-adapted for your own context. This will ensure you do not have to depend on someone else’s imagination. In fact, your brain might have an even better image than the one illustrated here, who knows? I am not saying, you cannot use the illustrations I have made. Just don’t depend on them. Ask yourself. If you feel comfortable taking it as is, go ahead. However, if you feel any discomfort accepting my visuals, maybe you need a more familiar adaptation. That’s where your imagination needs to take over. And believe you me, it’s not at all difficult! Sky is the limit when it comes to what you can accomplish, right from Spanish bathroom words to Spanish body parts!
So, what do you think about this little trick? See any potential? I did. And so did many, many others. Used the right way, this simple device could help you add dozens of new words to your mental dictionary every day without any cramming-up. If you really feel this article is comment-worthy, please feel free to let me know how you adapted these illustrations to your specific contexts and used them in learning Spanish more rapidly. There’s a lot we can learn from each other!
The nuts and bolts of visualization
Take the Spanish word, excusado (toilet) for instance. Just visualize a naughty little kid asking his teacher, “Excuse me, I want to do it in the toilet!” This way, every time you hear excusado, you will also recall this visual aid and get the meaning instantly. No more mugging up!
Spanish vocabulary with visualization |
Photo credit: Bianca Cecot licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Got the idea? Mentally associating a foreign word to a known imagery or thing to memorize the meaning. This is no rocket-science, friends, and it shouldn’t surprise you to know that this is how most of us learned difficult words in our native languages when we were kids! This is not my invention. This is not even a discovery. I am just recycling a very commonplace concept after enjoying its benefits first-hand while learning Spanish myself. Listed in the following section are a few more Spanish palabras (words) along with visual cues.
Examples of visualization
Blanco (white) - The white, snow covered peak of Mont Blanc
Amarillo (yellow) - A yellow armadillo; the rhyming endings should be sufficient visual hook
Nevado (snowy) - Mont Blanc or Sierra Nevada, snow is everywhere
Soleado (sunny) - Imagine a bright, sunny day and a small villa with huge solar panel installed on the rooftop, shining in sunlight
Calor (hot) - Calorie, heat...rings a bell?
Fresco (cool) - Picture yourself in your balcony, enjoying the fresh and cool evening air!
Helado (freezing) - It was a freezing rainy night and there was a sudden hailstorm and you had nowhere to hide
Viento (wind) - A well-ventilated room feels windier
Esposo/a (husband/wife) – We all know what a spouse is, don’t we?
A word of caution
While it might get quite tempting to include examples like the ones illustrated above in your own vocabulary-building regimen, I would personally advise against such practice. The reason is more common-sense than linguistics or science. The thing is, these visual cues are my own. I am the one who imagined them and built those mental bridges and hence the cues are, in more ways than one, personal to me. No, I am not going to claim any copyright or demand any royalty against every word you learn using my cues. But the fact that these are personal to me means they might not have the same efficacy in your context. Our minds work differently and what might be a visual aid to my mind might be an alien idea to your and forcing your brain to assimilate an image that it didn’t invent in the first place might be the equivalent of learning by rote. Not the best outcome.
What I suggest, instead, is that you invent your own visual cues well-adapted for your own context. This will ensure you do not have to depend on someone else’s imagination. In fact, your brain might have an even better image than the one illustrated here, who knows? I am not saying, you cannot use the illustrations I have made. Just don’t depend on them. Ask yourself. If you feel comfortable taking it as is, go ahead. However, if you feel any discomfort accepting my visuals, maybe you need a more familiar adaptation. That’s where your imagination needs to take over. And believe you me, it’s not at all difficult! Sky is the limit when it comes to what you can accomplish, right from Spanish bathroom words to Spanish body parts!
So, what do you think about this little trick? See any potential? I did. And so did many, many others. Used the right way, this simple device could help you add dozens of new words to your mental dictionary every day without any cramming-up. If you really feel this article is comment-worthy, please feel free to let me know how you adapted these illustrations to your specific contexts and used them in learning Spanish more rapidly. There’s a lot we can learn from each other!
Tuesday 25 September 2012
Why Should I Learn Spanish?
Posted on 07:58 by the khali
Still wondering why Spanish after all? Here, we discuss some razones buenas (good reasons). However, before we even get into justifying all the pains of learning a foreign language, let alone getting fluent in it, let me assume that this post is redundant because the fact that you are on this blog already shows that you are loaded with at least one strong justification, if not more, to learn Spanish. If nothing else, it should be only safe to assume that you just love this language with no purpose on your mind. This is why I chose Spanish. Now, speaking of justifications, there are quite a few compelling ones to boot.
Before we start with the list, let me promise you that this list is far from complete and there are as many reasons for learning Spanish as there are those who wish to learn it! And no amount of reasoning can kick your butt into learning Spanish if you don’t just like – er...sorry, love – the way it sounds. I know this one tilts more toward the philosophical side but it’s very much a fact of life. Human history knows nobody ever learned a language to perfection without loving its sound and people who speak that language.
Too skeptical to be moved by this simplistic list? Here’s more news for you. Barring English and Mandarin, Spanish is the language spoken by the largest number of people in the world and it has more native speakers than even the ever-present English! Besides, since Mandarin, is only spoken in China while Spanish is spoken in almost two dozen countries spread across 4 continents, Spanish easily scores over Mandarin despite the latter having more native speakers. Imagine the communicative powers you will weild once you get fluent in this lingo!
If money moves you, here’s something for you. At least in North America, Spanish-speakers are the fastest growing consumer group with their population growth over the last decade in the US alone pegged at 60%. It is said that the Hispanic community in the United States is going to have in excess of a billion bucks to spend on purchases by 2013, an opportunity the capitalist in you would hate to miss. And who knows better than you the benefits of speaking your consumers’ tongue and what it could do to your business!
If the United States Census Bureau were to be believed, one out of every eight American is a Latino today. By 2015, it is expected that there will be close to 50 million Hispanics in the US. Can you foresee how one thing leads to another? Do you see how this population surge will spike the demand for Spanish-language media – television, radio, newspaper, magazine? And do you see what knowledge of Spanish can do to your career prospects?
It is said what isn’t driven by money drives us the best. What this means to your Spanish ambitions is that if you truly wish to acquire this language, it will help to find, or invent, some motivation other than business. Learning Spanish is a chore and even the peppiest of chores wear out in enthusiasm with time if there’s any lack of sustainable motivation. Look beyond money. Delve deeper into the Hispanic culture, the lifestyle, the trivia of Hispanic history, their food. There are enough number of incredibly interesting aspects of this community to sustain your motivation for reasonably long.
In the end I must add, whatever your motivation, it must stir you. It must move you, make you restless. If you are truly keen on being fluent in Spanish, you shouldn’t be able to even imagine a world without it! Dump English until you are perfect in the Spanish language. Trust me, you won’t forget English anyways because there’s enough of it in you already. Fall in love with the people, the culture, the lifestyle, for Spanish is not just a bunch of words and rules of grammar; it is a combination of everything that defines Hispaniola. You can never truly acquire a language in isolation from the culture it represents because every language, including Spanish, has its own unique rhythm which is deeply entwined with its culture and lifestyle and which you must master in order for that language to flow freely off your mouth, like the music it’s meant to be.
Every eighth American is a Latino! |
Photo credit: Don Graham licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Why learning Spanish makes sense
- To be able to interact with over half a billion Spanish speakers around the world
- To enjoy the cultural richness of Spanish-speaking parts of the world Mexico, Spain, & Latin America
- To have a chance to experience new music, food, movies, & much more, adding a whole new dimension to personal entertainment
- To develop better critical thinking skills - Being bilingual means seeing the world through more than one lense; a skill that can help one in many areas
- To make new friends who don’t speak English - Imagine all of the friendships you are missing out on!
- To develop your creativity - language stimulates one’s imagination
- Because Spanish speakers are growing at a faster rate than English speakers!
- To give oneself better job security - Why not stack the deck in your favor by having a valuable skill? Bilinguals are more marketable and have more career choices than monolinguals
Why learning Spanish makes strong business sense
Too skeptical to be moved by this simplistic list? Here’s more news for you. Barring English and Mandarin, Spanish is the language spoken by the largest number of people in the world and it has more native speakers than even the ever-present English! Besides, since Mandarin, is only spoken in China while Spanish is spoken in almost two dozen countries spread across 4 continents, Spanish easily scores over Mandarin despite the latter having more native speakers. Imagine the communicative powers you will weild once you get fluent in this lingo!
The Spanish language community is full of opportunities |
Photo credit: Molly Stevens licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
If the United States Census Bureau were to be believed, one out of every eight American is a Latino today. By 2015, it is expected that there will be close to 50 million Hispanics in the US. Can you foresee how one thing leads to another? Do you see how this population surge will spike the demand for Spanish-language media – television, radio, newspaper, magazine? And do you see what knowledge of Spanish can do to your career prospects?
Is money everything?
It is said what isn’t driven by money drives us the best. What this means to your Spanish ambitions is that if you truly wish to acquire this language, it will help to find, or invent, some motivation other than business. Learning Spanish is a chore and even the peppiest of chores wear out in enthusiasm with time if there’s any lack of sustainable motivation. Look beyond money. Delve deeper into the Hispanic culture, the lifestyle, the trivia of Hispanic history, their food. There are enough number of incredibly interesting aspects of this community to sustain your motivation for reasonably long.
In the end I must add, whatever your motivation, it must stir you. It must move you, make you restless. If you are truly keen on being fluent in Spanish, you shouldn’t be able to even imagine a world without it! Dump English until you are perfect in the Spanish language. Trust me, you won’t forget English anyways because there’s enough of it in you already. Fall in love with the people, the culture, the lifestyle, for Spanish is not just a bunch of words and rules of grammar; it is a combination of everything that defines Hispaniola. You can never truly acquire a language in isolation from the culture it represents because every language, including Spanish, has its own unique rhythm which is deeply entwined with its culture and lifestyle and which you must master in order for that language to flow freely off your mouth, like the music it’s meant to be.
Monday 24 September 2012
Learning with Always Spanish: An Introduction
Posted on 07:53 by the khali
Here to learn Spanish? Well, I am more than glad to be welcoming you to this “yet-another” blog dedicated to the millions of Spanish learners like you from every corner of the known universe. I admit this is far from the first online Spanish-learning resource you would have stumbled upon. I also admit this won’t be your last either, nor do I hope so because the fun of online learning lies in trying out the best of everything. Always Spanish is a work that helps you learn, rather acquire, Spanish without actually teaching you Spanish. Throughout the learning process, this philosophy will the very core of all action here.
To be very honest, this isn’t my first either. Back in the summer of 2007, I used to run a moderately successful Spanish-learning blog (Easiest-Spanish), my efforts focused on tips around Latin culture and mnemonics and visual learning strategies. However, that blog was not paying my bills and I eventually had to take up a regular job, which meant I had little time for creative blogging. So, that’s how that blogging endeavor came to an end in a few months. Why this new avatar then? Well, it’s been a long time and I am growing older. With old age, comes poor memory. I no longer remember my login credentials to Easiest Spanish and have no option but to sadly resort to starting from scratch. On the brighter side, with age, comes a better understanding of the subject and a level of maturity which will manifest in this exercise. So, here I present to you the next level of my blogging experience that capitalizes on my improved sense of content and improved linguistic skills.
I sincerely hope to put in every bit of my knowledge and experience, and all my efforts into making this blog a resounding success serving you fresh and interesting content until rapture. Every comment on my posts will push me an inch closer to my goals and give me the kick to create even more interesting content for future posts. Just ensure that you don’t see this as a substitute for your regular language acquisition practices. Treat this blog, instead, as a supplement to accelerate your learning. I only intend to help you unleash your natural language acquisition skills that you were born with. In order to eliminate any likelihood of monotony, posts on this blog will come under various categories, e.g., Vocabulary, Street Spanish, Immersion, Tips ‘n’ Tricks, etc. This will provide you a wide range of reading topics to choose from according to your mood and aptitude. Through this blog, I intend to kick you, tickle you, and often amaze you over the many facets of this extremely matured language.
So, welcome once again! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the fun and vastly uncharted methods of learning a new language without so much as lifting a finger.
P. S. Do try lifting a finger to drop me a note or two if possible though so we could benefit from your feedback and criticism!
Welcome to Always Spanish! |
Photo credit: Rafael Tovar licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
I sincerely hope to put in every bit of my knowledge and experience, and all my efforts into making this blog a resounding success serving you fresh and interesting content until rapture. Every comment on my posts will push me an inch closer to my goals and give me the kick to create even more interesting content for future posts. Just ensure that you don’t see this as a substitute for your regular language acquisition practices. Treat this blog, instead, as a supplement to accelerate your learning. I only intend to help you unleash your natural language acquisition skills that you were born with. In order to eliminate any likelihood of monotony, posts on this blog will come under various categories, e.g., Vocabulary, Street Spanish, Immersion, Tips ‘n’ Tricks, etc. This will provide you a wide range of reading topics to choose from according to your mood and aptitude. Through this blog, I intend to kick you, tickle you, and often amaze you over the many facets of this extremely matured language.
So, welcome once again! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the fun and vastly uncharted methods of learning a new language without so much as lifting a finger.
P. S. Do try lifting a finger to drop me a note or two if possible though so we could benefit from your feedback and criticism!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)