You cannot always translate phrases directly from English to Spanish and expect to get them right or make sense. By the same token, you cannot take words that sound the same in both languages and suppose they have the same meaning. That is why a course like our Visual Link Spanish™ program is so valuable – it teaches you the proper use of words, correct pronunciation, how to build sentences and actually communicate effectively in Spanish.

Are you ready for a heavy duty term in the world of language learning? It is the word “cognate.” A cognate is a word that looks similar in English and Spanish and has the same meaning in both of the languages. For example, the word “irregular” in Spanish and English is spelled the same, has the same meaning, and has a similar pronunciation. It is a cognate. There are many words in Spanish and English that are cognates and many words that are what we call “false cognates”. A false cognate is a word that looks the same in both languages, sounds similar, but has very different meanings. You have to watch out for “false cognates” in Spanish because they can really get you into some big trouble. Let me give you a fun though embarrassing example.

The English word “embarrassed” sounds and looks similar the Spanish word “embarazada.” Many people learning Spanish think that it has the same meaning. However, the Spanish word “embarazada” actually translates to “pregnant”! Let me tell you — there is a big difference between being “pregnant” and being “embarrassed.” The following story will illustrate this fact and hopefully make you aware of “false cognates” and save you from some potential embarrassment.

A large crowd had gathered together in an auditorium to listen to a lecture. There were some native Spanish speakers, who were dignitaries, sitting up on the stage. An American woman had been invited to speak to the audience as one of the guest speakers. As she began speaking, she introduced herself, and then to break the ice, she pointed to the person on the stage that had invited her to speak and said in Spanish, “I’m ‘embarazada’ and it’s his fault.” She meant to say “I’m embarrassed and it’s his fault,” but what she actually said was “I’m ‘pregnant’ and it’s his fault.” The crowd gasped and everyone was in total shock. You can imagine how she must have felt afterward when she found out what she had really said.  (FYI, the Spanish word for embarrassed is “vergüenza.”)

This is a pretty extreme example, but it is important to know that “false cognates” exist so you do not make the same type of mistakes. If you choose to learn Spanish with a Spanish course, it will generally teach you many of these false cognates as well as the correct way to say things in Spanish. As I mentioned before, a formal course like our Visual Link Spanish™ program will help keep you on-track and avoid cultural faux-pas, and potentially embarrassing situations.

To all of our international subscribers – are there any false cognates that we should be aware of in any of your languages? If so, we would love to hear about them. Please write me, at dave@spanishprograms.com.

To learn more about speaking Spanish, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

To learn more Spanish words, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

Parties (Fiestas – [fee-es-taws]) in Latin America are very different from parties in most English speaking countries. To give you a brief example, a friend from Latin America came to stay with my wife and me.  I told him that we were going to a family party. When we got there, we ate, chatted, and played games. My friend looked very confused and said, “Where is the dancing?” I said, “What you mean ‘Where’s the dancing?'” He said, “This is a party isn’t it? — So, where is the dancing?” To Latin Americans, the word “fiesta” (party) means that, among other activities, there will always be some dancing. He just couldn’t comprehend how there could be a “party” without “dancing.”

The Spanish culture is rich with vibrant music and dancing. They have salsa music, merengue [meh-rang-geh], tango and many other different types of music and dancing. It is a wonderful cultural experience to watch these types of dancing and hear their beautiful music.

If you ever have the chance to walk down the streets of a Latin American pueblo (village) in the evening, especially on a weekend, the air will probably be filled with Latin music. A typical setting is to see a house with the windows and doors wide open so you can hear the music from the street and see a true “fiesta” in progress — with dancing of course.

Any party in Latin America, whether it is with friends, relatives, or school groups will have music and dancing. If not, it is simply not a “fiesta.”

Remember, if you invite a native Spanish speaker to a “Fiesta” (party), you should either make sure there is dancing or be prepared to explain why our culture does not have dancing at “parties.”

Just a little side note, if any of you ever have any questions about our Level I Visual Link Spanish™ course, please let us know and we will answer them as responses in the newsletters each week. I do not personally know of any other Spanish courses available that provide this type of service. We are here to provide you complete support and help you to be successful in learning Spanish! To get a special discount on our course, click here.

To learn more about speaking Spanish, please visit out website www.spanishprograms.com

If you’re not prepared, greetings can be some of the most awkward situations in a different culture. Maybe you’ve noticed, that some cultures wave, some shake hands, others kiss once, some kiss several times, and others even give “high fives.” With Spanish speakers, the way people greet each other depends on the region. In this newsletter, I’ll give you some tips so you can be ready for different situations.

1. Friends and Relatives – Usually, when you greet friends and relatives in the Latin culture, here is what you do. When a male greets a female or when a female greets a female, they will softly touch both arms while moving their bodies to about 6 inches apart, then they cock their heads, put their cheeks together, and make a small kissing sound. Their lips don’t make any contact. This will only take about 1 or 2 seconds. For men greeting men, in most areas, it is completely customary to give each other a hug. This may seem unnatural for many people outside of the Latin culture, so you may want to practice hugging a few times before you gain any good friends or relatives that live in Latin areas.
2. Casual Parties – For a small group at someone’s house, you will usually follow the guideline for “Friends and Relatives.” In this situation you should let the host take the lead. You can follow their body language and be ready for a small hug and kiss on the cheek as explained above. In some countries and regions people may kiss two times — once on each cheek. If you are prepared to follow the lead of the Latin person, you will do great! Before some of you get too excited about all the kissing, these are the kind of hugs and kisses that are so common in the Latin culture that they have absolutely no romantic meaning.
3. Business – When you are in a business situation, you usually shake hands when greeting someone unless they are a long-time acquaintance or relative. In this case, follow the guidelines for “Friends and Relatives”, but again, be sure to follow their lead.

While I was living in Latin America, I became friends with a local man and we would have conversations about the difference between Greetings in Latin culture and Greetings in English speaking culture. He thought it was funny and so unnatural to see two Americans that were close friends greet each other. He described it like this, “It is funny to see two American friends approach each other and then just sort of stop a few feet away and say ‘Hi’, or wave their hands and say ‘hi’, or even give each other a ‘high five.'” He said, “It seems much more natural to have some contact with each other either through a hug or a kiss on the cheek.”

After hearing his point of view, the idea made more sense to me too, and I completely understood how he felt. I love the Latin culture and hope that you are gaining a love for it too!!

Be sure and take a look at our Level I Visual Link Spanish™ course (on sale right now!) for a complete range of greetings and also learn to put together thousands of other sentences giving you a full range of conversational tools for Spanish.

If you would like to learn more about Spanish culture or speaking Spanish, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

To learn more Spanish Words, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

As I had promised from last week’s newsletter, today I’m going to talk about the term “Gringo”.   Some Americans (and people from other countries as well) sometimes get offended when a Spanish speaker calls them “Gringo”. This is usually because they do not really understand what the term “Gringo” actually means.

According to some of my upper division Spanish professors back when I was in college, there was a war many years ago in Mexico which involved the United States. The American soldiers were dressed in their military-green uniforms and the Mexicans no longer wanted them in Mexico. In an effort to get the soldiers to leave, some of the Mexicans who knew English began to yell at some of the Americans. They would say “Green, Go!!” to the soldiers in the “green” uniforms. The phrase caught on quickly and within a matter of time any foreigner, but especially those with lighter hair, became known as a “Gringo”.

Another theory believed by some experts, is derived from examining the meaning of the word “gringo” itself. According to the dictionary, “gringo” means “foreigner” or “gibberish”.  It is believed that the origin of “gringo” actually comes from the word “griego”, which is the Spanish word for “Greek”, and is used as a slang word to describe any foreigner.

If you are in a Spanish-speaking country and they happen to call you a “Gringo”, do not get upset or offended, they are just saying that you are a foreigner. While I was living in Latin America, I cannot tell you how many times people called me “Gringo”.  I soon became accustomed to hearing it and now consider it a privilege to be a “Gringo”.  Even though I might not sound like a “Gringo” when I speak, with dark blond hair, I definitely look like a “Gringo”!

With the complete Visual Link Spanish™ course you can also begin to learn Spanish well enough to avoid sounding like a “Gringo” when you speak – especially if you practice with the pronunciation CD-ROM. However, if you look like a foreigner, you will probably still be called a “Gringo”.

To learn more about Spanish culture, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

 To learn more Spanish words, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

For this week’s blog,  I’m going to talk about another phrase that Americans, and English speakers in general (for all you readers outside of the U.S.) usually say incorrectly. If you use this phrase, you will most definitely sound like a “Gringo” or “foreigner” (we’ll talk about the exact definition of “Gringo” next week).

I’m talking about the phrase “Not much”.  Many native English speakers will say “Nada mucho” for “Not much”, and this is simply wrong!!! The problem is that now I have told you the phrase you will have a tendency to remember and say it; Don’t! It is incorrect! — you will need to remember the correct phrase “No mucho” [no moo-choh].  Now let’s repeat it a few times to help you remember it “No mucho” . . . “No mucho”.  Now say it out loud — “No mucho”. Now yell it for emphasis “¡¡NO MUCHO!!”.  If people look at you funny for saying it out loud and yelling it, just tell them you’re learning Spanish and your teacher (me – Dave Clark) told you to do it.

To give you an idea of just how funny this incorrect phrase sounds to native Spanish speakers, I’m going to tell you about a TV commercial which aired in the Dominican Republic about 10 years ago. It was a shampoo commercial where an American was shampooing his hair and some Dominicans asked him “What’s happening” or “¿Qué pasa?” [Kay paw-saw]. The American, with a very “Gringo” accent said “Nada mucho” and all the Dominicans laughed because not only did he say the phrase with a “Gringo” accent, but because it was also incorrect.  I did not quite see how the commercial sold shampoo, but I guess it must have worked.

The reason I can vividly remember what happened in the commercial is because when I was strolling around the streets of the Dominican Republic, at least once or twice a day groups of teenage Dominican boys, the kind that think they’re really “cool”, would come up to me and say “¿Qué pasa?” . . . “¿Nada mucho?”  Then they would all die laughing hysterically.  At first, it would really drive me crazy, but then I would start a conversation with them in Spanish. They were amazed that I could speak fluently and correctly and it would quiet them down somewhat, but the next day it would just happen all over again.

Let’s try to give ourselves a good name and reputation as English speakers learning Spanish and instead of saying “Nada mucho”,  say “No mucho”. Why don’t you say it one last time to help you remember . . .”No mucho”.

The Level I Visual Link Spanish™ course teaches you the correct way to speak Spanish so it won’t be obvious that you are a “Gringo”. Through the course, you will be taught to pronounce like a native speaker, and also learn to build sentences and converse using correct speech.  Most courses and Spanish books simply teach words but never teach you how to put them together into sentences.

To learn more Spanish language tips, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com