La tarea opcional de esta semana es elegir sus 3 aplicaciones de teléfono favoritas y hablar de ellas la semana que viene.
Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: Empiecen el capítulo 9 “Irregular verb groups” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 75 – 78 y hagan los ejercicios 9.3 a 9.6.
¡Hola a todos y a todas!
Have you been enjoying our series of blogs called “5 reason for…”? I hope you have.
This week we have yet another 5 reasons to do something. This time it’s about PBO’s immersion weekends. Have you taken part in any of them? In case you haven’t, here are 5 reasons to attend an immersion weekend @ PBO!
1 – Some students tell me that, right when the class at PBO is about to end, they feel like their Spanish language “engine” is at full throttle. They say it takes time to switch their minds to Spanish.
Imagine a full weekend in Spanish! You are going to be immersed in a full Spanish-speaking environment for 8 hours on both Saturday & Sunday. It’s a lot more than just a class or an event. You can learn a lot when you are fully immersed in a language for that long.
2 – It offers a lot more than a class or an event. During the immersion weekends, we do many things because we have more freedom to do so in a student’s house than we do in our office. We obviously talk in Spanish, but we also cook together, we eat together, we watch films or videos, we play games, etc. All of it in Spanish. You’ll learn a lot of vocabulary and practice many skills.
3 – It’s an excellent opportunity to meet other PBO students from your level (or one level below or above). You will be spending an entire weekend together, so it’s an excellent opportunity to make new friends who share the same interest that you do – español!
4 – Another of the 5 reasons to attend an immersion weekend @ PBO is that it is the closest experience to living a life in Spanish. Classes are short and events are like parties. The immersion weekend consists of two full days. You are using your Spanish for 8 hours a day, as if you lived in a Spanish speaking country. It’s a complete experience.
5 – It is cheaper than going abroad. Sure, you can spend a week or two in a language school in Mexico, but many of us don’t have the time or the money to do that. If you are in that situation, the immersion weekends with PBO are the easiest and least expensive way to immerse yourself in the language for a couple of days, in the comfort of your own city. And if you’re considering attending an immersion program abroad, this is a great way to get your feet wet and get an idea of what it would be like.
We have done several immersion weekends so far, and the feedback has been very positive. If you are interested in it, don’t hesitate. Did I mention that you learn a lot? And that it is a lot of fun? :)
Let us know what you think about the immersions weekends. If you have attended one of the, tell us about your experience!
Email us @ [email protected] to sign up today!
Our B2-B3-C1 event is this weekend, 4/27 & 4/28.
Our A3-B1 event is on 5/18 & 5/19.
Muy bien, estimados alumnos. I wish you a happy week and a lot of Spanish in your lives.
Saludos,
Octavi
¡Bienvenidos a todos!
I hope you’ve had a good week so far :).
Today, we are going to look at 5 reasons why you should read in Spanish; why you should be reading books, articles, poetry, and whatever crosses your way, in Spanish.
1 – You will learn a lot of vocabulary, because many English and Spanish words are very similar. Many expressions are very similar too. This means that you’ll be able to guess their meaning without having to use a dictionary.
2 – You’ll become familiar with verb tenses and conjugations. This doesn’t mean you will be conjugating correctly when you speak. Despite that, when you see verbs conjugated over and over, you develop an intuition that tells you when a tense or conjugation is right or wrong. As I said, this will not enable you to speak without mistakes, but it will help.
3 – At some point, you realize you can’t expect to understand everything that is being said in Spanish. The same applies to reading in Spanish. You will learn that you can’t and shouldn’t look up every single word you don’t understand. That is certainly time consuming, frustrating and not effective.
Furthermore, you will gradually become used to ignoring words that don’t seem important in order to understand a text. You will guess the meaning of others by the context, and you will look for the meaning of only some words that are crucial to understanding the gist of what you read. This is an excellent skill to develop!
4 – Another of the 5 reasons why you should read in Spanish is that there’s so much you can read, and in so many registers. Reading is not limited to books. You can read articles, the newspaper, texts you find on the Internet, etc.
Languages have many registers, or ways in which they are used. To be competent in a language, you can’t limit yourself to one or two registers. You have to be familiar with formal and informal speeches. The register used for the news is not the same as the one used for literature. Reading all kinds of texts will allow you to learn all the different ways Spanish is used in all of its registers.
5 – When you read a lot, you have more knowledge of the world. It becomes an excellent source of conversation topics, in any language.
If you start reading more in Spanish, you’ll be able to bring more topics to the conversation in class, or to participate in conversations taking place in or out of class. Besides, since you will have been reading in Spanish, you will already know the vocabulary pertinent to the topics you share with your classmates.
If you think reading in Spanish is a little overwhelming, don’t worry! Start from the bottom: books for children. I’m not joking!
If you are a beginner to Spanish, your level is probably that of a 2 year old. Thus, you need to read what a 2 year old would read. As you progress and learn more, you will be able to switch to fairy tales and such, and later to novels for adolescents.
Take your time and make sure you find something that fits your level. You will know it is your level when you understand 70 or 75% of what you read, but it still represents a bit of a challenge :)
There you go! 5 reasons why you should read in Spanish!
Have a great weekend!
Octavi
La tarea opcional de esta semana es traer un tesoro personal la semana que viene, porque la lección de la próxima semana va a ser un show and tell.
Un tesoro personal es cualquier objeto, foto, comida, etc. que sea muy importante para ustedes.
Por favor, estén listos para hablar acerca de su objeto por unos 5 a 6 minutos (quizás 3 o 4 para los niveles de A2-A3 y 7 u 8 minutos para los niveles de C1-C2).
Pueden usar notas para guiarse, pero queremos que hablen acerca del objeto, no que lean un discurso.
Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: empiecen el capítulo 9 “Irregular verb groups” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 73 a 75 y hagan los ejercicios 9.1 y 9.2.
¡Hola a todos y a todas!
This week I’m going to give you five reasons to come to Pura Buena Onda’s social club events. If you have never been to one of them, this is why you should come:
1 – All the students from PBO are invited to join our social events. That means that you will meet people with different Spanish levels. This is a good thing, because the lower level students can learn from students who are more advanced, and the more advanced students can appreciate how far they have come.
In case you are a beginner, don’t worry! Just being there and listening will help you too. Besides, PBO students are very nice, and they help other students who are new to the language.
2 – A great number of students are afraid of using Spanish in the real world. The social events are a great way to get used to speaking to strangers.
The advantage is that you kind of know these strangers. Like you, they are also on their Spanish learning journey, and you can feel comfortable and less scared of making mistakes, since they have been through the same journey. Thanks to that, you will gradually get rid of the fear of speaking to native speakers outside of the classroom. So, you see, it’s like a rehearsal for the real world.
3 – The third out of the five reasons to come to Pura Buena Onda’s social club events is that while you are chatting with a certain person, you might find out their level. When that person is one level above you, listen very well. It is a fantastic opportunity to find out what you need to improve in order to move up to the next level.
4 – Since social club events take place outside of PBO, you choose how long you want to stay there. You can stay for 20 minutes, or for 3 hours. It is very flexible in that way. You can just come for a short time if you have a busy day, or stay the whole time and get many more hours of Spanish speaking practice in.
5 – The social club events are very diverse. It could be a potluck at someone’s house, a trip to Baja or a chance to bowl. Those different contexts enable students to talk about new topics, and to experience everything that Southern California & Baja has to offer.
Not only that! Since there’s no lesson plan whatsoever, people usually have multiple kinds of conversations, and switch constantly from a topic to another. That is an amazing and fun way to learn new vocabulary.
Those were five reasons to come to Pura Buena Onda’s social club events, but I’m going to give you a 6th reason: PBO students are the coolest people on the planet!! People who want to learn a language are usually interesting, cultured, and open people, so apart from all the reasons why going to our social club events is good for your Spanish, it’s also an excellent opportunity to meet quality people with whom you have common interests.
Speaking of social events; we have one on Sunday! We hope to see you all there! Remember to sign up online…
Let us know in the comment section of our Facebook page what you think about the blog today. Also, feel free to add more reasons why people should join our social events.
Have a good weekend, queridos alumnos!
Octavi
La tarea opcional de esta semana es leer un artículo en español y hablar sobre de qué se trata la semana que viene. También les pedimos que busquen 3 palabras que no conozcan en el artículo y que las presenten en clase.
Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: terminen el capítulo 14 “The imperfect tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 155 a 157 y hagan los ejercicios 14.17 y 14.18.
Photo by: Wherda Arsianto @wherda
¡Hola a todo el mundo!
Did you know that every single day of the year Pura Buena Onda has an interactive question of the day? La conversación del día on Facebook is a fantastic way to practice your Spanish. Let’s look at five reasons why you may want to dedicate 5 minutes a day to this:
1 – Usually, students read and talk a lot in Spanish. Writing is another important skill, but we rarely practice it. With our question of the day, you can practice your Spanish writing skills.
FYI. There are 4 skills when it comes to learning a language: reading, speaking, writing and listening. Writing and speaking are what I call “active skills”. Those skills demand more from us. We need to use our brain and put sentences together. That’s why it’s good to write and speak in order to learn Spanish.
2 – You can do it every day or whenever you like. It’s not like a 60 or 90 minute class. You choose the time you want to spend with it. You can also choose the length of your text, or what you want to write.
3 – Writing is an active skill, but unlike speaking, you have more time; time to think how you put sentences together. You can look for words in the dictionary. You decide if you want an elaborated sentence or a simple one. It’s still an active skill, but not as demanding as speaking.
4 – A teacher will correct one or two mistakes on the following day. This will enable you to find mistakes that you often make. You’ll learn what you might need to work on in order to improve. Just make sure you answer la conversación del día on Facebook on the day it’s posted, if you want to be corrected.
5 – It’s a good way to make sure you’re practicing your Spanish even on the busiest day. You don’t need much time and you can do it on your phone. It’s easy and convenient, so you can turn it into a consistent habit.
Now that you know what you know, I hope that you will try to answer la conversación del día on our Facebook page. Let us know what you think about it :)
Have a good week and see you next time!
Octavi
La tarea opcional de esta semana es buscar 5 palabras de Espanglish (o Spanglish), presentarlas a la clase y decir las palabras estándares en español.
Por ejemplo (first word in Spanglish, English translation = standard word in Spanish):
Las pipas (the pipes/plumbing) = Las tuberías
Los vegetables (the vegetables) = Las verduras
El lonche (the lunch) = El almuerzo
El troque / La troca (the truck) = La camioneta
La aseguranza (the insurance) = El seguro
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 153 y 154 y hagan los ejercicios 14.15 y 14.16.
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