A new way of learning languages came to my attention. Called toucan. Free. That's good. Nothing to lose, except a little wasted time. I thought, try anything once.
I installed it. It's wonderful! You install the app. You choose a language.
I thought of installing two or three. But that might confuse it. And me. Stick to one. I chose Spanish.
You can apply it to websites you read regularly, which in my case in mainly the news.
So up come my regular news pages. In the second or third story, a word or two are changed into Spanish, in blue. From the context, most of the Spanish words' meanings are obvious.
It was only a day later that I discovered that when you click your mouse on the blue word, up pops the translation. You can use that to translate a word whose meaning is not obvious. You might want to check you have understood correctly, or for a similar sounding word to the translation you have chosen if there are several synonyms in English.
For example, I saw the word enorme and translated it as enormous. The translation which came up was huge.
Below are some similar sounding words I learned today.
What is the point of it all? So that even if you don't make time for a daily Spanish lesson, when indulging in time-wasting web page browsing or reading the news, you are learning some Spanish.
Pro and Con
But it is only teach vocabulary, not grammar! Maybe, but with a huge vocabulary, growing, that leaves you more time to spend looking at grammar. Since Spanish Grammar is similar, most romance languages are Subject-verb-object, it is not hard to read a Spanish sentence if you know vocabulary.
The vocabulary you learn is from the sort of sources you want to read. In my case it is for reading newspapers, current affairs, health pages and travel pages.
You do learn a little vocabulary. For example, when an adjective is after the noun in Spanish, when the adjective would be first in English. Take the Spanish for mental health.
carrera entera = entire career
Today I went back to the login page and discovered you can save words you want to remember by clicking on a little icon.
That is ten words learned today. All recorded on a page for revision.
Language Notebook For Revising When Travelling
You could also keep a notebook with the words in Spanish and English starting on the first page, and English Spanish on the right hand page of the double page spread.
Label the front of the notebook. Leave it open to glance at when waiting for meals, drinking coffee, or waiting for a train, bus or plane. To calm yourself when on a plane waiting for take-off, look at your list of Spanish words.
Here are some of the words I learned to recognize and guess today:
Spanish - English
1 carera - career
2 carera entera - entire career
3 en - in
4 enorme - enormous/huge
5 entera - entire
6 fraude - fraud
7 (el) gobierno - (the) government
8 noche - night
9 presidente - president
10 ya - already
English- Spanish
already - ya
career - carera
enormous/huge - enorme
entire - entera
entire career - carera entera
fraud - fraude
(the) government - (el) gobierno
in - en
night - noche
president - presidente
P.S.
You can also visit meetings of Spanish speaking Toastmasters club worldwide, in Spain, Spanish islands, and South America. If you are still a beginner, try reading their welcome pages first.If you want to hear Spanish, listen to their meetings. When you are reading to speak, you can join a club, pay the membership, be granted a speaking slot at a meeting to give your first 4 to 6 minute speech about yourself in Spanish.
Useful Website
https://jointoucan.com/welcome/[step]?step=overview
Author of this post
The Author
About the Author Angela Lansbury
BIOGRAPHY
Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5
The Author of several books including Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.
Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com
dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com
translateforfun.blogspot.com
Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President
Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time
Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;
Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;
Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.
More details from Toastmasters International find a club.
Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.
Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.
Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.
Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.
Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.
Language and speech workshops in Singapore.
Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.
Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.
Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.
Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.
Please share links to your favourite posts.
Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.
Quick Quotations
Who Said What When
