Spanish speaking?

Part of Writes and Wrongs of Passage by Suzy O'Keefe

One of the questions most frequently asked of me is " So, you must speak Spanish really well, right?" My answer is not clear cut. I generally reply "Yes, No... well maybe. It certainly isn't always grammatically correct and I wouldn't call it conversational. What I do call it is transactional. I can ask a question, understand the answer, and even manage to tell the occasional joke".

I consider myself to be self-taught in spite of the fact that I had one semester of Spanish way back in high school. About all I recall from those days is biblioteca (library), papel y lapis (paper & writing implement), escuchen (listen), ¡Silencio! (Be Quiet!), and how to count to 10. Not much. Certainly nothing very beneficial to living one's everyday life among the locals of Mexico.

I wanted to learn... I needed to learn. How else was I going to find a replacement for that little broken boat widget or order a cold beer and a fish taco in a restaurant.

A friend told me (and now I'm telling you) to make a list of all the English opposite words that you can think of. All of them! Write them down Next, pull out your English/Spanish Dictionary or even better yet your Spanish/English Dictionary if you can manage to find one. It will be more intended for use by a Spanish speaking person who is learning English, you'll find the perspective to be slightly different (and better for your learning process). Look up and write down all the Spanish equivalent words in a different color ink next to the english words. Look at the pronunciation so you'll know how to pronounce the vowels and certain other letters that have a different sound in Spanish. Then... memorize them.

Examples:

Up	Arriba	Down	Abajo
Hot	Caliente	Cold	Fria
Day	Dia	Night	Noche
In Front of	En Fuente	Behind	Atras
Enough	Bastante	Too Much	Demasiado
Strong	Fuerte	Weak	Debil
Pretty	Linda	Ugly	Feo
Right	Direchia	Left	Izquerda

Do the same with a particular topic that interests you. That topic might be cars, cooking, sex or even boats! Anything that interests you enough to make you learn the words. This will lead you to several phrases like "I want", "where is?", "I'm hungry". Write them down and memorize them too.

Examples:

Wet	Mojada
Dry	Seca
Smooth	Suave
Touch / to play	Tocar

(you get the idea)

Examples:

Don't bother me	No enfades
How Much does it cost?	¿Quanto cuestan?
Where is/are? or Is/are there?	¿Hay?
The cooked dish of the day	Comida Corrida
I have a hangover!	¡Tengo Crudo!

Forget about the grammar for now. Just learn the words. All 200 or so of them. Yep, that's about how many you'll end up with from this exercise. It's important that you sellect the words for yourself.

You'll find that a couple of amazing things will happen. When you can't think of the word you want to say; chances are that you can think of the opposite. Then just put a "no" in front of it. And, although occasionally you can't seem to remember the word you actually want to say, you'll know it when you hear it. You'll be understanding the conversation long before you actually get up the nerve to participate. This is the first plateau.

You'll coast along on this plateau for a short while then suddenly, almost without realizing it, you'll start to leap ahead learning more & more words and phrases. And it's all fun! The only tapes you'll listen to are those with wonderful Spanish contemporary love songs so you can understand the lyrics (and learn a few more exciting words)!

Here's a book of yacht terms in ten languages: Yachtsman's Ten Language Dictionary . I recommend it as a fine companion book for your studies and as required equipment for anyone cruising to foreign lands.

*This computer doesn't know how to spell in Spanish so it had a hard time spell checking. Sorry for any mis-spellings, but for the purpose of learning your words right now, that isn't terribly important. Remember, this is supposed to be fun!