Tag Archives: Spanish

Esto es mi hermano Roberto.

My Spanish Coach NDSI’m doing my best to learn some useful Spanish to decrease the language barrier. In France, people spoke French and English, often saying the same thing in both languages one after the other. In Italy, most people spoke some English or we were able to get by with rudimentary Italian.  Fortunately it was easy enough for me to pick up during the short time we were there.  Ordering meals, buying train tickets and making small talk were all o.k. by the end of the trip.   If I know enough to chat with a taxi-cab driver by the end of a trip, I’ll be satisfied.

I flat out refuse to be one of the people who knows nothing of a country’s language. It is disgusting to hear tourists yelling their questions to someone who doesn’t speak English. Pretty sure the person isn’t deaf, they don’t speak your language, and rightfully so; buck up and learn a few simple phrases!

How is it possible that with all the trillions of language courses I’ve taken over the past 2 decades, that I have never taken one in Spanish? Surprisingly, “My Spanish Coach” is actually a useful program. I’m working through the vocab lessons at the end of the “game”. Pretty sure my Spanish is better than my Italian, so I’m not too worried. But, I can tell you I know zero Quechua, and zero Aymara.  I will be learning phrases at the airport when we’re wasting 4 hours in LAX. Could be fun times.

ps: I’m loving the Linguistics review with the chart. Ahhhh, flashbacks to Sentence Trees in university.

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