According to the legend of the Tower of Babel, the biblical structure could never be built as the architects, engineers and workers involved in its construction were unable to communicate with each other after humanity had been divided by languages and nations as a divine punishment meant to destroy its arrogance.
Read MoreAs you probably know, the indefinite articles in Spanish (equivalent to ‘a’/‘some’) are un, una, unos, unas. As you probably also now, the definite articles in Spanish (equivalent to ‘the’) are el, la, los, las. The cool thing is they work in the same way in English and Spanish. We use the definite article when we assume the listener knows which concept/thing/place we’re talking about, since a previous reference (explicit or implicit) exists
Read MoreFinding a gift during the holiday season can be stressful. Depending on how funny, personal or “safe” you want to play it, there are gifts that encourage learning Spanish. Gifts that reinforce learning the language and culture can be purposeful, practical, fun and sentimental, and below is a gift guide for anyone looking for some inspiration for the perfect present that will crack a smile on any Spanish student’s face.
Read MoreOne of the important tenants of learning a language is to expose yourself to how natives speak to better understand pronunciation, context and the culture. Here in New York there are multiple societies, organizations and institutions that dedicate themselves to celebrating Spanish-speaking heritages, which showcase and support arts programs, lectures, company performances and other informative and interactive cultural and political events.
Read MoreLearning a new language as an adult affords you new and exciting opportunities in your personal and professional live. Aside from your daily schedule, committing the time to study, practice and attend class calls for dedication and a clear strategy to keep you motivated while you learn. Your reasons for learning Spanish will be different than your classmates’, and no matter what your reason is, we have some tips to help you define your language learning goals and create an action plan to keep you on track with your Spanish development.
Read MoreWe have a challenge for you. If you are an intermediate student, doing this will greatly improve your Spanish speaking and writing skills.
Here it goes: We’re going to ask you to memorize 98 basic verbs and learn how to conjugate them in the present, past and future tenses, and we’re going to give you a checklist so you can mark what you already know. Feel free to print it and post it on your fridge, where you'll be able to update it as you progress :) (You can also download it and keep your records electronically.)
Read MoreLooking for more interactive ways to keep Spanish fresh between classes? Here are some ways to stay involved and learn more about the culture.
1. Quizlet
An app and website with a free and paid offering, lets its users create their own study sets from scratch or copy ones already created by other Quizlet users. Once a study set is copied, the copied version can be edited and changed without affecting the original. Learn interactively with flashcards, matching games and pronunciation and typing lessons. There are over 250 million study sets created on varying subjects other than language.
1. Spend more time studying the grammar
Really, grammar is super important, and it’s fun; think of it as the logic behind the language. You probably enjoy watching videos and reading articles about how things work; studying grammar is kind of the same, it’s learning how a language, an incredibly complex system of human communication, works.
The subjunctive is a mysterious thing. It’s not a tense but a mood. What does that even mean? Well, the easiest way to see it is to think of it as an alternate present or past tense that we have to use in certain structures. In English: I live here. Juan doesn’t believe that I live here. We’re using present tense in both cases, of course. In Spanish, however, since “Juan doesn’t believe that…” is a subjunctive trigger, we’ll need to substitute “live” for its alternate reality subjunctive present: Yo vivo aquí. Juan no cree que yo viva aquí.
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