Tag Archives: spanish lessons

The language most want to speak fluent in the UK is Spanish

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After a survey done by TravelSupermarket.com the language most want to speak fluently is Spanish (24 per cent). It was followed by the French and the Italian language I have read this morning in a short article in the Daily Express.

This article wrote by Nathan Rao (Consumer Affairs editor) it was actually quite interesting and revealed some of the most frequently used mimes when we are abroad. Example: pretending to write in your hand to indicate you want the bill.

That article also talks a bit of how Britons abroad talk to foreigners. Because I am a foreigner I know perfectly what is all about.

The study mention that 14 per cent of the speak English slowly and very loud. So I would like to make a point here. If you speak with a foreign person firstly you should try to see how they react to your normal English. Perhaps they have been living in the UK long time like me! Ok perhaps not. So you will realize this straight away. You should try to use easy sentences in order to make easy the communication and be open minded remember they make say things in the other way round. (Spanish, French Italians, Portuguese)

Another important observation, don´t be loud otherwise you really are in the pub! If they can´t understand you try to change the sentence, don´t use the same sentence. Even if you shout chances are that they can´t get it. “No entienden nada de nada” If you know a bit of Spanish and I say that sentences to you perhaps you don´t know what does it means.

If that´s the case it doesn´t really make any difference by saying “NO ENTIENDEN NADA DE NADA”. However instead if I say to you. “No comprenden” You will of course understand. Use synonyms “similar words” change the phrases and I know this could be difficult for a lot of people try to avoid “phrasal verbs” What are they? Verb + adverb or verb + preposition

This of course can be really difficult for English natives because that´s your normal way to talk. In my opinion this is probably one of the most difficult of English Grammar for Spanish speakers.

It was actually quite funny to know that 6 per cent of the people admit “doing a Steve McClaren” imitating the former England manager by talking English with a strange Spanish or foreign accent.

If you want to read this article check the page 13 of the Daily Express Saturday June 15 2013.

 

If you want some Spanish Lessons you are in the correct site.

Consejos para aprender un idioma

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Algunos consejos en español para que sus hijos aprendan otros idiomas:

En el caso de los niños bilingües se dará la situación en la que su hijo o hija estará expuesto a más de un idioma. Por ejemplo puede que su hijo en el colegio hablé y reciba las clases en inglés, pero en su casa el niño habla español ya que sus padres son españoles. (o viceversa)

Se puede dar también otros casos en el que el niño está en contacto con más de dos idiomas. Imagínese un niño en el que su padre sea francés y su madre española. Y el niño vaya a una escuela inglesa.

Hay diferentes tipos de variaciones y luego también tenemos casos en el que el niño quizás tan solo habla un idioma pero en el colegio enseñan diferentes idiomas.

En otros colegios y también muy especializados las clases se imparten en dos idiomas, colegios bilingües en el que imparten español e inglés.

¿Qué puede hacer usted para que su hijo mejore un segundo idioma?

  • Intente que su hijo este en contacto lo máximo posible con ese segundo idioma.
  • Empiece pronto, en cuanto antes mejor, incluso cuando son bebes. Cuando son muy pequeñitos el niño aprende idiomas sin darse cuenta. Tan solo jugando y con canciones. Los niños son como esponjas y absorben esos sonidos nuevos de un segundo idioma.
  • Lea al niño regularmente si usted sabe un poco de ese segundo idioma.
  • Intente que el niño vea películas infantiles y oiga en el idioma que quiere que aprenda.
  • Intente ir de vacaciones con su hijo a ese país donde se habla el idioma que quiere que su hijo o hija aprendan.
  • Intente que su hijo controladamente juegue a juegos interactivos educacionales.
  • Intente que su hijo o hija escuchen ese idioma alguna vez.

Estos tan solo son algunos consejos hay libros especializados en este tema en el que pueden encontrar mucha más información. De momento les dejo con un ejemplo en el que pueden escuchar una historia corta bilingüe de dos hermanos cuando van a comprar a su tienda favorita.

La historia ha sido leída por un niño bilingüe en español los dos hermanos – español y en inglés The two brothers -english

Escuche en español y escuche en inglés e intente adivinar cual es su idioma más materno. ¿Es el inglés o es el español?

Finalmente les dejo con un vocabulario para sus hijos util para que practiquen tanto en inglés como en español.

Vocabulary – Los dos hermanos

 

 

 

Esperemos haya sido de interés este artículo en nuestro blog.

If you want some Spanish Lessons you are in the correct site.

Manchester United stars teach students to mind their languages

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You can read an interesting article wrote by Chris Morris published in the Sale and Altrincham advertiser Newspaper on the 13th of March.

If you are a Manchester supporter you probably know that the Goalkeeper David de Gea and the striker Javier Hernandez are Spanish speakers. David is from Madrid and Javier is from Mexico.

They went to Broadoak secondary school to chat students in Spanish. Apparently the children in the school manage to interview the Spanish footballers pretty well. That event it was actually recorded and it will be aired sometime in April so other students will be able to take advantage and use this resource in their Spanish lessons. Please do not send us e-mails regarding this. We don´t know when it will be available. The lesson was filmed by the Reds´ on TV station.

“understanding of how important it is to study a language at school, as you never know how useful it might be in the future” quoted by Sale and Altrincham advertiser Newspaper.

We hope you find this post interesting and you can read a bit more about this Spanish event at the the Broadoak school.

If you want some  Spanish Lessons you are in the correct site.

Spanish Lesson – Key stage 1

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If you are a new Spanish teacher or perhaps you are a Spanish teacher with new children in your class or you are just a curricular MFL (modern foreign language) teacher you can try these ideas in your first lesson at the beginning of the term.

Greet all the children as they arrive, encouraging them to repeat the greeting to you.

My usual greetings to the little ones are:

“¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?” they must reply “Muy bien”

BUENOS DÍAS or BUENAS TARDES

However if you have got a big group or in curricular time don´t waste all your time doing this. You will have children sleeping in your desk or on the floor.

You can use your puppet. Mine is call “PERRITO” is quite friendly and children like to use it and you can choose a brave boy or girl. Let them greet each other for a few minutes.

Depends of your group you can do a bit more:

My groups they don´t repeat the same questions all the time. I like to challenge my children, even new children, anybody can play with “PERRITO” little doggy means in Spanish.

Some other questions they can practice and you can adapt in your group:

  • ¿Cómo te llamas? Me llamo ….
  • ¿Cuántos años tines? Tengo …
  • ¿Dónde vives?  vivo en …
  • ¿Te gusta el/la …? Sí, me gusta.

In your first lessons you can check the numbers, you can play a colour game if you got some space in your class.

Children love to count and you can play several games with soft balls passing the ball and counting.

You can play a song about the numbers or you can play a song about the colours.

You can read and story in Spanish to the children, prepare well the story if you want to link that one already with your term topic.

Remember children they should hear in your class as much Spanish as they can and they should be able to practice as much as they can. It is difficult and you must balance really well the class in order to achieve this. Ideally for some people will be all the class in Spanish, some other people the thing at early stage it is really hard. Personally I do all my best so they children understand what is going on in the class and try to use the Spanish as much as I can and make them use it as well.

Those are some of our tips for your first lessons and we hope it helps you to break the ice with the children your first week.

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Our aims when we teach Spanish

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Here is a list of some of our aims when we teach Spanish to children in our lessons:

  • To increase children´s understanding of the way Spanish works.
  • We try to encourage positive attitudes to the learning of Spanish.
  • To transmit a sympathetic approach to the Spanish culture and to some other cultures.
  • To develop children´s ability to speak, to listen, to write and to read with confidence.
  • To promote the social development of the child by playing and working co-operatively.
  • To experience success and gain enhanced self-esteem with the language.
  • We always encourage positive attitudes to the learning of the modern foreign language (Spanish).

Those are some of our aims we hope to answer a question received from one of the parents recently received.

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