Visual Link Spanish™ Newsletter

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Words of the Week
Words are taken from the Becoming Acquainted section of our Visual Link Spanish™ course -----

	English	Spanish
Monday	Where are you from?	¿De dónde es Ud.?
Tuesday	I am from...	Soy de..
Wednesday	What..	¿Qué
Thursday	..do you like...	..le gusta..
Friday	..to do?	..hacer?
Saturday	I like..	Me gusta..
Sunday	..to sing	..cantar
Spanish Review	Be sure to use these weekly newsletters to review the words you have learned from our complete Visual Link Spanish™ course.

Culture ----- Newsletter Subscriber Questions and Answers

Comment/Question

Hi Dave!

I am an American woman, who has been dating a Mexican man for, wow, it's been 6 months now. I am fluent in Spanish, though I must admit I've been lazy with my daily Spanish vocab lately. I took Spanish in high school and never really paid any attention to it. Truth be told I never paid any attention to any of my classes I was one of those lucky people who could read the text in 5 mins and pass the test with a passing grade. But anyway, I am loving the newsletter I find myself looking forward to them more and more each week, wishing you could give up your personal life and give us a message everyday :)
I want to thank you with helping me with your culture letters, because those are the ones that I am in most need of. It's helping me to understand that at some times my guy is not being rude when he doesn't help me with something or the other, but he's just not used to it. He is from Oaxaca. I will be taking a trip there in march... I am really nervous because I've heard so many horror stories about getting sick when I travel across the border. I am a very open person, and in general when you meet your possible future family is it OK to hug them when you kiss them? That's what I'm so used to, and also when you first began traveling to Latin America did you get sick in any way and is there anything I can do to prevent it? Again thank you so much for the newsletter.

Answer

Hola,

Thank you for the feedback. I always enjoy hearing from our newsletter subscribers.

As far as getting sick, probably the best thing to do is drink bottled or boiled water and avoid drinking it from the tap. Also, avoid eating food from street vendors.

Usually, when you greet someone at a personal level like a potential new family member, you give them the customary kiss on the cheek. Then follow their lead. They may hug you or maybe not. Families can be different. A good way to get to know them better would be to ask your boyfriend to tell you about them.

Comment/Question

Hello Dave. I enjoyed the newsletter today! It brings up another question I have wanted to ask for weeks. I have enrolled in an adult beginning conversational Spanish class and we are in our 3rd week (of 6 weeks total). Our teacher is from Colombia. She teaches that the word Yo is pronounced "Jo" and ella is pronounced "aja". Myself, nor another students in the class, have ever heard this pronunciation. Many students have questioned her pronunciation, thinking it must be just a regional accent. However she is adamant that the j sound is the correct pronunciation. She states that in Spain, its pronounced "y" while in Latin America its pronounced with a 'j" sound. I have the CD-Rom system produced by your company and it is clearly pronounced with a "y" sound. Have you ever experienced this?

Answer

Hola Tabitha,

That is a very good question. Basically, some countries in South America pronounce the “ll” and the “y” with a “j” sound. Columbians do it a lot, Peruvians do it also, and Argentines almost always do it.

The interesting thing is that if you have an average Mexican read a dialogue with a lot of “y’s” and “ll’s”, they seem to pronounce them with a “y” sound about half of the time and with a soft “j” sound the other half of the time. The funny part is that if you ask most Mexicans how they pronounce the “y” and “ll”, they will say it is pronounced like a “y” and not a "j".

It is important to know that you can pronounce the “y” and “ll” either like a “j” or a “y”. Either is correct, sounds just fine, and can be understood just fine. Basically, you can choose which way you want to pronounce them. Personally, I prefer the “y” pronunciation, but sometimes get in a mood where I use the “j” pronunciation for a few hours of conversation.

Sneak peek at next week: Culture experiences from my cruise to Ensenada Mexico. On Friday of last week, I got back from a cruise with my wife to Ensenada Mexico for our 11th anniversary. I'll have some fun info for you!

¡Hasta la próxima semana! (Until Next Week!)

David S. Clark -- President / Director
U.S. Institute of Languages
dave@spanishprograms.com
http://www.spanishprograms.com
866-9SPANISH

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