On vacation in Mexico? Attempting to hold a conversation with a Spanish-speaking in-law? Have you already been living here for years? EVERY language has its "common mistakes foreigners make when trying to speak it". Avoid these 3 VERY embarrassing mistakes while speaking Spanish... 1. Number one on my list would have to be the very common mistake in translating the English word,... read more

How many times have I heard this: "I'm too old to learn Spanish." Or, "Only kids' brains can absorb new languages." While I would like to just say "phooey!" and leave it at that, I've come to see that adults who say such things are in one of two groups: Traumatized Former Language Students, or Victims of Ageism.   There's a problem with language education... read more

Most language learning resources focus on the process of what YOU can do to learn a language. But what I'm interested in is how a language is an organic, living, naturally occurring phenomenon, like rivers, trees, and humans, and what that has to do with efficient language learning, as well as what it has to do with the nature of life/God/the universe (as a bonus). The mathematician... read more

These days I'm having so much fun living the dream!  While doing phone interpretations today in Spanish/English and allowing my latest intern Alaina to shadow me (a whole new way to look at tutoring), she asked:  "When we're listening to the clients, I still don't always know what they're saying?  When did you finally start just getting it when you were interpreting?"   I... read more

I really love this post about "leer vs. leerse." If you are an advanced Spanish learner, you have certainly come across this scenario. This post beautifully explains the difference between these two forms of the verb "leer." http://blog.lengua-e.com/2015/diferencia-entre-leer-y-leerse/

I have found it very useful to take walks when my Spanish tutoree gets worked up. When we walk we discuss things around in Spanish. For example, we learned colors the other week, so we walked around and she told me the colors of everything she saw around her in Spanish.

In English we have 5 vowels orthographically(in spelling), but phonetically(in terms of speech sounds) there are 14 different vowel sounds! Spanish only has 5 vowel sounds! This can make it rather difficult for Spanish speakers to pronounce English words. For English speakers learning Spanish, this means that we have to narrow down our vowel pronunciations.  When it comes to pronunciation,... read more