This Blog Was Hacked, Is Fixed Now! is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

Venezuela... Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I had the chance to chat with a woman from Venezuela who lives part of the year in our little town in Colorado. The moment she realized that I had lived in Mexico, she started speaking Spanish and of course I followed. I immediately admitted that while my pronunciation is far from perfect, I do love to speak Spanish.

Latin American Spanish has many forms, though, and I soon realized that she was dropping the ends of some of her words and doing other things that seemed strange to my ears, being used to Mexican Spanish.

I had no trouble understanding her. When English speakers learn Spanish, we tend to learn either Spanish as spoken in Spain, or a generic Latin American version. But just as we can understand people from England, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand — sometimes with a few laughs and misunderstandings — chances are that whatever version of Spanish you learn originally will enable you to converse in any country in the Spanish-speaking world. It may take some adjusting at first, admittedly.

This topic came up again today, when a friend came over for lunch. He learned his Spanish mostly in Denver, going to parties and events designed for getting native speakers and learners together. “I find the Mexican accent the hardest,” he admitted. I don’t even notice it!

Well, I got curious and did a bit of websurfing. Here are a couple of articles on Latin American Spanish:

http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/latin_american_spanish.htm

This one describes many different regions and what the Spanish is like there.

And here’s another: http://www.spanish.bz/dialects.htm

I enjoyed them both.

Latin American Spanish Has Many Variations is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

Since we came back a year ago from five years’ living in Mexico, I have been caught up in the English-speaking world where I live… fixing up our new house, serving on the library board, and doing a lot of writing for my other websites. I’ve been remiss here because adding Spanish language practice to everything else was just a bit much.

Puerto Vallarta at night. Image via Wikipedia

My husband has been much more active in using his Spanish. It helped that he spent a couple of weeks in Puerto Vallarta in January. Basking in the sun with a margarita at hand? Nope. He was teaching earthbag building to a group of Mexicans, mostly in Spanish! (The link goes to a blog post I did about that on another blog of mine.) And just today he mentioned that he is having a long email correspondence in Spanish with a Mexican man who has been doing earthbag building around Oaxaca someplace.

So he’s had a reason to use his Spanish and I have scarcely thought in it for ages.

Till last week, as I said.

We were out doing errands in another town and we came home a different way. That route took us past a Mexican restaurant we used to go to several years ago. Would it still be there? We stopped in, plenty hungry. Luckily it was still there, with the same varied buffet of all kinds of delicious smelling things. I even know the names in Spanish of many of the dishes!

As we came in, a Mexican-looking woman smiled and waved at us. We recognized her as someone we had known casually for many years. She hadn’t seen us since we got back from Mexico, and it was possibly even more delicious than the food to be greeted in that warm, effusive Mexican way!

We went through the buffet and joined her and a friend she was with. We chatted away in Spanish and English. She is American, of a large family from the Monterrey area of Mexico. Spanish was her first language, and as she saw that we could follow her, she went faster and faster. But soon she and her friend left, on their way to do a bunch of errands themselves.

Our Spanish didn’t stop there. I chatted with the waitress at length. It was such fun that my motivation for learning Spanish has definitely gone up a notch!

So if you have times when your motivation drops, it’s natural. Just try to find something fun to do where you can speak a little Spanish with native speakers, and see what it does for you!

Learning Spanish When Motivation is Weak is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

It lists all the articles on the blog by category, so if you are looking for free ways to learn spanish, scroll down to the heading “Learn Spanish Online Free.” If you want to see everything I had to say about any particular program, look for its name.

I set up this blog sitemap so that if you click on an article you might like to read, it will open in a new tab. So you can easily open several and then go check them out… at least, that is how I like to explore other sites!

You can also check out the sitemap for my main site as well; it is much shorter.

The Most Useful Page on This Blog? is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

You could do something as simple as learning one word a day. If you do that, make yourself a pile of paper or cardboard flashcards and review your vocabulary the next day and a week later, at least. That will get you started!

Or you could do something more intensive, like getting yourself a program and using it to jumpstart your practice. Here are the reviews of my two favorite programs: the Fluenz Spanish review and the Rocket Spanish review. The first of these is a multimedia program to use at your computer, and the second is at its core a group of sound files you can use anywhere, along with a group of materials to use at your computer.

But you can read about them at the reviews. Another New Year’s tip is to get a calendar, or download a free one online… I just goggled “ms word 2011 calendar templates” and quickly downloaded and printed one out. a page for each month. I am going to use this to keep track of my blog posts, not my Spanish, but maybe I will print out another set and write my words of the day on the calendar. Hmm, if I do that, it will go on the fridge door! Anyway, you might like to do that too.

As for the blog, I am back into it, working ahead now on articles about my favorite programs for learning Spanish (Rocket and Fluenz) and some others, both paid and free.

Whatever you do, Happy New Year! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

A New Year Is Coming, Great Time to Revive Your Spanish! is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

We can’t go to Mexico this winter; I have obligations here in the US, being on a new library board mainly. And frankly I am a bit traveled out! But I do think I am gearing up to get back into practicing my Spanish. Every now and then I can chat with someone here, but I do find that native speakers of Spanish here in the US are less accustomed to listening to American accents like mine than were my friends in Jalisco, the state of Mexico we lived in.

So I will be playing around online with sites like spanishnewsbites.com and others, and reporting here on my progress!

Missing Speaking Spanish is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

From what I observe, people  tend to lead rather hectic lives. This includes so-called “retired” people. It is easy to be scattered. And this makes it less likely that people will do their Spanish lessons as much as they thought they would.

I admit that I have always been an incorrigible  optimist about how much I could do in a given amount of time, and as a result I am always juggling too much. Because I’ve been like this at least since high school, I’ve had a lifelong interest in time management. I have taught private classes and workshops for corporations on the subject. I use lists and prioritizing every day — even on my days off! (My husband thinks I am nuts, but that is another matter!)

So if you were to ask me about the average user of  Rocket Spanish, Fluenz Spanish, Rosetta Stone, other programs, or the various websites I’ve reviewed. How much do I think they learn? I would say, I doubt they learn much.

I doubt they make the time to study. I doubt they review within 24 hours for maximum retention. I doubt they know that they should review for things to go from short-term to long-term memory. I doubt they focus. I doubt they pick up again if they stop for a while. I doubt they make it a priority to do what they say they want to.

Call me cynical if you will. I just think that’s the reality. We have so may things pulling us in different directions.

And a large part of what I do with this website is to try to combat all those forces leading toward inertia. I was thrilled last week when I had  an email l from a personal friend who lives in Mexico and  has recently started studying Spanish again because of this site.

Now, the reason I have been wondering about this mythical creature, an average user? The  Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the US government has just passed some regulations that websites that recommend or sell products must tell readers what results the average user can expect. The intention here is to protect the gullible from shysters, but as I see it, it really is not possible to know how much Spanish an average user will learn.

Even if you use the programs diligently, I can guarantee that you will not ever speak just like a native! I do believe that you can learn a lot of Spanish fast, like before a trip, but only if you are motivated and really work at it.

Another part of the FTC regulations requires websites to indicate if they make money from sales. I have had this on my About Us page all along, but now I am adding it to every page of the site. It’s on the blog now, down low on the right. I make a commission if you buy from Amazon, Rocket Languages, Fluenz, Yabla, and maybe one or two other small places I have forgotten.  I don’t make a commission if you go to the free places, but I still put a lot of effort into finding good ones.

This income enables me to work on this website. If I didn’t receive it, I would have to use my writing skills in some other way. I appreciate your patronage, and I exclaim happily when I see that I’ve made sales, both for the income and because I am happy people are acquiring good tools. Last month was record-breaking, and I was very grateful.

I really do not believe that my opinions are shaped by these commissions. I’ve been evaluating information for decades, in public libraries and in my own business, and I am professional about it. I care more about the quality of a product than about how much I make if it sells.

Okay, enough of a rant.

If you consider yourself an average user, or if you don’t, your opinions as usual are welcome! (BUT if you put your website in, I am much less likely to approve your comments unless they are lengthy and well considered, as I’m getting a lot of “comment spam” lately.)

How Effective Are These Programs for Average Users? is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

Now if you are an introvert, this may not exactly thrill you. But there still may be something in it for you.

When I was twelve, I starred in a play that was put on at a summer camp I went to. I was exhilarated and empowered by the experience, even though I didn’t continue my dramatic career after that. Or did I, unknowingly?

Now  I think back to six or seven years ago, when we started traveling some in Mexico and gradually decided to try living here. I felt that exact same sense of exhilaration and empowerment when I succeeded in having a friendly chat with a Mexican… here’s an example from my website, Mexico with Heart, when we standing in a long line at the border to process our documents and enter Mexico.

As we talked with Mexicans, we were beginning the process of listening, listening, listening to Spanish, letting the musical sounds just be a flow at times, while at other times, many of the words would stand out.

Several of the people we chatted with were Mexicans who lived in the U.S. and were on their way to visit family. One woman spoke Spanish quite slowly for me, and then as she saw that I understood, she picked up a lot of speed. We were in line behind the last people in the American caravan. A woman from that group, directly in front of us, farted. My new friend lowered her voice and said something to me about it not smelling like apples. I wondered if that was an expression in Mexico for that occasion or if it was her own phrase.

Not the most elegant example, I admit.

But if you are struggling with learning to speak Spanish, try thinking of it as performance and see if that helps.

I also think that I have probably underestimated the value of Spanish language classes previously. They do provide that performance opportunity, as well as the chance to make friends with others who share your interest in Spanish.

The play’s the thing!

Speaking Spanish as a Performance is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

One woman we met spoke Spanish because she was born in the US of Mexican parents. Her husband is from northern Mexico, and we spoke Spanish with him too. Once, when we happened to run into them in a store, they introduced us to another friend of theirs, a man who is from Jalisco, the state we live in here in Mexico. We were quite a jolly bunch, chorusing “Viva Jalisco!”

There were any number of other people we chatted with in Spanish. Sometimes I would overhear people speaking Spanish and would strike up a conversation, or at other times, we chatted with people we had known before we came to live in Mexico. I was interested to notice two things:

1. A lot of the people who were born in the US , or went there very young, tend to have an American accent in speaking Spanish.
2. They also tended to have a little more trouble following my Spanish, even though I certainly have a (thick) American accent. I imagine that this is because they have virtually no experience in listening to foreigners speaking Spanish… after all, in the US, English is the first language! Also, I think their vocabularies may be smaller than that of the average Mexican.

I was amused when we chatted with one woman we had knownbefore we moved down here; she had given Kelly some lessons in conversational Spanish.  This summer, she spoke slowly and carefully at first, and then when I indicated I was following everything she said, she shifted into high gear as only a Latina can! I still followed the gist but did miss a few words.

Anyway, it was fun, and now that we are back in Mexico, we are speaking a lot more Spanish again. Actually, in the US, Kelly and I continued the habit we have of using a lot of everyday Spanish words in interacting with each other.  Once in the grocery store this summer, I called out to Kelly down the aisle in Spanish, “Mi querido, quieres chocolate hoy?” I did get a couple of funny looks from other shoppers. Oh well.

We flew from Denver to Phoenix, then Phoenix to Guadalajara. On the second flight, we had a chance to start chatting in Spanish, as most of the passengers were Mexican and we had a delay leaving Phoenix.  And in the taxi from the airport to our home in Mexico, our Spanish got a great workout with the  friendly driver.

Speaking Spanish in the US this Summer is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

Actually, last fall in California, I found chances to speak Spanish: here’s a story I tell about chatting in Spanish in a department store in San Francisco — the story is down the page a ways. So I expect I will speak some Spanish this time too.

Thanks to the software I use for this blog (WordPress), I’ve got articles written  that will appear on this site through our September return.

I am cutting back to every two weeks, though, instead of weekly. For those of you who get weekly emails telling you what’s new in the blog, I *think* those will automatically not go out if there is nothing new. We’ll see; I will tweak it later if necessary. (If you don’t get those emails and would like to, just sign up for my ebook on how to learn Spanish, and you’ll get an email where you have to approve of it being sent to you, and then you’ll not only be on the list, you will also have the ebook!)

Someone emailed me this morning asking me to write more about my experiences in Mexico. I’m not sure if he knew that I have a huge website, over 500 pages, at Mexico-with-heart.com — so if you are interested in that topic, take a look! I just overhauled the site and there is a lot there.

Off to the USA for the Summer is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.