I'm taking a conversational Spanish class!

[Leah]

I am so so excited! I just started this week and cannot wait to practice what we are learning.

The school that I work in has a very large Spanish-speaking population, so I feel that this course will be very beneficial to me.

Does anyone here speak Spanish? And would anyone be willing to throw some words or conversations my way to help me practice??

[Gemma]

I don't speak Spanish but I'd love to learn it. I did it when I was at school but that was many years ago now lol!

[calvinawalsh]

Spanish: Que bueno! Yo hablo un pocito de espanol. (This should have different accent marks, but I don't know how to access them on the keyboard.)

English: That's great. I speak a little Spanish.

I think Spanish is one of the easier languages to learn. Once you learn the sounds of the vowels and consonants and how they may be different than English, you can easily read almost anything (although you may not comprehend the meaning).

The best way to learn conversational Spanish is to 1. Listen to native speakers 2. Mimic what you hear. In listening you will think "Wow, they talk so fast." The reason is that the "rhythm" of Spanish is different than English. What do I mean by that? When you pronounce Spanish words every syllable receives the same amount of stress...this makes it sound very staccato-like. The technical term is "Syllable timed". English on the other hand is a "Stress timed" language meaning that when we say a sentence, we put stress on certain words depending on what we want to convey. That may sound too technical but it helps to know this as you learn to mimic how a native speaker speaks. Hope this helps a little!

So what have you learned so far? Go ahead and practice.

[Giseli Freitas]

In Brazil we speak Portuguese, but I can speak some Spanish as well because the words are very similar to each other. I need to learn how to speak in English.
En Brasil se habla Portugués, pero yo hablo un poco de Español también porque las palabras son muy similares entre sí. Tengo que aprender a hablar Inglés.

[Kara]

I love Spanish! I had a minor in college and spent a year living in Ecuador in 2004, and I miss not being able to use it. I really, really wanted my kids to learn Spanish by attending an immersion school, but so far, it hasn't worked out - at least for the first two. (They have to start out in kindy.)

So excited for you!

[lovely1m]

How fun! I took German in school and so want to get back into it again.

[Leah]

Oh wow. I totally missed these replies!

So my last class was last Wednesday and to be honest, I'm thankful that we're done. 9:30pm is too late for me to still be "thinking". I learned lots, if I was using it for travel. But I'm not. I am going to be taking another convo Spanish class, starting in a couple of weeks, that is being taught my a co-worker that took courses and taught herself to speak in Spanish (her spouse is non-English speaking). She will be gearing this upcoming course towards classroom conversation and communicating to families within the school. I'm excited!

[SuzyB]

I'd love to learn Spanish. I tried to teach myself using a CD kit and book but think learning in a classroom environment would be better for me, if I had the time that is!