Pura Buena Onda Blog

5 reasons why you should read in Spanish

¡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 para el 22 al 28 de abril del 2019

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.

5 reasons to come to Pura Buena Onda’s social club events

¡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.

And one bonus reason…

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 para el 15 al 21 de abril del 2019

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

 

“La conversación del día” on Facebook

¡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 para el 8 al 14 de abril del 2019

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.

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.