A fun Way Spanish
It’s not too difficult to learn Spanish fast if you start with the basics. You would be surprised by how much Spanish you can learn by listening to a cd while being on the road every day. Just get down the simple verbs, some food names, and maybe a few descriptive terms. In general, a fair number of people learn Spanish quickly by starting to say the alphabet and practicing greetings such as “hello” and “goodnight,” but studying the facial features will allow you to have a bit of variety and spice as you learn Spanish.
A very cool simple to start with while in the process of learning Spanish is the descriptions of the face. The face is recognized as the front part of the head. It includes the lips, nose, eyes, cheeks, eyebrows, nose, hair, teeth, lips, and chin. The face is an instrument of expression and identity, and people’s faces are the body part that is most commonly used to distinguish them. Often caricatures will overemphasize certain parts of the face in order to make them instantly recognizable to the people who may be familiar with those memorable features.
If you have a bit of trouble remembering names of others, you may wish to become more aqquainted with the features of the face. The size of someone’s eyes allow a mother know immediately which one of your children you are refering to.
It’s good to be able to describe someone’s facial features in Spanish because if you meet a person in a Spanish-speaking country you may have to describe that person to someone else who speaks Spanish. Also, describing people’s facial features in Spanish will help you to learn Spanish in an interesting and unusually way.
To begin with, if you see a person having a thin face, you could say “una cara delgada”. Translated into English, this means “She has a thin face.” If you see a person having a chubby face, you would say “una cara regordete.” If you meet someone you would like to describe as having had a face lift, you would say un lifting or un “estiramiento facial.” In the event that someone has a face with a lot of wrinkles, you would say “arugas.” In the event that someone’s face is happy, you would say “una cara alegre.” If a person has a big nose you would say “una nariz grande.” If a person has sunken eyes, you would exclaim “ojos hundidos.” In the event that you meet a person with shifty eyes, you would exclaim “ojos furtivos.”
These are just several easy Spanish words that you may use to describe people’s faces as you continue to pick up Spanish. With these Spanish words, you will not be at a loss for words when you meet people on the street.
In order to avoid the typical method of learning Spanish such as getting down the alphabet and, “What’s your name?” you may wish to consider picking up the physical anatomy in Spanish or learning how to say the different parts of an existing suburban community. When you deviate from the norm, it not only can be fun to learn Spanish, but it also can be very exciting.
Tags: easy spanish words, learn spanish fast, learn spanish quickly
December 31, 2008
Learning Useful Spanish Phrases Properly
Common Spanish phrases found in Spanish phrase books can be useful and many people buy them before embarking on vacation to Mexico or Spain. However, many times, a number of Spanish learners discover that phrase books lock you into a fixed way of saying something, and life is far from being like that.
Being able to say, “Can you tell me if this is the 10.15 or the 10.30 train leaving for Barcelona?” is all very well. But when you are in Bolivia and it’s a bus leaving at midnight you are hoping to catch to some small village you can’t even pronounce, it isn’t very helpful. You need to learn more than just easy Spanish words, or at least you need to be able to adapt the Spanish phrases you know.
It is good to start by learning the useful Spanish phrases. Learn how to greet people by saying “good day” (buenas días), “good afternoon” (buenas tardes), and “good evening” (buenas noches). You can always just say “hola” (hello) if you’re not sure which phrase to use.
You can naturally progress from there to a relatively more complicated greeting: “¿Cómo estás?” This means, “how are you?” However, that’s a little bit formal and stilted. Usually, most people just say, “que tal?” If someone says that to you, answer them, “bien, ¿y tu?” (I’m well, and you?). They will be impressed with your command of Spanish, believe me!
In keeping with the popular Spanish phrase books, you need to also learn how to ask for something when you are in a Spanish café or restaurant. As in most English speaking countries, Spanish speaking people have several courses for their meals. The first is the, “primero plato,” the second is the “segundo plato,” and the third is the “tercero plato.”
You may wish to have a glass of water (un vaso de agua) with your meal, or a coffee (un café). If you want your coffee to have milk, then it should be, “un café con leche.” A glass of red wine (un vaso de vino tinto), or white wine (un vaso de vino blanco) may also go down well. Maybe you want a whole bottle of wine (una botella de vino). And now you can ask for one that’s either red or white too.
You may have noticed that in all those Spanish words I didn’t say “please” in any instance. Because we do it to be polite in English, we assume that everyone else does it too. In fact, we generally can’t comprehend why anyone would want to be so rude as to not use “please” when asking for a favor.
It simply is not a Spanish custom. On the contarary, they regard it as rude if you do say, “please” for every single thing. For example, if you were to say to a Spanish barman, “un vaso de vino tinto, pro favor,” he would very likely get a little offended.
Visualize a man who has been standing at the bar in an English speaking country waiting for a long time to get served. Finally, he speaks to the barman with a loud voice, “a glass of red wine, PLEASE.” The “please” at the end is said in a rather sarcastic way, and that’s pretty much how it feels to a native Spanish speaker when you add “please” in Spanish. Don’t do it and you’ll keep yourslef out of needless trouble.
Tags: common spanish phrases, easy spanish words, useful spanish phrases