hay dos claves importantes – there are two important keys
la primera – the first one
y la segunda – and the second one
uno sin otro – one without another
nuestro curso – our course
muy exitoso – very successful
no es suficiente – isn’t enough (sufficient)
también tiene que estar dispuesto – you also have to be willing
si es posible – if it’s possible
recomiendo – I recommend
está tratando de aprender – is trying to learn
día de español – Spanish day
está mejorando – is improving
una conversación – a conversation
con otros – with others
se preocupan que – they worry that
tambi&ea cute;n se preocupan por decir – also they worry about saying
de la verdad – from the truth
cuando empiezas a hablar – when you start to speak
su idioma – your language
su idioma – their language (‘su’ can be ‘your formal’ for ‘their’)
gente Latina – Latino people
con Norteamericanos – with Americans
que no saben el Francés bien – who (that) don’t know French well
es muy diferente – is very different
algo que necesita saber – something you need to know
más amables en el mundo – friendliest in the world
les hace sentir bien – it makes them feel good
necesita tener – you need to have
en el futuro cercano – in the near future
con ellos – with them
el miedo/el temor – the fear
y cómodo que es – and comfortable (that) it is
hablar con ellos – to talk to them
Hola, ¿Qué tal? – Hi, how are you?
Estoy aprendiendo español, “¿Puede ayudarme? – I’m learning Spanish, can you help me?
Me llamo Dave – My name is Dave
¿De dónde es usted? – Where are you from?
¿Están listos? – Are you ready?
arriba – above
una meta – a goal
una vez que lo haya hecho – once you’ve done it (this is subjunctive)
como le fue – how it went for you

If you would like to learn more Spanish words and phrases, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

To learn more spanish vocabulary words, please click on the following link www.spanishprograms.com

For this week’s culture lesson, we will cover the best ways to get around in Latin America.  When you ask people for directions in a Latin American country, if they know where your destination is, you are in luck and they will give you directions much like those found in the “Locations” section of our Complete Spanish Course. However, if they don’t know, they usually will not let you know that they don’t know. They will instead say, “Está por allí” or, in English, “It’s over there.” Then they will usually wave their arm and point to some indefinite place. If this happens to you, it should be a quick red flag that the person is not quite sure where the place is. If this happens and especially if you’re on foot, be sure to ask at least 3 to 4 people where the place is as you get closer to your destination; eventually you’ll get there. I cannot tell you how many times this happened to me when I lived in Latin America.

Like the U.S., where many of us men do not want to stop and ask for directions (it’s kind of a pride thing because we’d have to admit that we really didn’t know where we were going), in Latin America many men act similarly and don’t want to admit that they don’t know where a certain destination is. Of course, in both cultures, there are woman that do the same thing, but generally us men are the guiltiest.

Now back to our original scenario. Let’s say that you want show off your newly acquired Spanish, and ask where the “Vásquez Building” is, so you say, “¿Dónde está el edificio Vasquez?” And, let’s say that the person knows precisely where it is and rattles off some long description in Spanish and you have no idea what they said. What should you do?

I just talked to a neighbor last week who had an experience just like that. She was in Latin America with her boss representing an adoption agency last month. They had to get to a certain building and she said, “¿Dónde está . . .” Her boss was so impressed that she knew Spanish, and after a lengthy description, the boss said, “Well, what did he say?” She said, “I have NO idea!”; they both laughed. She ended up calling me last week and now wants to purchase our course which has 13 major conversation sections, including a great locations section, so she can communicate better in Spanish and work through almost any situation.

Side Note: In Latin American miles are not used when speaking about directions or distances. Instead of miles, kilometers are used. For your information, one mile equals approximately 1.6 kilometers. So, if you drive 30 miles, which would be equivalent to 48 kilometers. And, if you drive at 65 miles per hour that is the same as 104 kilometers per hour!

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

This week’s Spanish culture lesson we will discuss how you can better learn to communicate effectively in Spanish.  There are two very  important keys to learning Spanish well and being an effective communicator. The first one is to gain a basic knowledge of the language and the second is to go out and practice with real people. One without the other can never get you as far as you could have gone with both. Our course is proven to be very successful for thousands of people all over the world; it will give you the base you need to succeed. However, it alone is not enough. You also have to be willing to break out of your comfort zone and speak with others in Spanish – especially native speakers. If possible, I recommend doing this at least once or twice per week. Here in our office, Blake is trying to learn Spanish; every Thursday we have “día de español” (Spanish day) where we only speak Spanish. Blake is improving his Spanish by leaps and bounds.

Many people are nervous about striking up a conversation with others in Spanish especially with a native speaker. They are worried that maybe they’ll say something wrong or that the native speaker won’t understand them. They are also worried about saying things incorrectly or possibly even getting embarrassed or “making a fool of themselves”. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When you start to speak another language, you actually gain compassion for all of the people trying to learn “your” language. You will be surprised at how nice people are when you try to speak their language – especially Latino people. This misconception is generally true, however, with some French people who may not be quite as patient with Americans who don’t know French well, but the Spanish experience is quite different.

Something you need to know about Spanish culture is that native Spanish speakers are some of the most friendly and genuine people in the world. It makes them feel good to see others trying to learn their language and they are very eager to help you.

To really learn Spanish, you need to have the courage to go up to a native Spanish speaker in the near future and start-up a conversation with them (in Spanish of course). Once you get over the fear of the initial conversation, I think you’ll be amazed at how easy and comfortable it is to talk to them.

Here are a few phrases that I recommend to get you started. First you could say, “Hola, ¿Qué tal?” [Oh-law, kay tall] which means “Hi, how are you?”. Then, you could say, “Estoy aprendiendo español, “¿Puede ayudarme?” [Es-toy ah-pren-dyen-do es-pan-yol, pweh-they ah-you-thar-may] – I’m learning Spanish, can you help me? Next, you could say “Me llamo Dave” [May yaw-moe Dave], or in English “My name is Dave”. O f course, you don’t want to say your name is “Dave” unless your name really is “Dave”. Finally, to spark some conversation, you could ask “¿De dónde es usted?” [Day doan-day es oo-stead] which means “Where are you from?”

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

antes de meternos en – before getting into
muchos de ustedes han preguntado – many of you have asked
acerca de nuestro curso – about our course
miles de personas – thousands of people
personalmente – personally
tema – topic
el sistema de correo – the postal system
una carta de otro país – a letter from another country
de amigos y familia – from friends and family
cuando recibía paquetes – when I received (used to receive) packages
como galletas y dulces – like cookies and candies
adentro – inside
tenía un amigo norteamericano – I had an American friend
y lo mandó – and sent it
y nada había llegado – and nothing had arrived
y todavía nada había llegado – and still nothing had arrived
negó que – denied that…
otro cuento chistoso del correo – another funny postal story
el vivió – he lived
no había – there weren’t
unos meses antes de la Navidad – a few months before Christmas
nos reímos de él – we laughed at him
la situación del correo – the postal situation
como puede imaginarse – as you can imagine
por el correo – through the mail
donde el pago – where the payment
en efectivo – with cash
guarda dinero en el banco – keep money in the bank
su dinero – their money
muchos no tienen cuentas bancarias – many don’t have bank accounts
cómo es la situación bancaria – what is the bank situation like
¿Es común…? – Is it common…?
lecciones de la vida práctica – practical life lessons
en sus bancos – in thei r banks
es preferido – is preferred
si visita – if you visit
un poco de efectivo – some cash
disponible(s) – available
es importante darse cuenta – it’s important to realize
en efectivo – with cash
hace pocos años – a few years ago

If you would like to learn more Spanish vocabulary words, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

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

Before we get into this week’s Spanish Culture topic, I just wanted to let many of you readers know briefly about our Spanish course. Many of you have asked if we recommend a particular course to learn Spanish. I just wanted to give you a link to our website www.spanishprograms.com  where you can take a look at our course, see our free course demos and get more information about our course. To give you an idea of the effectiveness of our course, Visual Link Spanish™ has been taught to thousands of people around the world, to major corporations and at the university level for the past four years.

Now, moving onto this week’s culture topic; the postal system in Latin America is very different from that here in the U.S. If you’ve ever lived in Latin America and waited for a letter from another country you know what I mean. When I lived there it would take anywhere from weeks to usually months for letters to arrive from friends and family.

Needless to say, the postal system is very slow and quite different from ours. When I would receive packages with coveted items like cookies and candies from the U.S., usually they had been opened first by a Latino postal worker to see if there was anything of value in them.

I had an American friend who also lived in Latin America and wanted his mom to send down his high school letterman jacket. She carefully wrapped it and sent it through the normal mail system. He checked the post office after a month and nothing had arrived. Then he checked every week for the next few months and still nothing arrived. Finally after quite a few months he went into the post office and noticed that a postal worker was wearing his letterman jacket. He got upset and claimed that the postal worker had taken his jacket! The postal carrier denied that any wrong doing had happened and kept “his” new letterman jacket.

Now for another humorous postal story; I had a different American friend that also lived in Latin America for an extended period of time. He lived in many of the lower-income pueblos where they didn’t have many of the niceties of life. For example, there weren’t toilet seats in any of the apartments in the cities where he lived. He ordered a new toilet seat from his family in the U.S. a few months before Christmas and it came through just in time. It was opened by the postal workers but wasn’t “claimed” by them and went right through to him. We laughed at him, but he was thrilled to get a small part of his former life back.

Because the postal situation is somewhat less reliable in many Latin American regions, as you can imagine, people don’t usually send their bills or payments through the mail. Many of them take their payments directly to companies where the payment is due and pay by hand using cash.

Many pay bills by cash because of the bank situation. In some Latin countries, inflation rates can be astronomical. If people keep money in the bank, in the worst cases they can lose the majority of the value of their money virtually overnight. Because of that, many don’t have bank accounts and as a result, they don’t use checks or credit cards either. I knew someone in Latin America personally who had around $30,000 in the bank which was devalued to just a few thousand in only a few days. OUCH!!!

To our international readers: what is the bank situation like in your countries and how is the inflation rate? Is it common for people to own credit cards or use checks?

Practical Life Lessons:

1. If you live in Latin America, putting large amounts of money in their banks is not recommended. An account in your original country is preferred and money can be transferred to you on a regular basis.

1. If you visit Latin America, many places don’t accept credit cards or checks – cash only. Be sure to take some cash and get instructions to ATM locations as there are fewer of them available.

1. If you are doing business in the U.S. and cater to many Latinos, it’s important to realize that many will pay you with cash and only a few will use checks or credit cards. It was amazing to me that, as my company taught English classes to Latinos a few years ago, probably over 98% of Latinos paid for the classes with cash.

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

antes de meternos en – before getting into
muchos de ustedes han preguntado – many of you have asked
acerca de nuestro curso – about our course
miles de personas – thousands of people
personalmente – personally
tema – topic
el sistema de correo – the postal system
una carta de otro país – a letter from another country
de amigos y familia – from friends and family
cuando recibía paquetes – when I received (used to receive) packages
como galletas y dulces – like cookies and candies
adentro – inside
tenía un amigo norteamericano – I had an American friend
y lo mandó – and sent it
y nada había llegado – and nothing had arrived
y todavía nada había llegado – and still nothing had arrived
negó que – denied that…
otro cuento chistoso del correo – another funny postal story
el vivió – he lived
no había – there weren’t
unos meses antes de la Navidad – a few months before Christmas
nos reímos de él – we laughed at him
la situación del correo – the postal situation
como puede imaginarse – as you can imagine
por el correo – through the mail
donde el pago – where the payment
en efectivo – with cash
guarda dinero en el banco – keep money in the bank
su dinero – their money
muchos no tienen cuentas bancarias – many don’t have bank accounts
cómo es la situación bancaria – what is the bank situation like
¿Es común…? – Is it common…?
lecciones de la vida práctica – practical life lessons
en sus bancos – in thei r banks
es preferido – is preferred
si visita – if you visit
un poco de efectivo – some cash
disponible(s) – available
es importante darse cuenta – it’s important to realize
en efectivo – with cash
hace pocos años – a few years ago

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

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