Pura Buena Onda Blog

Weekly Tip 9/14/17: How important is the country of origin of your language teacher?

Hola chicos,

Today I want to talk about the importance of the country of origin of your Spanish teacher.

The easiest way to explain this is by comparing English.

If you learned to speak English in England, you can still communicate with all English speakers in the US, Scotland, Ireland, etc.

If you learned to speak English in California, you can still communicate with anyone in Alabama, Missouri, Texas, etc.

That being said, every country, and every region has some differences in vocabulary and different accents.  I’m sure that you have all had the experience of speaking to someone from a different country in your native language and not understanding a word here and there.  That being said, as we are exposed to film and shows from other countries, we can’t help but pick up vocabulary.  I’m sure that all of our English speakers from the United States know that in England they use the word lift rather than elevator, for example.

So to sum this all up, the country of origin of your Spanish teacher is not very important. Apart from a few minor differences, Spanish is Spanish and English is English. 

If however, your reason for learning the language is to travel to a specific country, it’s never a bad idea to take classes with a teacher from that region.  If your overall goal is just to learn to speak Spanish, you can do that with a teacher from any country.

What has been your experience with this topic?

Besos

La tarea opcional para 9/13 a 9/15/17

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escoger una emoción o un sentimiento fuerte que ha expresado un personaje en alguna película, un programa o una obra que has visto y escribir un párrafo acerca de la escena, especialmente los sentimientos o emociones que sentía el personaje y que sentías tú al verlo.  Por favor, describan la experiencia en detalle para practicar la expresión de las emociones y los sentimientos fuertes.

(La tarea extra de la semana * para los que quieran más tarea * es seguir con el capítulo 18, Adjectives, en la tercera edición de “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect.  Les recomendamos leer las páginas 225 a 229  y hacer los ejercicios 18.5 y 18.9)

Besos

90 Day Spanish Bootcamp – Week 6 results

Congratulations to the following students for making it through the first 6 weeks of Bootcamp!  They are almost half way through!  Also, congratulations to Stephanie C., our first Bootcamp participant to move up a level during the Bootcamp!  Bien hecho Stephanie :)

A1: Jean E, Rechelle M

A2: Lizzie S

B1.5: Melanie T

B2: Carol S, Roxie H; Stephanie C

B2.5: Eva M

C1: Stephany F

Private Classes: Joy B, Lisa O

 

This week we asked the students what improvements they have noticed after 6 weeks of working on their Spanish on a daily basis.  This is what they said:

Cada día es un poco más fácil
I am finding it easier to compose my response to the daily conversation on FB and taking less time to so.
Es un poco más fácil contestar la pregunta del día en Facebook
Yo pienso en español más durante el día sin lo sabiendo. Me he puesto más confiada cuando hablo con personas nuevas. Yo puedo entender mejor cuando veo programas en español.
Puedo a identificar el significado de la oración cuando no oigo las palabras todo.
Me parece que estoy hablando un poco más rápido pero todavía cometo muchos errores.
Me he dado cuenta de que mi comprensión de otros hispanhablantes es un poco mejor. Esta parte de aprender el espanol es muy desafiante para mi. Sin embargo poco a poco y día a día veo cambios pequenos. Sé que ser consistente con los tipos de actividades que mejoran la comprension es muy importante, por lo tanto seis semanas de Bootcamp ha hecho una diferencia positiva.
Estoy mejorando en mi capacidad usar tiempos diferentes
Puedo entender más cuando escucho.
He notado que puedo hablar con menos ansiedad y más fluidez con hispanohablantes. También es más fácil cambiar entre inglés y español más rápido el cual siempre había sido muy difícil para mí.
I think my comprehension is getting a little better as well as my vocabulary. But I need to practice speaking more!!

 

Congratulations again chicas (we’re down to all women)!  You’re doing amazing!  If you made it this far, I have faith that you will complete the challenge!

Weekly Tip 9/7/17: Improve your Spanish comprehension!

Weekly Tip 9/7/17: Improve your Spanish comprehension!

 

Are you a student that struggles with understanding native speakers?  If so, this is the blog post for you!

The approach that many students take is to try and understand every word.  Sometimes students watch a TV show or a movie or listen to a podcast and sit down and write down all the words that they don’t know.  While this is fantastic for vocabulary building, it does not help to improve your comprehension skills.  

To improve your comprehension you need to do exactly the opposite.  You need to listen for words that are already familiar to you as well as cognates (words that are similar to your native language – for example: aniversario/anniversary or plástico/plastic).  As you tune your ear to the words that you already know and the ones that you can make out, you will start to understand the context.  Maybe when you first start doing this you only understand 5 to 10%, but as you keep doing it little by little, you start to understand more and more.  

Sitting down with a pen and paper and writing down every word that you don’t know and looking it up may help you understand when you’re reading an article and have the time to do that, but it will not help you improve your comprehension skills when someone is speaking.

So next time that you want to work on your comprehension skills, remember to listen for the words you already know rather than the ones that you do not know.  

If this works for me with Italian, it will work for you with Spanish!

Besos,
Caro

La tarea opcional para 9/6 a 9/8 y 9/11 a 9/12/17

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escoger una emoción o un sentimiento fuerte que has sentido últimamente y escribir un párrafo acerca de la experiencia.  Por favor, describan la experiencia en detalle para practicar la expresión de emociones y sentimientos fuertes.

La tarea extra de la semana * para los que quieran más tarea * es empezar el capítulo 18, Adjectives, en la tercera edición de “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect.  Les recomendamos leer las páginas 221 y 224  y hacer los ejercicios 18.1 y 18.4.

Besos

Weekly Tip 9/1/17 – Private vs. Semi-private vs. Group Language Classes

Weekly Tip 9/1/17 – Private vs. Semi-private vs. Group Language Classes

 

¡Buenas tardes estudiantes de español!  Espero que todos hayan tenido una linda semana :)

The topic for today is private vs group Spanish classes, as I am often asked which is better.
The truth is that both are great, and as with everything else in life, they have their pros and cons.

 

Private Spanish classes

Pros:

  • The entire time is devoted to you, therefore your speaking abilities advance at a faster pace.
  • The schedule is very flexible.  
  • You can have the classes adapted to your preferences, ability and learning needs.

Cons:

  • They’re more expensive.  
  • If you’re having back & forth conversations (with your teacher doing 30-50% of the talking), that is fantastic, but if YOU are doing 95% of the talking, you will not develop your listening skills at the same rate as your speaking skills.

 

Group Spanish classes

Pros:

  • They are more affordable.
  • You have the opportunity to learn new vocabulary from other students.
  • You have the opportunity to meet other people with a common interest.
  • You can play some fun games when other students are involved.

Cons:

  • The speaking time is divided among all the students, therefore you won’t have as much time to speak as you would in a private class.

I wish I could tell you that one is better than the other, but that is simply not the case (at least not at Pura Buena Onda, since our group classes are so small).  The best of both worlds is when you’re able to do both :)  But if that is not possible, one fantastic option is to go back and forth – private classes for a few months, then group, then private, etc.  

What is your preference and why?

Besos,
Caro

90-Day Spanish Bootcamp – Week 5 results

A little over 5 weeks ago we started our annual 90-Day Spanish Bootcamp with 22 students.  5 weeks later these 12 students still remain:

A1: Jean E, Rechelle M

A2: Lizzie S

B1.5: Melanie T; Stephanie C

B2: Carol S, Roxie H

B2.5: Eva M

B3: Carolina F

C1: Stephany F

Private Classes: Joy B, Lisa O

Congratulations to you all!

 

When we asked the students what they were doing for their 20 minutes of speaking and/or listening each day, this is what they told us:

I have been watching the Destinos program everyday and answering the questions on the activity page.
Yo hago varios cosas. Me gusta ver la programa El Barco, escuchar a News in Slow Spanish, escuchar al radio en español, y ver programas de naturaleza y animales en español en YouTube. También yo hablo con mis compañeros de trabajo en español y a veces practico hablando con yo misma.
Cada día escucho a un podcast (Radio Ambulante, Nómadas, Futuro Abierto, El Explicador, o Buenos Dias America) por lo menos un hora. Además hablo con un hispanohablante al menos tres veces por semana por un hora.
Yo miro El Reyna del Sur en Netflix y escucho al 91.7 en el radio
Usualmente, veo veinte minutos de Celia, una telenovela que cuenta la historia de Celia Cruz. También trato de asisitir a eventos donde puedo hablar en español con otras personas afuera de clase y, si no tengo tiempo, hablo con mi misma.
Oigo a Radio Latina y “News in Slow Spanish”. Leo voz alto y hablo en español con personas bilingüe en las tiendas.
Listened to spanish language radio news and music, as well as a podcast. Also spoke with friends in person and on the phone.
Celia netflix show or coffee break spanish is great!
I watch a portion of a spanish language movie on hbo, listen to the radio or go to a Spanish language meetup
Para mis 20 minutos de hablar o escuchar hablo con amigos por teléfono, hablo con mi mismo, escucho la radio o un podcast y asisto a la clase de grupo o privada. Normalmente trato de hacer más de 20 minutos, pero la semana pasada estaba muy ocupado y sólo podía hacer 20 minutos cada día – sin embargo todavía ¡lo hice!
He escuchado a podcasts algunos días o he visto YouTube videos (a veces con subtítulos en español o inglés) otros días. Encontré por la primera vez un nuevo amigo de España y practicamos español(y para el, inglés). Lo difícil es practicando hablar. He empezado contestar a las preguntas de FB, primero hablar y luego escribir–porque estoy escuchando más de hablando.
Duolingo – lyricstraining
escucho a 102.9 en las mananas. También hago un idioma intercambio por dos días que dura un hora
I have a friend at work that talks to me in Spanish a few minutes a few days a week. I listen to music in the car and watch TV shows in Spanish.

¡Bien hecho chicos!

La tarea opcional para 8/28 – 9/1 + 9/9/17

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escoger 3 palabras (un sustantivo, un adjetivo y un verbo) y escribir 5 o 6 pistas que describan la palabra. La próxima semana pueden compartirlos con la clase.

La tarea extra de la semana * para los que quieran más tarea * es terminar el capítulo 17, Nouns & Articles, en “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect. Les recomendamos leer las páginas 219 y 220 y hacer los ejercicios 17.24 y 17.25.

Besos

Weekly Tip 8/24/17: Find out what your language strengths & weaknesses are…

Hola chicos,

¿Qué onda con Uds.?  Espero que todos estén bien.

 

Students often ask what they need to improve to move into the next level.

Here is a list of the things your teachers take into consideration:

  • Comprehension: When asked a question, do you answer that question or a different one?
  • Vocabulary: Do you have the vocabulary that is common for that level?
  • Grammar: Do you use the tenses necessary to move into the next level, etc.?  
  • Overall accuracy: Gender, conjugations, correct vocabulary, etc.
  • Fluidity: How well are you able to get your point across.
  • Speed: How quickly are you able to get the words out.
  • Conversations skills: How well you are able to work around vocabulary that you are not familiar with.
  • English: How much English you are mixing in with your Spanish.
  • Confidence: Are you the type of student that is afraid to say something for fear of making a mistake?
  • Participation: Are you actively participating in class or does the teacher need to ask all the questions to get you speaking?  Are you doing the optional homework?  Are you engaging with other students?

 

So these are all the points that we consider before moving a student into the next level.  If you fit the bill for 8 of the 10 points, you are ready for the next level in most cases.  

 

If you ever want to know where you are at, PBO does offer detailed evaluations ($30) and mini-evaluations ($20).  You can also just ask your teacher what you need to work on, at any time.

 

Do you know what your biggest strengths and weaknesses are in Spanish?

 

Besitos,
Caro

Spanish Bootcamp – Week 4 results

Congratulations to the following students for completing 33% of the 90-Day Spanish Bootcamp:

A1: Chrystal M, Jean E, Rechelle M

A2: Lizzie S

B1: Bill S

B1.5: Melanie T; Stephanie C

B2: Carol S, Roxie H

B2.5: Eva M

B3: Carolina F

C1: Stephany F

Private Classes: Joy B, Lisa O

 

When we asked our students what motivated them to take this 90 day challenge,

this is what they said:

I have struggled to learn Spanish and needed this boost to help me stay on track.
Quiero practicar lo más que puedo antes de ir a Merida, Mexico por tres semanas, incluso dos semanas de inmersión. Necesito algo con estructura como el Bootcamp para hacerme practicar más que lo usual.
Mi motivación es aprender algo nuevo. El español es hermoso y útil. Gracias por la oportunidad.
Quiero avanzar mas rápido con mi reto aprender español.
Personally, I want to improve my spanish fluency, hence the more time I put in…the closer I am to achieving my goal.
Increased consistency with the daily FB responses.
Fluencia es una meta de mi vida y necesito dedicar mas tiempo lograr este
El empujón es una diversión muy buena. Y, lo ayuda con me se enfocar. También, espero a obtener un nivel nuevo al término de bootcamp
Yo quiero mejorar más rápido y me gusta el reto de Bootcamp.
Estoy motivada por el deseo para mejorar mi español y me doy cuenta de que la consistencia es una buena manera de hacerlo.
Para mejorar mi capacidad de hablar español
I’ve been very busy lately and have not made Spanish a priority so this helps me to do so.
This week my motivation was because I signed up for it. In general, I wanted to push myself a bit more and maintain some of the progress I made while traveling.
Para mejorar, por supuesto! :)
I want to get better at communicating with others. The bootcamp is motivating me to overcome the fear and try!

 

¡Felicidades chicos! Ya completaron 1/3 del reto :)  ¡Bien hecho!

 

Besitos,

Caro