Spanish for Serious Students - Regina

10/06/2026

I have always enjoyed talking to people, and as time goes by I make even more of a point of striking up conversations, both when I travel, as well as whenever I am out and about. I think it is important for mental health as well as to help create and maintain a pleasant community.

At Canadian Tire today, I had a lengthy conversation with the cashier, who is from India, on the topic of okra, buying it, preparing it, an Indian dish that contains it. I learned something new, and we both enjoyed our connection and ended on a happy note.

Then in the checkout at Walmart, I heard two women behind me who were speaking Spanish. I listened for a moment to be sure as they came closer. One commented that the cashier was slow. I turned and smiled and then asked (in Spanish) where they were from. They were very surprised (as always)!

We then passed the rest of the time in the line discussing (in Spanish) their homeland Honduras, how long they have been in Canada and what they have been doing here, etc. We also discussed the ¨chancletas¨ I was buying lol.

As always, I admonished them to insist that the kids in the household speak Spanish at home, so they do not lose their language and culture!

Of course I used formal address when speaking with them, being older women (perhaps 40 and 60ish).

Regina is full of opportunities to meet and learn from others, and for Spanish learners, please keep your ears open to see if you can tell when people are speaking Spanish. Even if you only manage to say ¨¿De dónde son Uds.?¨, that is something!

Does this ever happen to you?

10/04/2026

"Cuando el río suena, es porque piedras lleva"

09/25/2026

Consistency!

When you are learning a new skill, whether learning to play an instrument, or learning a language, consistency is essential!

That is: consistency of time, and consistency of material.

1. You need a routine that incorporates study and practice on a regular basis. Ideally, this might be a half hour a day, at the same time every day. This is an amount of time that most people should be able to find in their day (spend less time on their phones!)

The time could be before work, after lunch, after supper... The important thing is that it should be a definite time. If you just say ¨ I will do it at some point¨, chances are that bedtime will arrive and you won´t have done it.

Also, you should do it while your brain is fairly awake and able to focus, not when you are sleepy, or rushing to ¨get it done¨.

Sometimes people wait until the weekend, or the day before class, and then spend an hour or two on it. However, you will be less able to incorporate the information (memorize all of the vocab and verb conjugations, understand the grammar) and master the skills (pronouncing correctly, remembering and using the material) if you work on it only once or twice in the week, trying to do too much at once.

2. Consistency of material:

Learning a skill involves mastering a series of steps, each building on the previous step. Learning math involves learning numbers, learning to count, then to add and subtract, then multiplication and division, etc. Students are not able to do higher level math until they have mastered the earlier steps.

When you are learning a language, your teacher/program will present steps in a logical order, and a manageable amount at a time. It is important to focus on each step as it is presented/assigned, and work on it until you have a satisfactory mastery of it.

This means memorizing vocabulary that you will need to use in different situations. Memorizing verb conjugations. Studying the grammar topics and doing assigned exercises so that you will understand the topics and be able to understand and formulate sentences reasonably well.

It is common for people, even students taking a class, to spend too little time working on and mastering the basic assigned material, and to instead spend time on other, more ¨fun¨, things (games, videos, etc.), which while they may be related to Spanish, do not focus on or lead to a mastery of the basic material.

When people do this, they may end up being no more fluent at the end of a class than they were before starting it!

Note that I am not saying that you should not do anything else! On the contrary, I am a big fan in particular of listening to music in Spanish and other ways of hearing more Spanish. I also frequently post videos (usually in the Spanish Fans group), but that is more for higher level students. In any case, this, or using games, apps, etc. should never substitute for doing the assigned work, which over time will lead to an actual mastery of the language.

So again, it is essential to be consistent in working on the assigned material, in a consistent routine.

If you are patient, and continue doing this, one day you will be a Spanish speaker!!

09/24/2026

Here is an expression to be uttered perhaps in a threatening tone:

"Podemos hacerlo por las buenas o por las malas"

09/21/2026

When studying Spanish grammar (i.e. how to put words together to make sentences), it is helpful for students to notice the elements that are similar to, and those that are different from, English. This helps us determine what to focus on, what needs more attention. If it is similar to English, we can simply say ¨how would I say that in English?¨
For example, ¨We are from Canada¨ : subject pronoun, verb conjugated in accordance with the subject, preposition ¨from¨, location
In Spanish: ¨Nosotras/os somos de Canadá¨
It would not make sense to say any of the following:
¨We are Canada¨
¨Is from Canada¨
¨Canada are we¨
It should not be difficult or confusing to come up with the correct Spanish phrases (as long as you have learned the subject pronouns, verb conjugations, preposition).

A different situation with articles:
In English we use indefinite and definite articles to refer to things.
¨Bring me a book¨ (any book)
¨Bring me the book¨ (a specific book)
In Spanish we do the same:
¨un libro¨ (an indefinite book)
¨el libro¨ (a specific book)
However, Spanish also uses definite articles in contexts where English doesn´t:
eg. 1. When referring to a person by their title:
¨Mr. Hernández¨ : ¨El señor Hernández¨
¨Professor García¨: La profesora García¨
eg. 2. when referring to a category or generality:
¨Gas is expensive¨ : ¨La gasolina es cara¨.
Students should easily understand the article uses which are similar to English. They need to give attention to the uses of articles which are different, so that they will remember and use them correctly.

09/18/2026

A few words on the importance of correct pronunciation:
It is common that students do not spend enough time working on their pronunciation. They may feel that they "know" some words/phrases, so that will serve them when needed.However, when they try to use the words/phrases, they are not understood.
The problem is often that they don't really "know" them as well as they think. They are pronouncing an "e" like an "I", and an "o" like an "a", making what they say incomprehensible to the listener.
Fortunately, Spanish pronunciation is easier than most other languages! It has fewer total sounds, and each vowel has only one sound. But you do have to learn to make those sounds!
You do this by regularly working with audio materials that model correct sounds, followed by you repeating the sounds. If you spend 5 minutes daily doing this, you will soon be able to make yourself understood when you speak 😊

09/14/2026

This Spanish expression is more swashbuckling than its English equivalent:

Él está entre la espada y la pared"

09/10/2026

Often when people travel, they forget/find themselves unable to use correctly whatever they may have studied, even simple expressions. Typically this is due to inadequate memorization and practice of the words and phrases.
I tell students first to focus on drilling and memorizing them (so they are correct), and then as you go about your day, pretend you are having conversations. Practise phrases at home, and in social situations think about what you would say if the person you were greeting, buying something from, etc. were Spanish speaking.
You have to practise and know the phrases well enough that they will come naturally when you need them!

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09/04/2026

An early challenge for English speakers learning Spanish is the fact that all Spanish nouns are designated as belonging to one of two categories (genders): feminine or masculine. This means that when you learn a noun, you also need to learn its gender. However, this does not have to be a big problem.
When you memorize nouns (and yes, memorization of vocab through repeated drilling is an important part of language learning in this context), always do so along with each noun´s definite article. (Nouns are always listed with articles.) That way, when you think of a noun, you will always also know its gender.
Eg.:
town -- el pueblo (mas.)
city -- la ciudad (fem.)
love -- el amor (masc.)
light -- la luz (fem.)

Drilling on vocab should be done in 5-10 minute increments a couple of times daily, taking a few words at a time, and repeating until you are able to correctly say/write the correct Spanish word when given the English prompt. The goal is to gradually acquire a stock of vocab that you can use when needed in different situations (of course, putting them together in sentences requires knowledge of grammar).

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09/03/2026

We had our intro session for the Fall Level 1 class last night. It looks like a great group of students! Both past travels and future travel plans should be really motivating for their Spanish studies!
I still find the start of every semester so exciting; I see each student embarking (or continuing) on a wonderful adventure that I can be a part of!
I guess if it ever stops feeling like that, I will stop teaching :)

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