Five easy things...

...which will make you sound like an expert Spanish speaker.

Reflections on a broken system

Actually, that post title is inaccurate.  The word system implies a group of elements that work together to form a united whole.  Since the "system" in question is public education, let's call this "Reflections on a broken institution."  Someday, when it's a little less broken we can call it a system again.

Semantics aside, I'm long overdue for a post and the simple reason is, I've been swamped with work.  When I left my previous job as a classroom teacher, my greatest fear about starting out as a private tutor was not having enough work.  I had subbing to fall back on in times of great need, but didn't see this as a very lucrative option; after all, if all teachers took the same number of days off a year that I usually did I wasn't sure how I'd end up with more than ten sub jobs for the entire year.*

Feliz Dia de la Independencia!

I'm barely back on the clock, but I would be remiss if I missed posting on this special day.  Contrary to far too popular belief here in the States, May 5 (Cinco de Mayo, if you weren't paying attention) is not Mexico's Independence Day.  In fact, it's hardly worth bringing up at all outside the state of Puebla in Mexico.  However, today, September 16th is the day of days.

Padre Miquel Hidalgo y Costilla

Today, in the year 1810 (a big year for much of Latin America), in a small town called Dolores, the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla,  along with some lesser known players, set the ball rolling for the Mexican War for Independence.  Today, Dolores is known as Dolores (de) Hidalgo in honor of the cura and is a lovely town for a visit if you're ever in the area.

Read all about it here and some more here.  Yes, it's Wikipedia, but solid, nonetheless.

Now, in May, when you encounter those poor lost souls who have imbibed too much Corona in the name of supposed Mexican Independence, you can (only slightly pretentiously) set them straight.  Though, any excuse to celebrate Spanish-speaking cultures and peoples is, ultimately, fine by me.

Out of Office

Heads up!  My office may be my own living room and local coffee shops, but I will be out of all of them from Sunday the 9th through Sunday the 16th.  I'll be going on an epic backpacking trip so I will unfortunately not only be unable to tutor during this week, but will also be unable to return any emails or calls.

Feel free to contact me, but don't be alarmed if it's a few days before I get back to you.  After the 16th, we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming and prompt replies.

In the meantime, check out some Spanish Language Trivia.

Hasta pronto y pura vida!

The Top 3 Things You Should Remember...

...before you step back in a language classroom this fall.

In the interests of transparency, I must confess the following:  As I write this right now, there are several asterisks holding the place of the number slot in the title [fixed it!].  I'm not really sure, off the top of my head, how many things I want to put down here.  Research shows that if it's much more than nine, it won't stick (hint: if you struggle with memorization, don't study vocab words in chunks of more than that; absolute max - 15).  However, there are definitely some things that every language student, no matter where they are in their journey, from their first day to polishing up their fifth dialect, should keep in mind as they embark on a new phase of learning.

This year, I don't have my own classroom and a captive audience to share these things with.  Luckily though, neither do I have to go through a seven page syllabus and standard procedure for turning in papers before I get to talk about the fun stuff.  So, below, I have shared with you some key things to keep in mind as we start out the school year, or really, any next step or return to the language learning process.

Starting off close to home

It's easy for many of us here in Washington to complain about learning a new language and the accent that goes with it.  After all, we don't have an accent, right?  Wrong.  Or so says Jennifer Ingle, a linguist who did her studies at the University of Washington.

Check out the link below to see a transcript and (even better!) hear the recording and the accent variations that Ingle found.

Pacific Northwest Dialect Spoken Here

The article is a bit old, but only recently came into my life and is still quite interesting.  I was surprised by the truth in it, what do you think?

Here we are!

Well, it looks like we're up and running, folks!  Thanks for checking things out and do come around again!