better late than never / mejor trade que nunca

¿Cómo estás?

As I began the second week of my learning project, I was eager to continue learning Spanish and to practice it out on my boyfriend and his daughters. My boyfriend’s daughters are Gaia, who is nine years old and Ever, who is six years old. The girls have grown up with their Dad almost solely speaking to them in Spanish, so their comprehension of the language is very good. They also know exactly what correct and incorrect pronunciation sounds like. The youngest, Ever, is the first to inform me if I am not saying a word in Spanish properly. She is a great little ‘teacher’.

This week on our way to school one morning, I decided to surprise the girls with my new learned Spanish and to show off how much better my pronunciation has become. I said the following greetings, phrases, and common nouns to them; all from memory, I might add. 

• Hola – Hello
• Buenos Dias – Good Morning
• Buenas Tardes – Good Afternoon
• Buenas Noches – Good Night
• Como Estas? – How are you?
• Por favor – Please
• Gracias – Thank You
• De nada – You’re Welcome
• el nino – girl
• la nina – boy
• el hombre – man
• la mujer – women/lady

Both Gaia and Ever were impressed by the number of words I had memorized and with how much my pronunciation had improved.

The Doulingo App is the main resource I have been using to learn Spanish. Having the app on my phone has made learning and practicing very easy and accessible. Any time I have a free moment in my day and/or before bed, I can open the application and work my way through a lesson or two. Each lesson focuses on a particular area of the language and within each lesson, there are a number of mini-lessons. These mini-lessons short and simple, but still ask enough questions so that retention can occur.

This is a video of me making my way through a mini-lesson under Phrases Level 3, to show how quick and easy using Duolingo is to learn and practice a new language. I created this video using Screencastify, a Google Chrome Extension that was introduced to us in our EDTC 300 course. I was really delighted with how simple it was to create and upload this video!

Another resource I find myself using quite frequently during this learning project is the Google Translate App. This application allows me to look up any word, phrase, or sentence in my native language, English, and have it instantly translated into the language of my choice, ie. Spanish. I use this for words I have not yet learned via Duoligio and/or my boyfriend.

Adiós Por Ahora