Friday, July 31, 2015

Encantado

Nice to meet you!

Encantado means "Nice to meet you" (click on the link for sound)

To be honest, I already forget about this phrase long time ago before I write this post. The much more popular way of saying this is Mucho Gusto. It is also what SpanishDict says.

Disclaimer

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Buenas tardes

Good evening everyone!

Buenas tardes means good evening (click on the link for sound)

In Chinese we don't usually say good evening, it is either good morning or good night. But western people do differentiate them. When you are off work, you say good evening to your colleagues, and when you are going to bed, you say good night to your families, you never mix them up.

Face it, learning a language is also about learning the culture behind the language. The higher context it is, the harder it is.

I used to just remember that, but now I know. Why do we have buenos dias and buenas tardes? It turns out that Spanish have genders. Dias (days) is a masculine noun, so it must be described using a masculine adjective, in this case, buenos. On the other hand, tardes (afternoon or evening) is a feminine noun, so it must be described using a feminine adjective, and in this case, buenas.

Edit: By the way, buenas tardes can also be used to mean good afternoon, so don't be surprised when someone say that to you in the middle of the day :)

Disclaimer

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Buenos dias

Good morning!

Buenos dias means good morning (click on the link for sound)

Yet another phrase that can be used on its own.

Now we have learnt a few words. It is time to look backward a little bit. I wish I did that but I didn't. There is a few things I need to be able to do.


  1. Given the Spanish word, what is the English word for it.
  2. Given an English word, what is the Spanish word for it.
  3. Given a Spanish sound, what is the Spanish word for it.
  4. Given a Spanish word, what is the Spanish sound for it.
Yes, it is that simple, to be good in Spanish, we must be able to do this, and I think it is an easy job so far (we only have four words right now), but it will get harder and harder as we proceed. 

The key to success for me is to keep doing exercises (it is okay for the exercise to be repeated) at regular interval. Doing 10 problems per day for 10 days is better than doing 100 problems a day and rest for the rest. 

Online services so far do a really poor job on giving 2 for now, which I really need, I will see what can I do about that.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Hola

This is the second word I learn in Spanish, or put it the other way, the 1st word I systematically learn.

Hola means Hello.  (click on the link for sound)

Hello, simple enough. You can say Hello to anyone.

This is the first time I started to use online services to start learning. I started with busuu. This website teach me a few phrases, and that's all. It offers mostly paid service, so I cannot really recommend it because I just tried a few free samples there, but it is a good start, isn't it?

Disclaimer

Gracias

Starting this post we actually talk about Spanish.

I don't know your experience, but the first Spanish word I ever heard and remember is this one.

Gracias (click on the link for sound)

Yes, I heard about that when watching prison break. A popular series here in America. I keep listening to this Sucre guy speaking this word in season two when they are locked in Panama. In some sense, it is this drama that get me started with Spanish, So, 'gracias', Paul Scheuring.

This word can be used alone, and basically it means the same thing as 'thanks' in English. So even if you don't know a single word in Spanish, just know this one and express your appreciation!

Disclaimer

Monday, July 27, 2015

Disclaimer

This blog is written by me and me only.

It is a journal of what I learn in the past few months.

I have been a lousy learner, never pay attention to details, used lot of free resources and potentially wrong ones ...

So in short, the content might be wrong, I am writing as accurate as I can, but that's it.

Corrections are more than welcome!

Why learn Spanish?

Numerous people ask me, why would you want to learn Spanish. Often, I would just say it is just for fun. Well, not really, let me analyze why would one want to learn Spanish for you.

First of all, Spanish is the world second most popular language. I am lucky that I know Chinese, the most popular one. You bet English is the second most popular. Well, it depends on what criterion you are using. We can see that in this website.

Second, as a second language in America. While I am there, why not learn the second language of the country? In South California, there are many people speaking Spanish, especially so for those Mexican immigrants. I bet knowing Spanish is going to increase my competitiveness in Silicon valley.

Third, as the world second popular language, there are tons of information written in Spanish on the web. Knowing Spanish means you will have more information at your finger tips.

So, I learn Spanish. I wish you, my readers, will also go learn Spanish.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Learning Spanish

I have been learning Spanish for 4 months or more, but I never blogged about it. I thought, writing a blog to journal what I did is a good idea. So I will start blogging about my learning now.