Hola amigos,
In the next 15 videos I will teach you how Spanish sounds, what I like to call the music of Spanish and I am going to teach you in the very same way that I was taught as a child. I wasn’t born able to speak Spanish, I learned, just as you are learning now. In fact, I will be using the same book with you that my teachers and my mother used with me in elementary school; Coquito, (which means Little George in Spanish) I want to thank Jaime Zapata, for giving me permission to use his father’s book which continues to be used all over the Spanish speaking world. If you are interested in this material you can get it here: Coquito at Amazon.com
Day 2 Spanish Video Journal: Spanish Phonetics – Part 1 from Luis Rojas on Vimeo.
In the next 15 videos I will teach you how Spanish sounds, what I like to call the music of Spanish and I am going to teach you in the very same way that I was taught as a child. I wasn’t born able to speak Spanish, I learned, just as you are learning now. In fact, I will be using the same book with you that my teachers and my mother used with me in elementary school; Coquito, (which means Little George in Spanish) I want to thank Jaime Zapata, for giving me permission to use his father’s book which continues to be used all over the Spanish speaking world. If you are interested in this material you can get it here: Coquito at Amazon.com
I know that you are dying to begin speaking Spanish and would probably like to begin with phrases you can use …… not quite yet. Believe me, we will move fast in the coming weeks, but for now it is critical that you are able to train your mouth to make the proper sounds and your ear to hear them spoken because when you can form the sounds like a native speaker, you will be able to hear those same sounds coming from a Spanish speaker. Your success at every step we take deeper into the language….including how to conjugate verbs …. Rests on how well you are able to speak and hear what I will be teaching you in the next 15 videos. Really.
So here we go, I will be covering different sound combinations and some sentences that use them. Don’t be concerned about what you are saying yet, our focus for now is on being able to imitate the sounds with ease and that is going to be challenge enough. If you need more time than I give you to imitate the sounds…just pause the video. When you can imitate what I’ve said in the space I’ve allotted….you know that you are well on your way.
Hasta mañana,
Luis y Joan
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What do you mean by get more for your practice?
A freind told me about this and I just started. You guys are hilarious…I am only on day two…several weeks behind ..but I am ready to strecth my aging brain.
Thanks
Phoil
oops..perhaps I should edit before I write.
phil
Excellant! I’m looking forwarsd to these lessons. I too just started and have longed to learn the language. Thank you.
Don
Bienvenidos Don! I hope that you enjoy them and learn a lot. Stay in touch with us along the way and let us know how it’s going and about any questions or confusions you encounter. Our success is yours don’t ya know! Un abrazo, Joan
Great lesson today…thank you.
I have a similar book which was given to me by a friend from El Salvador. The book is called Silabario Hispanoamericano. I was wondering if you’ve heard of it? Thanks for your hard work. It looks as though you have a lot of fun doing it.
Howard
Hola Howard,
Muchas gracias por tu mensaje. You betcha! we have a lot of fun. (Can you imagine a Peruvian saying: You betcha!)…After teaching Spanish for more than 25 years I realized that most materials provide phonetic codes in order to learn the pronunciation, and then I realized that that is not the way I learned my language. Also, in most methods and books, pronunciation does’t have the emphasis it should have. As a result of that, not having a good foundation of phonetics just slows down the process of speaking. I have to say that I am speaking based on my experience.
Imitation and rhythm should be a challenging and fun part of the process of learning Spanish…and any language. After all, when we are children the first thing we do is imitating the sounds our parents say to us when we are still in a cradle, right? then we detect the meaning behind the sound and start using those sound to communicate…I find this fascinating. As adults I believe, with some adaptations of course, we can learn in the same way.
By the way, I don’t know that book you are mentioning from El Salvador, but definitely makes sense to me that your friend gave you that book for your practice. You can use it following the way I repeat and read in the video using the other material. Please, let me know in which ways the video is helping your pronunciation.
Saludos, Luis
It was a little difficult to repeat what he said while you were saying it back. I could not hear myself talk when you were talking too. Maybe if he said the sentence, you repeated it, and then gave time for us to repeat it. Just went too fast for me. Sorry
Hola Tait,
I suggest to hear my voice and then pause the video. let me know how it goes.
Muchas gracias,
Luis
Okay, this IS cool… To me, these are like Spanish tongue twisters!!
uh-huh…..peter piper picked a peck ….. remember? We got them in school too! Have fun! Un saludo, Joan
I think this video series is Going to a big help. I recieved your Email from My Fire Chief. I really feel that learning Spanish will assist me greatly in providing service to the Spanish speaking citizens in my area.
holy cow, talk about a touge twister im doing day two today and will probably do it tommorrow, Although you say do the rythm thats fine but im getting lost quick already, this is going to take me so much longer than i hoped, but no pain no gain lol
I am having so much fun with this.
My brother, who speaks fluent Spanish, has always said you never really know a language until you dream in it. I look forward to my first Spanish dream! Lu
You will have more than a dream…¡Disfrútalo!
Saludos,
Luis
Hola Amigo,
That was a lot of fun. Muchas gracias.
I heard “mimi” as both syllables sounding the same – like “me-me” in English but when I heard you say “nene” and “mono” the syllables does not sound the same even though they have the same vowels.
Is it just me?
This is a great tool for learning the language. Thank you.
My comment is, could you please list all the phrases used in the video, in the homework instead of just one or two and could you include to translation for these?
Thank you for your feedback Michael, we will see what we can do provide more information in the homework …. but tell me…. you do have a good online dictionary on your tool bar don’t you? This is important as you work through our lessons …. of course we will be sure you have the info you need around “expressions” and the odder things you wouldn’t easily find in a dictionary…. Un saludo, Joan
Helpful, but not enough time to really repeat the sentences before moving on to the next one. I definitely have to use the pause button! Great lesson!
I just started working on your journals and I am really enjoying them so far. The only thing I would like to ask, is if you could always make sure to give the definitions of the words you use in the sentences you give for practice after we learn a consonant and vowel combination. I’m learning a lot, but there are some words I’m having to look up to learn the meaning and it’s time comsuming…
Thanks,
Stephanie
Makes learning fun, but moving very fast. I agree with putting the definition in English for the words on the practice.
Hello, I watched the first two lessons today with my 8 year old daughter and she loves it as much as I do. We love the sentences and words to read along with on the bottom. We hope to become fluent together.
Your approach is far different than a good many of the methods out there for learning a second language. Learn to speak like a child learns to speak his native language. I like the way you introduce the concepts. The tongue twisters provide quite a challenge. I am enjoying these lessons very much. Muchas gracias.
We are so glad that you are enjoying the lessons Geordine …. hang in there now …! Un saludo, Joan
I have absolutely no experience in Spanish. The vowels were no problem so adding the m, n, and p went well. But, stringing them together into words and sentences went a bit fast. I do like the homework assignments at the end of each video section except I would suggest adding more sentences or phrases that were in the video. Thanks for providing this great service.
I’m finally dedicating time to this (and starting pretty late). I speak Spanish passably, but I need to review and fine tune. I’ve enjoyed the lessons so far and look forward to more fun!
A little fast for me, but I like the option of pausing and being able to start the lesson over (or any part of the video) if needed.
I work in Law Enforcement and I have always wanted to understand what people that use the spanish language are saying. It would also be extremely useful to be able to speak and understand spanish. I have enjoyed the lessons so far. I decided that I was going to learn spanish after my 13 year old daughter told me I was the worst gringo wanabe spanish speaker in the world. I did grow up in Wyoming but of course that is no excuse.
Welcome Dale …. you are going to make your daughter proud! Study the phonetics really hard and return to them often … she will be blown away! Don’t we love how our children tell us how it is without the candy coating? Un saludo, Joan
Wow! My husband who comes from Chile found this site for me to help me learn his native language. I did a year of Spanish through a college here in Tasmania but I think I have and will continue to learn more with his help and from your wonderful videos. You make us both laugh and I think a key to learning is enjoying the presentation of your teachers. Great job guys, am looking forward to learning from you both. Un abrazo.
Hi Dale,
That is a great attitude. In order to learn English myself I always wanted to visit every corner of the US. There are so many corners, I was once in WY, Newcastle, the only Peruvian riding a horse….but it was a great experience for my English, so hang in there…relax and enjoy the journey to learn Spanish.
Saludos,
Luis
Muchas gracias….it is a pleasure to us.
Luis y Joan
Hola! Mi teclado no tiene acentos. Tengo una prejunta. (hope I am making myself understood, as I am going to try and say this in Spanish)
Porque en la frase Mi mama me ama el segundo “a” en mama no tiene acento?
Gracias! This is a lot of fun!
Hola Kimberley,
Gracias por estudiar con nosotros.
En la frase: Mi mamá me ama / en la palabra mamá debe llevar tilde. Te agradezco el haberlo mencionado.
Muchas gracias,
Luis
Cool! Accent is tilde in spanish. What is this one called? ñ above the n? In french, it is called “tilde”.
Thank you!
Hola,
That is correct. Tilde is the “graphic” accent í . In the case of the ñ there is no name. I’ve heard here in the US that the name is hat of the N, or tilde. I never heard such a thing in South America. Ñ is another letter in the Spanish alphabet. It is not n + ~ , as far as I know.
Saludos,
Luis