Spanish Courses For Children
Spanish courses customized for kids teach kids Spanish in an interesting and easy way. It doesn’t go into grammar and syntax in a direct manner. Children, like a lot of adults, would be bored very quickly if they had to tediously conjugate regular and irregular Spanish verbs. Spanish for kids avoids all that, but still manages to teach children the basics too.
Children are able to learn Spanish fast. The younger a child is when they are initially exposed to another language, the sooner they can learn it. A five-year-old could learn fairly good Spanish in a matter of a couple of months, while a twelve-year-old might take more than six months. It depends too on their exposure. If they only hear Spanish in school, but not at home, they will take longer to pick it up.
Kids are able to learn Spanish quickly. Kids soon discover that Spanish for kids shows them Español es un lenguaje fonético y la pronunciación es muy clara. Unlike English where the ending, “ough” for example, can be pronounced at least half a dozen different ways, in Spanish the pronunciation is clear, straightforward and phonetic.
Generally, the second to last syllable is where the emphasis goes, unless the word has a letter with an accent on it. The word, “farmacia” has the emphasis on the second “a” as there is no accented letter. The word, “problema” has its emphasis on the letter “e.”
But when there is an accented letter, it becomes even easier. You simply place the emphasis of the word on that letter. For example, “fútbol” is that ever-popular ball game, or soccer, as it is known in the USA. The emphasis is naturally on the emphasized letter “u,” and sounds more or less the same as the word in English. Another example is the word for “plastic” that is spelt as “plástica.” Without the accented first “a” it would be pronounced as “plastEEca.”
Spanish for kids can fun. Remember, it won’t have been too long ago that they started to learn English. This is why kids they have the ability to adapt so rapidly; they are still learning so much every day that another language is something they take in their stride without batting an eyelid.
If you are teaching a child who have not learnt how to read yet, then you should make them involve all their senses, if possible, to learn the language. Computers are great for this in numerous ways as they can see diagrams and animations as well as hearing the language.
Employ your house pet as well. They will be amused to call the dog “un perro,” or the cat “un gato.” Needless to say, they will need to get the genders right too! If the dog and cat are female, then they will become “una perra” and “una gata” respectively.
Normally, the younger the child is when they are first exposed to Spanish, the faster they will be able to learn it. If the learning process is interesting, children will not see it as a boring task that they have to undertake. Also, teach them helpful phrases, such as, “may I have a glass of milk?” (¿Puede darme un vaso de leche?), and start using them in every day speech. They will take to it naturally. Spanish lessons for kids can be easy and fun too.
Tags: learn spanish fast, learn spanish online, learn spanish quickly, spanish lessons for kids
February 17, 2009
Spanish For Dummies- How To Learn Spanish Quickly
Spanish For Dummies is one of the books in the successful “For Dummies…” series. It quite naturally focuses on the Spanish language and sets out to help you learn Spanish quick in an easy and entertaining manner.
Spanish For Dummies is written by those who know the language best at the Berlitz language school. The book features common expressions and phrases that you may find helpful while you are on vacation, and aims to get you up and running with the language.
The Spanish For Dummies book describes itself as being, “…the ultimate guide for speaking Spanish quick and easy.” The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM, which allows you to hear Spanish spoken by native speakers.
In some way, you could describe any starter Spanish learning course as being Spanish for dummies , in a general sense that is. The idea is that it can take a beginner who has no knowledge of Spanish, from knowing nothing at all to at least speaking a couple of common phrases in Spanish.
There are a fair number of courses like that in the market nowadays. Nowadays, language courses have started concentrating on the fun element of learning a language, paying less attention to the need for grammar, syntax and cultural nuance, and replacing it with shortcuts, tricks and tips to actually speaking the language with other native speakers.
Grammar does have its place. Spanish grammar is quite different from English grammar. That’s why they will describe a new car as “un coche nuevo,” literally, “a car new.” There is not a lot you can do about the difference other than just learning it.
Translating literally from English to Spanish is a very bad idea. That would come out as, in our example, “un nuevo coche,” and would sound just as bad to a Spanish person as “a car new” sounds to you! As a rough guideline, put the adjective, the describing word, after the noun, the thing being described. This is the reverse of the normal rules in English.
The Spanish for dummies type of courses tend rather to focus on the easier side of things. There are a large number of Spanish words, for instance, that are very similar to their English counterparts. Mostly, they change only with the suffixs. Words in English ending in “ant” often become words ending in “ante” in Spanish. Por ejemple (that’s Spanish and I’ll bet you can guess what it is in English), “important” becomes “importante.”
But that’s not all…
Many of the “ent” ending English words become “ente” in Spanish, such as “evidente.” A good number of the “ible” and “able” ending words stay the same in both languages: comparable, combustible. Some Spanish words merely drop English endings, such as the “ate” ending words where “participate” becomes “participa” and “terminate” becomes “termina.”
How many English words can you think of that suffix in “ary”? There are tons and you’ve just learned as whole lot more Spanish words, because you can adapt the English to Spanish by changing the “ary” ending to an “ario” ending.
Spanish for dummies can be the title of a best selling language book, or it can simply be a way of describing a good Spanish course designed to help you learn Spanish fast without the hassle of learning complex Spanish grammar.
January 13, 2009
Learn Helpful Spanish Greetings
In your first attempt to pick up Spanish, Spanish greetings are commonly the first things that you learn. What do you know if you don’t know how to say “hello?” Practicing the greetings will help you to learn Spanish quick in its simplest form because you don’t have to worry about all the verb agreements or word orders. Spanish greetings are presented in simple phrases. No extra words need to be looked up or added. As I said before, as you learn Spanish, the first phrase you should know is “hello.” In order to say that in Spanish, you would say, “Hola.”
“Hola” can be used either formally or casually to mean hello to anyone you might run into. If you want to say hello on the phone, you might use “bueno” or “diga.”
If you want to say “goodbye” in Spanish, you would say, “Adiós.”
If you would like to say, “How are you?” you would say, “Cómo estás?” If you want to say, “Good afternoon.” you would say, ” Buenas tardes.”. If you would like to say, “Good morning” or “Good day,” you would say, “Buenos días.” “Good night” in Spanish is buenos noches, and to ask what someone’s name is, you would say, “Cómo te llamas?”
Once you get these down, you will find that it’s a breeze to learn the language, but you are in for some more complex terms a little later on down the road. Other fundamentals that you can start learning are numbers, the alphabet, telling time, asking directions, gender, color, body parts, and family.
Picking up these types of common terms will help you learn Spanish quickly as you are able to use such words everyday. It is normal to hello and good night all of the time so you should feel comfortable practicing your Spanish frequently.
Later on, you can learn to express more complex greetings such as, “Hello, how are you are you doing?” or “Hi, the weather is pleasant today, isn’t it?”
You can begin to get a little more sophisticated by asking “What’s up?” or “What’s new?” When you say that in Spanish, you would say “Qué hay?” If you wish to say, “How’s it going?” you would say, “Qué pasa?” If you wishto say “nice to meet you” you would say “Mucho gusto.”
Those are just a few of the more intermediate level greetings that can help you to learn Spanish while getting to meet other people.
In Spain, it’s often a common thing for people to greet each other with kisses on both cheeks when they meet. However, men will generally just shake hands. Even though people kiss each other many times when they meet, they don’t do it in every situation. For instance, in during a business meeting, you will not catch people giving each other kisses on the cheeks.
If you are in America, you may not want to try kissing anyone as you learn Spanish, even if it’s another Spanish person. Most Spanish people in the States have gotten accustomed to the American culture, and Americans don’t normally kiss each other when they first meet. But, if you visit Spain, you should try it. It will add to the fun as you learn Spanish.
Tags: learn spanish fast, learn spanish online, learn spanish quickly, spanish greetings