POSTS

Learning Languages: Starting with Spanish

I've decided to take back up my learning of Spanish. I do this at least once a year... I'll be hanging out at Barnes and Noble and the language aisle will catch my fancy. After spending a half hour or so looking through the books, I'll walk away with a new vocabulary book, an idiom book, or if my bank account is really unlucky, an audio course. Last night was that night for me. I picked up a new small new books and determined to spend some time working on my Spanish. I have an elementary understanding of the language. I can pronounce words that I read relatively well - though knowing what I'm saying is a completely different issue - and can comprehend the language when spoken - though not at full speed.

This morning I spent thirty minutes with one of my Spanish/English dictionaries translating the introductory paragraphs from a few stories on Google News En Espanol. I figure it's a good way to expand my vocabulary a bit while gleaning some useful info in the process.

I've also decided to add a few other languages to my to learn list. I've decided I want to learn Arabic (MSA) and Chinese (probably Mandarin). I don't know when I'll start on them, but they're on my list for this next year too.