• Jul. 21, 2008
Why Should You Choose Spanish For Your Homeschooled Children?

     It’s a blessing to homeschool your children.  Teaching your children at home brings the family closer together.  Les than one generation ago homeschooling was virtually unknown as a way to educate your kids and keep them away from the dangers of public schools.  On the other hand it can be challenging to teach a second language especially if you don’t know one yourself

      Learning Spanish will help prepare your children for their high school language credits and many colleges look for language credits.  Here are some practical reasons to choose Spanish for your child’s language credit.

      Spanish is much easier to learn because the basic building blocks are straightforward.  You can have meaningful communication in Spanish after only a few lessons.  At the high school level, more than 95% percent of my fellow students chose Spanish to meet the foreign language requirement, according to internet research.

      Employment opportunities are multiplied by having Spanish as a second language.  Adding this skill to your child’s resume when they start working will give them preference over other job applicants.  Employers like hiring people with diversity in their backgrounds and the initiative to reach out to others.

      There are more opportunities in America to use Spanish in the U.S. workforce than any other language.  Just a few professions where Spanish is a necessity include Police Officers, EMS, Doctors and Nurses, Teachers, Grocers, and Sales Personnel.

      Spanish is considered an official language on four continents and is of historical importance elsewhere.  From Spain in Europe to the Philippines , many countries in Africa , all over the USA, Mexico, Central America and nearly all of South America. It is, also an official United Nations language.

      “Ethnologue: Languages of the World” is a web and print publication of SIL International, a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages.  In 2005, Ethnologue calculated 322 million people around the globe speak Spanish as their native language.

      “Encarta” by Microsoft came to the same conclusion as Ethnologue about native Spanish speakers.  But they also found that an additional 100 million people who speak Spanish as a second language.

      With these statistics Spanish is ranked as the second most common language spoken in the world making English the third most spoken language.

      Make sure your child takes part in choosing the language he/she studies.  Children should not be “assigned” to a foreign language class.  Why?  Pressuring children will back fire on you.  Just like with music lessons, unless your child enjoys the language they bock and complain when it comes time to study.

      Show them how Spanish is already a part of English with words like taco, burrito, the game Uno.  You could even show them a Spanish article written for kids from the internet where they can pick out words that are similar to English words.  These gestures will show your child how easy it will be to learn Spanish.

      Children love secrets.  Perhaps that's one reason children sometimes speak in Pig Latin or devise secret codes of their own.  Tell them if they learn Spanish, they can use the language to create an exclusive club where Spanish has to be spoken to enter.

      Native Spanish speakers tend to be more relaxed and understanding about Americans who speak incorrect Spanish.  Incorrect Spanish is easy to understand.  Last year when my church group went on a trip to Guadalupe, Chihuahua, Mexico, we had an American Mexican that was helping us translate.

      My friend, Rosa, was the most experienced Spanish speaker in the group.  Rosa was the one who made the biggest language mistake.  She meant to say to two Pastors and a little girl, “tengo caliente.”  In Spanish that means, “I am hot.”  The funny thing is that kind of hot means she was standing too close to her husband.

      Rosa thought the Pastors looked at her kind of funny.  However, when the little girl’s eyes got really big and she cried out to her mother for help, our “translator” knew she was in trouble.  The mother of the little girl almost fell off her chair with laughter when she heard what Rosa said.  Of course when the rest of us heard what happened we didn’t let Rosa forget about it the rest of the trip.

      Now that Spanish is your language of choice, consider a new learning environment that will excite and encourage your child to learn.  Online teleclasses incorporate new computer skills as well as provide a fun interactive venue for your children.  This is a great way to keep Spanish fresh and inviting for your children.

 Michelle Rothwell has been instructing Spanish classes since 1998.  She is the Founder and Owner of Dora & Diego Homeschool Spanish.  The most comprehensive Biblically-based Spanish text.

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• May. 3, 2008
The Difference Between

As in all languages there are tricks to the trade.  In order to learn better we develop keys to our understanding.  In Spanish it isn't any different.  Today I want to share with you the difference between buenos dias, buenas tardes and buenas noches.

The nice part about most languages that have Latin as their "grandparent" is each language uses feminine and masculine differences.  Now it doesn't mean the feminine words are girly and the masculine ones are rough and tough.  Most times you would be able to tell the difference if they are masculine or feminine by their endings.

For instance, in Spanish if a word ends in "o" then it is considered masculine.  The difference for feminine is the words would end in "a".

Now plural words are the same way but with an "s" added to it.  The difference between masculine and feminine plural words are the feminine words will end in "as" and the masculine "os".

Aren't we having fun yet?!

What type of word is "buenos"?

I hope you said masculine because that's the right answer.

Buenos ends in "os" so it it masculine.

You can say the mornings are for the men.

Buenos dias.  Good morning.  Or good day.

With our trick to the trade, what type of word is "buenas"?

Ding!  Ding!  Ding!

We have a winner!  I know you said buenas is feminine.

You can say the afternoon and evening is for the women.

Buenas tardes.  Good afternoon.

Buenas noches.  Good evening.  Or good night.

Please don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying "lady of the evening".  We are a family blog so don't let your mind go there.  LOL!

Now you will remember to always say buenas noches (the right way) instead of buenos noches (the wrong way).

The difference between all three are very clear once you apply the keys.

Please let me know if this information has been helpful or not.  And, if you have other problem areas, let us know about them.  We are here to help make your Spanish learning easy and fun.

Adios, hasta luego,

Michelle Rothwell

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