Learning Spanish?

[Bob Ducca]

Guys, I need some advice, if anyone has some...

I teach at a school that is 90% Hispanic, and of those kids, about 50% speak little or no English.  Of those that speak English, most have parents or guardians who only speak Spanish.

I took French in school- useful now, huh? 

Anyway, I need to learn some Spanish, pronto.  I'm interested in spoken, not necessarily written or read.  Can anyone recommend a do-it-yourself CD or computer program, or something, that will work?

Thanks!!!

Deb

[ShadesOfGrey]

I dont know where you live, but usually there are some good language institutes in larger cities (sometimes local universities have cheap classes too, but the pace is typically bound by a specific cirriculum).

Also, there is a program called the Rosetta Stone (cd set and booklet I think). It'st he first link to come up in google. It's really well-known in the States. 

Once you are somehwat familiar with the language, listen to spanish talk radio, spanish channel (tv), spanish music for a little while each day (a good exercise is to take notes about what you hear).  Immersion is the best way to learn a language. 

good luck

[LibraryLady]

Check at your local library.  Many of them should have Spanish tapes available for checkout.  ALso <insert drawl> sometimes at a community college they will have a course called conversational Spanish for people to take.  I understand that Rosetta Stone is pretty expensive.

HTH

Hollis

[thebadchemist]

Head to your nearest electronics store and pick up a basic program. Rosetta Stone's the best, but I was checking out some other programs (I'm looking to pick up French) and many of the cheaper ones will take care of teaching you the basics.

I agree with rdge that listening to Spanish talk radio or watching TV would be great. Telenovelas (soap operas) are always entertaining. Like Hollis pointed out, looking for a conversational class would be good, too. Some of the local colleges around me have talk-only classes, so you just sit and talk with other people. It's not graded and not much is taught. You would have to wait until you learned some of the basics, of course, but I believe that one of the best parts of speaking Spanish (or any other language) well is to practice, practice, practice. It'll establish a comfort zone and you won't start stammering if you forgot a word or something.

Also, I would practice by speaking Spanish to anyone who does, native-speaker or not. My friend and I work on our Spanish together... I used to be fluent, but my speech has weakened a lot because I'm just not using it. He speaks smoothly and with a lot of confidence, but his vocabulary isn't super-strong. So we work together to remedy those issues. Neither of us are native-speakers. I also chat with our custodian when he comes by. He's extremely gracious and puts up with my stammering and halting speech. I know the words and the conjugations, but the delay time in my head (English-Spanish, then conjugate) is too long and it comes out broken. Practice helps shorten that a lot.

Something that would be fun to do with the kids is to have them teach you back. Maybe not during class time, but if you see them during lunch or after school, I'll bet they'll really enjoy teaching their teacher. You could help them with their English and they can help you with your Spanish.

!Buena suerte!

[Sandi Papaya]

One disadvantage I see with your plan to learn Spanish - if I may say so - is that you don't want to learn to read or write it, just learn to speak it. This may work out to your detriment, so I would recommend taking a Spanish class at your local community college or university, and learning the language thoroughly. Why?

Because you have to communicate with mostly Spanish-speaking parents. And the way that happens about 75% of the time at school is through notes sent home. Spanish-speaking parents usually can't read notes sent home in English, and that's unfair to them.

I don't know if your district has translators who would do this kind of job - my mom is a bilingual teacher's aide in a district where 90% of the parents also do not speak English - the predominant other language used to be Spanish, but now, the predominant other languages are Spanish, Farsi and several Indian dialects. District-employed translators are the ones who have the job of translating notes and other communications going home to the parents. My mom used to be the only Spanish translator for the district, but she has since given it up because the district hired more people to do the job and then did not offer to keep her on the translation team, although they still freely use the majority of her templates and documents and materials she developed, without ever asking her permission. I'm not sure if her permission was absolutely necessary, but they should have done so as a courtesy to her, because she had to make up many of these forms in Spanish out of whole cloth; they were not available from the state, the district or any other source.

I would find out if this is available, and if not, ask any available Spanish-speaking staff if they would mind helping you out in translating notes for parents. Please keep in mind that this is no minor task and they may have to obtain special permission from the school district, because the district or the union may have special rules or bylaws regarding how these kinds of duties are carried out, how they are paid, etc.

I do speak, read and write Spanish fluently, so if you ever need help on words/phrases, pronunciation basics, etc, I'd be more than happy to help you.

¡Buena suerte, y que le vaya bien! (good luck, and I hope it goes well!)

[Lady Vavasour]

Actually, knowing French will help you a lot more than you think. The languages are very similar.

[Clio]

I'm glad you posted this--it reminds me of something I have been meaning to ask for a long time.

Over the summer on the first Board, someone posted a link to a site where you could learn Spanish for free.  I think it was about the "Destinos" series.  I meant to bookmark that site and I never got around to it, and now it's probably gone.      But over the break, I would love to brush up on my Spanish, so could the person who first posted that link please share it again?  Thank you!

[Bob Ducca]

One disadvantage I see with your plan to learn Spanish - if I may say so - is that you don't want to learn to read or write it, just learn to speak it. This may work out to your detriment, so I would recommend taking a Spanish class at your local community college or university, and learning the language thoroughly. Why?

Because you have to communicate with mostly Spanish-speaking parents. And the way that happens about 75% of the time at school is through notes sent home. Spanish-speaking parents usually can't read notes sent home in English, and that's unfair to them.

I don't know if your district has translators who would do this kind of job - my mom is a bilingual teacher's aide in a district where 90% of the parents also do not speak English - the predominant other language used to be Spanish, but now, the predominant other languages are Spanish, Farsi and several Indian dialects. District-employed translators are the ones who have the job of translating notes and other communications going home to the parents. My mom used to be the only Spanish translator for the district, but she has since given it up because the district hired more people to do the job and then did not offer to keep her on the translation team, although they still freely use the majority of her templates and documents and materials she developed, without ever asking her permission. I'm not sure if her permission was absolutely necessary, but they should have done so as a courtesy to her, because she had to make up many of these forms in Spanish out of whole cloth; they were not available from the state, the district or any other source.

I would find out if this is available, and if not, ask any available Spanish-speaking staff if they would mind helping you out in translating notes for parents. Please keep in mind that this is no minor task and they may have to obtain special permission from the school district, because the district or the union may have special rules or bylaws regarding how these kinds of duties are carried out, how they are paid, etc.

I do speak, read and write Spanish fluently, so if you ever need help on words/phrases, pronunciation basics, etc, I'd be more than happy to help you.

¡Buena suerte, y que le vaya bien! (good luck, and I hope it goes well!)

Moonbunny, thanks so much for your advice.  I would love to learn to read & write Spanish, and that is my long-term goal, but my short-term goal is to be able to communicate with my students and their parents verbally.

About 75% of our faculty is bilingual, and several of them assist us in sending home letters in English and Spanish.  It is required that all forms that go home be double-sided in this manner.  I would love to be able to do the translations myself, but the other teachers that handle it do an excellent job, and I make sure to bring them cookies or cupcakes!

I will look into taking a class at the community college in our town, when my daughter is a bit older.  I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences!

Deb 

[Ehelldame]

My kids despised Rosetta Stone and prefer PowerGlide.  For just conversational Spanish, DH and I took a conversational Spanish class through a community college adult enrichment class one night a week. 

[NanaBananaNa]

I think Venus was the one who posted the Destinos Spanish link.  I bookmarked it.

http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html

[Sandi Papaya]

I will look into taking a class at the community college in our town, when my daughter is a bit older.  I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences!

Deb 

oh, it's not a problem! With 31 years of experience in speaking Spanish behind me (note: my entire life), my mom would be very disappointed in me indeed if I didn't offer my assistance when needed.

[Clio]

Thank you, NanaBananaNa! 

[Venus193]

I was just about to post the link to Destinos, but someone beat me to it.

It's the best do-it-yourself teaching tool out there.  Once you've gone through it a couple of times, I totally recommend watching novelas... and I warn you they are highly addictive!

Good simple reading to start:  Pick up the local paper and read recipes and your horoscope.  Also Latina magazine carries most of its articles in both languages.

Buena suerte y disfrutala!

[Sandi Papaya]

...I totally recommend watching novelas... and I warn you they are highly addictive!

I don't know if you knew this, but in Spain, novelas are called "culebrones" (big boa constrictors)...why?

Because once they grab hold of you, they don't let you go. I thought that was pretty funny - and a pretty accurate decription of novelas, which is why I won't watch them - I start to get twitchy if I have to miss an episode for ANY reason. 

[Venus193]

I've heard that description as well, but I've heard it refers to the convoluted plots or character relationships in them.

Of course with VCRs and TiVos, there is no reason ever to miss an episode.  I can't wait for Duelo de Pasiones!