language acquisition – Fake Flamenco

7 Cheap Ways to Better Your Spanish

I’ve been working on my Spanish for a while, let’s say more than two decades. Here’s what I’ve discovered works for me to keep it fresh. Taking a class or learning online can be good methods to better your Spanish, but if that’s the full extent of your language input and output, your progress will […]

Spanish Culture and Language

7 Tips to Keep Your Second Language Alive

No extra money for language classes or international travel? (My hand is raised) Let’s talk. So we’ve spent a year, five years or ten+ learning a second language. How can we avoid our vocabulary falling away like so many shooting stars? See my top seven ideas for low budget refreshers. The ideas go from free-of-charge […]

Spanish

The Great Bilingual Experiment

An imperfect and rewarding journey of creating a bilingual family as a non-native Spanish speaker.

Living Abroad, Spanish

Love Note to Chilean Food

The day we landed in Santiago, Chile, Evan and I went out to lunch. I was confident I’d order food proficiently, after studying Spanish for years. The café’s chalkboard menu listed sanguiches, ensaladas, and jugos naturales. I translated these three easily for Evan, sandwiches, salads and fresh juices. Then came two words that stumped me. […]

Spanish, Study Abroad

Joke’s On Me

Learning to converse in another language keeps me humble. Beginning with English, as a child I made up funny words. I’d call the small blue round Midwestern fruit, bluebodies. My father’s bluebody pancakes were and still are a family favorite. In first year high school Spanish, I wanted to say, “I’m embarrassed” Tengo vergüenza. Instead […]

Spanish

Language is Power

The human mind seems so incredible to me. When we are infants, people talk to us, and by the time we are six months old, we understand most of what they say. If one parent speaks German, the other Portuguese, and grandma speaks English, our brains take in all three languages without a problem, categorize […]