Stay Silent And Get Fluent...Quickly!

Immersion seems so natural and yet there hardly seems to be any Spanish-learning methodology more controversial than this! Why exactly? Well, apparently there doesn’t exist a definitive answer yet but it can be vehemently affirmed that there exist more plausible evidences proving its benefits than the contrary. Actually, even the academic purists vouch for total immersion. Where, then, do we disagree? That bone of contention is called “grammar”....

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22 Things A Smart-Ass Would Do Learning Spanish

We as humans love lists. Whether it’s with learning Spanish or with anything else, lists make our exercises seem more doable and within reach than they actually are. So, when it comes to learning a foreign language where we could use any help available to make it easier, such a list won’t be a bad idea! Taking this philosophy ahead, this article summarizes some of the most important advises for the convenience of those learning Spanish in a numbered...

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Jacket Vs. Hand-Job!

Like all other tongues, the Spanish language too has its own share of regional quirkiness and the one from Mexico, in particular, is no different. In fact, it is this quirkiness of Mexican Spanish that makes it one of most learners’ top favorites amongst all known dialects of Spanish. Let’s explore this quirkiness in something as simple as a “jacket.” We all know it translates to la chaqueta in Spanish. What makes it so special here is that this...

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Taking A Bath Or Taking A Shower?

Two words one picks up pretty early in their Spanish-learning program are ducharse and bañarse. If you are one of them, you already know what grammar has to say about their meanings – that ducharse means “to shower” and bañarse means “to bathe”. Simple, isn’t it? Unfortunately, you are in for a little bit of disappointment if you spent countless hours cramming up these meanings off the dictionary. Why? Well, because the streets of Latin America...

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Of Pinky Swears And Middle Fingers

Here’s a classic example of what classrooms and grammar books do to your Spanish. One cannot doubt you must have learned and mugged up the Spanish names for the parts of your body right within the first few weeks of your Spanish learning program. So you know that mano means “hand” and dedos de la mano or deditos means “fingers”. What you don’t know and would have never been taught, however, is the names of each of those deditos in Spanish!...

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A Bird In Hand Is Good Spanish

Picking a simple sentence, especially an interesting proverb or saying, and performing a grammar autopsy on it is perhaps the easiest way of understanding and learning some practical Spanish grammar without feeling monotonous. The grammar and vocabulary one absorbs this way is practically more sustainable as small sentences are better assimilated than larger bodies of work such as novels. Using small, manageable phrases you assimilate key concepts...

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Pick Your Flick And Acquire Spanish

Every Spanish-fanatic worth his grain would agree that the slowest means of acquiring Spanish is relegating the process to textbooks and whiteboards. Spanish is a language. An alive one at that. So, live it; indulge in it! One can’t stress enough the importance of breathing life into an otherwise highly unproductive regimented style of learning Spanish as institutionalized by the classrooms. So, as stated previously already, silent input for the...

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The Laziest Way To Conquer Spanish

What’s going to be under discussion today is set to radically and fundamentally change the way you approach the Spanish language as a learner. To most purists, this article should read as nothing short of an academic blasphemy but if you manage to believe what we believe and what’s backed by solid, empirical study, acquiring Spanish or any other language of the world is not for the serious learners. The lazier you are, the easier it gets...

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Learn Spanish In A Sentence

Acquiring Spanish (read Spanish vocabulary) is most efficient when done in context. The importance of color a context lends to any new word or phrase and its role in long-term retention just can’t be stressed enough. In order to illustrate this today, we will pick a very simplistic yet practical idea which will not only help you learn new words but also make it easier for you to absorb some essential Spanish grammar without memorizing a single dead-beat...

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Does Messi Speak The Spanish Of The Illiterate?

Most textbooks claiming to teach easy Spanish would have you believe that the letters “y” and “ll” are pronounced the same in this language and that the sound they carry is that of “y” in “yellow” in Latin America and that of “llio” in “bullion” in Spain. But in reality, native Spanish language is far from this simplistic picture. This language was not born with similar-sounding “y” and “ll”; on the contrary, early Spanish mandated that “y” be pronounced...

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Forget Boring Word-Lists

How many of us have spent countless hours reading and memorizing long lists of uninteresting words in Spanish along with their English meanings and craved for an alternative to this monotonous, highly regimented way of learning Spanish? I bet most of us have. And out of personal experience, I must say this is the least effective way of acquiring new vocabulary in any language, Spanish being no exception. It is just too much work with too little...

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2 Ways To Weave More Spanish Around You

So long as you desire to build more Spanish around you, there is no dearth of means of doing so. We have discussed several excellent methods of creating a highly immersive environment right where you live without spending a fortune. Today, we will discuss two more ways that can, well, intensify our Spanish immersion endeavors and take us to a whole new level of absorption. In line with our principles of austerity and engagement, these can be implemented...

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Che Beyond Guevara

For most of us lesser mortals who don’t have Spanish in our blood, the word, che, stands for Ernesto Guevara of Argentina and little else. However, now that we are learning Spanish with dreams of becoming one of them someday, it is interesting as well as essential to know that che is to the Argentineans what güey is to the Mexicans, a word with no particular meaning yet ubiquitous all over the country, more so than probably any other vernacular...

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