how to understand spanish speak the right way
Posted by admin in Learn spanish speaking
Some believe that the Spanish language spoken in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Spain (to name a few countries) varies widely from one country to the next. However, this is far from true. The Spanish spoken around the world is for the most part standardized. In other words, the Spanish language spoken in one Spanish country can easily be understood by another Spanish speaker in another Spanish speaking country. The same generally holds true for the Spanish taught, in classrooms in non-Spanish speaking countries, around the world; it is Standardized Spanish. Furthermore, students learning Spanish as a second language are most often taught Standardized Spanish therefore they should be able to travel to any Spanish speaking country and be able to communicate (with locals) using the Spanish they learned in the classroom.
That being said, it should be noted that there are indeed dialectical differences in spoken Spanish from country to the next; and there may even be differences in Spanish from region to the next within a country. However, these differences are minor. The differences in dialectal Spanish may include: differences in pronunciation, differences in usage of words, and the coining of new words. Let’s look at some of these differences in more detail below.
Differences in Pronunciation:
Some Spanish countries pronounce certain words differently. For example, in Puerto Rico, sometimes the letter ’s’ is not pronounced in some words. For example, the word ‘despues’ which means “after” may be pronounced ‘deh-pweh’ by some Puerto Ricans.
Differences in Word Usage:
A few Spanish countries vary in their usage of various words. More specifically, the word(s) which differs in these countries may be recognized to be a Standard Spanish word but in a particular country its meaning may have been modified to mean something else. For example, in Standard Spanish the word ‘coche’ means “automobile, car” but in Guatemala the word ‘coche’ means “pig”. It should however be noted that Guatemalans know that ‘coche’ means “automobile or car” in Standard Spanish therefore when they are having a conversation with a foreigner Guatemalans would most likely use the Standard Spanish meaning of the word.
Coining New Words:
Another difference in the Spanish language from country to country is the coining of new words or the use of slang. It is inevitable that each countries will have certain words which have been coined and are not found in other countries. These words may have been introduced into the language through pop-culture or their origins may be unknown.
Movies, music and magazines published in one Spanish country are often viewed, listened to and read in other Spanish countries. Therefore, persons from the different Spanish countries tend to be familiar with the various dialectal differences and variations in Spanish as it pertains to a particular country. However, schools, universities, television and radio newscasts often use the Standardized form of the language therefore most of the population have a high proficiency in Standard Spanish. For more information on learning Standard Spanish visit http:www.recordedspanishlessons.com
In conclusion, the Spanish spoken in Spanish countries is Standardized but there may be regional differences and other differences in the language from one country to the next. However, the Spanish spoken in the different Spanish speaking countries is mutually intelligible because native speakers are able to speak the Standardized form of the language.
Article Source: http://www.articlebase.info
read comments (0)A Guide To Spanish, learn spanish speak
Posted by admin in Learn spanish speaking
There are many reasons why someone might want to learn Spanish. Perhaps you are planning a holiday or business trip to a Spanish speaking country or maybe you are thinking of emigrating. It could be that you don’t really need to speak Spanish at all but you just want to say that you can. Being able to communicate in another language certainly gives you a great sense of achievement.
My reasons were a little mixed. For a long time I had wanted to learn another language, and for some reason I was always drawn to Spanish. I am not entirely sure why this was. I think one reason was because the little I knew about Spain at the time somehow appealed to my sense of good living. Sun, sand, siestas, late night dinner parties and dark skinned beautiful women! Of course there is far more to Spain than this, but for me, Spain and the Spanish language held more appeal than say French or German did.
Although I had wanted to learn Spanish for a long time I guess the main reason why I finally decided to do something about it was because I was planning a long trip to Central and South America. I was about to pass through as many as 19 different countries where the official national language was Spanish. Well that was a back in 2002. Since then Spanish and all things Spanish both in Spain and in Latin America have literally taken me over. I wouldn’t have believed it then but now Spanish is a part of my every day life. I can speak, read and understand Spanish to the point where I don’t have to think about it too much.
When people ask me if I can speak Spanish fluently I am always a little hesitant to say yes. The truth is that even though I can communicate in Spanish with relative ease I still don’t feel that I know enough. I am not really sure if I ever will! There are always new words and phrases to learn for example and of course these vary from country to country.
I think one of the biggest tests for me is being able to sit in front of the TV with una cerveza (a beer) and watch a Spanish soap opera (una telenovela) or a Spanish movie and completely understand everything that is going on. After all, if I can do that in English why shouldn’t I be able to do the same in Spanish? Well I have to say I am definitely not there yet but almost! I highly recommend ‘Pasion de Gavilanes’. It’s a hugely popular telenovela from Columbia. I’ll talk more that this and others in later articles.
So, how did I get from not knowing a single word of Spanish (apart from - gracias and amigo), to being able to read a Spanish book, speak to a Spanish-speaking friend or watch a Spanish telenovel? Well the answer to that is what I intend to write about in the coming articles. I am not going to lie to you and say that the journey was an easy one. The truth is that learning a new language takes time and requires a great deal of patience and commitment. However, what I really want to convey at this point is that anybody can do it if they rally want to.
In the next article I intend to write about preparation. By that I mean thinking about what it is you want to achieve and how you intend to go about achieving it. You are not going to learn Spanish overnight and I think it makes sense to prepare yourself for the challenges ahead. Learning a new language should be fun and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be as long as you realise your limitations.
By no means do I consider myself to be someone that has a natural flare for languages. When I went to school (all those years ago!) the only subject I failed in was French. For some reason I just couldn’t get my head around it. Before I started learning Spanish I knew nothing of other languages. I started right from the beginning. I guess what I’m trying to say is, is that if I can do it then believe me anybody can.
Article Source: http://www.articlebase.info
Learn spanish speaking fast and easy!
Posted by admin in Learn spanish speaking
If you learn Spanish either on your own or taking part in a course, a tangible, “offline” textbook and dictionary is obviously important to have. But even so, useful online learning resources, from fun exercises and interactive tests to audio and video materials to web courses and dictionaries, should not be ignored.
***
The resources (all free) presented on this site include
- beginner-level and more advanced grammar and vocabulary tests from noun genders to false friends;
- basic vocabulary in several everyday topics and related interactive word practice;
- beginner level audio clips with transcript to learn a huge list of words and expressions;
- games to practice Spanish proverbs and other vocabulary;
- dozens of sources for useful learning materials - audio, video, quizzes, textbooks and reading, grammar and pronunciation (their listings complete with short descriptions);
- a large collection of Spanish language online radio stations categorized by country (400+ altogether);
- and a list of free online dictionaries.
Ways to learn Spanish:
Posted by admin in Learn spanish speaking
There are many ways to study languages - one way is to use the Internet which gives you the opportunity to study online. There are many different interactive online tools available for free on the Internet. Vocabulix is one of these free tools and focuses primarily on vocabulary drills. With Vocabulix you can learn Spanish vocabulary for free using the flashcard memorization technique, called: ‘vocabulary builder’. The vocabulary builder displays words in your native language and you will then need to type these words in your desired foreign language. The program will memorize the words you answered/typed incorrectly and will ask you those words again at a later stage, until you have learnt all of the words by heart. There are over 90 predefined ‘Learn Spanish lessons’ in the system. In order to make your progress easier and more enjoyable, Vocabulix also provides lessons with associative visuals.
Learn Spanish pronunciation: Once you start with the lesson, you will notice that most words have a sound icon on the right hand side. Pressing this icon will open a window and you will hear the pronunciation of the word. For this feature you need speakers and allow your browser to open external windows (pop-ups).
Learn spanish speak, and speak spanish easily.
Posted by admin in Learn spanish speaking
Thousands of people want to learn Spanish each and every day for a number of reasons ranging from wanting to live abroad in a Spanish-speaking country or for career reasons, or simply just to travel, teach or merely to learn a new culture. Whatever the reason you seek to learn Spanish, OuterSpanish is here to help you learn “la idioma española” in as easy and as proficient of a manner possible.
Learn Spanish Grammar - It’s Important!
The main focus of this free online Spanish learning resources is Spanish grammar and Spanish listening comprehension - both are key fundamentals when learning a language. It all starts with Spanish grammar - the building blocks to reading, writing, speaking and understanding Spanish. The key is to start with one Spanish grammar lesson and feel comfortable with your understanding of it before moving on to the next Spanish grammar lesson, as each progressive lesson will incorporate the Spanish grammar you previously learned.
Speak Spanish, Don’t Be Afraid!
But learning Spanish grammar is not enough, you have to practice speaking it. You’ll make errors and you may even feel stupid when you do. You simply have to get over the fear of making errors and throw yourself out there. If you allow yourself to take chances while you learn Spanish, you won’t be as shy, and consequently, you’ll practice speaking more, making more errors and learning from your errors. It’s almost a one step back, two steps forward concept.
Listen to Native Spanish Speakers!
The other key development when you learn Spanish is Spanish listening comprehension. The best way to do this is to become comfortable listening to native Spanish speakers. But Spanish grammar plays a big part in this, also. As your Spanish grammar skills improve, so will your ability to understand native Spanish speakers.
If you are looking for tips and advice to learn Spanish, check out our Learn Spanish Blog, which is full of tips, advice and random lessons on Spanish grammar.
Who want’s to learn spanish
Posted by admin in Learn spanish speaking
Thousands of people want to learn Spanish each and every day for a number of reasons ranging from wanting to live abroad in a Spanish-speaking country or for career reasons, or simply just to travel, teach or merely to learn a new culture. Whatever the reason you seek to learn Spanish, OuterSpanish is here to help you learn “la idioma española” in as easy and as proficient of a manner possible.
Learn Spanish Grammar - It’s Important!
The main focus of this free online Spanish learning resources is Spanish grammar and Spanish listening comprehension - both are key fundamentals when learning a language. It all starts with Spanish grammar - the building blocks to reading, writing, speaking and understanding Spanish. The key is to start with one Spanish grammar lesson and feel comfortable with your understanding of it before moving on to the next Spanish grammar lesson, as each progressive lesson will incorporate the Spanish grammar you previously learned.
Speak Spanish, Don’t Be Afraid!
But learning Spanish grammar is not enough, you have to practice speaking it. You’ll make errors and you may even feel stupid when you do. You simply have to get over the fear of making errors and throw yourself out there. If you allow yourself to take chances while you learn Spanish, you won’t be as shy, and consequently, you’ll practice speaking more, making more errors and learning from your errors. It’s almost a one step back, two steps forward concept.
Listen to Native Spanish Speakers!
The other key development when you learn Spanish is Spanish listening comprehension. The best way to do this is to become comfortable listening to native Spanish speakers. But Spanish grammar plays a big part in this, also. As your Spanish grammar skills improve, so will your ability to understand native Spanish speakers.
If you are looking for tips and advice to learn Spanish, check out our Learn Spanish Blog, which is full of tips, advice and random lessons on Spanish grammar.
So what is Rocket Spanish?
Basically, it’s a really big suite of Spanish language learning tools that you can download and start using right away. (You can also have physical CDs and printed books in a big nice-looking package sent to you, but the download version saves money, so that’s what I recommend.)
The core of Rocket Spanish is an interactive audio course designed to get you speaking conversational Spanish fast. With the audio Spanish course are four e-books of grammar lessons, useful words and phrases, and vocabulary and exercises.
Unlike those in many other Spanish courses, I find the interactive audio exercises to be really fun. It’s almost like you’re sitting around socializing with new friends who bring you right into their world–into their way of speaking, thinking, and enjoying themselves–so gently yet quickly that you’ll amaze yourself with how much Spanish you’re learning through the course.
Between listening to the different audio segments you can study the corresponding chapters in the conversation and beginners’ books that come with the course.
The audio and books are just the beginning, though. There’s also MegaSpanish, consisting of the MegaVocab and MegaAudio software for playing games to accelerate your ability to learn Spanish.
The games are challenging and engaging. But what I like best is, you can modify the vocabulary of the games to use the words that you need to learn.
The Rocket Spanish course is really long on substance, which is what matters most. It’s comprehensive, and flexible enough to take you about as far as you would care to go with any course in Spanish.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE ROCKET SPANISH WEBSITE
But aside from content, I do want to mention the production values of the Rocket Spanish course package–they’re definitely top notch. (Check out the screen shots on the web site.)
My inner skeptic speaks …
There’s one thing about the Rocket Spanish course that I must question, though. Its makers claim that it will give you Spanish fluency in just three months.
That might be true for that minority of people who seem to be born with a natural gift for language (I knew a guy once who spoke half a dozen languages fluently, and who could pick up a new one well enough to converse with native speakers in about a month).
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE ROCKET SPANISH WEBSITE
Realistically–if you diligently apply yourself to learn the entire Rocket Spanish course, and if you then go out and find people to practice conversation with–this course could have you speaking pretty fluent Spanish in much less than a year’s time–maybe six months for the average learner, longer for some.
I am confident in stating that this Spanish course could take you farther toward fluency–and faster–than almost anything else now on the market.
Here’s something neat: You can sign up for six free mini-lessons from Rocket Spanish to get a taste of the course before you make a decision to buy it. I wish more language learning companies would let you sample their wares like this.
By the way, the author of Rocket Spanish is a young guy named Mauricio Evlampieff. He’s a native Spanish speaker (from Chile) who’s passionate about his culture, language and heritage and enjoys sharing his love of the Spanish language with others. His enthusiasm definitely comes across in the course.
The editor of Rocket Spanish is Amy Waterman, who became fluent in Spanish while living and working in Ecuador. It was she who formulated the concepts behind the interactive audio part of the course.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE ROCKET SPANISH WEBSITE
Recently, I went to Guatemala to study Spanish in one of the Spanish language schools there, along with my wife and daughter. I just wish I had had this course before we went. It would have given us all a leg up, as it were, and permitted us to begin our immersion study of Spanish at a much more advanced level.
I could go on and on about this course, but I’ll stop. Suffice it to say that if you’re looking for something that can really help you to learn Spanish at home, I urge you to seriously consider this course.
I note that they are currently offering the downloadable version of the Rocket Spanish course for half its usual price–so act quickly if you want to get that good deal.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT ROCKET SPANISH WEBSITE
Who want’s to learn spanish
Posted by admin in Learn spanish fast, Learn spanish speak, Learn spanish speaking
Thousands of people want to learn Spanish each and every day for a number of reasons ranging from wanting to live abroad in a Spanish-speaking country or for career reasons, or simply just to travel, teach or merely to learn a new culture. Whatever the reason you seek to learn Spanish, OuterSpanish is here to help you learn “la idioma española” in as easy and as proficient of a manner possible.
Learn Spanish Grammar - It’s Important!
The main focus of this free online Spanish learning resources is Spanish grammar and Spanish listening comprehension - both are key fundamentals when learning a language. It all starts with Spanish grammar - the building blocks to reading, writing, speaking and understanding Spanish. The key is to start with one Spanish grammar lesson and feel comfortable with your understanding of it before moving on to the next Spanish grammar lesson, as each progressive lesson will incorporate the Spanish grammar you previously learned.
Speak Spanish, Don’t Be Afraid!
But learning Spanish grammar is not enough, you have to practice speaking it. You’ll make errors and you may even feel stupid when you do. You simply have to get over the fear of making errors and throw yourself out there. If you allow yourself to take chances while you learn Spanish, you won’t be as shy, and consequently, you’ll practice speaking more, making more errors and learning from your errors. It’s almost a one step back, two steps forward concept.
Listen to Native Spanish Speakers!
The other key development when you learn Spanish is Spanish listening comprehension. The best way to do this is to become comfortable listening to native Spanish speakers. But Spanish grammar plays a big part in this, also. As your Spanish grammar skills improve, so will your ability to understand native Spanish speakers.
If you are looking for tips and advice to learn Spanish, check out our Learn Spanish Blog, which is full of tips, advice and random lessons on Spanish grammar.
Speaking spanish is easy!
Posted by admin in Learn spanish speaking
Ways to learn Spanish:
There are many ways to study languages - one way is to use the Internet which gives you the opportunity to study online. There are many different interactive online tools available for free on the Internet. Vocabulix is one of these free tools and focuses primarily on vocabulary drills. With Vocabulix you can learn Spanish vocabulary for free using the flashcard memorization technique, called: ‘vocabulary builder’. The vocabulary builder displays words in your native language and you will then need to type these words in your desired foreign language. The program will memorize the words you answered/typed incorrectly and will ask you those words again at a later stage, until you have learnt all of the words by heart. There are over 90 predefined ‘Learn Spanish lessons’ in the system. In order to make your progress easier and more enjoyable, Vocabulix also provides lessons with associative visuals.
Learn Spanish pronunciation: Once you start with the lesson, you will notice that most words have a sound icon on the right hand side. Pressing this icon will open a window and you will hear the pronunciation of the word. For this feature you need speakers and allow your browser to open external windows (pop-ups).
Learn spanish speaking fast and easy!
Posted by admin in Learn spanish speaking
If you learn Spanish either on your own or taking part in a course, a tangible, “offline” textbook and dictionary is obviously important to have. But even so, useful online learning resources, from fun exercises and interactive tests to audio and video materials to web courses and dictionaries, should not be ignored.
***
The resources (all free) presented on this site include
- beginner-level and more advanced grammar and vocabulary tests from noun genders to false friends;
- basic vocabulary in several everyday topics and related interactive word practice;
- beginner level audio clips with transcript to learn a huge list of words and expressions;
- games to practice Spanish proverbs and other vocabulary;
- dozens of sources for useful learning materials - audio, video, quizzes, textbooks and reading, grammar and pronunciation (their listings complete with short descriptions);
- a large collection of Spanish language online radio stations categorized by country (400+ altogether);
- and a list of free online dictionaries.
(Not necessarily of interest to English-speakers, but the site also has a Spanish-Hungarian dictionary.)
In order to make it easier to use materials away from the computer, our pages are optimized to be printable without design and navigation elements.
***
Whether you want to take a crash course in Spanish before a Latin-American trip or intend to create a native language speaking environment at home, whether you are trying to find some playful exercises for children or educational materials to use in a language class, lots of good stuff is to be found on the internet.
We aim to offer an ever-expanding and up-to-date aggregate resource for anyone who decides to learn Spanish. In order to accomplish this we welcome your suggestions either about additional online resources to list, relevant information to publish, or new ideas to implement.
Hope you have fun learning Spanish!