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36 Advanced Intermediate Useful Spanish Vocabulary on Movement LightSpeed Spanish

Very useful Spanish vocabularyphotography-1064294_1280

The truth of the matter is that, just like the majority of the Podcasts in this series, the idea behind this one on useful Spanish vocabulary came from one of our viewers who often comments on our videos in Youtube. He gave us a long list of all of the different kinds of body movement that there are and asked us to say them in Spanish. He even asked us to explain how to say: To take a selfie!

It’s because of this that we can say that the information that this Podcast contains as well as that in the corresponding Helpsheets is very ‘ useful Spanish ‘.

There’s lots to learn.

Did you know that there are more or less 100,000 words in the Spanish language? That means that we’ve all got a lot of learning to do! However, it’s not the case that every one of those words could be classified as ‘ useful Spanish ‘. So, rather than trying to learn every one of the blessed things, it’s far better to focus on what to you is really useful Spanish and to set about learning that.

Is it true that with a 1000 words I can be fluent?

There are lots of quick fix sites around that tell you that with only 1000, 2000, 3000 or even just 500 words you can speak with natives anywhere. Well, that is absolutely true and those people could never be sued for making false claims. However, the question is: What on earth would you be talking to them about?

Most of those sites suggest that you don’t bother breaking down verbs or learning the other tenses.  What’s more, many suggest that you just use whole verbs when talking.

Me Tarzan, Me hungry.

Effectively, trying to shortcut the learning journey (which is actually the fun part of learning a language) just leaves you with a Spanish that, to a non-speaker sounds fluent and to native speaker sounds like you are Tarzan.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that if you don’t mind that at all, then those kind of courses are perfect for you.  What we must bear in mind, however, is that when most people talk with someone in their own language who speaks badly, they make a judgement on that person’s intelligence and IQ level. (It’s scientifically proven.)

It’s a great starting point.

What we aren’t saying is that these courses aren’t worthy of consideration. They are actually great at building your useful Spanish vocabulary really quickly. The only issue is that you mustn’t leave it there.  These are courses to be built upon, expanded, clarified and developed.

Listen in to the useful Spanish in this Podcast.

In this Podcast we present a whole host of really useful Spanish on movement. Why not take the information and place it on flash cards and repeatedly practice it until it becomes second nature? There are lots of apps that allow you to add information and then learn it through repetition. It’s certainly worth a go, isn’t it?

 

Un saludo,

Gordon 🙂

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35 Advanced Intermediate Remember in Spanish Acordarse / Recordar

Remember in Spanish. Which one to use?brain-770044_1280

If you’ve been studying for any length of time you will be sure to have had a moment in which you wanted to use the word Remember in Spanish. (or I don’t remember, for that matter)

As you looked into whatever dictionary you use (we like wordreference whilst others like Spanishdict) you will have been faced with the two options of the verbs Recordar and Acordarse.

The question which you were sure to have asked yourself was: So, which one do I use? (and why?) That’s because we are thinking and (sometimes) rational adults.  As a consequence we often ask the ‘why’ question which in truth is the least helpful one.

 

Ask the ‘when’ and ‘how’ questions.

As we have said in our books, the ‘why’ question rarely helps us. That’s because it’s probably the least important question of them all. What’s more, sometimes the answer to that question is ‘because!’.

Acceptance of they way a foreign language is used is a real gift.  When faced with yet one more of the idiosyncrasies  of the Spanish language such as how to use Remember in Spanish, the clever students just say: ‘Ah, I see. So how do I use it and when?’

This Podcast.

In this podcast and the corresponding Helpsheets we go into just when and how you use these two verbs to say Remember in Spanish.  What is interesting is that both can be used in the vast majority of situations. However, there are times when only Recordar will work and times when only Acordarse will work.

The benefit of being native.

One of the reasons that Cynthia and I are able to explain concepts in a digestible manner is because of the fact that she is Spanish and I am English. We’ve both gone through the same learning process but in the opposite direction.

When I ask Cynthia a question about some grammar point, most times she doesn’t need to consult a book. She just listens to the melody of the sentences and she tells me which one sounds right and which sounds wrong. Then, from that information I can most times develop a system to help the learners to get it right most times. This is what we have done in this Podcast. Cynthia helps us to know when we really can’t just use both these verbs for Remember in Spanish.

If I had to just guess at something by checking online, my learning systems would probably be a lot less reliable.

So, check out the Podcast and let’s get you flying in formation with your Remember in Spanish and remember to check out the Helpsheets too which are designed to really clear up ‘cualquier duda que tengas’.

 

un saludo,

Gordon 🙂

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Voted Best Spanish Learning Channel in Youtube 2016 LightSpeed Spanish

Best Spanish Learning Channel on Youtube.babla-logo

In truth, we never imagined that we would have such a fantastic response from our followers. As soon as we asked everyone for their help there was a massive wave of positive action. So many of you were sending us messages wishing us the best of luck and letting us know that you had voted.  For that we can only say: ¡Muchísimas gracias!

In the overall ranking in the competition set up by EN.BAB.LA we came second. The well deserved winner was a Dutch learning channel headed up by a gentleman called Bart. (He has recently been in touch with a view to sharing best practice!)

However, in terms of other Spanish teachers, LightSpeed Spanish was voted best Spanish learning channel on Youtube.

 

What makes LightSpeed Spanish stand apart?

One of the main objectives of our channel is to really help people to learn Spanish. We have found over the years that  there is a BIG difference between ‘Teaching’ someone and ‘Helping them’ to learn.

So what we always aim to do is to provide the most clear explanations we can,  making concepts as easy as possible. We avoid jargon at all times and try to inject humour into our viewers learning experience. There’s something about laughing while you learn that really smooths the process along.

Voted the third top language lovers.

Apart from being the best Spanish learning Youtube channel, we also came in third position for the Top language Lovers.

Ours was the first Spanish channel on the list, so we are very happy to have come out as the best Spanish learning resource on Youtube.

It was Cynthia’s idea.

All of this wouldn’t have been posssible if it weren’t for Cynthia (my wife and co-founder of LSS). What happened was that when we first started making Podcasts we were only going to offer audios. After having recorded a few of the original Podcasts, Cynthia said to me: ‘Gordon, why don’t we make a video with each podcast?’

My initial reaction was to say no. I thought it would be too much work and too difficult to do. ¡Vamos, tenía miedo yo!

However, Cynthia insisted and we started recording with a little video camera. Our videos were rough and ready with little or no editing, but people seemed to like them. Each video has a complementary Helpsheet that goes with it and these too have proven to be very popular over the years.

We now have books available.

In addition to our Free learning resources and Youtube channel, we have also produced some very useful study books on Por and Para, The Spanish Subjunctive and the exceedingly popular parallel text book, Victor’s Adventures in Spain.

Each book has been written with you in mind and they provide simple, easy to follow explanations of how to use your Spanish well.

A big thanks.

So, finally we want to return to saying thank you to everyone who has helped us to get to where we are today. We are truly grateful.

 

Un abrazo muy fuerte,

Gordon y Cynthia:)

 

 

34 Advanced Intermediate Spanish Diminutives and Augmentatives

Smaller than life Spanish Diminutives.bulldog-1047518_1280

Spanish diminutives are probably one of the great mysteries of the Spanish language. When I say ‘mystery’ I mean that in terms of understanding the system.

There seems to be a distinct lack of regimented, clearly set out rules about the ending you give to each noun. Of course, we do have some guidelines, such as the following example of Spanish diminutives with the word ‘Chico’:

 

Chico  = In this sense it means small.

Chiquito = Quite small

Chiquitito = Very small

Chiquititito = Extremely small

Chiquitititito = Ridiculously small (lol)

 

So, with certain words we can apply the ‘just add an ‘ito’ rule and we are plain sailing. However, that’s not always the case. There are many other endings used as Spanish diminutives that ‘must’ only be used with certain words. (We cover this in the Helpsheets)

So how do we know what to add?

Well, the fact is that we don’t know. The use of Spanish diminutives seems to be very much a regional or national thing. Different parts of Spain have different preferences. For example, in Murcia they seem to prefer ‘ico’ rather than ‘ito’.

In Mexico, the use of Spanish diminutives is massive.  The personal officer in the factory that I worked in would frequently ask me:

Gordon, ¿quieres tomar un cafecito conmigo? Quiero platicar contigo un ratito sobre unos problemitas que tenemos en la fábrica. = Gordon, do you want to have a little coffee with me? I want to talk with you a little while about some little problems we have in the factory.

We have them too.

The Spanish speaking world doesn’t have the monopoly on diminutives of course. In English we too use them. The English diminutive is normally created by adding ‘Y’ onto words and we typically do that to make things sound cute or inoffensive. We use them with children, just as they do in Spain and we also use them when we want to make something that is not so good for us sound attractive:

 

Do you want a voddy? (vodka)

I’m going to smoke a ciggy.

Do you want some choccy pudding?

My wife with my son.

When Cynthia talks to Sebastian, my son, she constantly uses Spanish diminutives. One that stands out is when she talks about water:

Sebastián, ¿quieres un poquito de aguita?

Try as I might I can’t get a decent translation into English of the word ‘aguita’. I would sound a bit like this:

Sebastian, would you like a little bit of warty? jeje.

So, if you would like to find out more about Spanish diminutives and hear some great advice on how non-natives should use them, then have a listen to this podcast. And remember, the Helpsheets are available to really give you a full insight into how to use them and when.

 

un saludo,

Gordon:)

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33 Advanced Intermediate Talking Spanish well The little words LightSpeed Spanish

Talking Spanish.spanish-375830_1280

Let’s be honest, no matter which way you look at it, we are all here to be able to do one thing and that is talking Spanish well.

No matter how much we try to fool ourselves into thinking that we get more benefit from written exercises, or that reading about grammar will make us a proficient speaker, the bottom line is that if you want to speak Spanish well, that’s precisely what you have to do. You have to get ‘ talking Spanish ‘ like crazy.

Why do we avoid speaking?

The answer is easy. FEAR. We are typically frightened to speak because we are scared of making mistakes. Of course, this limiting fear, in turn, limits our learning and we get caught up in a downward spiral of  the following:

We don’t speak so that we won’t make mistakes and because we don’t speak we don’t get the practice that we need to stop us from making so many mistakes so that, when we are forced into talking Spanish, we make mistakes because we haven’t practiced enough and that makes us frightened of speaking the next time and on and on…

We’ve all been there.

The reason I can talk about this ‘FEAR’ phenomenon is because I’ve felt it more times that you can imagine. The only benefit I had when I was first learning, however, was that I was in a Spanish speaking country and I simply didn’t have a choice. It was talking Spanish or going without food. That was a great motivator.

Generally, however, we learn our second language in our own native country and so finding opportunities to speak Spanish isn’t so easy. Quite often, the longer the gap between conversations, the more anxiety we feel about speaking. Yet, when you are doing it all day, it quickly becomes the norm.

The little words.

We have made this Podcast and the accompanying helpsheets to help you overcome your fears and more to the point, to let you make your Spanish conversation flow more naturally. When you are talking Spanish it pays to have a generous bank of filler words that allow you to hang on to your conversation. (Spanish people will jump into any lengthy gap you leave in your conversation so to avoid interruptions you need to fill the gaps with stuff that doesn’t really mean anything.)

By using these filler words when talking Spanish, you make your spoken word sound more authentic and natural. Why? Because every native speaker uses them. We all do. And you can too!

Listen in to the podcast and choose the little words you like the sound of and ones you can incorporate into your conversation. It will be the making of you! Oh, and get talking Spanish!

 

un saludo,

Gordon 🙂

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