May 10
I read the following online on a site supposedly devoted to learning fluency in a second language:
“Language is like any other skill or aptitude: some people are proficient in languages, while others are better at math, science, or music. Everyone has the potential to learn, but the fact is that some people are just more capable of learning language than others.” – About.com
Trying to acquire a second language as one would try to learn math, science, or music is so predominate, so pervasive in the minds of Americans that this sort of statement is posted on a site that purports to be an authority on second language acquisition.
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How Do I Become Fluent In A New Language?
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Apr 26
Did you try to learn a foreign language like French or Spanish at school? If you’re like me you probably didn’t learn well and don’t remember very much.
***After all, everyone speaks English right so what’s the point?***
Yes, maybe…up to a point…
***Holiday problems***
You get into a medical emergency or your wallet gets stolen and the police don’t speak English…
***Money***
Fact - Speaking another language massively (HUGELY!) expands your employment prospects.
If you’re going for a job where a 2nd language isn’t needed it will give you a powerful advantage if you’re up against someone who doesn’t have it.
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How To Learn A Foreign Language With Audio Book
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Apr 08
Learning Spanish, as well as any other foreign language is actually a lot easier than it may appear to be. It’s simply a matter of knowing which method you’re using to learn the language. If you start mixing the ways of learning, you may, and certainly will get confused and potentially get discouraged.
If you know of someone who came in your country, didn’t speak a word of your native language, a few years later he or she speaks it perfectly with a proper grammar and pronunciation and knows how to read and write, just ask that person how they learned your native language and you will understand this article to full extent. By the way, this article was written by such person.
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3 Main Methods Of Learning Spanish - Which One Are You Using?
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Apr 05
A couple of years ago, an American lady came to Guanajuato to learn Spanish. She enrolled in one of the most expensive schools in town. This school is good, by the way, and I always recommend it to people who want to come study Spanish in Guanajuato. This poor woman was a rank beginner. When she arrived, she was put in a class commensurate with her level; only the class was in the middle of the beginning class cycle.
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Learning Spanish - Financing Your Spanish Education
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Mar 31
Most folks, when they set out to study a new language, begin by enrolling in Spanish I at their local Junior College. This is not the way to begin. In fact, the formal learning about the language in a course at the JuCo is about 5 years away from where you are at if you’ve had no experience at acquiring the target language.
You begin by listening. You need this exposure to grow accustomed to the sounds of the language. You need this period of silence in which you listen, not produce, so you can bombard your brain with lots and lots of visual and auditory impressions in the new language you are seeking to understand and speak. You’ve got to learn “the music” of the language. You’ve got to experience comprehensible input.
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Learning Spanish - Begin By Listening - Part 6
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Mar 28
In today’s busy life, setting a time aside for learning Spanish could sometimes create a great challenge. Attending Spanish language courses at the nearby college slowly becomes the thing of the past. Even the colleges are readopting to the new way of life by offering online courses. But, the time constraint is still there. You still need to somehow fit it into your busy schedule along with everything else. You still need to follow their assigned timeframe for attending and finishing the class.
That’s why the self study courses became very popular, because you control your time and you decide when to study. Here are a few tips to help you learn Spanish on your own.
Invest in a Spanish Course
Mar 27
What is your ultimate goal as it relates to learning Spanish? What do you want to accomplish with learning the Spanish language?
Very important questions. How you answer them would determine how fast and how well you will learn Spanish. Let’s take a closer look at this.
The root of any language is the words. What good would it do you if you learn the Spanish grammar, pronunciation, tenses and all of the other theory, when you only know 5 Spanish words? Your Spanish language knowledge would be useless because you won’t be able to communicate. And without communication, nothing happens.
Mar 26
The chief problem for most Americans who want to learn Spanish but who don’t succeed is the Affective Factor. Plainly put, this means the emotional issues; that is, adults become freaked out at the thought. The fear of getting put on the spot and embarrassed is just too much to bear.
I’ve talked to plenty monolingual American and Canadian expats in Mexico who do not learn Spanish. They are, therefore, forced to live in the various Gringolandias because they are too fearful of learning Spanish. They self-perceive the problem as their “advanced years” or, as one cantankerous old coot put it, “I have too lousy of a disposition to learn Spanish.”
Mar 21
Are you planning to learn the Spanish language? There are some easy ways and there are some heavy duty ways to learn any language, but there is one sure fire way which anyone can use and that is practicing to think in the language you wish to learn.
Strange but True
Most people translate with great difficulty what they want to say into the new language which makes them think that unless you are fluent in the language you cannot converse well. However, this is a myth. Actually, if you start practicing the new language in your mind before you speak, you would find that not only you would be able to converse easily, but also able to learn new words much faster.
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Leaning To Think In Spanish To Learn The Spanish Language
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Mar 20
Exactly how the brain stores language, spoken and understood speech, has not exactly been known. Recently, however, there have been more clues to what goes on in the brain when spoken fluency in the primary and secondary language is acquired. Our brains, when exposed to hundreds of thousands of repetitions in the target language (First, second, third, etc…), organize and store the visual and auditory impressions. But, what is absolutely amazing is that with regard to speech, these impressions are not being stored in long or short-term memory.
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Learning Spanish - Begin By Listening - Part 4
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