Pura Buena Onda Blog

¡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, codeswitching 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

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 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.

¡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!

[contact-form][contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”1″][contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”1″][contact-field label=”Message” type=”textarea”][/contact-form]

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 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 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.

¿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

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir un párrafo con la trama de una serie o de un programa que estás viendo estos días, con un mínimo de cinco frases.


 

Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: Terminen el capítulo 13 “The preterite tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 131 a 134 y hagan los ejercicios 13.16 a 13.18.

¡Hola, chicos y chicas!

Have you learnt a lot of Spanish this week? Are you perhaps thinking that you would like to give a boost to your Spanish and take it to the next level? If that’s the case, I recommend you try out a Spanish immersion program abroad. In fact, today’s blog is going to help students interested in this kind of program pick a destination that suits their needs, and explain how to make the most of the trip. Let’s get started!

Length of stay

The first thing you want to consider if you want to study in a Spanish immersion program abroad, is how long would you would like the immersion to be. Most of us have busy lives and can’t afford to study abroad for six months, let alone a year. That’s why many people take part in immersion programs abroad for one or two weeks.

In my opinion, one week is great as an experience, specially if it is the first time you go abroad alone to study Spanish. You might end up with culture shock or find out that the place you chose doesn’t cater to your needs. Nevertheless, although one week is probably not enough to make a big difference in your Spanish, it can be a good first experience. I encourage everyone to try it at least once.

Now, if you want to see some progress, the minimum you should stay in an immersion program is two weeks. For students who want to go up a level, I recommend doing one month. However, students who are in the B2 level or a higher level would need more than a month to go up a level.

Location

Once the period of time you’d be staying has been decided, the next step is choosing the right place for your Spanish immersion program. When I say “the right place” I don’t mean to say that there are right or wrong places, but places in where you’ll learn better than others.

For example, I recommend going to a medium or small city instead of going to a big city. The reason for that is that in bigger and more cosmopolitan cities people usually speak English. Another factor to take into consideration is whether there’s a second official language where you want to go. This situation is not ideal because the environment where you would be wouldn’t be a 100% Spanish. I am from Barcelona, and I love my city, but Catalan is an official language there. It’s very present in the city and everyday’s life, so I always recommend that my students go to other cities in Spain where Spanish is the only official language.

Language

There’s a third and very important thing that you need to remember before you pick a destination for your study abroad program: the kind of Spanish you want to learn. Maybe you’d like to go to Spain because it’s in Europe, or maybe you want to go to Guatemala because it’s cheaper to study there.  Keep in mind that the kind of Spanish you will learn in every country has distinct characteristics, like the vocabulary and the pronunciation. In conclusion, if you want to learn, let’s say, Mexican Spanish; Mexico is the place to go, or perhaps you prefer a more neutral Spanish and may want to go to Bogota, Colombia.

I have more tips for you on what to do once you’ve made up your mind on a language school, but I will leave that for next week :). I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

¡Hasta la próxima semana!

Octavi

PS If you have attended a Spanish study abroad program, please fill out our form, which will help others find the right program for them. Thank you! Language Immersion Program Survey.