Learning Spanish Archives - Page 4 of 4

The Best Spanish Phrases to Learn First

You need to learn Spanish for work, pronto. Maybe you’re taking a new job or assignment in a Spanish-speaking country. Or maybe you’re staying in the U.S. but want to improve your communication with Spanish-speaking colleagues, clients or customers. Either way, you figure that honing your skills in español is a smart career move. What Spanish phrases should you learn first?

And you’re right. Spanish regularly makes the list of the best languages to learn for your career. But no matter how eager you are to reap all of the benefits of speaking Spanish, the prospect of mastering a new language can seem intimidating. If you’re already spending time regularly around native Spanish speakers, you might feel like you’ll never be able to keep up with what they’re saying. Everything you thought you learned in your high-school Spanish classes seems to have evaporated from your brain!

Don’t despair. While you can’t become fluent in Spanish overnight, you can make noticeable progress faster than you might imagine. Try these tips for working some Spanish into your every day life. The key is to study Spanish with an instructor who’s a native speaker. (More on that later.) In the meantime, you can start practicing our list of some of the most common Spanish words and phrases that will come in handy at work.

How to Say Hello and Goodbye in Spanish

You’re probably already familiar with many of these phrases for Spanish greetings, but, in case not, here’s a quick review.

Saying hello in Spanish:
Good morning — Buenos días
Good afternoon — Buenas tardes

Saying goodbye in Spanish:
See you! — ¡Nos vemos! This casual expression is very common, but often not taught in formal language classes.
See you tomorrow! — ¡Hasta mañana!

Introductions in Spanish:
These phrases will help you make a positive first impression when you meet Spanish-speaking colleagues.

My name is … — Me llamo …
It’s nice to meet you — With Spanish speakers from Latin America, use “mucho gusto.” With Spanish speakers from Spain, use “encantado” if you are male or “encantada” if you are female. Or, to keep it simple, just say “un placer” when someone says “nice to meet you.”

Asking Questions in Spanish

Let’s start with a couple of questions you’ll use a lot as you start to learn Spanish.

When you don’t know the Spanish word for something, you can ask a colleague by saying “Como se dice…” followed by the English word or words for whatever you’re trying to express. For example, “¿Como se dice ‘expense report’?” means “How do you say ‘expense report’?”

You should also be prepared to ask people to repeat themselves. It’s not your imagination: Spanish speakers do talk fast. So it’s only natural that you might have trouble catching everything someone says, even if they’re trying to speak more slowly for your benefit. In these situations, the right expression to use is “¿Cómo?” You might already know that “cómo” usually means “how,” but in this context, it’s more like saying “Come again?” or “Say that again?”

How to ask a Few More Common Questions in Spanish:

Where is …? — ¿Dónde está …?

How many …? — ¿Cuántos … ? For example, “¿Cuántos hay?” means “How many are there?”

What …? — ¿Qué? For example, “¿Qué haces?” means “What are you doing?”

How do you do? — When you want to ask in a formal way how someone is, the phrase to use is “¿Cómo está?”

Expressing Needs in Spanish

I need — NecesitonnI want — QuieronnCan I …? — ¿Puedo …?

How to say ‘Sorry’ or ‘Excuse Me’ in Spanish

Pardon me — Perdón. This is what to say when you need to reach across someone or interrupt in any way.

I’m sorry — Lo siento. This is how to ask for forgiveness for something you’ve done.

We hope this list helps you feel a little more at ease as you start to use Spanish at work. Make sure you practice these common Spanish phrases every day and start using them with another native speaker! There’s simply no substitute for actually speaking the language you want to learn. We would also love to tell you more about Fluency Corp’s Spanish classes. All of our instructors are native speakers. And you can take classes either in person or live online. To learn more, contact us for a free consultation: getfluent@fluencycorp.com or (800) 401-3159.

Moving to Mexico: 6 Things to Know about Assimilating

Has your company decided to set up shop in the country to our south? Or maybe your company already has an office in Mexico and they’ve decided to send you there for a few years to improve collaboration and productivity between the two offices. Either way, you’re heading towards warm beaches, cool mountains, amazing food, and exciting historical sites. But what you probably aren’t expecting is how you’ll have to adapt when moving to Mexico.

Time is Different in Mexico

First off, you’ll need to adjust to the time difference. No, Mexico is not in the Japanese Time Zone, but time is seen very differently there. When arriving at dinners or even parties, you may want to be a little more than fashionably late. Or, sit outside the party and watch what time people generally start arriving. You don’t want to be the first to arrive and surprise the host while he or she is still cooking the meal.

The same goes for office meetings as well, but not quite so dramatically. Depending on the type of meeting it is, it might not start right on the hour like your meetings in the US. The start time and the meeting outline might be a little blurred, and there will probably be some small talk and chit chat to get the meeting going.

Everything has a Little Spice in Mexico

Get ready for a little bit of spice in everything, even the candy. We all know that Mexican food is known for its addition of chiles. There are 64 chiles grown in Mexico, the most known being poblano, habanero, jalapeno, serrano and ancho. Although many Americans think they’re eating Mexican food when they’re eating Cali-Mex or TexMex, there are few similarities in the flavors and the dishes. Typical dishes in Mexico vary greatly by region. For example, the north produces the famous queso fresco that is lightly crumbled over dishes. On the Pacific coast, they make pozole and menudo. The central region called Bajio produces the yummy bunuelos, and the south pacific region boasts 7 types of mole (the chocolatey-chili peppery sauce). The one thing most of these dishes have in common is some element of some kind of chile. Even the candy, eaten by children starting at a young age, has quite the kick to it. I was surprised to twatch the children lick the sucker, freak out from the spice, then go back for more. I guess this is how they build up their abilities!

Indirectness in Mexico

They’re not avoiding the question, they’re just being polite. If you want a direct answer, don’t hold your breath. Generally, Mexicans are not big on confrontation, even if you’re just asking a question or requesting something directly at work. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Many find it awkward to disappoint or go against what you want, so you may even get a mild ‘yes’ or ‘ok’, but then it never happens or materializes. If you didn’t get a direct ‘no’, but you definitely didn’t get a ‘yes’, then you might want to ask more questions in order to figure out why. Expat tip: Engage in more small talk than you might be used to. Asking about your colleagues’ weekends, family or even talking about the weather is an expected pleasantry before getting down to business.

Formality in Mexico

Along with avoiding confrontation comes a level of formality. In families, you might still hear the use of Usted when the younger generation is speaking to their elders. This third person form of ‘you’ shows respect for the older generation. You will likely hear this if you’re a client, and you should use it with your clients. Even at a convenience store, or bumping into a stranger in the street, you will often hear this used, since you are not familiar with each other. Also, you might hear the words ‘Don’ or ‘Doña’ as a generic honorific name for mature peoples, as in Don Miguel or Doña Silvia. My brother calls his wife’s mother ‘Doña Stella’. She is over 60 and he wants to respect her.

Catholicism in Mexico

Yes, of course we have Catholicism in The United States, but Mexico is much more saturated in the religion and so you’ll see most of the country participating in or observing Catholic holidays. It’s the second largest Catholic population in the world after Brazil, with a whopping 91% of the country identifying as Catholic (compared with 23% in the US – for some perspective). While in the US we might believe that everyone makes their own fate, in Mexico you could hear ‘if God wills it’ ideology. I wouldn’t suggest getting into any theological debates with the older generation about faith or big questions like, ‘Is there a God?’. Accept it and enjoy the optimism and faith.

Sensitivity in Mexico

In the US, we might be told bluntly that our idea wasn’t good or that we need to start from scratch. In Mexico, I do not believe this would go over as well. We should probably put an extra layer of diplomacy on our words and be sensitive to the way negative messages are relayed. While in the US, this sensitivity could be seen as a weakness, this is not so in Mexican culture. I’m not saying that people will start crying at work if you criticize them, but this will not likely be the way to run a team if you want them to be successful. Guiding them through the way that it could be better and applauding the good parts will get you to the goal faster (and with more followers). You can catch more flies with honey, right?

Micah Bellieu is CEO and Founder of Fluency Corp, a corporate language class provider, servicing expats, employees and their families, all over the globe. Our private lessons are about so much more than language. She worked in Mexico for a year and a half, teaching English to kids and adults. After that, she moved to Dallas to start Fluency Corp. If interested in learning more, contact us here.

Tricky Spanish Phrases

Tricky Spanish Phrases (You’re Not the Only One Who Messes Up!)

Oh man, how many times did I say the wrong thing in Spanish when I was living and working in Mexico? I can’t even count! I was the comic relief in many meetings and the amusement of many of my new friends.

When you’re learning a new language, you’re suddenly like a child again: making the wrong sounds, saying the wrong words. You don’t have a good handle on the language, and you don’t have years of experience listening to it, so you don’t even realize the mistakes you’re making.

To help you avoid the mistakes that we here at Fluency Corp have made, we’ve compiled a list of the most common pitfalls for English speakers learning Spanish.

Take Care With Spanish Reflexive Verbs

Be careful with reflexives and try not to make a verb reflexive that doesn’t need it. For example, let’s look at the phrases that mean “I like” and “I hate” in Spanish

“Me gusta” means “I like it.” Many Spanish learners want to conjugate the verb “gustar” like we do all other Spanish verbs. They want to put an “o” at the end, to say “I like,” but that’s not how “gustar” works. Just like “interesar,” “molestar” and “fascinar,” it sounds like the passive voice in English. For example, literal translations would be “it is pleasing to me,” “it is bothering me” and “it is interesting to me.” So the subject is it not “I” like it is in English.

You’ll hear some Spanish learners saying “me gusto,” which means “I am pleasing to myself” or “I like myself.” Although we’re super proud of their self-esteem, we’re sure that’s not what they meant to say. They meant to say, “me gusta” (“‘I like it”).

On that same note, when I was first living in Campeche, Mexico, I walked around saying “I hate myself.” Why would I do this? I was applying the same rules from “gustar” to the verb for hate: “odiar.” They DO NOT work the same way. “Odiar” is just like any other verb and does not need the “me” before it. “I hate” is simply “odio,”not “me odio.” Oops.

Anyone around me must have thought that I had a really low opinion of myself. Finally, another American teacher who spoke Spanish told me, “Stop saying you hate yourself. Stop putting the ‘me’ in front. It’s not ‘gustar!’” Thank goodness someone said something. Until then, I guess everyone was being polite.

Don’t Confuse ‘O’ and ‘A’ Sounds in Spanish

Be careful with the sound for “o” and the sound for “a.” In English, we often pronounce the “o” sound like the “a” sound. Ahhhhhh. But in Spanish, you will mess up a lot of words this way. Make sure your “o” sounds more like “open” than “opportunity.”

In Spanish, the “o” sound is really sharp and your lips are extremely rounded into a tight circle, as if you had an egg in your mouth. This sound technically doesn’t exist in English. But if you say it like the “ahhhh” sound, then you will mess up words like “hombre” and “hambre.” I once said to my boyfriend, “Tengo hombre,” which means, “I have a man.” He was slightly confused, until I started pointing at my stomach. He relaxed after that. For a second, he thought we were breaking up.

Avoid This Risque Mistake in Spanish

Let’s talk “peine” versus “pene.” Most Spanish learners avoid these words completely. They’re like “shit” and “sheet” for English learners.

But if you’re up for a challenge, take a deep breath before you dive into one of these words, and make sure you’re pronouncing that “i” in “peine” with all your might (make it sound like a very quick EEE sound).

“Peine” is combing your hair, while “pene” is a man’s genitals. Ojo! Be careful. Forgetting that tiny “i” sound can be extremely detrimental to your sentence. It’s a good thing you typically don’t talk about combing your hair at work, so you’ll likely be safe among friends if you mess this up.

However, I did hear a woman order a “pene” at a bar once. She meant to say “pineapple,” which sounds like “peen-yuh” not “peh-neh.” She gave the bartender quite the jolt! And she never ordered pineapple in her drink ever again. Too risky!

Here’s how I remember: Peine has the letter “i” in it, which sounds like “eee,” and a comb looks like a TON of letter “e”s in a row. So make sure that “eeee” sound is good and clear when you say the word ‘”peine.” And remember, you don’t want to say the “penne pasta” word!

The Most Confusing Verbs in Spanish

And then there are the complicated verbs that make no sense, at least to me. Therefore, I just memorize how to use them correctly. If I really think about the grammar, then I just get confused.

Basically, though, we’re just dealing with active and passive voice with an extra “se” in the phrase.

So, to say that you forgot something, it’s “se me olvidó.” Literally, that translates to “it was forgotten by me.” “Se me olvidaron” means “they were forgotten by me” or “they were forgotten.” Or “it got forgotten.” Or “they got forgotten.” Or “I forgot it” and “I forgot them”.

I never learned this in a book. Instead, I always heard people using it and so started repeating it in the right context (the best way to learn).

This construct works with other verbs as well: “perder,” “caer” and “romper.”

It was lost (I lost it) — se me perdió
They were lost (I lost them) — se me perdieron
It was dropped (I dropped it) — se me cayó
They were dropped (I dropped them) — se me cayeron
It was broken (I broke it) — se me rompió
They were broken (I broke them) — se me rompieron

I hope my embarrassing mistakes have been helpful for you. Here at Fluency Corp, we encourage mistakes. Mistakes mean that you’re trying to speak and trying to communicate. Those who try are always the ones who get fluent more quickly. Remember, it’s all about talk time. The more time you speak the language, the more you will learn. So go ahead, go say “peine” in public with pride, because you’re a brave soul who is trying to speak a new language.

Micah Bellieu is CEO and Founder of Fluency Corp – a company that gets employees fluent globally. She took eight years of high school and university Spanish without becoming fluent. Finally, she decided to speak Spanish for two hours every day. Voila! She got fluent. If you or your employees are interested in improving communication in English, Spanish or another language, reach out to us to get the job done.

Trends in the Use of the Spanish Language

If you’ve been thinking about learning Spanish, you’ll be joining a growing trend. Almost 21.9 million people around the world are formally studying Spanish as a foreign language. That’s 67,000 more than in 2018.

Those numbers come from Spanish in the World 2019, the yearbook from Instituto Cervantes. This nonprofit organization was created by the Spanish government. Its purpose is to promote the teaching of Spanish language and culture.

The yearbook is a fascinating look at one of the world’s major languages. It’s easy to see why Spanish is growing in its importance.

Here are just a few of the other facts about the Spanish language that stood out to us from the Instituto Cervantes report.

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To learn more about the Spanish language, we also invite you to check out some of Fluency Corp’s past articles:

For a free consultation, contact us or call us at (800) 401-3159. Read success stories on our testimonials page.

Your Guide to Spanish Dialects in Latin America & Spain

Spanish is spoken in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

As you can see, apart from Spain, most Spanish-speaking countries are found in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean islands: Cuba and Puerto Rico.

But, the question remains, is all Spanish alike?

The quick answer is no, and yes.

Ask yourself this: can you, as an English speaker, understand a movie with British actors? Of course you can! So that stands to reason that a Spanish speaker from Spain will be able to understand a Spanish speaker from Argentina or Mexico, so the Spanish must be fairly similar. For example, there is no other word for ‘walk’. If you are walking, then you saying walking, in both dialects. Yet, there will be challenges with rhythm of speaking, intonation, pronunciation, and of course, vocabulary.

I remember when I traveled to Lafayette, Louisiana to visit a friend. His aging grandmother made us lunch and we had a nice chat around the table. Little did anyone know it, but I had a very hard time understanding her, and I spent most of the lunch nodding in agreement. To what? I’ll never know. Just kidding! But really, it was challenging, and I was quite shocked at how hard it was to understand someone else speaking to me in English… English that was only an 8-hour drive away!

So even though the language is 99% the same, you’ll have things like pronunciation and vocabulary that can throw you off.

Spanish – Main Grammar Differences from Country to Country

The grammar used in Spanish from Latin America and the Spanish from Europe is not that different, although there are distinct differences. The main difference is in the subject and verb-form used to match that subject.

For example, in Spain, they use the vosotros form of the verb to talk to a group of more than 1 person: “You all (you guys) are doing a great job today.” In Spain they would use the subject and verb agreement for vosotros, but in all Spanish-speaking countries south of the USA, they would use ustedes to express ‘you’ plural.

For example – “Do you (all) want to come?”

In Spain: ¿Vosotros queréis venir?
In Mexico/Central and South America: ¿Ustedes quieren venir?

Now, there is something funky happening in Argentina (and some other countries)… I’m not gonna lie.

“Vos”, in Argentinian Spanish (also Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua and Guatemala), is referring to the “TÚ” (informal ‘you’); “TÚ” is typically used in all other Spanish-speaking countries. Also, special to Argentina, “sos” means “you are”, whereas in most other Spanish-speaking countries they would use “eres”.

Why did this happen? These are only my thoughts on the subject, but it’s the same progression that happens with any language that travels far and wide. Some things stick and others don’t. The “Ustedes” stuck in Mexico for the plural “you”. In Argentina the older form of the “you” stuck and is still used today (and in other countries mentioned above).

In Spain, they continued with “vosotros” for “you” plural, and apparently this word did not travel well, so Mexico, Central and South America did not continue using it over the hundreds of years of evolution of the language. Just as evolution always does, it evolves, and we’re seeing less use of “vos” in countries like Costa Rica, yet some cities there still find it common to use.

It’s like “y’all” in Texas and “youse” on the East Coast. We all have our favorite way of saying the plural “you” – apparently, it’s worldwide.

Spanish Main Vocabulary Differences from Argentina & Mexico to Spain & Ecuador

If you’re going to take Spanish classes in your office, home or with a live instructor online, make sure you learn where the instructor is from first. If you cannot find an instructor in your area from the country where you’ll be doing business (or people you’ll be doing business with), then I suggest looking online. Of course, every Spanish speaking will be teaching you Spanish, but if you are going to primarily be doing business with companies from Spain, then why not focus on the vocabulary and accent from there? We mention this because while there is a standard Spanish, there can be confusion in vocabulary that might take you a moment to figure out if you’re talking to someone from another Spanish-speaking country.

In English, Americans call the bathroom, well, the bathroom, and Brits might call it the lou and Australians might say the toilet. It will only take a moment to figure out the meaning, if you’re not from the same country. The same thing happens in Spanish. When I learned Spanish, I learned Spanish from Spain. When I moved to Mexico, people were amused with my accent and vocabulary, but we always figured out what each other meant, and in order to assimilate, and make myself more quickly understood, I learned the Mexican equivalent to all the words that made people furrow their brow.

Now let’s dig into the differences in Spanish.

Latin America	English	Spain
computadora	computer	ordenador
durazno	peach	melocotón
coger	to get something/to have sex (vulgar)	coger
pastel	cake	torta
lentes	glasses (to wear)	gafas
jugo	juice	zumo
piso	floor	suelo
carro	car	coche

Spanish – Regional Variations in Pronunciation

In Spain, the letter z and the letter c (only when before i and e), are pronounced like the ‘th’ sound in English: lispy, airy, light. In all other Spanish-speaking countries, these letters are pronounced like the English letter s.

In the Caribbean, on the other hand, they seem to be allergic to the letter s, and have decided not to pronounce it at all! Not really, but they really do seem to avoid it. Take this common question: “¿Cómo estás?” There’s a letter s at the end of that verb. This question means ‘How are you?’ Yet in the Caribbean, they would leave that letter s off the word.

The letter J in Spanish can vary as well. My theory is that the closer you get to Spain, the more the letter J sounds like the R in French. It sounds like you’re trying to spit something out of the back of your throat. But in Latin America is sounds more like the English pronunciation of the letter H.

The double “ll” typically makes a sound like the letter Y in English. But in Argentina, instead of phonetically sounding like may yah-mo (My name is…), it will sound more like may zhah-mo.

If you are interested in supporting your employees’ second language pursuits in Spanish, will be working in Spain or Latin America, already are working in Spain or Latin America, or work with Spanish speakers, then now is the time to start learning Spanish. You will build a deeper connection and show great respect for their language, their culture, and their lifestyle. Ready to get started or interested in how to set something like this up for 1 person or 100 people? For a free consultation, contact us or call us at (800) 401-3159. Read success stories on our testimonials page.

How to Fit Language Learning into a Busy Schedule

How to Fit Language Learning in Busy Schedule

400 hours?! It sounds like a lot of hours to get from complete beginner Spanish (A0 level on the CEFR scale) to a professional, working level of Spanish (B2 level on the CEFR scale), but Fluency Corp really knows how to pack in the hours, find hidden 15 minutes here and there, and even learn while you’re half-awake! Okay, so the half-awake thing isn’t really the best solution, but it still keeps your mind in the language, and we’ll show you exactly how.

We’re using Spanish just as the example language throughout this article.

How Do Language Points Work

First, let’s understand the value of activities when learning a second language, and in that way we can gauge which activities we need to focus on. For example, talking with a native speaker for 1 hour would be worth 1 point. That’s because talking with someone in the target language is the best way to get fluent. 1 hour is fully worth the entire hour.

Now, listening to the radio or watching TV would be secondary activities, because you, the learner, are not actually producing any language, and so the synapses in your brain are not firing, and trying, and struggling to make connections. You’re just taking in information and categorizing it, but you’re not producing anything (which is the best way to get fluent). But this is still a good activity, but it’s only worth half a point for every minute. So 1 hour of TV or radio would be counted as only .5 points.

The goal for arriving at a professional level of Spanish is to get to 400 hours – or 400 points (if you’re starting at A0 level).

Then, we come to language learning apps and reading, which are even less valuable as language-learning activities, but still better than not doing anything at all. These activities are worth just a quarter of the time that you do them. So 1 hour of working on an app or reading a book would only be worth .25 points.

This is a helpful way to keep track of getting to your goal. This is why I take 4 hours of Japanese lessons every week with a live instructor online. I know that this is worth the most points. Then I watch 1 hour of TV in Japanese each week, making my total for the week about 4.5 points (or 4.5 hours of activity). Since I know it will take 1200 hours to have a basic fluent level (and I have already done 600 hours), I know that I still have 3 years to go if I stay at this pace.

Now that we know the value of each activity, we can get back to our topic of how to fit language learning into our daily routine, and now we can understand why some activities are weighted differently.

Learning a Second Language in the Morning

What’s your morning routine? Do you roll out of bed, into gym clothes and head out for a run? Do you leap up and jump in the shower? Do you get woken up by children that want to be fed? Whatever your morning routine is, it most definitely is possible to add 15 minutes of language learning into it. And we’re not talking about typing in fill in the blank exercises on an app (lame!). We’re talking about real language acquisition.

Here is what we do at Fluency Corp: put on a podcast in the language while you’re making breakfast, taking a shower, or running around the neighborhood. You might say, but I have no idea what is being said; I’m just a beginner! How in the world does this help me learn a language? Well, this is just a part of the program. Any language learning program must incorporate 2 hours of speaking with a native speaker each week, so this is just a supplement to that. And remember, you also didn’t know English when you were a baby either, but you heard it enough to the point that you did, so don’t be an impatient adult. Just let it happen.

While you’re running, cooking, showering or driving, I want you to try to mimic what the podcast people are saying. Don’t focus so much on understanding what is being said, because that will come, but for now, to keep yourself paying attention, I want you to mimic and try to sound exactly like them. The reason you’re doing this, is so that you can stay concentrated. When we do not know what is being said, we zone out. And that doesn’t get us anywhere. So by mimicking what they are saying, it keeps us keyed in. You only do this for 10 – 15 minutes. Since it’s a challenge, we only do it for a short amount of time.

If you do this every morning, 5 days a week let’s say, that would be roughly 1 hour of listening, which has a value of .5 points.

Total points for the week = .5

Learning a New Language on the Way to Work

Do you commute to work? Do you ride the subway? Do you walk? Well, whatever you do, you can still get in some learning. You can continue with your podcast for 10 minutes, or you can try Pimsleur, or another conversation beginner software. There are also tons on Youtube you can throw on, or even Netflix in Spanish will work. It doesn’t even matter if you listen to the exact same clip or podcast multiple times. Heck, that will probably be even better, because you’ll realize that after listening 3 times, you actually start to understand it a bit. Especially if it’s something you can watch. Doing this on the way to work and on your way home would be another 2 hours a week, which adds another 1 point to the week.

Total points for the week = 1.5

You Have to Speak to a Native Speaker to Get Fluent

If your goal is to work in Spanish someday or live in a Spanish-speaker country with ease, then you’ll have to practice speaking with a native speaker for hundreds of hours. Imagine trying to get really good at the piano, but never actually practicing the piano – it doesn’t work so well, does it? You can just learn the notes on the sheet music for years and then expect to be able to play like Mozart. So make sure you talk with someone for at least 2 hours a week – it can be in person, it can be online. Both are equally effective. I personally do online because it costs less money and it’s super flexible, which I really need for my job.

Make sure you discuss a lot of different topics and ask your instructor to do role play. Pretend you’re doing a job interview, pretend you’re checking in to a hotel for the first time, imagine you’re meeting your friend’s parents, etc. Choose a lot of different scenarios so that you’re truly prepared for real life outside of the classroom setting.

Total points for the week = 3.5

Language Learning with the Family (or Without)

After you’ve spent an hour in traffic getting home, gone to the gym, and started making dinner for the kids (another chance for 15 minutes of a podcast, by the way), you can even do 15 minutes of TV time and have the whole family join in. You might want to see how much Spanish TV watching your family is willing to take. If your kids are younger, then they likely won’t complain much. But your husband or wife might last only about 5 minutes, so if this interferes with family time, then do your Spanish TV-watching on your own time. But, if your family doesn’t mind 5 – 15 minutes of laughing together, trying to figure out what is being said, then enjoy it!

15 minutes X 4 nights a week = 1 hour = .5 points

Total points for the week = 4

As you can see, even though you are doing just 2 hours a week of actual conversation time, there are many ways to double your progress. If you did just 2 hours a week of conversation classes, you would have approximately 100 points at the end of the year, but since you’re putting in extra time, you will actually get to 200 points by the end of the first year. This means that after 2 years you could really be making a lot of strides!

Other Ways to Get in Extra Language Training

Go to the Mexican restaurant or taco stand near your office and ask a new question each time you go.
Listen to a book on tape in Spanish that you’ve already read in English.
Watch Friends in Spanish, or any other TV show that you know well. No subtitles! Or very limited. If you’re reading, then you’re not listening.
Go to Saturday meetups for language exchanges.
Find someone online that wants to learn English, and do just 20 minutes of each language a week. This will be extra random conversation. Bring a specific topic each week so that you’re not saying the same introduction pleasantries every time.
Go to a concert for a band from a Spanish-speaking country. They actually come more often than you think – you just never listen to the Spanish radio to know they’re coming.
Learn 1 song a month in Spanish. Since it once or twice a week. Teach your family!
Read a Paco Ardit book – 1 chapter a week.
Change your navigation to Spanish, and anything else you use daily.

If you or your employees are interested in upping their Spanish game, Fluency Corp would love to walk you through how to do it and provide high quality teachers for your office, for your home or even meet at flexible times online. Always with a live, professional instructor. Contact us on our website or call us at 1-800-401-3159.

Case Study: Spanish Language Training for American Airlines Executives

Case Study | American Airlines Executive Learn Spanish

In today’s global business environment, executives often need to connect with employees who speak different languages. That was the case for one of Fluency Corp’s recent corporate language training clients, American Airlines.

Since this company’s needs are increasingly common, we wanted to tell you about what their experience was like with Fluency Corp. Hopefully, this case study can help you as you make decisions about language training for executives at your own organization.

Customizing a Spanish Language Training Plan

American Airlines has many employees on both U.S. coasts who speak Spanish as their first language. Now, these employees can speak English. But the company wanted its executives to be able to reach out to Spanish-speaking employees in their own language when they visited their work locations.

Many of these employees have been working for American Airlines for decades, and the company wanted to respect them and pay homage to the fact that they had been such long-standing employees.

They chose ten of their executives to go through one complete level of Spanish fluency classes. Every Monday from 3 to 5 p.m. they met in a conference room to learn the basics of Spanish. They made mistakes, they got nervous, and they got frustrated. But they continued to work hard throughout the fifty-week course.

What can happen in one hundred hours — realistically?

When a hundred-hour private course is taken, a client can easily get through CEFR (Common European Framework Reference) Level A1 of Spanish. A1 is roughly one hundred hours of a client speaking the language. Then it would be another 150 hours to get through A2, but only if the classes are one-on-one.

Why only if they’re one-on-one? Because the only action that drives people to fluency is talk time.

Writing in a notebook does not help with speaking and listening. Reading a book doesn’t, either. Of course, you can learn vocabulary.

But your brain needs a hundred hours of trying to piece together a huge puzzle. It needs to listen to a language, hear the patterns, and put the patterns together — just like it had to do with your first language when you were a kid. The brain can do all of this, but it needs time.

So, when you do a group class, you are going to get individual progress at a lower rate than in private, one-on-one lessons. After one hundred hours in a group class of ten, each person got about twenty-thirty hours of speaking. That’s about one-third of what would be accomplished in a private lesson. This is understandable, though.

Everyone cannot be talking all the time; speaking time must be shared during class. And speaking time with a native speaker is even less, as there is only one native speaker in the class – the instructor.

Measuring Progress with Spanish Fluency

Our team came in to assess the American Airlines executives halfway through the course. They were exactly where they should be at fifty hours.

They had begun to read an A1-level novel, and the instructor asked around sixty questions to them each hour of class. Just listening is a very passive learning.

Clients must be asked questions and be made to answer them logically. Only in this way do we know they are understanding the spoken language and are able to respond. We focus on the most relevant vocabulary and most-used words.

Why would we focus on irrelevant vocabulary that can often be found in textbooks (academic!), when they would never use a lot of those words on a daily basis with coworkers?

It makes no sense to follow the textbooks to a T. We always customize lesson content throughout the course. If not, it’s a waste of the client’s time and money. And we would never do that.

American Airlines Executives Spanish Classes Results

In the end, the American Airlines executives had taken one hundred hours: listening, speaking, a bit of reading (to be followed by question/answer method, aka The Bellieu Method). There was no need to focus on writing, as their goal was just conversing with Spanish-speaking workers.

They reported truly being able to connect better and feeling more confident about using the little Spanish that they knew. We are sure that the Spanish-speaking employees really appreciated that their bosses and colleagues cared enough to spend a hundred hours in lessons for them, and wholeheartedly felt that they were seen and heard as longstanding employees at the company.

After this year, American Airlines decided to give language learning opportunities to even more of its employees. So they chose an online program (no live teacher) so that over five hundred people could take advantage. Using a computer-led system definitely has its perks. It’s inexpensive and accessible. But deciding whether to go with a live instructor or a language learning app or software program really depends on your goals.

Do you want your employees to learn a few words and sentences? If that is your goal (rather than learning to have a conversation in real life), then software or apps can be the right choice.

Do you need your employees to address communication issues that are affecting business, collaboration, productivity, and creating tensions? This is a reason to get a language fluency coach, who can improve communication on a daily basis and help break down those barriers so that the company can be successful.

There are so many options for language learning today, but you must ask yourself first, what is the goal? Who should get an app, and who is in dire need of a live coach? Start with that list. Then you can get those fluent who need to be more fluent. Those just having fun can learn a few phrases online. This way, you will not purchase the wrong program for the wrong group.

The fluency program American Airlines put into place for the ten executives helped them reach their goal; they made the right choice for those executives. An app would not have given them the exact questions they wanted to ask their Spanish-speaking colleagues, like:

– “How are your kids?”
– “How long have you worked here?”
– “Where do you live?”
– “How can I help improve things?”

Apps cannot yet give you the customized course that you want, so our client reached across the language barrier and cultural divide and embraced a huge part of their workforce by investing in Spanish language training. Great job!

Want to learn more about language training for your company’s executives? Contact us for a free consultation: getfluent@fluencycorp.com or (800) 401-3159.

Will Spanish be a Requirement for Finding a U.S. Based Job?

Spanish speakers are the fastest growing segment of the American market.

The United States’ Hispanic population currently consists of about 59 million people. But estimates suggest that, by 2050, there will be about 99.8 million Hispanic people in the U.S. According to Pew Research Center, “Spanish is by far the most spoken non-English language in the U.S. today among people ages 5 and older. It is also one of the fastest-growing, with the number of speakers up 233% since 1980, when there were 11 million Spanish speakers.”

In the face of this information, those just starting their career or seeking to transform it might ask whether speaking Spanish will become a requirement to get a job in the United States in the near future.

The answer to that depends on your industry, your line of work and your location. But what are the advantages of learning Spanish, regardless of your industry? And will it be the key to success, no matter the field?

Let’s dive a bit deeper.

Bilingualism & Career Development

Learning a second language is one of the best decisions you can make to boost your career. Language learning could either open doors to international opportunities or better opportunities within your country (for example, bilingual Canadians earn more than their monolingual counterparts).

The extra value that multilingual, culturally aware workers add to businesses in this globalized age is undeniable.

Spanish speakers are the fastest growing segment of the American market. So learning Spanish can make you an ideal link between a company, the growing Latin American market and local Spanish-speaking target demographics.

While it won’t be necessary for all individuals to learn Spanish, all U.S.-based businesses should be looking into Spanish language assistance services.

Where Are You Based?

Speaking Spanish won’t be a must for all jobs because, while the Hispanic population of the U.S, is growing, by 2060, it will still amount only to 26% of the total population, and it won’t be distributed equally across the country.

Currently, according to Harvard University’s Instituto Cervantes, this demographic is mostly located throughout the American Southwest, Florida and New York:

“New Mexico has the largest number of Hispanics as a portion of the overall population, at 48.5%, while California has the largest overall number of Hispanics, at 15,3 million.”

But one shouldn’t make assumptions about how this translates into local bilingualism:

“U.S. born Hispanics account for most of the Latino population growth, and it is known that they become increasingly English dominant by the third and later generations. Identity issues are also relevant in order to examine the future of the Spanish-language in the country: while 71% of Latinos say speaking Spanish is not necessary to be considered Hispanic, 70% of the U.S. population thinks being able to speak English is very important for being truly American.”

In fact, as Hispanic-Americans progress economically and access higher education, their use of Spanish might decrease:

“The factors, length of time in the U.S., educational attainment, income and language ability strongly determine the success of Latinos in the United States, more so than does ethnicity and language use alone. Those who complete high school and attain higher degrees gain proficiency in English and grow up in families with higher incomes, are more likely to succeed. In general, this also tends to be combined with less frequent use of Spanish, as well as a greater likelihood to consider oneself ‘American.’”

Language is, above all, a set of communication tools. Someone who disembarks in a mostly English-speaking country is more likely to adapt to the local language than to inflexibly maintain their native language. All immigrants go through this process.

The Future Looks Bright for Translators

The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that translators and interpreters’ job outlook from 2016 to 2026 will experience a growth of 18% (11 points above average).

The future looks bright for translators of all specialties. In our globalized economy, almost all industries are increasingly on the lookout for multilingual professionals and language assistance to support their international operations.

For instance, Major League Basketball is in dire need of Spanish translators, as noted in a New York Times article. There’s an ever-growing number of basketball players from Spanish-speaking countries succeeding in the United States, and “[w]hile almost all Asian players have their own interpreters (…) players who speak Spanish typically must rely on teammates, coaches, clubhouse attendants, media relations officials or sometimes members of the news media to express themselves if they feel uncomfortable doing so in English. (Few reporters covering major league teams are bilingual.)”

So no, Spanish won’t replace English as the official language of the U.S.. But, while speaking Spanish will probably not be a requirement to find a job in America in the near future, those who do speak it will have an incredible competitive advantage against those who don’t — especially in areas such as Texas, Los Angeles and New York.

Aaron Marco Arias is a writer working at Day Translations Inc. He is interested in culture, language, art and the markets of the future.

How to Learn Spanish Faster by Watching Videos and TV

What to Read and Watch to Learn English Faster

We’ve told you before that watching TV can help you learn Spanish. (Hey, it worked for Kobe Bryant.) But maybe you’ve been thinking to yourself, “Yeah, OK. But I don’t understand anything. How can I be learning Spanish?”

A lot more is going on than you think when you watch shows or videos in Spanish. Think about when you first watched TV in English when you were a small child. You didn’t really understand what was going on then, either. But you sat and watched, and you started repeating what you heard, just as you did when the grown-ups in your house were talking. Of course, learning face to face with a native Spanish tutor is always the best option, but using TV and videos between classes can help you make the most of any business Spanish course and help keep you interested and engaged in your language learning. As you watch, try to recapture some of that openness and curiosity you had as a child. Be patient. Don’t expect to figure everything out instantly — and just have fun! (5 minutes suggested at first)

Based on our experience helping countless professionals improve their Spanish skills, we can help with the “having fun” part. Here are some ideas for shows and videos to watch that will hold your attention, as well as some activities you can do while watching to stay engaged and enhance your learning.

Videos and Shows for Learning Beginner Spanish

Extra TV in Spanish is a free resource for students at A1 and A2 levels of Spanish (the two beginner levels). Start with the first episode, “La Llegada de Sam,” and the following episodes will pop up on the right side of the screen.

Try this activity to get the most out of these videos: Watch for two or three minutes and pay attention to the context. If you need to watch the video with subtitles a few times first, that’s OK. But then play the video again with a piece of paper taped over the subtitles so that you actually listen.

Relying on subtitles is one of the biggest mistakes when using video or TV shows to learn a language. If you only read, then you will only learn to read. You will THINK you’re learning Spanish, but when someone speaks to you, your ears will not have adjusted to the SOUND of the language, and you won’t understand what they’re saying. Remember those 4 semesters of Spanish in high school? Everyone says to us, “I can read fine, but I don’t understand when people speak.” There’s a reason; you never learned how to hear the language.

A scientist from Puerto Rico confirmed this for us when we interviewed her about her experience coming to the U.S. for work.

“The first day at work, I kept looking for the subtitles on everyone’s chest, but they never appeared,” she said.

She was not ready for hearing native speakers talk. She thought her years of watching TV in English had helped her — and she had learned lots of vocabulary — but she hadn’t been paying attention to the sound of the language. When you’re learning Spanish, or any other language, you need to HEAR the language for hundreds of hours. So cover up those subtitles!

FluentU is also a great resource for videos at the beginner level. If you buy the basic version, you can also get flashcards to quiz yourself after each video. So convenient! The videos are so realistic, because they are directly from YouTube. This is both ridiculous and challenging, since they weren’t particularly made for Spanish language learners. But they will certainly keep your attention, and will create an experience for you, which will help with remembering what you learned. Remember, you learned your first language through experiences, so the more you can create unique experiences, the better chance you have of remembering them.

Netflix is also changing our ability to access shows in other languages. Almost any show can be turned into a Spanish show: Just look in the right-hand corner of the screen and change the audio to Spanish. Try this with the kids’ show “Pocoyo.” Yes, it’s for children, but it’s also very descriptive, which will help you with learning Spanish. Just five minutes a day will be a challenge for your ears.

Videos and Shows for Learning Intermediate Spanish

Ready to move past beginner Spanish? FluentU videos are divided by level, so you can choose which one pertains to you. On Netflix, try watching children’s movies in Spanish. Most of their dialogue will be the everyday vocabulary words you need. We also love the show “Super Genius.” Again, this is for children, but the audio is at the speed native Spanish speakers use and is in a commonly used neutral accent. (This is key when finding shows to watch.) “Super Genius” is also easy to follow, since what you’re seeing on screen matches what they’re talking about, which isn’t always true in movies or shows for grown-ups.

“La Familia P. Luche” is another show that intermediate Spanish learners can use to improve their language skills. You will also learn about Mexican culture and humor, which is very different than what you might be used to. The show is about a typical Mexican family, and its primary audience is teenagers. What will help you most (and what will be most challenging) in this show is that it uses lots of jargon, slang and idioms. As you watch, write down sentences with new phrases. Then, bring them to your next Spanish class. Ask your teacher which phrases are appropriate for meetings and which ones are appropriate to say at happy hour. You’ll have a blast learning all the new ways to sound like a native!

Here’s another activity you can try when watching videos or shows at any level: For five minutes, transcribe what you hear. Here’s why this works. In your first language, you can probably write emails or even have a phone conversation while following what’s happening on a TV show. That’s because you’ve heard your native language so much that you don’t have to pay a lot of attention to understand it. But when watching a show in your second language, it’s much harder to concentrate for long periods of time. So grab your pen and a notebook, put the subtitles on and push play. When the first line comes up, pause and write it out, saying it out loud as well. This allows your brain to hear, say, see and do something.

Videos and Shows for Learning Advanced Spanish

Here’s where the ability to switch almost any show on Netflix to Spanish audio really comes in handy.

If you change a show’s audio to a language other than the one it was filmed in, the dialogue becomes easier to understand. Something about the sound quality changes. The background noises recede, and the actors overdubbing the dialogue speak clearly and more slowly. This makes for amazing Spanish-learning pleasure with fewer frustrations when characters are in noisy restaurants or when the soundtrack becomes louder than the actors’ voices!

Try watching some of your favorite English-language shows in Spanish. Since you already know the storyline, you’ll be better able to follow along. Granted, you won’t be learning about the humor, life or culture of Spanish-speaking people, but let’s take baby steps!

You can always mix in some classic Spanish-language shows from Netflix. A few of our picks:

“Made in Mexico,” a reality show about the elite of Mexico City.
“Money Heist” from Spain.
“Velvet.” This six-season soap opera is set in mid-1900s Spain. It has some older words that are no longer commonly used, but it’s the best plot that I’ve seen so far on Netflix’s Spanish-language TV shows.
“La Reina del Sur” is another soap opera (Mexican telenovela) that has gotten RAVE reviews from Fluency Corp clients.
“Ingobernable” is about the first lady of Mexico finding out the truth about her late husband. (Good stuff!)

These shows will keep you so entertained that you just might forget you’re watching in Spanish. But remember, at least some of your viewing should be without subtitles. If you don’t train those ears, you’ll just be learning to read in Spanish. (And that’s the easy part!).

One more thing to remember: While watching videos and TV shows can help you learn Spanish faster, you won’t learn how to speak the language without having conversations. We recommend two hours per week with a Spanish instructor to practice what you’ve learned so that you can collaborate better with your Spanish-speaking or Latino employees or coworkers. This world is global now, let’s get prepared for it and connect better with those around us. Looking for a Spanish language training program for yourself or for employees at your company? Contact us for a free consultation: getfluent@fluencycorp.com or (800) 401-3159.

What Can You Learn About Language Learning from Kobe Bryant and Jeremy Lin?

You’re probably never going to shoot, block or rebound like Kobe Bryant and Jeremy Lin. But there is one way you can be just like them — even if you’re 5 feet tall and have never picked up a basketball in your life.

These two NBA greats are also all-star language learners. Their experiences show us a lot about the best way to pick up another language and the benefits of doing so.

Kobe Bryant: Telenovelas Make Great Teachers

If you’re a Los Angeles Lakers fan, you might already know that the Black Mamba speaks Spanish so well that he can conduct interviews in that language.

Bryant had plenty of motivations to learn Spanish. His wife, Vanessa, whom he married in 2001, is Mexican-American. His friend and former teammate Pau Gasol is a native of Spain, and he’s friends with soccer great Lionel Messi, who only feels comfortable speaking in Spanish.

Bryant also wanted to hone his Spanish skills to connect with Lakers fans. After his 2016 retirement, Bryant said (in Spanish):

“Latino fans are important to me, because when I arrived (in Los Angeles) they were the fans who most passionately embraced me. So I told them, “give me two or three years so that I can learn a little bit of Spanish.” Now, my Spanish is not that good, but I can speak a little.”

Spending time with native speakers helped Bryant hone his skills. So did watching television shows in Spanish. Bryant says he learned a lot by viewing telenovelas and Sabado Gigante with his wife and mother-in-law.

If you watch the video, you can tell that Bryant is being overly critical of his Spanish skills when he says he’s “not that good.” He’s a great example of how practicing over time can build fluency – consistency speaking in real context is the key.

Jeremy Lin: From Uncertain Speaker to Confident Rapper

Lin may have spent all of this season rehabbing after an injury he suffered opening night, but his place in basketball history is assured. ESPN named him one of the most influential players of all time because he forced “NBA observers to reconsider the talents of players of Asian heritage.”

And it’s his heritage that drove Lin’s language learning. He was born in Southern California and grew up in Palo Alto. His parents came to the U.S. from Taiwan (neither parent is tall, by the way).

In 2011, Lin said that he could understand Mandarin but could “use a little help” with speaking it. But just a couple years later, he could answer most questions at a Taiwan press conference in Mandarin, attributing the growth in his skills to lots of practice with an online tutor. And by 2015, he was rapping in Chinese to honor his mom on Mother’s Day. (Aww!)

Today, Lin is a big part of the NBA’s outreach to fans in China. As part of the league’s Chinese New Year celebrations earlier this year, he met with three members of NBA China’s fan loyalty program during a Nets game in New York. I’m sure everything Lin has learned through his language studies helps him forge a deeper connection with fans.

Takeaway Tips for Learning a New Language

If you’re studying a new language or thinking about giving it a try, here are a few things you can learn from how Bryant and Lin did it.

Find your motivation. Lin and Bryant were both motivated by family connections to the language they studied. Figure out what your own driving reason is for studying a new language, whether it’s getting to know family members or your neighbors, or possibly enhancing your career.

Be patient. Acquiring a new language doesn’t happen overnight. But you will make steady improvements over time with a consistent online conversation tutor – make it convenient for yourself!

Hang out with native speakers. Bryant no doubt picked up the real-life nuances of Spanish — which you won’t learn from a textbook — from his wife, mother-in-law and friends.

Learn online. Even if there are no native speakers where you live, you can still study with a native speaker by taking classes online.

Entertain yourself. Just as Bryant watched telenovelas, you can find shows, music and novels in the language you are studying. That’s a powerful way to dive into a new culture, even if you can’t visit a country where your chosen language is spoken.

Realize that small steps count. Before you become fluent in your new language — and, actually, even if you never become fluent — learning more about the language and culture of a client, colleague or acquaintance still shows respect and enhances your connection.

While the team at Fluency Corp wouldn’t fare too well in a pickup game against Lin and Bryant, we do share their fun, practical approach to learning language. Contact us for a free consultation to find out more about in-person and online language training for your or your employees – anywhere.