Learn Spanish

• In rapid speech, if a word begins with the same sound with which the preceding words ends, that sound is enunciated only once. E.g., “he estudiado” sounds like “estudiado”, “ahora hay” sounds like “ahor ay”, “que el” sounds like “quel”, “tatuaje en” sounds like “tatuajen”, etc.
• In the Bolivian accent, the R is not really rolled, but is pronounced somewhere between “j (english)” and “r”.
• Certain accents drop final consonants, S’s and make other modifications to the versions given in most books. E.g., “lado a lado” becomes “lao a lao”, “por la calle” becomes “pa la calle”, “para arriba” becomes “pa’rriba”, etc.
• The pronunciation of “ch”, “ll”, and “v” can also vary depending upon the accent.

I now have a tutor for Spanish. And I’m an English tutor a la vez. I met Rosario at the Comité Hispano. Es boliviana and is interested in mejorar her English. I, por su puesto, am interested in improving my Spanish. So, we trade lecciones. And in the process, we’ve become amigos. So far, Rosario y yo have been studying juntos for casi tres semanas. I have also met her housemates – todos son bolivianos – and they too are interested in improving their inglés (and they are now mis amigos también). So it’s a win-win situation, although I wish I knew more norteamericanos interested in learning Spanish so we could add some more English to the mix (to benifit los hispanoparlantes). This seems like a great oportunity for university estudiantes. If I was back home in Memphis, I could easily find willing participantes since I belonged to a language club there filled with norteamericanos. But I’m new to Virginia and I hardly know anyone here. If you’re interested (and you’re not a psycho), feel free to contact me. We usually meet in either Arlington or Annandale (Virginia).

• Comment fo flygal
• Comment to couchnap
• Comment to positivePUK

Sunday (11 de diciembre) I decided to go to La Feria de la Familia in DC (Stadium-Armory) sponsored by Telemundo. I found out about it from an advertisement in some Metro station. They advertised, “estrellas de Telemundo,” and other stuff. So I went. It turned out to be cool. The event was scheduled to go from 11 to 6, but I got there at 2-something, nearly 3. There were, of course, muchos latinos there. This gave me la oportunidad to practice speaking and listening to Spanish. It also gave me the opportunity to see how it feels to be in a place where my language is not the lingo – to a slight degree. I basically went around to the different booths and read some of the material, and at a couple, I listened to their spill. “Prefieres hablar inglés o español?” is what the presenters were kind enough to ask. They could all (the presenters) speak my language. I could only marginally speak or understand theirs. Nevertheless, I explained myself, namely que soy estudiante de español and that I’d like to practice. The were happy to oblige and I was surprised at the amount I was able to comprehend – nearly everything, and certainly the main points of the conversation. However, I am not able to respond in Spanish as well as I’m able to understand it! It is my hypothesis that this is the natural progression of language aquisition – first understand more, later speak more. Anyway, there was live music and a drawing for a new carro. Oh, that I had entered! As the drawing was at the end of the feria, lots of people had gone home. So much so, that los niños enjoyed saying, “uno, dos, tres – no está!” I could make good use of a new car.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about Comité Hispano, a volunteer organization that reaches out to hispanos in the community and helps with English, home buying, legal issues, citizenship, etc. I spoke with the coordinator, and it turns out that they have an office accross the street from where I work. So, I said I’d like to help in whatever way I can be useful, this being a good opportunity to practice the language, and also generally a good thing to do. So this Saturday, a las ocho y media de la manñana, me voy a levantar and help with an event. Let’s just say I’m not a morning person! I believe it’s a home ownership seminar.

Here’s a list of the Spanish language related books I have (note: I didn’t bring my entire “library” when I moved so this list is not complete):

• Harper Collins English-Spanish Dictionary, Fifth Edition
• Harper Collins Concise Spanish Ditionary, Third Edition (includes grammar guide)
• Barron’s Spanish Grammar, Second Edition
• Eyewitness Travel Guides Spanish Phrase Book
• Lazarillo de Tormes: A Kaplan Spanish-Language Vocabulary-Building Novel
• 501 Spanish Verbs, Fifth Edition
• McGraw-Hill’s Spanish Picture Dictionary
• Barron’s Spanish Idioms
• Barron’s Dictionary of Spanish Slang and Colloquial Expressions
• The Chalupa Rules: A Latino Guide to Gringolandia

• Comment to couchnap (well wishes and techniques I’ve used for learning Spanish)
• Comment to positivePUK (one more device I’ve used that I left off of the comment to couchnap and general wellwishes)

I started studying Spanish around January this year. (I’ve also played with Russian but that’s not relevant to this thing.) What follows is the story of how I really got going …

Once upon a time, in a land far far away (seriously, I’ve just moved to a different city that’s 875 miles away from my hometown) this guy named lloydd (really, lloyd), who already had an interest in foreign languages, decided to act on it, starting first with Spanish. He had already started playing around with the International Phonetic Alphabet and reading a few Wikipedia articles. But he didn’t really know exactly how he should go about learning the language, so he went to the local bookstore to browse around. Then, as if by fate, he saw them, sitting there alone, all by themselves – they were lonely. He would have sworn that a golden light from the heavens gently alerted him to their presence there – sitting all alone, all by themselves. They were Spanish and French – carrying the flag of Instant Immersion – flashy, attractive, screaming “you know we look good, so you might as well buy” – and also there – though modestly decorated, humble, noble – were Russian and Italian – carrying the flag of Pimsleur. So he bought the lot, and started with Spanish, for the others were for later. It was fun at first, but not progressing like he’d like. So, it was in mild frustration – extant but subconscious – he didn’t want to admit defeat – that he said to himself, “well, I could do Russian too” – that he tried Pimsleur. And amazed he was! Absolutely enthused! He could speak Russian after one lesson, just like the tape said he would be able to do (well, not fluently, but he could say some stuff, really!). And so, it was in this way that he was moved to search the Internet to find out more about the Pimsleur method. And he found out more. And they lived happily ever after – together.