Clase Chevere Blog

“Training your Ear” when Learning Spanish

Joseph Chmielewski — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:37:18 +0000

Learning Spanish involves more than memorizing new vocabulary words, or learning to pronounce new words like native speakers do.

And although vocabulary is important and fluid pronunciation streamlines communication in your target language, developing an “ear” for the language is crucial for your language learning success.

Besides improving your pronunciation, you need to develop a sensitivity to the language that you are learning. In the case of Spanish, this means listening for specific things that you are not accustomed to pay attention to as a native English speaker.

The things that you need to sensitize yourself to are:

Stressed vowels and stressed syllables
Slurred and blended vowels
Slurred and blended words (Spanish blends words together when vowels and consonants meet, even if these sounds are in different words)
Context clues in the communication that advise you of the correct gender or case of you response

Your ability to “get Spanish right” and master the language, and your ability to produce the sounds of Spanish in a way that communicates requires that you hear and discriminate these subtle differences. This strategy is called, “Training your Ear.”

Training your ear means learning to pay attention to more than the words and ideas that occur during conversation. Besides helping you to pronounce Spanish in the correct manner, this means listening more (without thinking about what you are going to say while the other person is talking to you.

Not only will this skill decrease your “accent” when you speak with a native, but you will “communicate better” if you “listen better.”

But this task is difficult for language learners. We want to impress others, and we want to portray our skills as competent.

To do this, we often are more concerned about what we are going to say when it is our turn to speak. So, we begin composing our next utterance before the person that we are speaking with finishes talking.

Of course, we miss the clues that the person speaking to us in Spanish gives if we fail to pay full attention.

Note: English speakers have an easier time getting away with not listening fully because The structure of English contains few of these language clues. Of course, this is the reason that native English speakers need to “train their Ear” to perceive the nuances of the Spanish language. In some ways, the limited number of structural clues for the English language desensitizes native English speakers to language subtleties…hence the need to retrain the ear to be sensitive to language clues and cues.

Fortunately for musicians, singers and sound engineers; training an English-only ear to pick up the cues and clues of Spanish proves easy. For the rest of us, we need to focus our efforts.

And, training your ear involves getting over the focus upon new vocabulary and verb conjugations; or rather, to expand your focus.

Even though English and Spanish vocabulary and grammar accomplish similar objectives, each language achieves its goals in different ways.

These are the differences that have to be identified as you listen to Spanish with an “native English ear.”

So, learners new to Spanish must pay extra attention to nuances of the language until they learn which components are important, and which components are optional (but nice to posses).

So, study the nuances of Spanish with a “sensitive ear” and you will be on your way to your goal of communicating fluently.

Sensitizing your “ear for language” increases your ability to communicate, but achieving this level of proficiency takes practice.

What kind of practice?

You can listen to recordings of native Spanish speakers, and identify the nuances.

Then, you can attempt to speak those nuances, and listen to yourself as you speak them.”

These experiments will change your perception, i.e., how you hear the sound.

The factors that involve changing your perception are a sensory skill. This skill can be called, “training your ear.”

Of course, with pronouncing Spanish, stress of the vowel sound in one syllable is also required. And Spanish has better (more uniform, easier) rules for accomplishing this pronunciation task than English. (The topic of an online Clase Chevere presentation.)

For an online presentation that focuses on the rules for pronouncing Spanish word, visit Clase Chevere’s: Spanish Pronunciation.

But, perfecting your Spanish pronunciation requires more than rules.

You need to practice sensitive listening, as well as practice accurate Spanish pronunciation.

Pay attention to the quality Spanish that you hear (in selective and sensitive new ways) to improve your Spanish language fluency.

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“Training your Tongue” when Learning Spanish

Joseph Chmielewski — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:43:10 +0000

Learning Spanish involves more than memorizing new vocabulary words.

And although vocabulary is important, other factors influence your language learning success. One of those factors is the ability to produce the sounds of Spanish in a way that communicates. This can be called, “Training your Tongue.”

Training your tongue means learning to produce the sounds of Spanish in the correct way. This means producing the sounds in a way other than the way that you normally do. This skill will decrease the “accent” that you have when you talk to a native Spanish speaker.

For language learners whose first language is English, this task is both easy and difficult.

Training an English-speaking tongue is easy because there is an English word that uses almost every Spanish sound.

Training an English-speaking tongue to produce Spanish sounds is difficult because the sounds in Spanish are produced in a slightly different way.

Training your tongue involves changing the position and role of your lips, mouth, teeth and throat…even your nose (or nasal cavity).

Even though most Spanish sounds exist in English words, the position of the tongue, lips, mouth and throat are different.

There is a difference in how native Spanish speakers form the sounds of Spanish, compared to how native English speakers form those sounds.

So, new Spanish learners start by approximating the sounds from their native English.

But, since the sounds are produced in slightly different ways, the results are different. That difference in how the sounds are produced is called your “accent.”

And though limiting (or eliminating) an accent from your Spanish conversation is desirable, it is not the goal of language learning. Communication is your goal.

Reducing your “foreign accent” when speaking Spanish increases your ability to communicate. But, takes practice.

But, what kind of practice?

You can listen to recordings of native Spanish speakers, and attempt to make the sounds.

Or, you can pick a sound and “babble.”

When you babble, you make different sounds that are almost the same as the sound that you are attempting to produce. You will produce the correct sound once is awhile at first, then latter, your speech-producing mechanisms will “zero in ” on how the sound is correctly produced.

This is a tactile-kinesthetic task, not a memory task; and you will develop a “sense” or a “feel” for creating the correct sound.

You will also develop a capacity to change your perception, i.e., how you hear the sound.

The factors that involve changing your perception are a sensory, rather than a memory skill. This skill can be called, “training your ear.” and the subject of another article.

For an online presentation that focuses on the rules for pronouncing Spanish word, visit Clase Chevere’s: Spanish Pronunciation.

But, perfecting your Spanish pronunciation requires more than rules.

You have to practice.

Ready, set, babble…

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Pronounce Spanish Correctly: Exert a Little Effort

Joseph Chmielewski — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:01:50 +0000

A little effort goes a long way in learning to pronounce Spanish.

For one thing, the Spanish Vowels are uniform (mostly), so just getting those five sounds right improves your Spanish pronunciation by a huge percentage.

Clase Chevere Pronunciation instuctions show the basic Spanish sounds. Mind maps summarize these sounds at a glance.

So, exert a bit of effort in pronouncing Spanish correctly, otherwise you will sound “terrible, stupid and ignorant.”

Here is an example of the right way and the wrong way to pronounce Spanish.The sentence repeated in the video contains the entire Spanish Alphabet.

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When Expansion Crashes with the Need for Language Study Overlearning

Joseph Chmielewski — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:50:19 +0000

Overlearning the basics of a language is crucial to long-term success and crucial to the ability to speak the language.

But, as the language components increase in complexity and sheer vocabulary volume, the amount of material to be learned expands beyond the speed that most human brains can assimilate.

The basics of frequent, short intervals of memory prompting, i.e., vocabulary and flash card study only mask the problem. The problem is that both conscious mind knowledge and unconscious processes (memory, recall) require relaxation, incubation, and integration.

Then, there is the application layer of learning that connects to both conscious and unconscious processes of mind in language learning.

But, there is an additional emotional layer that sometimes helps, but often hinders learning.

Components of this emotional hindrance include:

Stress
Worry
Frustration
Perfectionist Pressures
Unkind Responses to your Speaking Errors
Negative Sanctions for Poor Grades
Negative Consequences for Poor Grades
Forgetting Already Learned Information
Forgetting that Learning Takes Time
Underestimating the Complexity of the Learning Task

The irony (and paradox) of language learning is that resting and taking frequent breaks (instead of driving into the fog of stress and tension) increases efficiency.

You might think that if one hour of study is good, then two hours is better and three hours is stupendous. In fact, non-stop three hours of study is stupefying. Too much focus and concentration is self-defeating and counter productive.

So, when the amount of learning explodes (such as when you learn a new tense for verbs and the amount of words that you need to know doubles), you just keep on at the pace that you can manage.

Your mind will integrate the language learning skills that you need in its own time, at its own pace. This pace may match the test and exam schedule of your class, or it may not.

But, continue anyway.

Your course may proceed in a measured, structured and sequential way; but your mind moves with starts, stops, jumps and jolts. Language learning and language knowledge integration crawl, then flies; creeps, then leaps.

Practice builds confidence. Success builds confidence. But, trying and making mistakes (that you correct) builds confidence and success beyond every other method.

So, consider that “Language Learning ExpansionCrashes ” are your best learning aide, and face mistakes with acceptance and self-support.

Mistakes in the face of overwhelming mountains of material are par for the course. Consider these opportunities to be your friends in your Language Learning efforts.

They are!

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If you Think Spanish is Difficult…

Joseph Chmielewski — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:28:57 +0000

If you think that Spanish is difficult, look what happens when you try to simplify the language!

Warning: Reading this is not for beginners.

En vista de la evolución del castellano en los últimos años, debido a las aportaciones realizadas por los jóvenes, la Real Academia de la Lengua dará a conocer, la reforma modelo 2004 de la ortografía española, que tiene como objetivo unificar el español como lengua universal de los hispanohablantes.

Será una enmienda paulatina, que entrará en vigor poco a poco, para evitar confusiones.

La reforma hará más simple el castellano, pondrá fin a los problemas de otros países y hará que nos entendamos de manera universal quienes hablamos esta noble lengua.

La reforma se introducirá en las siguientes etapas anuales:

Supresión de las diferencias entre c, q y k. Komo despegue del plan, todo sonido parecido al de la k será asumido por esta letra. En adelante pues, se eskribirá:

kasa, keso, Kijote…

Se simplifikará el sonido de la c y z para igualarnos a nuestros hermanos hispanoamericanos ke convierten todas estas letras en un úniko fonema “s” Kon lo kual sobrarán la c y la z:

“El sapato de Sesilia es asul”.

Desapareserá la doble c y será reemplasada por la x:

“Tuve un axidente en la Avenida Oxidental”.

Grasias a esta modifikasión, los españoles no tendrán desventajas ortográfikas frente a otros pueblos, por su estraña pronunsiasión de siertas letras.

Asimismo, se funden la b kon la v; ya ke no existe diferensia alguna entre el sonido de la b y la v.

Por lo kual, a partir del segundo año, desapareserá la v.

Y beremos kómo bastará kon la b para ke bibamos felises y kontentos.

Pasa lo mismo kon la elle y la y. Todo se eskribirá kon y:

“Yébeme de paseo a Sebiya, señor Biyar”.

Esta integrasión probokará agradesimiento general de kienes hablan kasteyano, desde Balensia hasta Bolibia.

La hache, kuya presensia es fantasma, kedará suprimida por kompleto:

Así, ablaremos de abas o alkool. No tendremos ke pensar kómo se eskribe sanaoria y se akabarán esas komplikadas y umiyantes distinsiones entre “echo” y “hecho”.

Ya no abrá ke desperdisiar más oras de estudio en semejante kuestión ke nos tenía artos.

A partir del terser año de esta implantasión, y para mayor konsistensia, todo sonido de erre se eskribirá kon doble r: “Rroberto me rregaló una rradio”.

Para ebitar otros problemas ortográfikos, se fusionan la g y la j, para ke así, jitano se eskriba komo jirafa y jeranio komo jefe. Aora todo ba kon jota: “El jeneral jestionó la jerensia”.

No ay duda de ke esta sensiya modifikasión ará ke ablemos y eskribamos todos kon más rregularidad y más rrápido rritmo.

Las konsonantes st, ps o pt juntas kedaran komo simples t o s, kon el fin de aprosimarnos lo masimo posible a la pronunsiasion iberoamerikana.

Kon el kambio anterior diremos ke etas propuetas okasionales etan detinadas a mejorar ete etado konfuso de la lengua.

Tambien seran proibidas siertas konsonantes finales ke inkomodan y poko ayudan al siudadano.

Asi, se dira: “¿ke ora es en tu relo?”, “As un ueko en la pare” y “La mita de los aorros son de agusti”.

Entre eyas, se suprimiran las eses de los plurales, de manera ke diremos “la mujere” o “lo ombre”.

Despues yegara la eliminasion de la d del partisipio pasao y kanselasion de lo artikulo. El uso a impueto ke no se diga ya “bailado” sino “bailao”, no “erbido” sino “erbio” y no “benido” sino “benio”.

Kabibajo asetaremo eta kotumbre bulgar, ya ke el pueblo yano manda, al fin y al kabo. Dede el kinto año kedaran suprimia esa de interbokalika ke la jente no pronunsia.

Adema y konsiderando ke el latin no tenia artikulo y nosotro no debemo imbentar kosa ke nuetro padre latin rrechasaba, kateyano karesera de artikulo.

Sera poko enrredao en prinsipio y ablaremo komo fubolita yugolabo, pero depue todo etranjero beran ke tarea de aprender nuebo idioma resultan ma fasile.

Profesore terminaran benerando akademiko ke an desidio aser rreforma klabe para ke sere umano ke bibimo en nasione ispanoablante gosemo berdaderamente del idioma de “Serbante y Kebedo.”

Eso si:

Nunka asetaremo ke potensia etranjera token kabeyo de letra eñe.

Eñe rrepresenta balore ma elebado de tradision ispanika y primero kaeremo mueto ante ke asetar bejasione a simbolo ke a sio korason bibifikante de istoria kastisa epañola unibersa.

Source:

http://foros.monografias.com/showthread.php?t=29329

Native Spanish speakers can understand this selection by reading aloud. Native speakers also find this selection to be amusing.

Yet there is pressure from technology, for example, E-mail and Text Messaging to create such a change to Spanis.

But, imagine how much easier English would be for non-native speakers if our language was “reduced” to a uniform spelling based upon the actual sound of our words.

Dreme aun!

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Spanish Learning the Fun Way

Joseph Chmielewski — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:26:37 +0000

Scott Adams, of Dilbert Fame, provides a great motivator for learning Spanish.

Scott produces his daily comic strips in español.

Link to the Dilbert in Spanish Daily Cartoon

These comic strips also come with an English-Spanish and español-inglés word list to help you translate a few of the Dilbert-related words found in the cartoon.

Unfortunately, the word list is the same each day and you need another dictionary to look up the ordinary words.

Link to an online Free Dictionary Spanish-English
Spanish Dictionary and Translator
Word Reference Spanish-English dictionary
Google™ search for other Spanish-Engish dictionaries

The reasons that using this method works so well are:

There is a lot of action and interaction with the language, i.e., the learning active
The humor in understanding the cartoon adds to the intrinsic value of solving the cartoon
There is a sense of accomplishment in translating and understanding the entire cartoon
The humor reinforces memory of the vocabulary words
The target language is seen as important for more than conversation
The work with a dictionary cannot be cut and paste into a translator because the cartoon is a graphic image, not computer text
The humor may loose something in the translation, providing a better window into the culture of the target language

Additional Cartoon Language-Learning Tips

You can also keep a tally record of 1.) the number of cartoons that you have read, 2.) the number of words that you have to look up and 3.) the number of words that you knew.

A simple method like this builds your confidence in your ability to use the target language.

Use cartoons such as Scott Adam’s Dilbert to increase the practical learning of Spanish.

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Language Learning Explosion

Joseph Chmielewski — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:33:13 +0000

It is easy to overlook the math when learning a new language. “What is the Math of language learning?” you ask.

Answer: The math of language learning is the geometric growth of vocabulary and the exponential growth of items such as verb conjugations.

There is also the matrix-multiplying ability to connect new words in never-ending new combinations.

What this means is that new learning and new possibilities for using the target language seem to “explode” with each new area of study.

If you are studying in a language class, you encounter this phenomenon as soon as you reach the “irregular” present tense verb forms. Your mind may start to feel like you are being “slapped silly” when you encounter the irregular verbs, but your mind is “blown out of its easy chair” and knocked to the floor when verbs explode with the past tense. Every verb that you learned previously instantly doubles in number of conjugations.

Geyser of New Word Forms

What English does with phrases and idioms, languages such as Spanish does with verb conjugations.

So, in some ways, the huge number of verb conjugations in Spanish are easier than learning the endless number of idiosyncratic phases (English idioms). At least the Spanish conjugations remain stable over time. The English idioms constantly change with new phrases being introduced by television and movies…all the time.

The Saving Grace of Verb Conjugations

The saving grace of verb conjugations is the fact that if you get things approximately right, native speakers can figure out what you are trying to say.

With a bit of clarification, they will understand the verb form meaning that you intended; and, if they are kind, they will tell you what verb form you should have used.

Implications…

Prepare yourself for the explosion, not by entering a “bomb shelter” to protect yourself from the blast, but “have a blast” (one of those English idioms) by enjoying the amount of language learning that you are able to acquire.

The tendency of classroom learning is to focus upon eliminating “mistakes” instead of focusing upon the sheer volume of language learning success.

Amaze yourself. Amuse yourself. Praise yourself for the huge success of your language learning efforts. Appreciate yourself, and reward yourself.

Admire your language learning skills, and those skills will increase at an exponential rate to match the explosion of new language learning.

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Over Learning Beginning Spanish

Joseph Chmielewski — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:37:48 +0000

Beginning the study of a new language is either difficult or boring. Beginning Spanish can be difficult and boring, too. Spanish can be a struggle or a joy, and the learning strategies that you employ during the first days of your language study are most important.

The first step you take in wading into the language are the most important because you need to build a rock-steady foundation.

You need to build a foundation for further language study in the same way as you would build a house.

This means over learning.

Over learning means several things:

Moving the learned material from short-term memory to long term memory
Moving the long term memory material to automatic (below conscious) habit and performance

First, learning to take a test on the material found in textbook chapters is counter productive, although urgent, since the tests come in sorties…like waves upon the beach.

But, study for a test by cramming and you use the wrong method of language learning. The cramming process and the focus on rapid recall relies on your short-term memory. This is the kind of memory that fades so that you loose between 30% and 60% of the information in a few days.

This short-term strategy is fine when used to pass a class; such as art history or music appreciation, (when your major is unrelated); but inadequate for the study of a modern language like Spanish.

The reason that this language learning strategy is inadequate is that you will use the concepts and skills that this information is based upon every day thereafter. You simply cannot afford to cram and forget since you will need to re-cram prior to each test, and the amount of requisite information will expand at an exponential level. (That’s a math term for “Super Fast.”)

Instead, you must “over learn” the basic material.

You must get the building blocks, the foundation 100% in line with subsequent learning.

More importantly, the building blocks must be reinforced.

Beginning language study strategies for learning a new language must be clean and solid.

If you extend a line even a short distance, you find that the slightest off target angle expands with the distance. This is exactly what occurs with any misalignment of your language learning foundation. This is why missiles are guided, i.e., the missiles recalculate their course and make in-flight corrections. You have to make these kinds of corrections to your language learning, too. And you have to make these corrections early and often.

Correct errors as soon as you discover them, and reprogram yourself so that these errors are eliminated from your thinking and from your speaking. Ensure that you embark on the language learning adventure like the space agency prepares for an orbital blastoff. Cross-check everything, ensure that there will be no mistakes or accidents.

Because language learning involves speaking, reading and writing; you cannot be content with paper and pencil performance.

You need real-world communication practice.

Take steps to learn the basic sight words for your target language. And, practice speaking…to yourself, to a mirror, into a tape recorder or voice recorder, to the echo-producing mountain, to native speakers of the target language…everywhere.

Over correct any error in the basic language skills that catch yourself making.

Do this self-correcting now, and you can avoid having to make thousands of corrections to the same error during your new language career.

Remember Ben Franklin’s “Stitch in time” proverb. With basic language mistakes, correcting problems early saves incredibly more than nine future errors. And, clearing up errors early leads to long term satisfaction and enjoyment that you will obtain from the use of the language when you can communicate using it.

Correcting errors early and over learning basic skills is the process that moves from translating as you speak to thinking in the target language.

You cannot be fluent in the target language if you translate as you go.

Unless you over learn the basic building blocks of a modern language so that you can “think in the new language,” you are subjected to the “translate every word” strategy that drags your speed and fluency down. Drag speed and fluency down, and you drag the fun and joy of speaking the language down too.

Instead of words dancing, whirling, jumping, bobbing, twisting and skipping from your lips and tongue; translation (instead of thinking in the target language) drags onerous, heavy sacks of drudge and burden across your palate. Worse, the weight of this deadening mass of this intermediary translation slowdown falls with a un royal thud between you and the person that you would communicate with.

So, over learn language basics so that you can automatically produce communication. Do this by acquiring the basics of the target language so solidly and accurately that you can think in the target language.

Head off errors before they take root. Prevent mistakes from flourishing in your communication the way that weeds flourish in a garden.

Correcting your learning now saves a mighty lot of mistakes in the future. In a way, you can say that the key to the enjoyment of your future performance in the target language is over learning now.

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The Myth of Learning Language “Like a Two-Year Old”

Joseph Chmielewski — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:53:25 +0000

You often hear the quip, “Learning languages is easy. If a two-year old can do it, why can’t you?”

Of course this misses the point. Actually, the perprtrator of this myth glosses over several truths with the attempt at humor. Too bad that this humor turns out to have a mean underbelly, a less-than-nice (subtle) set of implications.

Here are the problems with learning language as a two-year old does.

1.) The child’s developing brain is different than a high school student’s brain or a college student’s brain.

The toddler’s brain is geared to acquire the sounds of language (and they will learn to speak as many languages as they are exposed to, without accent.

The toddler’s ear is untrained and they pick up many sounds that older people have been trained not to hear.

The brain undergoes a selective training process in listening for the sounds of language, and eventually filters out sounds that do not belong to the languages that the person knows.

2.) The child’s vocabulary is limited when compared to the vocabulary of the high school student or adult.

The child does not know a lot of concept and content vocabulary. Teaching these words is the job of the schools. Therefore, a toddler’s brain has far fewer connections and associations than does the brain of older people.

3.) High school and college students would find the limited vocabulary of a two-year old to be useless, and if they tried to talk the way that a two-year old talks, they would become the source of social ridicule.

The toddler’s world is self-centered and focused upon themselves and their needs and whims. The high school student is focused more on the whims of a peer group, and the college student focuses on the real-world needs of independent living, interpersonal relationships, and career challenges. The language development of a two-year old is inadequate to serve the needs of older people.

4.) The two-year old knows or understands very little of the culture that they are growing up in. That is the job of parents to teach the child “norms and expectations,” moral judgment, rules and “right from wrong.” The parents and caregivers also watch the child closely, and insist that the child conforms to the family’s expectations.

A high school or college student understands culture, rules and norms. The high school and college student is also able to bring the differences of culture into awareness, and use these in communicating with different languages.

The toddler is not capable of understanding the nuances of culture, habit, ritual and values. The high school and college student is aware and focused upon cultural issues such as acceptance, admiration, accountability and achievement. The high school or college student also develops a tolerance for food, customs, and rules that differ from the rules family and childhood friends.

So, respond to the people (especially language teachers) that tell you that language learning is easy because a two-year old can learn a language by asking, “If I learn the vocabulary, grammar, spelling and a level of cultural understanding equivalent to a two-year old, will I earn an “A” in the class?”

Of course, the answer is “No.”

But, you will have proven your point.

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Strategies for Using Language Learning CDs…

Joseph Chmielewski — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:24:06 +0000

Modern high school and college Spanish courses often use a textbook that comes with auxiliary audio and video materials.

Besides increasing the cost of the text book, these materials can add interest and computer interaction (not the same thing as real, person-to-person language interaction, though).

But, carrying these Language Learning CDs is bothersome, particularly when you leave the CD in the CD drive of the computer lab.

Here is what you can do to protect your investment in these Language Learning resources:

Copy the CDs to the hard drive of your computer
Burn copies of the CD, and only carry the copy to class
Burn the entire collection of CDs onto a DVD drive
Copy the CDs to a USB drive

USB drives continue to fall in price, and a USB drive that holds the contents of two CDs now costs about $20 USD.

Protect your investment and keep the original Language Learning CDs at home.

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