15: Started Oct 1st, 2016 – Ended May 8th, 2017
Sunday, April 23, 2017News FeedCommentsLearn Spanish
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When you’re trying to learn Spanish it’s good to get the basics down first. Some of the first things people often choose to start with are the days of the week, numbers, rooms in a house and the parts of a common introduction. We’ll learn to tell people how many sisters we have, tell them where we live count to a hundred. However, there are other places to start that might be more beneficial. The best place to start learning Spanish is with this simple question and answer:
‘Donde esta el lavabo?’
‘Al final del pasillo a la derecha.’
Huh?
It means:
‘Where is the bathroom?’
‘Down the hall on the right.’
The most urgent need you’re likely to need to communicate is this simple request, so it makes sense to learn it early. It also allows of a lot of different replies. You can use it as the question and work on your Spanish comprehension skills while people tell you, ‘no hay nadie en este edificio, pero hay uno en la cafeteria de Ernesto en la esquinea, si se le pregunta cortesmente.’ Still a basic question, but you’re getting into intermediate territory with the answer, preparing you for the rapid-fire way lots of people actually speak Spanish. You don’t want to be on a street corner miming your requirements.Next thing you need to know is how to catch a cab.
As you improve your Spanish, you’re going to want to try it out. You’ll want to start travelling to different Spanish-speaking parts of the world and even parts of your city, or your neighborhood. When doing this, you can find yourself even in the USA in a place where almost no-one speaks any English, or where everyone gets by in Spanish all the time. Therefore if you want to get about in a situation like this, you’ll need to be able to ask where to catch a cab or enquire about the busses in Spanish.Next, learn the days of the week.
We’re back on familiar beginning-a-language ground here. The days of the week are important to learn in any language, and as you learn them they will become a great asset to you. You’ll find yourself reaching for that knowledge in speech more than you realize ” it’s only because English is so familiar to you that you don’t realize how often you say the names of days. As a bonus, when your Spanish teachers asks when your next class is, you can earn brownie points by replying in flawless Spanish!Then you need small verbs and connectives.
Why learn Spanish if you don’t want to talk to people? You can’t talk about anything without verbs, ‘doing’ words, and learning the small, basic verbs will open up new areas of expression. Connectives will let you put sentences together. The small verbs you should start with are ‘to be,’ in its permutations, like ‘is’ and ‘are,’ and ‘to go.’ Throw in ‘the,’ ‘they,’ ‘and,’ and ‘or,’ and you can ask more complex questions.Lastly, learn to say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’
Sometimes when people are taught Spanish, they don’t learn these simple and useful words. Either the teacher assumes they already know them or they never come up in the question-and-answer syllabus. Some teachers delay teaching them because students will use them as answers, avoiding speaking complete Spanish sentences. But they’re some of the most important words. Learn them and you’ll be able to say what you want and what you don’t. And when your question about the bathrooms gets you directions to Ernesto’s café on the corner, and you’re asked if you understand, you’ll be able to give an honest answer!Filed Under: Learn Spanish, Spanish For Beginners, Spanish Learning TipsTagged With: language, learn spanish, tipsReturn to top of page
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