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 ‘Words’
Learn Spanish fast – find similarities between English and Spanish words
January 7th, 2010An Average Graduate KnowS Only 6000 Words In Chinese Language
January 3rd, 2010Is it really hard to learn Chinese as a foreign language?Is it true Chinese is difficult language to learn as a foreign language?Strictly speaking, it’s not so. Comparatively grammar in Chinese is much simpler than that of the European languages. At times, there is a complaint from English speakers that languages like Spanish have a perplexed grammar (masculine and feminine genders, verb conjugations, etc),, but the Chinese language has virtually no syllable structure or grammatical paradigms either to by heart. Each word has a fixed and single form: verbs do not take prefixes or suffixes showing the tense or the person, number, or gender of the subject. Nouns do not take prefixes or suffixes showing their number or their case. I do not mean that Chinese has no grammar; What I want to say is Chinese grammar is primarily concerned with arrangement of words to form meaningful sentences as they inflectional morphology. Plus each Chinese character pronounced in one syllable, that’s why when watching Chinese movies, you find that a few words can be translated into a syllable mapping in the English subtitle. Probably, you would say that the above is far from enough to convince you. Alright, there is another encouraging and definitive proof with me for you. A couple of days ago I fortunately came across one piece of inspiring news when reading Beijing Times. Now you can be allowed to read 90% of the current Chinese publication with less than 1,000 Chinese characters as per the survey conducted by the Education Ministry and Language Commission of China. The survey’s claim is based on 900 million characters used in more than 8. 9 million files selected from newspapers, magazines, the Internet and television. Nowadays, the Chinese media is using fewer characters, and to understand 90 percent of the content in publications, you need only to know about 900 of around 50,000 individual characters that are made up of Written Chinese. On the other hand, how many words are there in English? Nearly 100,000 and still increasing. There is one significant reason for this and that is Chinese characters focus on meaning, not pronunciation like in English, and further, many characters are primitive and a few are found only once in the entire history of the written language . Only about 6,000 are known by an average graduate of Chinese university. Now, would those all above relieve you a little bit in your Chinese language study? Hope so, but do not misinterpret this. I do not intend to convince you that Chinese is very easy to learn or other languages like English are much harder. What I mean is that Chinese is not as difficult as you imagined or heard about, but different from your mother tongue, but difference does not mean tough necessarily, Isn’t it?What it means is that Chinese is certainly simpler than you imagined or heard about, it’s just very dissimilar from your mother tongue, but dissimilar does not mean difficult necessarily, Doesn’t it? And that hard Chinese idea won’t be of any help in your study. Trust yourself, once that fear factor is overcome, the language is actually not that hard to learn. Wish you good luck with your Chinese language study.
Learn French Words – Top Tips for Faster French
December 19th, 2009If you’re looking for a fast and easy way to learn French words then the good news is that it can indeed be easier than the traditional methods you’ve probably been through so far. Learning French words certainly shouldn’t be a boring, repetitive challenge. For years many people have gone through the “read-and-repeat” process which is a shame because for real French language success all you need to know are a few language learning tips.
The first and most important tip is consistency. It’s not always easy to dedicate a fixed amount of time, but whilst ten minutes learning French is better than none at all you’ll absorb much more of the French language if you can apply yourself in a structured manner. This can be going to French lessons (something I highly recommend), listening to a CD or MP3 while you’re on the move, setting aside an hour each evening for home study, any of a whole bunch of methods. Sound boring? Don’t let it be. Mix up the methods. Find ways to challenge yourself. Learn French related to your favorite passtime or hobby. What do you like to do when you go out? How would you handle that in French?
Another top tip is what I like to call saturation. Learn French words via sound recordings at every opportunity you can. Get a CD or MP3 that you can listen to in the car, on the train, around the house. Watch French films – even if you don’t understand them at first you’ll be amazed how quickly you pick things up. Likewise if you can receive French radio, listen to that too – something you can probably have running on your PC. Even if you’re not listening directly to it, even if you’re not concentrating on what’s being said, some of it will sink in. Your subconscious mind will learn for you – without any effort on your part. I’ve even had French playing quietly as I doze off to sleep at night or to wake me in the morning – you might laugh, but it works!
So to learn French words successfully you do need to give it some serious consideration and effort. It needn’t cost you a lot of money and it needn’t take all your time and effort – that’s just hard work and nobody learns well if it’s hard work – but you do have to try a few things and find what’s right for you – then you need to do those things regularly.
Here’s an example that works really well for me. I like reading so now I always have a couple of books on the go, not just one – a novel or something I’m interested in written in English, and a French phrase book. I read one for a while, then the other. That way I don’t get bored. I also bought a little digital dictionary made by Franklin with the help of Larousse who are THE name in French dictionaries (you can get them at Amazon). It’s about the size of a mobile phone and has over 50,000 French words and phrases in it. It goes everywhere with me. Sometimes I use it for looking up French words I don’t understand when I’m out and about but quite often I’ll just sit and flick through the screens to teach myself a bit more. With it I can learn French words anywhere and any time I like.
