Problem
I've been trying to learn Spanish for years, but not consistently. Which books have I used?
Answer
I went to my shelves and was surprised. Years ago I bought Usborne First Hundred Words in Spanish sticker book, large format, ideal for children and beginners. I can see from the stickers how far I got with each lesson. You can use the book to teach yourself, your children, or somebody else who needs help or babysitting.
This is how children learn to speak. Researchers have analysed language learning and found that it is consistent across several languages which are like English, learning nouns first. (However, I seem to remember that some languages learn verbs, doing words first.)
Babsitting
Why did I never finish? I did not have a clear goal with a date (such as an exam to pass at the end of the year). I did not have a babysitter. A babysitter? For whom? For myself, as a pupil, a learner.
I shall make up a new word. A babysiteacher. When I taught as a home tutor, I was often not so much a teacher as a babsiteacher.
If the mother did not speak English and wanted to escort a young child, she sat behind. For example, a Japanese mother learned alongside the pupil, but the pupil got the undivided attention.
Parents would bring me older pupils who would not get homework done at home. Mother wanted to go shopping or collect another child. My job was supposedly to teach. But it was to ensure that the pupil completed the homework assignment.
StoryAbout Teaching Languages
I realized this for the first time when teaching a teenager whose mother worked at Heathrow airport. I was her English teacher. My job was to see that she wrote an English sonnet for homework. She just had to sit at a desk and do it, not make coffee, not phone a friend, neither she nor I did any of this during the hour. (I'll tell this story in my next post.) That's what you need to learn a language, whether it's English or Spanish, it's five minutes a day or an hour a week, nonstop until you finish the course and the year. Whether you get an O level or A level or any other qualification, the test is that you can speak or at least understand the language when you read it or hear it, preferably both.
Back to the Spanish. The other Usborne book, Usborne Spanish for beginners, is smaller, so I could carry it around more easily in a copious handbag, any day, or on a holiday to Spain or anywhere else. It has whole sentences.
What is missing? If you are in the country, or with Spanish people, you can pick up the accent from them.
Speaking Spanish
I go to a Toastmasters speakers group in London which has a Spanish speaking member. Even listening to her speaking English helps me to attune to the intonation. I am considering starting a polyglot Spanish
Usborne books which have several words on a page with a theme.
Now I am learning the first 100 words on Duolingo's Tinycards. It is better to use the regular Duolingo system, which gives you sentences. Then you can hold a conversation. But if I am short of time, I feel like using the Tinycards.
Emails arrive every day to remind you to do the assignment. I must not interrupt my other work. But I can take a coffee break and learn my Spanish at the same time.
Doing Tinycards I can see where I am making mistakes. I also find ways to remember.I was learning the word este for this. I kept forgetting it. The reversing card would come up again, then the line to fill in. Finally, when I had a multiple choice of three words I looked at the word construction. Obviously the word for this was not el or por. Por is for (and two other meanings). I only have to remember por and for to fix this word in my brain with the matching English word. The O and R are common to both words, in the right order. But what about este? E S T E. THIS. T H I S.
Let's look at that again. E S T E. T H I S. Not tes, not these, but this. Este - this. I got it.
Spanish - English
por - for
este - this
English - Spanish
for - por
this - este
It is particularly important to get the word exactly right if you are also learning Italian or Portuguese.
The sticker book says, not suitable for children under 36 months. Contains small parts.
You could buy the book and keep it out of reach for later, learn from it and photocopy the pages to read to a toddler, without having to worry that they might grab it when you were distracted.
The big book cost me £3.99. I must have paid £8.25 for the other. (Those were the days!) It seems a lot for a book to me today. But less than paying a private teacher for a one hour lesson.
Useful websites:
Amazon books
www.amazon.co.uk
www.amazon.com
Usborne books:
https://www.usborne.com/quicklinks/eng/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?area=L (Languages)
www.duolingo.com/courses
www.duolingo.com/courses
www.tinycards.duoingo.com
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, language teacher.
I've been trying to learn Spanish for years, but not consistently. Which books have I used?
Answer
I went to my shelves and was surprised. Years ago I bought Usborne First Hundred Words in Spanish sticker book, large format, ideal for children and beginners. I can see from the stickers how far I got with each lesson. You can use the book to teach yourself, your children, or somebody else who needs help or babysitting.
This is how children learn to speak. Researchers have analysed language learning and found that it is consistent across several languages which are like English, learning nouns first. (However, I seem to remember that some languages learn verbs, doing words first.)
Babsitting
Why did I never finish? I did not have a clear goal with a date (such as an exam to pass at the end of the year). I did not have a babysitter. A babysitter? For whom? For myself, as a pupil, a learner.
I shall make up a new word. A babysiteacher. When I taught as a home tutor, I was often not so much a teacher as a babsiteacher.
If the mother did not speak English and wanted to escort a young child, she sat behind. For example, a Japanese mother learned alongside the pupil, but the pupil got the undivided attention.
Parents would bring me older pupils who would not get homework done at home. Mother wanted to go shopping or collect another child. My job was supposedly to teach. But it was to ensure that the pupil completed the homework assignment.
StoryAbout Teaching Languages
I realized this for the first time when teaching a teenager whose mother worked at Heathrow airport. I was her English teacher. My job was to see that she wrote an English sonnet for homework. She just had to sit at a desk and do it, not make coffee, not phone a friend, neither she nor I did any of this during the hour. (I'll tell this story in my next post.) That's what you need to learn a language, whether it's English or Spanish, it's five minutes a day or an hour a week, nonstop until you finish the course and the year. Whether you get an O level or A level or any other qualification, the test is that you can speak or at least understand the language when you read it or hear it, preferably both.
Back to the Spanish. The other Usborne book, Usborne Spanish for beginners, is smaller, so I could carry it around more easily in a copious handbag, any day, or on a holiday to Spain or anywhere else. It has whole sentences.
What is missing? If you are in the country, or with Spanish people, you can pick up the accent from them.
Speaking Spanish
I go to a Toastmasters speakers group in London which has a Spanish speaking member. Even listening to her speaking English helps me to attune to the intonation. I am considering starting a polyglot Spanish
Usborne books which have several words on a page with a theme.
Now I am learning the first 100 words on Duolingo's Tinycards. It is better to use the regular Duolingo system, which gives you sentences. Then you can hold a conversation. But if I am short of time, I feel like using the Tinycards.
Emails arrive every day to remind you to do the assignment. I must not interrupt my other work. But I can take a coffee break and learn my Spanish at the same time.
Doing Tinycards I can see where I am making mistakes. I also find ways to remember.I was learning the word este for this. I kept forgetting it. The reversing card would come up again, then the line to fill in. Finally, when I had a multiple choice of three words I looked at the word construction. Obviously the word for this was not el or por. Por is for (and two other meanings). I only have to remember por and for to fix this word in my brain with the matching English word. The O and R are common to both words, in the right order. But what about este? E S T E. THIS. T H I S.
Let's look at that again. E S T E. T H I S. Not tes, not these, but this. Este - this. I got it.
Spanish - English
por - for
este - this
English - Spanish
for - por
this - este
It is particularly important to get the word exactly right if you are also learning Italian or Portuguese.
The sticker book says, not suitable for children under 36 months. Contains small parts.
You could buy the book and keep it out of reach for later, learn from it and photocopy the pages to read to a toddler, without having to worry that they might grab it when you were distracted.
The big book cost me £3.99. I must have paid £8.25 for the other. (Those were the days!) It seems a lot for a book to me today. But less than paying a private teacher for a one hour lesson.
Useful websites:
Amazon books
www.amazon.co.uk
www.amazon.com
Usborne books:
https://www.usborne.com/quicklinks/eng/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?area=L (Languages)
www.duolingo.com/courses
www.duolingo.com/courses
www.tinycards.duoingo.com
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, language teacher.
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