Quickly Learn A Language By Thinking In It
It can be tedious to learn a language. There will always be a certain amount of rote memorization required. However, there are also many little techniques for more easily learning a language. Labeling things around the house in the language you want to learn comes to mind. Listening to tapes while in the car is another. Then there is a technique I used to learn Spanish.
How I Quickly Learned Spanish
I studied Spanish books for six weeks before going to Ecuador. I didn’t speak a word of the language during this time – a big mistake. Still, I was able to converse with the locals in the hostel in Quito the day after I arrived. Within a few days I was discussing philosophy, politics and more with Ana, who is now my wife.
How did I learn a language so quickly? I didn’t really. I had a very limited vocabulary when I arrived in Ecuador, and a very limited vocabulary when I left. However, I could use what little Spanish I knew to express myself. This I credit to a habit that fortunately is also a great technique for learning a language.
I have conversations in my head. I think of what I am about to say, and have always played out future discussions in my imagination. I found myself doing this in Spanish too. The result was that I learned how to speak the language quickly, and say a lot with few words.
Learn To Think In A Language
People imagine that they have to be fluent to think in a language. This just isn’t true. You can choose to think “I am walking to the store,” so there is no reason you can’t think “Yo estoy caminando a la tienda,” as soon as you know those six words. If you don’t know the word “caminar” (to walk), but you know how to say “Yo voy a la tienda,” (I go to the store) you can think that. Alternately, you can look up a word or two as you get “stuck.”
One reason this is a great way to learn a language is that it helps you remember the words. Repetition works, and saying the words, even if only in your mind, works better than reading or hearing them. When you make a point of translating your thoughts into your new language, you are always practicing.
It is more than just good practice, though. Putting your thoughts into your new language forces you to learn not just words and rules, but also specific ways to express what you want to say. We all talk about different things and have different interests, right? A doctor might want to know how to say “where does it hurt?” while I may want to ask where the mountains are. Often, you learn what others think you should know. This helps, but your thoughts are uniquely yours, and when you think in your new language, you are learning exactly what YOU need to learn.
Speaking a language is perhaps the best way to learn it, and thinking it is just speaking it in your mind. You’ll learn your most important words, expressions and sentences quickly if you are thinking them continually. Another tip: Carry a language dictionary with you to use whenever your thoughts stop flowing. This is a powerful way to learn a language and start speaking it quickly.
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Quickly Learn A Language By Thinking In It
SexySpanishLessons.Com Lesson #4
SexySpanishLessons.Com Lesson #4 www.sexyspanishlessons.Com Lesson #4 I’d like to teach you Spanish phrases that will enable you to talk to women and break the ice with the initial conversation that would otherwise be impossible.
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SexySpanishLessons.Com Lesson #4
Do You Make These Spanish Vowel Mistakes?
Every language has a different sound system. When learning Spanish, note there are some important phonemic and phonetic differences between your mother tongue and Spanish that you must keep in mind to improve your pronunciation.
Think of any words you may know in Spanish. Many words in Spanish, actually the majority of them, end in a vowel. This is very different from English, which has numerous words that end with consonant clusters, for example; but even when an English word ends in a vowel, it tends to be pronounced as a schwa, since it makes pronunciation easier. Spanish doesn’t work like that however: every vowel has a distinct, consistent pronunciation. An e, for example, is always pronounced in a certain way in Spanish—like e in pet. Each vowel and consonant has its own sound; and this doesn’t vary as it does in English, where [i] can be spelt in many different ways, like feet and seat, to give an example.
It is impossible to master Spanish pronunciation in one lesson; so as with most things, you’ll have to improve step by step. Here’s some help to get you going:
A very common mistake that native English speakers make when speaking Spanish is making the final vowel a diphthong. This happens when English lacks that vowel sound in that position. It is not that English doesn’t have that sound, only that it doesn’t occur in the same context as in Spanish. In such cases, the learner unconsciously tries to look for an alternative in his/her own native language. For instance, a final e—always pronounced [e] as in net (but with the mouth a bit more closed than in General American English)—will be turned into a diphthong, and this will be [ei], as in cake, since both sounds are very similar. English doesn’t have an [e] in word final position, but it does have an [ei]. There are many words ending in [ei] actually; for example, bay, pay or convey.
I did a study on several native English speakers to test the pronunciation of the final e, and the results showed that in fact it is very common to pronounce [e] as [ei]. These subjects were beginner and intermediate level Spanish language students—except for one: please note for your encouragement that the one advanced level student scored significantly better in this study. As you can see, practice makes improvement. That old saying, ‘Practice makes perfect’ should be buried and forgotten.
Another vowel which is often diphthongized by native English speakers is o. In this case, it tends to be pronounced as [ou], like in boat. This vowel, as with the previous example, is worth keeping in mind. There is another vowel, a, which instead of being diphthongized is replaced by a schwa, like the vowel in to. To correct this mistake, my advice is that you try to produce the vowel you make in but (in General American pronunciation, not British), which is pretty similar to the Spanish a. To be honest, it’s so similar that I don’t really see the difference, and I’m Spanish, and a linguist!
By: Silvia Lopez-Cepero
Articles by Silivia Lopez-Cepero
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Do You Make These Spanish Vowel Mistakes?
How to Speak Spanish : Knowing Common Spanish Phrases for Food
How to Speak Spanish : Knowing Common Spanish Phrases for Food Learn how to speak Spanish with common phrases for food in this free language video on learning how to speak Spanish. Expert: Mixitxu Etxeberria Bio: Mixitxu Etxeberria speaks fluent Spanish, holds a BA in Linguistics from Reed College, lived in Spain for one year, taught Spanish for six months.
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How to Speak Spanish : Knowing Common Spanish Phrases for Food
Fluency in Spanish in two days or less
Now I’ve got your attention with my catchy title. I must ask ” Did you really believe this was possible? “. Surely not, but maybe you clicked on the link because you want to learn another language and don’t really want to spend long doing it.
Clearly, it isn’t possible to learn a language in two days but there are methods you can use to speed up the process. Techniques you can use to remember words, clever mnemonics, the roman room method, concept maps, tools which will improve your memory, and suchlike.
Pah.
I don’t want to spend my time doing this. I‘m too busy. What can I do instead. I’m looking for something easier, something more passive, something that can happen around me if and when I feel like learning. And I don’t want to leave the house either.
I have some suggestions to start.
1. Improve your vocabulary.
Write Spanish names on everyday items. This is an easy way to expand your vocabulary, and not only that, associates the Spanish words with the objects, something that straight vocabulary learning does not do. This makes it easier to remember a word when you need it. To prevent boredom setting in, start with the drinks cabinet, wine cellar or plastic bag with the booze in it.
2. Improve your comprehension.
Don’t listen to the Spanish radio. You won’t understand any of it until you are at an advanced level, and it is discouraging.
Instead watch Spanish TV (which can be done over the Internet) concentrating on the soaps (telenovelas). You don’t need to understand them to enjoy them, and the same language is repeated again and again. Look up the meaning of commonly used expressions. As you will hear them so often, once you are hooked on telenovelas, you can’t help but remember them.
3. Improve your spoken language
If you don’t want to leave the house practice on your nearest and dearest. Get them to learn some Spanish. If you don’t use it, you lose it. This is especially true with foreign language learning, and it is important to constantly reinforce what you are learning.
4. Stay Motivated
This is the hardest part of language learning. So book a holiday in a Spanish speaking country, and keep learning key eating and drinking words. Barcelona is a great place to practice them in. In fact Barcelona is such good place to practice Spanish in that you might spend longer there than you intended.
So that’s it. You are not going to learn Spanish or any other language in two days, but if you stick words on everyday items, and watch soaps you will learn something with minimal effort.
by Frank Smith
Frank Smith is a freelance author and writes occasional articles for Veneficium Ltd.
Visit http://www.linguata.com for great language learning software and articles on languages and travel.
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Fluency in Spanish in two days or less
How To Learn Spanish Free Right Now – Day 1
How To Learn Spanish Free Right Now – Day 1 Day 1 of an experiment to learn to speak and understand fluent Spanish just using free resources from the internet. Michael gets completely overwhelmed on day 1, realises he needs to focus, immerse himself in Spanish and be more disciplined. He shares 3 great free learn spanish resource sites, where to get a free download of a Spanish program and demonstrates what he has learnt so far
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How To Learn Spanish Free Right Now – Day 1
Listen and Learn Spanish Lightning Fast
Spanish is a widely spoken language and your decision to learn this beautiful romance language will enrich your travels and any other time you are required to speak Spanish. One of the best ways to learn Spanish is to take part in Spanish conversations. This may seem obvious but is often overlook by many newcomers to language learning who jump straight into textbooks and audio Cd’s.
There has been some well known fairly recent research into the acquisition of a new language and more specifically how any person big, small, young or old can learn a new language lightening fast. Unlike some other more complicated methods this method is exceptionally simple.
So if you want to learn Spanish as fast as possible then the best thing you can do is listen to a native Spanish speaker. Not only that you will also want to speak to a native Spanish speaker. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this advice by simply listening and speaking to a native Spanish speaker will sky rocket your Spanish.
The typical type pf learning consists of a more one way dialogue where someone teaches you something and you write notes or follow exercises in textbooks etc. This contrary to popular belief is not the most effective way to learn a new language such as Spanish, as it lacks the engaging aspect that interactivity brings to the learning process.
Naturally a little Spanish banter with a native speaker now and then isn’t going to make you fluent in any amount of time. You will still need to sit down and dedicate some time to learning Spanish, preferably in hour long blocks of time.
Your next task once you have worked some time into your schedule to sit down and learn Spanish is to find yourself a native Spanish speaker. Now if this was an ideal world then your best solution would be to find someone in your community or maybe a relative who can speak Spanish and try and meet with them on a regular basis. However with hectic modern day living I realise this can be quite hard to do and more and more people are now finding native Spanish speakers on the Internet.
In fact there are now some specialised online communities set up that will help you out with finding a native Spanish speaker to converse with. Your payment will be speaking to that native Spanish speaker at another time in English so they can improve on their own quest to learn a new language. Not only will you be boosting your Spanish skills in record quick time you will also become engaged in a community that will be there to support you as your skills progress.
So start now by scheduling some time and searching the Internet for native Spanish speakers. Act today and be speaking fluent Spanish in just 8 weeks time. It really is possible and just requires a small amount of action and effort from you to get the whole process started.
Image courtesy of emilio labrador
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Word of the Day
- (la) hebilla = bucklePronounced: eh-bée-Yah Type: noun Example: Algunos zapatos tienen hebillas pero sólo son de adorno. Translation: Some shoes have buckles but they are just decorative. Copyright 2010, GB Blanchard - Start learning Spanish with StartSpanish: http://www.braser.com/start-spanish.html […]
