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Just growing up in our culture I promise you, if you’ve never taken a class and think you don’t know a lick of Spanish, YOU’RE LYING. :) I’ll tell you why. COGNATES. There are TONS of words in Spanish that are exactly the same in ENGLISH! WOO HOO! Time to celebrate! Words like ANIMAL<SIMILAR< COLOR< are exactly the same words just pronounced in a Spanish way. Some words you just add an “O” to like: FANTASTICO<CARRO<EXACTO...These are all called cognates.
I was just speaking with a client who had her first lesson today through Skype. (Side note: I am taking new clients and many are currently learning online during quarantine!) We were talking about how the adjective always goes after the noun in Spanish like CASA BLANCA...which I helped her realize means WHITE HOUSE...and she went “Ohhhhh, I had never thought about what it meant before!” and suddenly she realized she knew more Spanish than she had thought! This is especially joyous knowing that just starting out, you got this! The average American speaker will know around 100 words in Spanish before they have even taken a class. And especially compared to a native mandarin speaker learning Spanish(which does happen!) YOU have the advantage! Time to jump for joy and make this year the year you become bilingual! Vamos Denver
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I've had the privilege to help so many people before they went on a Spanish speaking journey. I have traveled extensively and have a lot of experience in helping others prepare for big trips whether it's for 2 weeks or a year. A recent client, Erin, took lessons for 1 month to get ready for her Buenos Aires trip for two weeks. She learned necessary phrases, travel vocabulary, and the basics of how to wing it! Another client, Eosther, worked with me for over a year to prepare her conversational Spanish to live in Spain for an internship. She has benefited from the skills she learned from me and is now using Spanish everyday to converse with local Spaniards! From basic levels to more advanced you can get ready for a big trip with Vamos Denver.  In Spanish a strange thing happens-and that is that no subject is necessary. WHY? Let’s think about this. For example: To Talk = Hablar. In English we say: I talk, you talk, he talks, she talks, we talk, they talk.
So basically the verb itself doesn’t hardly change; it can either be 'talk' or 'talks.' That’s it! The only thing that tells you WHO is talking is the subject, I , you, we, they, she. In Spanish each verb changes. Look closely: hablO, hablAS, hablA, hablAMOS, hablAN. Five different versions for five different subjects. Because the verb itself changes, the subject is optional. Now THAT is a mind bender, when you’re starting to learn Spanish as an English speaker and are totally relient on WHO. This means I can say either YO hablo.=I speak. OR just HABLO. =I speak(without the subject) They mean the EXACT same thing! But when do we use it? What's the difference? C’mon now there’s gotta be a difference! Nope. Basically you can use either. However there are times when you want to confirm WHO. Like when someone says "habla ingles"…. Then someone else asks WHO?(QUIEN?) They can then confirm "ELLA". (She) OR if everone in the room speaks only spanish but you want to clarify that SHE speaks English… you could say "ELLA habla ingles". Once you learn this trick, it’s quite fun. You can say a single word: subject-verb combo, and your sentence is complete! Thanks for reading this mini lesson, and have a great weekend! Vamos Denver Vamosdenver.com In a lot of ways Vamos Denver does more confidence training than Spanish teaching. Of course they go hand in hand and you’ll find one increasing with the other. BUT we'd say that most teachers don’t teach that way. In a standard course you can get really good at the language without ever speaking it or approaching a stranger to say something in that language. If you end up scared to death just to approach someone how could you ever improve? Or move forward? Or ever anything with Spanish?
You have to have the confidence too. You have to be brave enough to interact with someone who speaks a different language. You have to risk sounding stupid and messing it up a thousand times before you get it right. This takes confidence. This takes willing yourself to connect with someone even if it takes gestures and grunts to get anything across! Ha! You want to be able to talk to locals on vacation, to interact professionally with your Spanish speaking only clients, or to better communicate and relate to your bilingual coleauges. There are a million reasons to learn Spanish, and learning confidence through language is the thing that will take you there. If this is the kind of learning you need, Vamos Denver teaches conversation based ways that push you past your limits of interaction, in fun and encouraging manner. Reach out now, let's go! Vamos! I know everyone wants to speak Spanish instantly-we always do. I wish every challenge i’m experiencing now and every thing I want now would just instantly solve and accomplish itself. But it’s true that we’re here for the journey. My friend James who also teaches Spanish gets it. His analogy for the long journey of becoming bilingual is like climbing a mountain. If your only goal is the peak, you might peter out or at least you won’t appreciate all the scenery on the way up. He suggests finding small goals along the way so you can remain motivated. Like “Ooo I can’t wait to see that first meadow when I go up the first 8th of the path!” In Spanish terms, maybe it’s just getting down introducing yourself and knowing how to ask for the bathroom or order food in Spanish. Then you reach that goal and you celebrate! You appreciate the meadow and how far you’ve climbed. Next your goal might be to see the valley below at the first look off. Maybe in Spanish terms, that’s knowing all the basics and present tense so you’re starting to become conversational. Man that feels GOOD! Looking down at that point you start to really revel in the accomplishment. Yet the peak is still a good distance away! Keep going, keep hiking, keep trying and celebrate the journey of becoming bilingual. It won’t only improve your mood, it’s likely to help you hang in there when it gets tough and speed up your process of reaching the peak.  Learning another language is like climbing a mountain! It takes time and commitment, with ups, downs, and plateaus. But with practice, perseverance, and celebrations when you reach small goals on the way to your big goals YOU CAN GET THERE! Check out this infographic I made to help you on your journey and understand the timeline and levels of learning Spanish. Stay tuned for a video explanation. Comment below where you are now and what level of the mountain you'd like to be on! 😃 -Vamos Denver  What is SER and ESTAR? Well one thing I like to start with is the Shakespere expression SER O NO SER? I’m sure you can guess what I just said… TO BE OR NOT TO BE! That’s right, SER means TO BE.
The weird thing though is that ESTAR ALSO means TO BE. So in English we have one TO BE verb that’s literally called TO BE. In Spanish they have two TO BE verbs; SER and ESTAR. What’s the difference? Well you use them differently based on what you need to say. SER is generally more permanent. ESTAR is generally more temporary. I like to remember that esTar has a T in it; that helps me remember it’s more Temporary. This can be confusing at first but after a while it becomes locked in your brain! SER is used for things like who you are, your personality, your physical characteristics, where you’re from and your profession. Generally these things are more permanent. ESTAR is used for temporary things like emotion, how you’re feeling that day, where you’re located, if you’re sick or not, and if the food is hot or cold right then. One of the fun things based on this is that you can change the verb to change the meaning of a sentence; like él está(using ESTAR) aburrido. And él es(using SER) aburrido. One means he is bored. -estar; temporary. The other, well; he is a boring person; permanently! Ha! You are not aburrido I promise. And you will definitely not get bored with learning Spanish- that is for sure! Good luck, and keep pushing forward! Vamos Denver I love that knowing Spanish has given me opportunities to help others and be of use. Once when I was working in a summer camp I was the only bilingual counselor. One of our campers had broken her leg and since she was in the hospital she couldn’t speak to her Spanish speaking parents. The camp director needed someone to relay the information. That was me! I was called in and I grabbed my handy dictionary I happened to have that summer to make sure I knew all the words necessary. They asked me to call the parents and let them know she had fallen and broken her leg but was okay and being taken care of. Geeze, I was nervous. Even though I was still studying at the time, my broken Spanish came out alright and the parents were so grateful for the update on their daughter. Another time I had the chance to help was in an airport where a couple clearly were confused wondering where to go. They were looking up at the frantic airport electronic signs completely lost. I heard them speaking Spanish and saw their looks of frustration. I decided to walk over and ask if I could help. They were visiting family and didn’t speak any English. I looked at their tickets and pointed them in the right direction explaining where they needed to go and what they needed to do. Man, was that exhilarating! There are many other little ways I’ve had the opportunity to connect and help others because I speak Spanish. Being of use and getting to help someone in need in a second language is so satisfying. Start learning today so you can experience being a bridge between cultures and languages too! ¡VAMOS!  It’s funny that I just learned what Comprehensible Input was. Even though it’s a new concept to me, it’s the way I’ve been teaching for the last five years and the most obvious practical and efficient way I know to learn ANYTHING. Not just language! Basically, Comprehensible Input means that you learn best through focusing on things you like. So if you’re learning to read, you read stories that interest you. If you’re learning to cook, you cook foods you enjoy. And if you’re learning a language, you speak, read, and write about things you actually care about! We learn faster that way. Doesn’t that make complete sense? I have no clue why schools haven’t caught on yet. Interest based learning feels like the best way to learn not only because it’s been proven efficient, but because it’s FUN! I teach through this method by directing conversation in Spanish or SPANGLISH. We talk about things my clients actually like. Currently i’m working with a client who is preparing for a restaurant internship in Spain. Next week we will be cooking something together in my kitchen speaking only Spanish to get her ready for her adventure! Another client is into tech, we talk about computers and his next outreach in Mexico of building a computer lab. These kinds of lessons get you involved and pull you along so that you want to continue forward instead of feeling like you’re dragging through grammar all day and learning words for things you’ll never actually use! Geeze! Come learn Spanish with me. Through conversation and interest we will grow together! ¡VAMOS!  Image: Valparaiso, Chile
Some of these grammar terms feel like their own language, but i'm here to make it easier for you! An infinitive is a verb. It means it is not conjugated. “Huh?” For example “SER o no SER” means “TO BE or not TO BE”… SER is a verb, but it is not conjugated. It does not have a subject. A conjugated verb DOES. Like I AM Brittany. I AM is conjugated for ME! YOU ARE a Spanish student. YOU ARE is conjugated for the subject, YOU. SER is just TO BE. I would never say I TO BE Brittany. NO! I would say I AM Brittany.
So the conjugated verb has a subject. The un-conjugated verb is called an infinitive. An infinitive always starts with TO in English. Like: to walk, to talk, to read, to drink, to eat. In Spanish it always has the ending, -AR, -ER, or -IR. Hablar, comer, beber, caminar, leer. So the -AR -ER and -IR endings in this case mean TO. Once you understand what an infinitive is, you can start spotting them and listening for them in the language! I hope this helped clear things up for you. Keep practicing and moving forward! ¡VAMOS! |
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