Should you NOT be studying to improve your Spanish?

Hola de nuevo, chicos y chicas:

How are you doing today? Have you been studying Spanish? Good for you!  Or should you NOT be studying in order to improve your Spanish???

If you are a beginner or lower intermediate student, yes, keep studying! But maybe you need to stop if you are an intermediate student trying to reach an advanced level, or an advanced student trying to become fluent. Why do I say this? Let’s find out in today’s blog.

The language learning journey begins…

When we start learning a language, we use many resources. We usually have books, we use apps like Duolingo, we listen to podcasts like Coffee Break Spanish, and we watch Youtube videos for language learners.

All those things are very useful. However, once you get to an upper intermediate/advanced level, it will not help you to advance.

Think about it: most of those resources and tools are aimed at beginners and intermediate students. If you are not a beginner or a low level intermediate student anymore, it’s not suited for you. At that point, you need to do something else. Otherwise, you end up being stuck in the same level for YEARS, potentially forever.

What do you have to do once you get to an upper intermediate level?

Should you NOT be studying in order to improve your Spanish???  Well, you kind of have to forget about studying Spanish. Yes, that’s right! When you get to that point, you shouldn’t learn Spanish in the traditional way. What you need to do is to incorporate the language into your life.

Incorporating Spanish in your life doesn’t mean more studying. What you need to do is to start living your life in Spanish. How do you do that?

Instead of reading books on HOW to learn Spanish, you read books IN Spanish. Don’t to Podcasts that TEACH Spanish, listen to podcasts for Spanish speakers. Instead of watching Youtube videos about grammar, follow youtubers that do their videos in Spanish for a Spanish speaking audience.

So basically you have to ditch the student mentality and make Spanish a part of your everyday life. Read the news in Spanish, watch TV in Spanish, Listen to Spanish-language radio stations…live your life in Spanish everyday like a native speaker would. You should NOT be studying in order to improve your Spanish!

Have a good week and see you soon!

Octavi

La tarea opcional para el 1 al 7 de abril del 2019

La tarea opcional de esta semana es elegir a una persona y describir cómo era o qué hacía esa persona en el pasado. Por ejemplo:

Cuando yo era niño, mi padre trabajaba mucho. Él llegaba tarde a casa y se acostaba pronto para ir a trabajar temprano el día siguiente, pero siempre tenía tiempo para la familia…

Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: continúen con el capítulo 14 “The imperfect tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 150 a 152 y hagan los ejercicios 14.12 a 14.14.

Code switching and Spanglish, ok or not ok?

¡Buenos días a todos!

Today we are going to take a look at something that we’re all familiar with: Code switching and Spanglish!

Code switching

In linguistics, code–switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages in the context of a single conversation. Multilinguals sometimes use elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other.

Spanglish

Spanglish is more along the invention of words taken from English and made to sound like Spanish.  Some examples are “raite” for ride or “googlear” that comes from “to google.”

Opinion

Overall, Spanglish & code switching are the result of a very common phenomenon that appears in areas where the population speaks two languages. There are studies that show that bilinguals feel more comfortable when speaking to other bilinguals because they can mix the two languages.

Language specialists are divided on the topic. Some of them say that code-switching and Spanglish are an abomination, and some of them say it’s just another kind of Spanish spoken in the US.

In my opinion, it’s ok. I think people should strive to speak standard Spanish, but the existence of Spanglish and code-switching is undeniable. I don’t think it’s something negative, but you should be aware of a couple of things:

  • Remember that it is ok to code switch with your friends, but don’t mix the Spanish and English grammar many Spanglish speakers. Grammar is the backbone of any language, and sounds awful when it’s mixed.
  • Try not to code-switch or use Spanglish in class.  If you go abroad to Spanish-speaking countries, it will be of no use to you. You should be able to speak standard Spanish when needed.

Whenever someone code switches or uses Spanglish in class I usually don’t correct them. However, I will not personally use those words when I teach. At the end of the class, I sometimes tell my students about Spanglish words they have used. It’s important that they know those words are not standard.

That’s just my point of view. Depending on who you are talking to, they may have a completely different point of view.

To summarize:

Spanglish and code switching is ok with your friends, but try not to use it when you’re in class or when you’re abroad :)

What is your opinion? Let us know in Facebook!

¡Qué tengan una buena semana!

Octavi

28 Spanglish Words: The Best of the Worst

La tarea opcional para el 25 al 31 de marzo del 2019

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir 5 cosas que hiciste a diferentes edades de tu vida. Por ejemplo:

Cuando tenía 12 años visité la Exposición Universal en Sevilla.

Cuando tenía 23 años estudié en París por 4 meses.

Etc…

Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: continúen con el capítulo 14 “The imperfect tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 146 a 149 y hagan los ejercicios 14.9 a 14.11.

La tarea opcional para la semana del 18 al 24 de marzo del 2019

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir 5 cosas que eran diferentes de ahora, en el lugar donde vives o vivías. Por ejemplo:

Antes, en Barcelona las casas estaban muy sucias. La gente fumaba en los restaurantes. No había muchos turistas. Etc…

Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: continúen con el capítulo 14 “The imperfect tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 143 a 145 y hagan los ejercicios 14.6 a 14.8.

The key to learning a language

¡Hola a todo el mundo!

Welcome back to another entry of Pura Buena Onda’s blog! Last week I wrote about the importance of listening when we want to learn a language. Today, I’m going to talk about quite the opposite: speaking, the key to learning a language.

At Pura Buena Onda we always say that the key to learning Spanish is speaking. We have said it many times and we will keep saying it, because it is true. I always tell my students something that I heard Caro say one day: if you want to learn how to play tennis, you play tennis.

That makes sense, right? You wouldn’t just read tons of books about how to play tennis, you would start playing from the very beginning.

Remember that the same applies to languages. You need to start talking at level 0. Books and apps are great tools to help you in the process, but should be secondary.

Alright, let’s see what you can do to speak more!

1 – Something that you can do in order to speak more in Spanish is to talk to your pets. If this is a little embarrassing for you, do it when nobody else is around. Don’t we all talk to our dogs or cats? Just switch to Spanish!

2 – Another great exercise is talking to yourself out loud in Spanish. Tell yourself how you’re feeling, the things you have to do that day, or talk about your future plans. You can also talk about how yesterday or last weekend was, to practice the past tenses.

3 – There’s one thing I like to do to practice the languages I speak, which is reading out loud. Pick a book in Spanish and read two or three pages. It doesn’t need to be more than that, the rest of your reading can be silent. The key is to speak outloud when learning a language.

4 – Don’t be afraid of talking in class, on the street or to people you don’t know. You are going to make mistakes, we all make mistakes when we learn. Just acknowledge it and be ok with it. Mistakes help you grow and show that you are trying.

TIP: If you want to make sure that Spanish speakers will speak to you in Spanish instead of English, remember to wear your “Habláme en Español” pin!

These recommendations are for people who aren’t afraid of talking, but love to listen.

Being a good listener is an excellent skill, a very important skill, but when you learn Spanish, you also need to push yourself to talk, as speaking is the key to learning a language. Here are some recommendations:

  • At the beginning of the class, make sure you talk about how your day or your week has been. It doesn’t matter if you think that nothing very special happened, just participate and make sure to try to go into details. That will help you improve.

  • Tell yourself that part of your personal homework is participating in the conversations that take place in class. Make sure you give your opinion on the topic that’s being discussed as part of your practice to talk more. If you truly have no opinion, we recommend asking follow up questions to the speakers, so that you’re at least practicing some speaking.

  • Don’t wait for someone to ask you to share. When there’s a moment of silence, jump in and start saying what you want to say.

  • Don’t be afraid of talking for too long. People who like to listen usually keep their sentences very short. It’s ok to talk for a few minutes; you have as much right to share in class as other students do!

 

This is it, everyone. I just told you some of the tips I always share with my students, especially the ones that are shy or not particularly talkative. If you are one of those two kinds of people, I encourage you to try some of the things I explained in this blog. I’m sure it will make a difference :)

And if you’re a Chatty Cathy, maybe you can practice your listening skills.  At the same time you can encourage the quieter students to talk, by asking them direct questions, and then sitting back and listening.

 

Chicos y chicas, ¡buena semana y hasta pronto!

Octavi

In case you missed last week’s blog post: Read last week’s blog here! 

Questions? Suggestions for a future blog post? Write us below!

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An underestimated language learning skill

Hola queridos alumnos y alumnas:

Today I’d like to talk about a very important underestimated language learning skill.

Drum roll please…can you guess? It is L I S T E N I N G!

In my experience, people who like to talk a lot, but don’t listen, need to spend more time improving their listening skills when learning a language. When someone listens to other students, they learn new vocabulary and new expressions. If they don’t listen, they just hear words, but don’t stop for a second and think: “I didn’t know that word!” or “That expression is very useful!” You need to take that moment to input that new information in your brain. Also, write it down if possible. Learning to speak is incredibly important, but remember that conversations go two ways, not one.

There is another issue that comes up with students who don’t see the tremendous value in listening.  When corrected by the teacher, some students just nod and say: “Yes, right”, and then keep talking without focusing on the correction. What happens when we do that is that we keep making the same mistakes over and over again. If you want to sound better/more polished when speaking Spanish, remember to stop and take the time to repeat the correction; then you can move on with the conversation. You can study grammar until you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t learn to use it when you’re speaking, you will not improve. Listening, the most underestimated language learning skill, will help you improve your grammar more than you know.

Personal tips:

  • When someone says a word or uses a grammar structure that I don’t know, something I do is to try to use it immediately after. For example, if we are talking about things we did last night, and someone says: “justo después de llegar a casa me fui a dormir” (Just after getting home I went to sleep), and I didn’t know the expression “justo después de”, I would wait until the person has finished talking and then say: “Yo llamé a mi esposo justo después de salir del trabajo” (I called my husband just after leaving from work). It’s good to use the expression we learned at that moment, for practice. If you’re not listening to others, you may never learn these expressions.
  • We can also practice the underestimated language learning skill of listening, by watching TV shows in Spanish, by listening to a podcast, or listening to other students when we are in Spanish class. That is very helpful, but you have to remember one thing: don’t get frustrated and give up when you can’t understand everything. You will not understand everything, especially if you’re watching a TV show with fast dialogues full of slang, or listening to a podcast for native speakers about complicated subjects. Still now, after learning English since I was 8 years old, there are parts of TV shows and movies in English that I don’t understand, and it’s ok. If I hadn’t practiced listening for years, my comprehension skills would not be as developed as they are, and I would understand much less than I do.
  • If you have less opportunity to speak during class one day, maybe you’re learning a lot from others that day.
  • Don’t listen to things that are way beyond your level. That’s not going to help!

 

Alright, everyone; I hope this blog will help you. Have a great week, and maybe try listening extra hard this week!

Octavi

La tarea opcional para el 11 al 17 de marzo del 2019

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir 10 cosas que hacías o podías hacer en el pasado que ahora no haces o no puedes hacer. Por ejemplo:

Antes comía una dona cada día.

Antes podía dormir 12 horas sin problema.

Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: continúen con el capítulo 14 “The imperfect tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 130 a 142 y hagan los ejercicios 14.3 a 14.5.

La tarea para la semana del 4 al 10 de marzo del 2019

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir 5 cosas sobre la vida de tu actor favorito o actriz favorita usando el pretérito. Por ejemplo:

Meryl Streep nació el 22 de junio de 1949.

Debutó con la obra de teatro The playboy of Seville en 1971.

Etc…

 

Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: empiecen el capítulo 14 “The imperfect tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 135 a 139 y hagan los ejercicios 14.1 a 14.2.

Have a worthwhile Spanish immersion experience!

¿Cómo están todos?

In last week’s blog about immersion programs, I mentioned some things that should to be considered before picking a destination. Today we are going to look at things that are important once you are in a school. Here are some tips on how to have a worthwhile Spanish immersion experience!

First of all, and this is probably obvious, make sure the place you chose has conversation classes. It’s good to attend reading classes and grammar classes, but remember that speaking is essential, so just in case, double check.

Immersion programs are very diverse, in content and in length. I recommend choosing a school that has at least 4 hours a day of classes. After 4 hours you’ll be definitely tired, but in an immersion experience it is important that you are learning and using Spanish constantly, specially if you’re only going to be there for a week or two.

While you are abroad, avoid using English as much as possible; unless there’s an emergency or you are on the edge of a nervous breakdown :). In those cases English is ok. Otherwise you should try to speak only in Spanish in order to have a worthwhile Spanish immersion experience. I admit that sometimes you might feel exhausted and overwhelmed. In those moments I recommend staying in your room and resting or doing something where you don’t need to speak to anyone. At least, you won’t be speaking English.

Most immersion programs include many activities outside of the classroom. Make sure you participate in them. It’s good to be out in the city and interact with the locals. You should experience real spoken Spanish, and not only the one your teacher uses. Besides, those activities are a good way to get to know other students better, to make friends and to have a worthwhile Spanish immersion experience! Don’t stay in your room every day, get out and explore!

If you are the kind of person who enjoys staying home, you can practice even when there’s no one else around or you don’t feel like going out. Remember that you can read a book or a magazine in Spanish, and if that’s too much when you’re tired, you can watch TV. It doesn’t matter if you are paying attention, just having the TV or the radio on helps. Create an all-Spanish environment.

This is it for today’s blog, everyone. Now, if any of you has been to an immersion program abroad, we would like to know about your experience! Tell us about your experience!

For those of you who are interested in studying Spanish in another country: See what other students have to say about their study abroad experiences!

Thank you for your cooperation! It’s always good to read other people’s opinions before deciding on a school or program :). Let us know in the comment section if you are thinking about going somewhere to study Spanish, or if you liked the blog. ¡Muchas gracias!

See you next week,

Octavi