The importance of being bilingual

I can honestly say that this semester’s Spanish class has been one of the most helpful classes I have ever had.  From reading books in Spanish to writing blogs and compositions, and even a less conventional method of using twitter, I have never felt so confident in learning a new language.  But as I look into my plans for the future, I cannot help but think of how thankful I am to have the opportunity to learn another language.  Most students take Spanish as merely a requirement for some sort of credit fulfillment.  However, what most students don’t realize is that the Spanish language is one of the most rapidly growing languages in the United States and is now the second most commonly spoken language.  With the amount of Spanish speaking immigrants the United States accumulating, along with the growing population of Hispanics, of which is about 40 million people, Spanish could soon become the dominant language of the United States.  However, we should not think of this growth as a hindrance to our native language English, we should instead think of it as a broadening of knowledge and an opportunity for us to become more educated and worldly.

I constantly hear people say, “You’re in America, so speak English.”  However, what most people in today’s society don’t realize is that most Spanish speaking individuals who live in the United States either already know English, or are in the process of learning it, and continue to speak Spanish because it is there native language.  Americans wouldn’t simply do away with English just because they’re in a different country.  Thus, why should we criticize them not abandoning their native language?  Instead, I feel like we should take advantage of this opportunity of having so many bilingual individuals in the United States and learn their native language.  What could it hurt?  This will only help with communication among individuals in the United States and overseas and if studied thoroughly, it could result in many students obtaining higher status jobs.  Because the Spanish speaking population is so rapidly increasing, being bilingual in today’s society is valuable to almost every business and occupation.  From working at a police station to working as an international translator, knowing another language will no doubt increase a student’s chances of obtaining a job.

With all of this said, I strongly encourage anyone who is not current learning a language, to enroll in some sort of class.  It doesn’t need to be Spanish, but just a language in general.  To learn another language is not only useful in today’s world, but also an eye opening experience.  To capture the basis of another culture’s way of life and communication system only demonstrates how intricate our world really is and this complexity is truly a beautiful aspect of our world.

Preterite vs. Imperfect

One of the most difficult concepts to grasp in regards to the Spanish language is the preterite versus imperfect tenses.  To this day I still have trouble determining which tense to use when speaking about the past because unlike English, Spanish utilizes two different tenses to refer to past events. 

So here is a recap of how to differentiate between the two tenses and accurately conjugate them.

The preterite tense is used:

-To tell of something that happened once -Escribí la carta. (I wrote the letter.)

-To tell of something that happened more than once but with a specific end - Fui ayer a la playa cinco veces. (I went to the beach five times yesterday.)

-To indicate the beginning or end of a process –La obra de teatro se terminó a las nueve. (The play was over at 9.)

To conjugate verbs in the preterite tense:

-For “ar” verbs, drop the “ar” ending and add

yo- é


tú- aste

él, ella, ud.- ó


nosotros- amos


vosotros- asteis


ellos, ellas, uds- aron

-For “er/ir” verbs, drop the “er/ir” ending and add

yo- í


tú- iste

él, ella, ud.- ió


nosotros- imos


vosotros- 
 isteis

ellos, ellas, uds- ieron

Irregulars:

ser AND ir

Fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis fueron

dar

di, diste, dio, dimos, disteis, dieron

hacer

hice, hiciste, hizo),hicimos, hicisteis, hicieron.

estar

estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvisteis, estuvieron.

tener

tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvistieron

poder

pude, pudiste, pudo, pudimos, pudisteis, pudieron.

poner

puse, pusiste, puso, pusimos, pusisteis, pusieron.

querer

quise, quisiste, quiso, quisimos, quisisteis, quisieron

saber

supe, supiste, supo, supimos, supisteis, supieron.

venir

vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron

decir

dije, dijiste, dijo, dijimos, dijisteis, dijeron

traer

traje, trajiste, trajo, trajimos, trajisteis, trajeron

*Here are some words that often signal the use of the preterite tense, due to their specific time frames:

ayer

(yesterday)

anteayer

(the day before yesterday)

anoche

(last night)

desde el primer momento

(from the first moment)

durante dos siglos

(for two centuries)

el otro día

(the other day)

en ese momento

(at that moment)

entonces

(then)

esta mañana

(this morning)

esta tarde

(this afternoon)

la semana pasada

(last week)

el mes pasado

(last month)

el año pasado

(last year)

hace dos días, años

(two days, years ago)

ayer por la mañana

(yesterday morning)

ayer por la tarde

(yesterday afternoon)

The imperfect tense is used:

-To tell of past habitual or repeated actions -Escribía muchas cartas. (I wrote many letters.)

-To describe a condition, mental state or state of being from the past -Era estúpido. (He was stupid.)

-To describe an action that occurred over an unspecified time - Cuando José tocaba el piano, María comía. (While José was playing the piano, María was eating.)

-To indicate time or age in the past — Era la una de la tarde. (It was 1 p.m.) Tenía 19 años. (She was 19 years old.)

To conjugate verbs in the imperfect tense:

-For “ar” verbs, drop the “ar” ending and add

yo- aba


tú- abas

él, ella, ud.- aba

nosotros- ábamos


vosotros- abais

ellos, ellas, uds- aban

-For “er/ir” verbs, drop the “er/ir” ending and add

yo- ía

tú- ías

él, ella, ud.- ía


nosotros- íamos


vosotros- íais

ellos, ellas, uds- ían

Irregulars:

ser

era, eras, era, éramos, erais, eran

ver

veía, veías, veía, veíamos, veíais, veían

ir

iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban

*Here are some words that signal the use of the imperfect tense, due to non specific time frames:

a menudo

(often)

a veces

(sometimes)

cada día

(every day)

cada semana

(every week)

cada mes

(every month)

cada año

(every year)

con frecuencia

(frequently)

de vez en cuando

(from time to time)

en aquella época

(at that time)

frecuentemente

(frequently)

generalmente

(usually)

muchas veces

(many times)

mucho

(a lot)

nunca

(never)

por un rato

(for awhile)

siempre

(always)

tantas veces

(so many times)

todas las semanas

(every week)

todos los días

(every day)

todo el tiempo

(all the time)

varias veces

(several times)

*Here are some verbs whose meanings change depending on their tense:

Verb	Preterite	Imperfect
Conocer	To meet	To know
Saber	To find out	To know
Poder	To succeed	To be able to
Querer	To try	To want
No querer	To refuse	To not want
Tener	To recieve	Used to have

I hope this review has helped to jog your memory about when to use the preterite and the imperfect tenses.  I think this is probably one of the hardest tenses to fully learn in the Spanish language, but just remember that practice makes perfect!

Pronouns!!!

Through all my 5 years of studying Spanish, direct and indirect object pronouns have always been a mystery.  Thus, I would like to give a review of how to use indirect and direct object pronouns.  This is only one portion of the grammar we have reviewed in my class for this year, but I found that once I knew how to use it correctly, I use it all the time!  

An indirect object is the person or thing affected the action in a sentence.  It answers the question “to whom?” or “for whom?”

An indirect object pronoun comes directly before the conjugated verb.

In Spanish, indirect object pronouns are as follows: me, te, le, nos, os and les.

And example of their use is:

-Él da el libro a Maria.= Él le da el libro.

Here is the link for a website that can help to further explain indirect object pronouns:

http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/iopro1.htm

A direct object receives the action of a verb and can be a person, place or thing.  It answers the questions “what?” or “whom?”

A direct object pronoun replaces the noun that is receiving the action in a sentence.

A direct object pronoun comes directly before the conjugated verb.

In Spanish, they are as follows: lo, la, los and las.

An example of their use is:

-Jen tiene la pluma. = Jen la tiene.

Here is the link for a website that can help to further explain direct object pronouns:

http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/dopro1.htm

Keep in mind that sentences may have both an indirect and direct object.  In this case, the indirect object pronoun always comes before the direct object pronoun, with a conjugated verb to follow.

For example:

-Yo escribo una carta a tú. = Yo te la escribo.

When there is an indirect object pronoun that begins with “l” (such as le or les) be sure to change it to se.

For example:

-Él da el libro a Maria. = Él le lo da. = Él se lo da.

Hope this helps!

My first blog!

As part of my honors by contract agreement, I wanted to share useful tools and tips that I have learned while studying the Spanish language this year, with other students that are studying Spanish.  Thus far, I can honestly say that my knowledge of the Spanish language has been broadened in just a few short weeks.  I have never felt this confident in studying Spanish before and I believe this is because of the unconventional tools used in this year’s class.  Instead of merely sitting in each class and listening to a lecture, of which I would usually fall asleep in, the class is much more engaged. From using twitter, to discovering the wonder of “word reference,” I can definitely say that I have learned a lot.

At the start of the semester, I was a bit surprised when I found out that I would be updating a Twitter Account in Spanish.  I thought it would be just another trivial part of the course, but it turned out to be much more than trivial.  I have found that making regular Tweets in Spanish has helped the language to be more incorporated into my life and I advise any student who doesn’t have a Spanish Twitter to make one.  It is a great way to learn new Spanish words and phrases by observing what other people have to say and is also a great way of learning how to communicate on an everyday basis with people, in Spanish.

Another tool that has really helped me is a website called “word reference.”  This website is very similar to a Spanish/English dictionary, but it is able to provide and define terms that are used as slang, in addition to non-slang words.  It gives multiple meanings of a word, as well as situations in which it can be used, how it is commonly used and in some cases how the word is conjugated.  Another helpful feature of this site is that at the end of each series of definitions, there are suggestions from other native speakers on how to say certain phrases that contain the word you looked up. For instance, if you look up the word “libro,” a number of different results appear, such as “librar”, “librarse” and “libro”, all of which have individual definitions, as well as how they can be used in a sentence.  Closer to the bottom of the page there are suggestions for phrases or other forms of the word that may be useful to know, according to other Spanish speaker, such as “al libro abierto” and “actuación de libro.”  So if there is a word that you're stuck on, in English or Spanish, I definitely suggest using this site!

I hope this has helped you as much as it has helped me!  I will have more helpful tips on the way, so keep a look out!