martes, 3 de mayo de 2011

Great Spanish Video Lesson - How to make Mexican Salsa

Hola amigos!  I am writing today to show you a video lesson I found on YouTube which shows you how to make a delicious Mexican salsa.  The Spanish is a little advanced for beginners, but if you follow along closely you should be able to pick it up.  Let me know what you think.  Oh, I've also found that they have some really nice Spanish video on their site.  Check it out and post a comment below.

Important tricks to help you learn conversational Spanish like a champion

In this article, I would like to share a few techniques I have found helpful in my efforts to learn conversational Spanish.
When I first got started learning Spanish, I thought having the ability to toss around a few key Spanish terms was a lot of fun.  Come to think of it, I would predict that you already have a decent “hola” or “cómo estás” trapped in the old memory bank.  But what does it take to crank it up a notch, to where you can share your opinions and ideas in Spanish without tripping over yourself.  In essence, how can you successfully increase your ability to learn conversational Spanish and never look back?

If you took Spanish classes growing up, you’re probably aware that teaching Spanish through traditional techniques often falls short of getting us to the level of fluency that we know we deserve.  Stacks of grammar lessons, vocabulary lists, word games, and practicing with another non-native partner just don't work well enough.

If our goal is to learn conversational Spanish we must expose ourselves to the natural language.  That’s the "magic formula"!  The truth is that it's imperative that we have access to native speakers talking in a natural way.  By listening to natural conversations every day, and reviewing their associated transcripts, we begin to develop an “ear” for the language, and start adding words and phrases to our internal vault of Spanish words.  In no time at all, you will find yourself picking up the language as spoken by real native speakers. Fortunately, in our very own "information era", it's not even necessary to take a trip to have access to native speakers. By using pre-record audio conversations, we are able to achieve the immersion experience without leaving our own home!

I can tell you from personal experience that (quicker than you think), after listening and reading transcripts, and adding to the number of words you recognize, you will find yourself becoming much more effective in actually speaking the words you know.  This technique of listening first is called the “input method”.  As you start learning, the Spanish that is input into your brain (listened and read) it is actually much more important than the output (what is spoken).

If this is all a bit too broad for your tastes, let me introduce you to 7 concrete steps to clarify both what you need to do to truly learn conversational Spanish, as well as how you can make room for them in your hectic activities:
  • step 1 - find material: first things first, download a bunch of authentic Spanish conversations of native speakers and save them on your mp3 player or burn them to a CD
  • step 2 - wake up to Spanish: in the morning when your alarm wakes you up, hit snooze, grab your mp3 player and listen to a few interesting Spanish conversations - these can be very simple, short, or long based on your current Spanish level
  • step 3 - listen in your car: on the way to and from work, listen to the conversation again, or a different conversation if you already have a grasp on the first one(s)
  • step 4 - listen on the go: while mowing the lawn, talking a walk, or working out, listen to more real Spanish conversations at your current level
  • step 5 - review with transcript: finally, before you go to sleep, review your favorite conversation(s) from the day once more while following along with their associated transcripts.
  • step 6 - highlight and save words to remember: on your night time review, highlight and save the words that are new to you to review later.  these are the words you should add to your passive vocabulary
  • step 7 - rinse and repeat: wake up the next day, rinse and repeat.  pay special attention to keep an ear out for the words you highlighted and saved as they are used in additional conversations.  How much you listen is totally up to you, but the more you listen and review, the faster you will learn
By sticking with this system and making Spanish input a part of your daily life, you will quickly find yourself able to start speaking the words you know and steadily advancing towards lasting conversational fluency! If you'd like to jump right in and grab some conversations available for download, feel free to check out these natural Spanish conversations. Hope this article has helped, let me know if you have any questions or come across any great Spanish learning techniques!