Posts

Showing posts with the label language immersion

Effective Language Learning Strategies: From Classrooms to Immersion

Effective Language Learning Strategies: From Classrooms to Immersion So there are definitely pros and cons to a bunch of different methods. I have done every type of learning a second language that there is to offer. I have sat through classes, I have been tutored, I have done Rosetta Stone, I have done the audiobooks and podcasts, I have clearly lived in a different country. There are pros and cons to each and every one of those methods and some are just flat out terrible. Here are some of the ways to learn Spanish: Classes I started with classes when I was in the third grade. I'm not gonna spell out the pro and cons of this time period because it wasn't very intense, but it is the basis for why I chose to study Spanish in high school. I already had that base from earlier.  In high school, I was in a classroom setting for Spanish. Most of us know how that turned out....none of us were fluent. But why? The thing is a classroom setting, especially a large classroom...
1 comment
Read more

Things You Should Know About Colombia

Image
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT COLOMBIA  I do talk about my time in Colombia from time to time and sometimes I make it seem like it was this grand adventure where I enjoyed every minute and it was a spectacular six-month vacation where there was no sadness (sarcasm ends). In reality, it was just like living a regular life at times even though I did get pissed off there. Here are some of the big things that frustrated me about Colombia: Not Being On Time: I'm not sure if it was just my Girlfriend's family or it was Colombians in our neighborhood but events did not really seem to have a "definite" start time. I was pretty angry when my Girlfriend's cousin told us that the birthday party at 8pm and no one showed up till about 10pm. My girlfriend had to sit me down and explain to me that Colombians don't exactly abide "the time". If they say a party starts at 6pm. Expect everyone to start coming two hours later. It seems like everyone wants to jus...
1 comment
Read more

5 Tips for Improving Your Spanish Through Conversation Practice

There is no secret or hack to becoming fluent in a language. It's about putting in the time and effort to learn the language. For different languages, the number of hours needed to become fluent varies. For example, it may be relatively easier for an English speaker to learn Spanish compared to Mandarin, and a Mandarin speaker may find it easier to learn Korean than Spanish. If I had to suggest a hack or secret to language learning, it would be to focus on conversation, conversation, conversation. It can be extremely awkward to not know what to say to someone because you don't know how to express yourself in their language. I guarantee that having just one conversation with a fluent speaker every day will do more for your language learning than any amount of self-study. Even if you hire a tutor, try to have a conversation about a specific topic. The corrections and feedback from the tutor, as well as the use of a dictionary and translation tools, will be more helpful than any c...
Post a Comment
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Read more

Spanish Immersion: Translating in Your Head

Are you having trouble translating from your native language to your target language when speaking? Don't you wish you could just "think" in your target language? It can be really annoying when you ask people, "How did you do it?" and all they say is, "Just think in your target language." I know that phrase got on my nerves. No one was telling me the truth about how to stop thinking in English and start thinking in Spanish. Everyone was trying to sell me on these ideas and methods, when really it's as simple as time and practice. If someone had just told me I had to work hard and practice, it would have relieved a lot of stress. What I'm going to tell you is: STOP TRANSLATING IN YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE TO YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE But how? It comes with time. If you have any other skills, whether it be what you do at work or any hobbies, you'll understand that once you get good at something, it starts to be subconscious. Who here remembers HOW to r...
Post a Comment
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Read more

Top Free Online Resources for Language Learning

Image
Top Free Online Resources! So we're going to go through what I think are the top applications/websites that will help you with your language learning. All of these websites/apps I have either used or am currently using. A lot of people think you have to buy a 200 dollar program to learn a language. You can get A LOT of education purely through free programs! Note: I have linked where you can find the resources so that you can try them out for yourself! Doulingo -  Duolingo So let's start with Duolingo, this program is AMAZING for the basics. A lot of people want to learn a language but simply do not know where to start. If you are looking for a starting point this is my recommendation. The good thing about Duolingo is that it progresses well, gives you a good starting point, and it's a very easy application to use. It has multiple languages as well. The bad thing about Duolingo is that people think that using Duolingo will get you to an intermediate/adva...
3 comments
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Read more

Speak Conversational Spanish: Losing Hope

Image
This experience that I'm going to talk about is not something that I have a name for, to be honest, it's just a little thing that I noticed happens. What I'm going to talk about is losing your morale while practicing having conversations. In this post, I'm going to talk about when you'll feel this, how you will probably feel (at least how I felt), and what you can do to get over it.  What You'll Feel I have mentioned in previous posts that you need to learn the basics ( here ) then after you learn the basics you need to start moving on to listening practice, speaking practice, and overall conversation practice. Once you start feeling more it will be even more of a head pain. When I was just getting into the "correct me" phase, my girlfriend and her family really took into that. They would correct me for every little mistake that I made. Even though I wanted this I could feel the fatigue of constantly getting something wrong and thinking through what ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Conversational Spanish vs. Mature Spanish: Tips for Improving Advanced Vocabulary

Conversational Spanish vs. Mature Spanish My girlfriend and I were discussing our language abilities and we stumbled upon something interesting. Here's the context: my girlfriend can speak Spanish fluently and English fluently, while I can speak Spanish fluently and English fluently. However, her English is fluent, but not mature, and my Spanish is fluent, but not mature. By "mature," we mean advanced active vocabulary. She understands that her English advanced vocabulary is not as deep as her Spanish advanced vocabulary. We both understand that our second language levels are not up to par with our native language levels, which is normal. This is something that we often hear people discussing - how to make the "next jump" from upper intermediate to advanced. If you dropped me in the middle of Bogota, Colombia, and told me to get back home, I would have no problem communicating my way back. However, if you asked me to give a presentation using slick language and ...
4 comments
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Read more

Study Spanish: Learning to Speak Spanish Fast

Who here wants to speak Spanish quickly? Who wants to speak Spanish quickly? I used to think that to be good at a second language, you had to speak quickly. But often second language learners get delusional and try to compare themselves to native speakers they hear on TV or radio. This is not the case. For example, Spanish has a reputation for being a language spoken very fast. But in my native language, there are many people who speak slowly. When I was trying to get better at public speaking in English, my teacher told me that I said "um" a lot because I was trying to say things before I thought about what to say. So the advice she gave me was to slow down my speaking, think about what I was saying, and then say it. This got rid of my habit of saying "um" in English, but guess what returned when I started speaking Spanish? The dreaded "um"! Of course it came back, because I was thinking more in Spanish than I was in English. But I was also trying to spea...
Post a Comment
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Read more

Effective Language Learning Strategies: From Classrooms to Immersion

Effective Language Learning Strategies: From Classrooms to Immersion So there are definitely pros and cons to a bunch of different methods. I have done every type of learning a second language that there is to offer. I have sat through classes, I have been tutored, I have done Rosetta Stone, I have done the audiobooks and podcasts, I have clearly lived in a different country. There are pros and cons to each and every one of those methods and some are just flat out terrible. Here are some of the ways to learn Spanish: Classes I started with classes when I was in the third grade. I'm not gonna spell out the pro and cons of this time period because it wasn't very intense, but it is the basis for why I chose to study Spanish in high school. I already had that base from earlier.  In high school, I was in a classroom setting for Spanish. Most of us know how that turned out....none of us were fluent. But why? The thing is a classroom setting, especially a large classroom...
1 comment
Location: 1434 First Rock Rd, Prospect, VA 23960, USA
Read more

How to use "Ya"

Image
One of the more difficult concepts to understand is the many ways to use "ya". It has some pretty common uses but it also has about a dozen other uses which make it super versatile as a word but also super confusing to understand and for Spanish Langauge Learners to understand as well. Common Uses "Now" and "Already" The most common use of "ya" is "now". Be careful of how you use this. Depending on your tone it could imply a bit of rudeness. Some examples of how to use "ya" as "now": Quiero un dulce ya.  Nos podemos ir ya? Vamos ya! As you can see in this context of the sentences they are kind of rude, but they have their place in language. The other common use of "ya" is "already".  Ya he lo pagado  Ya me lo ha dado Ya compre los tiquetes  There is a pattern here, though. If you are talking in the past tense it's safe to assume that you are going to use the...
2 comments
Read more

Which Spanish Should I Learn?

Image
What Type of Spanish Should I Learn? I see this question ALL the time, "What type of Spanish should I learn?" First off this question is a little weird because more or less the types of Spanish are pretty much the same. Honestly, most of the differences are just cultural slang. There are different words that each country uses so I can see why someone would ask this question. My novia is infatuated with Puerto Rican Spanish. It's mainly the accent and the slang. We also live with a lot of Mexicans so she'll find herself saying "oraleeeee!" in Walmart when she overhears people speaking Spanish. A little "bobita" but we'll allow it.  Really a lot of beginners just are trying to deal with conjugations, greetings, and how to tell the time, but the more advanced learners, they are trying to hone their language skills. The questions are more like "which accent should I focus on?", "Which country should I travel to?", "W...
2 comments
Read more

Popular posts from this blog

Top Free Online Resources for Language Learning

Image
Top Free Online Resources! So we're going to go through what I think are the top applications/websites that will help you with your language learning. All of these websites/apps I have either used or am currently using. A lot of people think you have to buy a 200 dollar program to learn a language. You can get A LOT of education purely through free programs! Note: I have linked where you can find the resources so that you can try them out for yourself! Doulingo -  Duolingo So let's start with Duolingo, this program is AMAZING for the basics. A lot of people want to learn a language but simply do not know where to start. If you are looking for a starting point this is my recommendation. The good thing about Duolingo is that it progresses well, gives you a good starting point, and it's a very easy application to use. It has multiple languages as well. The bad thing about Duolingo is that people think that using Duolingo will get you to an intermediate/adva...
Read more

Study Spanish: Best TV Shows To Learn Spanish

Image
These are my favorite telenovelas that will improve your Spanish. La Esclava Blanca This novela is probably my favorite one of the 4 telenovelas that will improve your Spanish. It's about a girl who grows up as a "slave" in Colombia. Better said, she grow up with a bunch of slaves that have escaped and then are recaptured. This is probably my favorite novela of all time because the drama takes you all the way to Spain and back to Colombia. It will have you on the edge of your seat screaming, "NO DON'T DO THAT" and will also have you crying over the love between Miguel and Victoria. I would watch this telenovela with the Spanish Subtitles on because the way the black people talk at first is a little weird. They always drop the "S" on their words so "como estas" becomes "como esta". It takes a little bit of time to get used to but after that you will get sucked into the story line and you'll binge watch like you've neve...
Read more

Speak Conversational Spanish: Losing Hope

Image
This experience that I'm going to talk about is not something that I have a name for, to be honest, it's just a little thing that I noticed happens. What I'm going to talk about is losing your morale while practicing having conversations. In this post, I'm going to talk about when you'll feel this, how you will probably feel (at least how I felt), and what you can do to get over it.  What You'll Feel I have mentioned in previous posts that you need to learn the basics ( here ) then after you learn the basics you need to start moving on to listening practice, speaking practice, and overall conversation practice. Once you start feeling more it will be even more of a head pain. When I was just getting into the "correct me" phase, my girlfriend and her family really took into that. They would correct me for every little mistake that I made. Even though I wanted this I could feel the fatigue of constantly getting something wrong and thinking through what ...
Read more