Finding similarities between the Spanish words you are learning and English words in your vocabulary is one of the most effective ways of expanding your knowledge of the new language. When you start learning Spanish, many of the words you come across from lesson one look similar in both languages, or even identical: individual, mineral, hora, presentar, teléfono, momento, electrónico, radio, recomendar, salmón, limón, apartamento and countless more. Those will be easy to learn and to remember, and a great boost to your motivation. In my experience both as a Spanish teacher and as a student of foreign languages, what is even more encouraging is finding less obvious connections between words in both languages. For instance, have you noticed that the Spanish word for ‘beef’ and ‘cow’ (vaca) has the same origin as the English word ‘vaccine’?; or are you aware of how many English words share their origin with the Spanish numbers: unity (uno), duo (dos), trio (tres), quartet (cuatro), sexagenarian (seis), September (seven), octopus (ocho), November (nueve), December (diez)?Once you have seen those similarities, you are more likely to remember the new Spanish words without effort because your brain works by making associations. If you have ever tried to learn lists of Spanish words without context or associations you will know what a hopeless endeavor that is. That is why I always teach Spanish vocabulary to my students by connecting the new words to other words they already know. Even if you have only just started learning Spanish, making those connections will be one of your greatest allies. They will save you precious time and energy, and will transform the learning process into a game and an enjoyable challenge. The problem, however, is that if you are a beginner, or even if you have already reached an intermediate level, finding similarities between English and Spanish words might not always be easy. A good Spanish language course, however, should point at those similarities, as well as guide you through the most efficient vocabulary learning techniques. To show you how much faster you can learn new Spanish words by associating them to other words you are familiar with, here are twenty-five everyday Spanish words. In brackets I have given you the English translation and on the right is the English word of the same origin as the Spanish:lavadora (washing machine) – lavatorymicroondas (microwave) – undulatecongelador (freezer) – to congealbebida (drink) – beveragecaña (small beer) – canecopa (glass) – cupmanta (blanket) – mantlevino (wine) – vineyardtinto (red [wine]) – tinctureterraza (balcony) – terracemarisco (shellfish) – marinaquerer (to want) – to querycarne (meat) – carnivoreprimero (first) premiercasa (house) – casinotener (to have) – tenantantes (before) – antenatalequipaje (luggage) – to equiphabitación (room) – cohabitationlavaplatos (dishwasher) – lavatory, platemandar (to order) – mandateordenador (computer) – orderencantado (delighted) – enchantedlibre (vacant) – libertycarta (menu) – cartographyCan you connect other Spanish words you know to English words of the same origin? What about ‘pasillo’, ‘fumador’, ‘último’, ‘pescado’, ’suavizante’, ’sombrilla’?
Posts Tagged ‘spanish’
Learn Spanish fast – find similarities between English and Spanish words
January 7th, 2010Rocket Japanese Review – Learn Japanese Fast Online
January 7th, 2010Most of us would like to learn a new language, which can be very useful especially when you travel from one country to another for business or other reasons. One of the languages that people would most likely want to learn is Japanese and the easiest way for people to get access to a Japanese learning course is online. Rocket Japanese is one such online Japanese learning course. It was developed by Rocket Languages which sell other popular language learning tools such as Rocket Spanish, Rocket French and Rocket Chinese. Rocket Japanese is a very useful interactive audio lesson which anyone can easily follow. You do not need to sign up for courses which will require you to show up in their classes everyday and will take up much of your time. You can go at your own pace in the comfort of your own home. Learning Japanese has never been easy with this interactive audio course, because it is the closest thing that you could get to a one-on-one lesson. Rocket Japanese boasts of 31 lessons with each one as long as about 25 minutes. The audio course provides easy lessons on conversational Japanese which you can easily follow. If you are a traveler and would like to visit Japan sometime, or if you would just like to learn a new language, then the course offered by Rocket Japanese would be perfect for you. The audio course will provide you the basic things that you need to know about Japanese grammar, vocabulary and even culture. They bundle in a few software such as MegaVocab which trains you on the Japanese vocabulary, MegaAudio learning audio software where you can learn to speak and recognize over 1000 commonly spoken Japanese words. MegaHiragana is another bundled software that trains you on the Japanese handwriting. There is also a forum as well as technical support provided. Although there are other language courses online such as Rosetta Stone, Rocket Japanese is cheaper and it provides a good foundation to learn Japanese fast online.
Why Some People Don’t Want to Learn Spanish
January 6th, 2010Learning Spanish can be fun and interesting. It can make you comfortable in situations where you would be lost without knowing the language. Yet, not everyone has the desire to learn Spanish. These people have several reasons for their reluctance.
Some people feel that they are too old to learn Spanish. They realize that children learn language faster than anyone else. This makes them hesitant to even try. They think it’s a lost cause, so why even try?
Actually, people of all ages can learn Spanish. It is true that the young are better language learners. However, as has been said, “There’s always someone better than you and someone worse. ” Just because you can’t be the best, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Maybe you will learn Spanish better than most adults if you only try.
People often decline to learn Spanish because they think that they won’t be traveling to any Spanish speaking countries in their lifetimes. First of all, you never know what’s around the corner. You could even win a trip to such a country. You never know what might take you there.
Second, there are reasons to learn Spanish even if you never speak a word of it. You can enjoy Spanish literature and movies. You can take pride in knowing the words to songs that others can only stumble through. You can watch Spanish language news and learn Spanish politics and culture. It can be a fun pastime.
For some, it seems like a monumental task to learn Spanish. They believe it will be one of the hardest things they ever do. They don’t want to work so hard at something voluntarily. They feel that Spanish is a hard language to learn.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Spanish is one of the easiest languages. In Spanish, if you know what a word sounds like, you almost always know how it’s spelled. If you know how it’s spelled, you can pronounce it easily.
Some of the words of Spanish are in common use in the vocabulary of most Americans. Others are just slight variations. Of course, you will have to deal with gender of nouns, which is actually easy. Verb conjugations are harder, but still are easy to understand if taught properly. If you want to learn Spanish, you probably can.
Money is a stumbling block for some people. They feel that to learn Spanish they must shell out a huge amount of money to schools and teachers. They know they aren’t that well off, so they give up.
Although there are expensive ways to learn Spanish, there are less expensive ways as well. Some community classes are very nearly free. If you like, you can check out books to learn Spanish from your local library. Some libraries even carry language learning CD’s as well.
If you’re negative, you can always find a reason not to do something. However, if you’re positive minded, you can learn Spanish without a lot of difficulty or expense. You only have to make up your mind that you want to do it.
