Notes 1
TOPIC 2 – MATUMIZI YA LUGHA KATIKA MIKTADHA MBALI MBALI
TOPIC 3 – UHAKIKI WA KAZI ZA FASIHI SIMULIZI
TOPIC 4 – UHIFADHI WA KAZI YA FASIHI SIMULIZI
TOPIC 5 – UTUNGAJI WA KAZI ZA KIFASIHI
The Swahili language is spoken in several African countries. The
major Swahili speaking countries are Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, The Democratic
Republic of Congo and the Comoros Islands. Small communities equally exist in
Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia.
It is widely debated how many people in the world speak Swahili,
but most estimates say between 100 and 150 million.
Historically, Swahili has been a lingua franca in
East Africa, or a language used as a way of communicating across different
nationalities and tribal groups who speak different languages as their mother
tongue. Swahili was a language that relatively few spoke as their first
language, but which a significant amount of people speak as a second language.
This is still the case today, despite the growing influence of English
Swahili is the national language of Tanzania, but despite this
fact, only about 10% of the population speak Swahili as their mother tongue,
whereas 90% speak it as a second language. In other Swahili-speaking countries
the difference is even bigger.
The Countries Where
Swahili Is Spoken
Roughly 10% of the Tanzanian population
of 55 million speak Swahili as their native language. This makes for around 5,5
million native speakers.
The origin of Swahili, however, was a little more to the north,
namely in Kenya, where the Swahili language
developed from a Bantu language called Pokomo.
One would assume that since Swahili had its origins in Kenya, this
country would have a large community of native Swahili speakers. This doesn’t
seem to be the case, however, and despite most of the 47 million Kenyans being
fluent in Swahili, almost no one speaks
Swahili at home.
In The Democratic Republic of Congo,
Swahili is spoken widely as a second language, but people who speak Swahili as
their native language are very few.
Uganda used to speak Swahili at a much higher degree than it does today.
One reason for the decline might be that Swahili was the language of the
military. After political changes in Uganda, Swahili has fallen out of
grace and has become a disliked language by many.
Recent initiatives by the Ugandan government has tried to push the
teaching of Swahili forward, but with little luck. It’s difficult to find
useful statistics detailing the exact number of Swahili speakers in Uganda, but
it would appear that Swahili speakers in Kenya is a small minority.
About 20% of the Rwandan population
speak Swahili as a second language.
In other countries such as Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, The
Comoros Islands, Mozambique and Somalia,
only small minorities speak Swahili.
A growing language
Kiswahili most
likely originated on East Africa’s coast. It came about as a result of
intermarriage between Bantu-speaking communities along the East African coast
and Arabs who arrived at the coast from as early as before 10th C, AD. It then
spread into the interior through trade, Christian activities such as missionary
work, and exploration activities in the East African mainland.
Today the language is
spoken widely in the larger Eastern Africa region as a lingua franca, a
language used between people who don’t speak one another’s native language.
It’s a national language in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and an official
language of the East African Community which comprises Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
Its use is spreading to
southern, western and northern Africa. Currently, however, none of these
countries are teaching Kiswahili as a subject the way South Africa intends to;
instead, it is generally a language of trade and inter-ethnic communication.
However, it may not be long until more countries join South Africa in teaching
it in classrooms since the language is spreading fast and becoming a household
language in many of these countries in addition to its adoption as one of the
official languages of the African Union.
Kiswahili is also a
popular research subject at many South African universities. And it’s studied
outside Africa, most particularly in the US and Europe. This global interest in
the adoption of Kiswahili points at its growing international significance.
This implies that its introduction into South African schools is a good move
with multiple benefits.
HOW TO LEARN A LANGUAGE FAST – PART
2
3. Start with short, simple dialogues
Richards believes that it’s possible to become conversational in a
language in just 90 days – as
he did with Italian – by starting with reading
and listening to stories. But how can you do that when you’re so new to the
language that you barely understand a thing? Well, Richards says, “At the
beginning, you need to use material that’s really, really simple.” In the first
week or so, stick to reading the short, simple dialogues you might find in a
beginner language learning textbook, such as “I go to the grocery store” or “I
like to run and watch movies.” Although these phrases might seem too basic,
you’ll learn more than you think. “What most people don’t realize is if you are
just reading those dialogues at the beginning, they will contain the 100
or 200 most common words in the language, which are used over 50% of the time,”
explains Richards. You can start by making your own simple dialogues with these
tips to start speaking a new language fast or
use these phrase lists as
inspiration.
4. Intensity of Study Trumps Length of Study
What I mean by this is that studying a language four hours a day
for two weeks will be more beneficial for you than studying one hour a day for
two months. This is one reason why so many people take language classes in school and
never remember anything. It’s because they only study 3-4 hours per week and
often the classes are separated by multiple days. Language requires a lot of
repetition, a lot of reference experiences, and a consistent
commitment and investment. It’s better to allot
a particular period of your life, even if it’s only 1-2 weeks, and really go at
it 100%, than to half-ass it over the course of months or even years.
5. Learn through immersion
As someone who participated in a language exchange programme in university and an expat who now lives abroad, I can 100% assure
you that the fastest way to learn a language is through immersion. An immersion
environment basically means that you spend 24/7 using your target language over
a period of time. It works even better when those around you don’t speak your
native language, so you have to focus on the vocabulary you know to convey your
point. While this does sound challenging, you will feel quite accomplished once
you get through it. Soon enough, you’ll be thinking and even dreaming in your
new target language.
……….
Any way, which is regular, consistent and you made a good and followable plan for it that you even follow, is the most effective way. I have tried just one and I continue using it. After I write this answer, I am going to sit and study Turkish. I will learn a unit of the grammar book, complete the exercises, see if my answers are correct and learn all the words that are in the unit. There are also a few dialogues in it, so I will listen to them and I will imitate the conversations, after I learn the rules in the unit, do the exercises and correct them and learn the words. If I discover I made mistakes in the exercises, I will go back and read the rule I mistook again. And, only then I will listen to the dialogues. Tomorrow, I will write the meanings of the words in an A4 notebook, because this is how I like it, you can use any kind of paper you like, and then write them in Turkish and will go through them and see for mistakes. In case of mistakes, I will see the words again and make sure I learn them better. Then, I will move to the next unit. I study every day, it piles up and, in the end, I am proud of the result and of myself. And that’s a priceless feeling. I gave myself a month to learn 16 units. Sometimes, a unit is longer or more difficult, so I learn it in two days. After I learnt French this way, I will never ever use another approach. You can think of optimizing your learning process and come up with your own system that is better than mine, but remember it has to be every day and for real. Anyone can do it. Actual studying is the most effective way.
……..
Because it’s a form of culturise and educate yourself in a way to learn something new. Because it can be useful for many purposes such as travelling and working abroad, communicate with people from other countries and cultures around the world, learn and discover foreign cultures or opening yourself to new cultural material like music, films, series, mass media different from the existent in your mother tongue.
It would help you to open your mind and ideas from another perspective different from the environment you’ve lived in your own culture, it’s good to look outside beyond far your own nation’s border there are lots of interesting cultures and languages around the world that we must have the right to know and visit to have a different perspective of life and not having a narrow minded mindset.
Each language is different and it has its history behind it, we have around more than 6,000 languages around the world each one with its personality, identity, and structure, although sadly there are many endangered languages that are in risk of disappearing in a future not so far away. But fortunately there are many prominent languages to learn apart from English, like Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi etc. The variety is wide.
………….
You need to know it won’t be an easy journey, but if you followed the steps below, I can assure you it will be possible, it worked for me already. The best part it will cost you nothing.
- Learn a lot of vocabulary, German is a rich language the more you learn new words, the faster you will learn the language. Use color-coded sticky notes to learn the gender of each noun, I use pink for a feminine, blue for masculine, and yellow for neuter.
- Use the vocabulary that you learned in step one to construct sentences, construct thousands of them. The easy way to do this is whenever you learn a new word you use it in ten different sentences, this will make your mind ready to use the word whenever it needs.
- Listen to a lot of German. I will suggest starting with Easy Germanthere is also super easy german in the channel where they speak so slowly so new learners can understand. Once you feel comfortable with the language go to ZDFmediathek, where you can watch a German movie with German subtitles. At least listen to 3 hours of German a day.
- Remember languages are about building up knowledge over a long period of time, so you shouldn’t slack off for a day, instead, add more to your language so you won’t forget what you learned in the first place.
- Focus on pronunciation. Some people think it is the last step or it is not important for language learning. It is extremely important to learn the correct pronunciation from the far beginning. I would suggest that when you learn a new word, learn its correct pronunciation. Use Forvo: the pronunciation dictionary. All the words in the world pronounced by native speakersto practice every word as you learn.
- DEUTSCH LERNEN | DWprovides fantastic materials, for different levels. You can start with A1 till C1 level.
- Speak out loud. If you are not in a German-speaking country and don’t have someone to practice with, go to https://www.italki.com/signup.Although they have amateur and professional tutorials that will cost you money. You can search through their community for a person with the same level as you, and you guys can practice your German in Skype call.
- Create conversations with yourself, imagine yourself in a supermarket in Germany, what will ask the cashier and how will he respond, think about the conversation itself as if you are both the customer and the cashier. Try it in a restaurant, in a mall, with a stranger on the bus, or with the hotel receptionist.
- Make German part of your life, think in German, sing in German, Watch movies in German, or just watch it with German subtitles
………
Yes, it is possible to self-teach. There is a lot of possibilities – you have prerecorded lectures, self-study books with audio CDs to practice pronounciation. Also reading books in that language helps a lot.
Probably the fastest possible way how to learn a language is to live in the country where the language is spoken or be in touch with someone actually speaking it. How fast is this technique? A bibliography of Heinrich Schliemann, not only an archeologist who discovered where the city of Troja is, living in the 19th century, shows that he was able to learn a language from scratch within a few weeks. Yes, he was very talented in this field, and no, he was not a linguist. The first language he learned took him about a few weeks while travelling from Hamburk as a poor worker to… well, I don’t know now, it has been a while since I read about him, but it was only by reading books and talking to other passengers. However, this might show how effective this method is. It probably will take more than a few weeks, also depends on the language, but it is pretty effective.
…………..
I’ve learned several foreign languages as an adult. I was able to learn French to conversation fluency in 17 days using the following techniques. Note that I had previously learned Spanish to fluency so this was not my first foreign language.
In summer of 2005 I stayed with a French friend in a tiny village in the Beaujolais region of France. No one in the village spoke English and, since my friend knew I had an ambitious learning goal, she refused to speak to me in English as well.
I set up a routine where I did the same things every day.
In the mornings, I woke up and wrote out longhand the regular and irregular verb tables for 1.5-2 hours. I managed to get through an entire pad of paper in two weeks. I still believe that writing things out by hand is the best way to memorize things.
While I wrote, I would listen to Michel Thomas’ language learning mp3s (http://www.michelthomas.com/). On the CDs you listen as he teaches French to other English speakers. It’s really helpful to hear other students make mistakes that you can learn from, just like a regular classroom environment. In two weeks I listened to the foundation, advanced and language building courses twice.
I would run for 45-60 minutes in the early afternoon in the French countryside listening to catchy French music. Music is a great way to learn the intonation of a language and train your facial muscles as you sing along.
I had lunch with my friend and her French friends everyday. As they refused to slow down when speaking to me in French, it was learn or starve!
In the afternoon, if I wasn’t playing darts or Boules with my French friends, I was reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in French. Reading the children’s books you read as a child is a great hack to learning new languages. Firstly, the language used is simple and secondly, knowing the story helps you to guess the meaning of new words and avoid using a dictionary. Surprisingly children’s books are more entertaining in a foreign language.
I spent at least an hour writing basic essays about myself which I had my French friend check for errors. When you meet new people you inevitably get asked the same things: “Where are you from?”, “What do you do?”, “Do you like France?”. By learning ready-made answers, you get to practice what you learned and build up your confidence.
Another good tip is to learn the filler words. These are the words and phrases people say then all the time between sentences (alors, en fait, etc.) but have no real meaning; allowing you to buy time in a conversation and increase your confidence.
After 17 days I left the small town and went to Paris. I met a girl in a coffee shop and we started talking. After a few minutes, she asked how long I had lived in France. When I told her I had been learning French for 17 days, she swore that I had lived in France for at least a year.
Hopefully there are some useful tips you can use in your learning. Let me know and bonne chance!
………
I’ve taught myself Swedish (pretty fluent) and German (some time ago, I can understand 80% of what I read but I need to brush it up).
I never attended any classes or formal instruction. IMO, the best way to learn a language quickly (and inexpensively) is by yourself.
The Method I follow:
Study phonetics for about 1 month. In the very beginning, I spend about a month practicing the sounds of the language and learning how to read it. It’s crucial that you learn correct pronunciation, so that people can understand you. Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet and use recordings from a book (or online) to learn all the sounds (vowels, consonants, special sounds, etc.).
Start learning (thousands of ) words. And lots of them! At this pointen.wikipedia.org/…/International_Phonetic_Alphabet, the quickest way of gaining fluency is to learn the 1000-1500 most frequent words in your language. Use a frequency dictionary and a flashcard app like Anki to learn at least 15 words a day. Personally, I think 20 words/day is best.
Think about it, 20 words a day (every day) become 3000 words after 5 months of studying! That’s enough to understand 80% of everything you read.
At the 100-200 word milestone, start learning the basics of grammar. That means learning how are verbs conjugated and how do prepositions fit in a sentence. Use that knowledge to create more complete flashcards, i.e. for every verb write all the conjugations in the back of the card.
Throughout the whole learning process, listen to the same recordings over and over again. This step really makes your skills shine. Download podcasts or news and listen to them repeatedly. The same ones until you have it almost memorized. Repeat them orally after the recordings. If you’re walking around campus, recite the recordings out loud (avoid being institutionalized, though).
At the 2000-2500 word milestone, find someone to speak to. There are tons of places online where you can do this. Search for the appropriate subreddits or language learning forums to find a language learning pal!
Tips
- Study a little bit everyday.That’s also the magic of Anki, it forces you to review everyday otherwise cards will pile up.
- Remember that learning a language fluently takes years. Not days, weeks or months, but years.
- Don’t get discouraged by slow progress, that’s just how it works.
- Get reading material in the target language about subjects you’re interested in.
……………….
Most language learning courses try to give you the appearance of learning a language but if you genuinely want to learn a new language quickly you need to follow these five principles:
Principle 1: Frequently used words
The Pareto Principle, promoted by Tim Ferriss, holds that 20% of efforts result in 80% of results. This applies to language learning by focusing first on the most frequently used elements of a language. It is generally accepted that no more than 500 to 1500 words are actively used in most languages.
An extensive study by Brigham Young University has concluded that very few frequently used words are required to master a language as indicated in the chart below:
As this second chart shows, the law of diminishing returns applies to language learning:
Learning 1000 frequently used words allows for close to 90% comprehension of all conversations, whereas an additional 1000 or 2000 words only marginally increases comprehension. It is important, however, that those initial 1000 words be frequently used words and not just randomly selected words that are easy to teach (such as the vocabulary used in most language learning material).
But if you made a list of the most commonly spoken words you would find that most of them are preposition, articles or pronouns, such as or, for, on, he, the, and but. Although very common, these words do not convey a great deal of meaning. If you were to remove these words from a sentence, the general meaning would still be clear. Real meaning tends to lie in verbs, nouns, and adjectives. So the focus should be on the most frequently used words that convey meaning, which is to say the most commonly spoken verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
Once you have the most common and meaningful words, it becomes easier to learn additional words. It is not unlike playing Wheel of Fortune or hangman. A few key letters allow you to guess the other letters in the phrase.
Principle 2: Starting from the core, not the periphery
Most learning material will teach you how to say many words and phrases that you would not usually say outside of the context of the course. You would learn words, such as beer, hotel, and dog, but if you don’t specifically want to make a reference to beer, hotels or dogs, then they would not be too helpful.
Instead, you should focus more on learning core verbs and general-use nouns. Core verbs work with any subject matter. Most courses shy away from being verb-centric early on because verbs are complicated since they are often associated with conjugation. Moreover, frequently used verbs are often irregular verbs thereby increasing complication.
Every person has different needs for a language depending on their interests. A musician’s language is different than an engineer’s which is different than a businessman’s. What they have in common is the same core, where they differ is the periphery. By learning the core you are able to start conversing immediately and adapt it to the context that is useful and relevant for you.
Imagine if you were constructing a building. At first, you would clear the foundation and then build a skeleton structure made of steel beams. At this stage, it would not look like a building you are familiar with since there are no walls, windows or decorations. However, a solid structure is first necessary before you can have anything resembling a building. The same is true for language. First, you must have a solid foundation that is composed of core words. Once you have that then you can easily add the more aesthetic elements. Most courses try to give you something that appears like a completed building already, but without the proper foundation.
Principle 3: Immersion and analytical approaches are both important
There are generally two major methodologies for learning something: immersion and analytical. Immersion is when one learns like a child, placing oneself completely in the environment and acquiring knowledge in an intuitive manner. This method does not consider rules or explanations. The student learns through listening and viewing and making associations on their own. Analytical learning is a more academic form of learning which involves understanding the structure and rules of a language and the reason why certain things are said one way and not another.
Rosetta Stone, for instance, applies an immersion approach whereas textbooks apply an analytical approach. There are many people who have used Rosetta Stone who have expressed frustration because they do not understand why the speaker uses some words in one context and uses a different word with the same definition in another context. These systems do not provide any explanation which often leads to discontinued learning. Likewise, there are many students who have studied languages in school for several years using the analytical model and still cannot communicate properly.
It is important to use both methodologies. Immersion is important but understanding frequently used rules is equally important if your objective is to really learn the language and not just pretend that you speak it.
Principle 4: Minimize memorization
One of the greatest reasons for quitting language learning is that memorization is overwhelming. You should limit the number of new words you learn in a session to 7 to 12. Focusing on a handful of commonly used meaningful words has more impact that learning a laundry list of rarely used words.
The same set of words can be used in different ways to produce a variety of useful sentences. After a short time with very little memorization, you will find that you can communicate a wide variety of words and phrases that are commonly used.
You can view these few words like musical notes. The various phrases you use them in can be viewed as musical scales. By practicing a small set of musical scales you can open yourself up to playing a plethora of songs.
Principle 5: Transferring passion of activities to passion of language
Beyond the most commonly used meaningful words, the language people use differs based on their passions and interests. Though the core will be the same for most people, the periphery will be different.
Once you have learned the most frequently used meaningful core words you can expand to learn peripheral words that are specific to your area of interest. If you are a musician you can start to learn the vocabulary in the new language related to musical terms. You will adopt these new words quickly since you will be transferring your passion for the subject-matter to a passion for the language.
By applying these five principles you can learn any language quickly and efficiently.
………………
Speaking in English has now become a necessity and we all want to speak fluent English, but still many of us can’t due to various reasons.one of the reason is we don’t have anyone to speak in English. so here are some tips that will help you to improve your spoken English even if you do not have a speaking partner. I guarantee you that after following these tips for 2–3 months religiously you will become fluent in the queen’s language.
- LISTEN
This is the first and foremost step to become fluent. We all know that a newborn baby learns his native language by listening to his parents. Taking that in mind start listening English, it can be anything from watching movies, listening to podcasts, songs, youtube videos, news.
MY ADVICE TO YOU WOULD BE TO WATCH SOMETHING INTERESTING IN THAT WAY YOU WON’T FIND IT DIFFICULT PREFERABLY WATCH CARTOONS AS USAGE OF ENGLISH IN THEM IS PRETTY BASIC AND THEY ARE FOR KIDS TO LEARN ENGLISH. ALWAYS USE SUBTITLES AND GLANCE THEM ONLY WHEN YOU CANT UNDERSTAND SOMETHING.
2.READ
Now this part is necessary if you want to improve your vocabulary and see how sentence formation occurs.don’t start with newspaper if you are a beginner start reading children’s books (you can start with Enid Blyton there is no shame in reading children’s books as they are quite interesting and fun to read). I learned more English reading Enid Blyton then I ever learned at my school. whenever you come across any new word just mark it and try to guess the meaning and move on, after you finish reading look up the word in dictionary see it’s other forms also synonyms and antonyms now note it down in a notebook.
READING BOOKS WILL NOT ONLY IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH BUT ALSO MAKE YOU MORE INTELLECTUAL.
3.SPEAK
Now some people will consider it difficult as they fear that other people will make fun of them if they speak incorrectly. We are advised to speak to a mirror but we know speaking to the mirror doesn’t frigging work. I suggest you install apps like opentalk ,speaklar etc these apps are completely free and let you interact with other learners.after two weeks of usage you will begin to notice changes in your fluency. Now after acquiring confidence in your spoken English start using English in your daily conversations.
REMEMBER NEVER SPEAK IN ENGLISH TO SHOW OFF. NEVER BOTHER ABOUT YOUR ACCENT AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG SPEAKING IN YOUR NATIVE ACCENT. EVERYONE DISLIKES FAKE ACCENT. BE NATURAL BE TRUE TO YOURSELF.
DON’T TRY TO SPEAK LIKE SHERLOCK. SPEAK SLOWLY IN THAT WAY YOU WON’T GET STUCK AND YOU WILL SPEAK WITH CLARITY AND INFLUENCE.
4.WRITE
Start writing a journal or diary. Initially it will feel stupid but you will get better with time. you will get to know your true self. Write one page daily and try to use the words that you learned recently. Writing something down makes it easier to remember. Don’t expect yourself to write something as well known writers and get disappointed, just don’t give up and keep writing.
5.THINK
For thinking in English surround yourself with English, you will automatically start thinking in English. Try to talk to yourself in your mind in English after some time you will get a habit of thinking in English. Forex think about what you want to do today in English the aim is to talk to yourself in English in that way when you will speak in English there will be no need to translate your thoughts from your native language to English and you won’t get stuck while speaking.
if you want to improve further buy norman lewis WORD POWER MADE EASY it most effective vocabulary builder in the English language.
for grammar buy WREN AND MARTIN
DO NOT LEARN ENGLISH AS A TASK LEARN IT AS FUN ACTIVITY
REMEMBER ENGLISH IS LIKE ANY OTHER LANGUAGE AND PERHAPS THE MOST EASIEST TO LEARN AND PLEASE DON’T MAKE IT A PARAMETER OF INTELLIGENCE.
……….
Absolutely. This is accoplished by every newborn. It actually continues throughout our lifetimes, as we have to learn to adjust to slight changes to how people use language on a daily basis.
There is actually only one effective process for doing this, and it is the same one that we have used from birth.
We observe the use of language uttered in given contexts. As the number of our observations increases, we will attempt to predict the use of language in a given context. If our predictions appear accurate, we will then attempt to use that language within the given context, folowing the model of previously established examples. We then wait for feedback… cues that tell us that the language use was appropriate for a given context, and that the result of the language use matches our intention. If there is an error, or some other failure, we will attempt to make corrections; from there, we repeat the previous steps until we have developed a confidence in our fluency.
Others help us in thise task by providing feedback willingly, s completely as possible, and as correctly as possible. Language is a negotiation, it is when all users in a given context of interaction are satified that communications are accurately understood that they have mutually established language. We learn from experience a number of different rules that apply in a number of different situations. This includes our understanding of word meaning and available vocabulary.
This is different from formal learning only in the timing and source of our introduction to the rules and the vocabulary. Formal learning is an attempt to prestructure this information, and to test our applications under controllable conditions. It is normally faster than the above method. However, the above method is generally more reliable, because the methods of formal learning (and teaching) are themselves approximations, and often contain a great many errors.
In short, the most effective way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in the linguistic environment, and to interact with native speakers. Most importantly, MAXIMISE this interaction, especially through your performance of the language. Don’t worry about making inevitiable mistakes… we learn through the correction of those mistakes.
………….
MY SECRET TO MY LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE
In 1996, at 41 years old, I was learning Spanish — I was working, so no time to go to classes. I found a Mexican rock group called, “ MANA’ ” (translation: “manna” — like the food sent down from Heaven). They were easy to listen to AND the lyrics were included with the audio cassette or CD (no YouTube in those days). So, I developed “tmy method as I went along.
STEPS TO FLUENCY (I TOOK LESS THAN TWO YEARS TO BECOME “FLUENT”— but, I was working full-time while learning it)
ry1. LISTEN TO THE MUSIC, WHILE READING THE LYRICS TO THE SONGS. Their songs are on YouTube, complete with lyrics, but if you still like CD’s, make sure you get the original released version — likely it will have the lyrics inside. If not, you can either look them up on a lyrics site (lyrics = letras, in Spanish) or use YouTube.
DO NOT WORRY THAT YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT ALL OF THE WORDS MEAN! At this point, you’re learning “phonics”, or how the words sound.
Listen to an album, several times through to ensure that you know the word order and how they’re pronounced.
- SHUT OFF THE MUSIC — THEN WRITE OUT THE LYRICS ON A COLLEGE-RULED PIECE OF PAPER, LEAVING ONE SPACE BETWEEN EACH LYRIC LINE. Then, in-between the lyric lines and using on-line dictionaries, WRITE OUT THE LYRICS IN ENGLISH. The idea is to begin to leave English behind, but you’ll need to use it as a crutch — for now.
- LISTEN TO THE SONGS AGAIN, ONLY THIS TIME YOU’LL KNOW WHAT THE SONG IS ABOUT (UNDERSTANDING THE WORDS).
- SING THE SONGS, WITH THE MUSIC PLAYING, AND COPY THE SINGER’S ACCENT & PRONUNCIATION, AS CLOSELY AS YOU CAN.
You’ll soon discover that you’re starting to remember lyrics, word-for-word and you’ll know what the words mean. Since the person who wrote the lyrics has correctly conjugated them, memorizing conjugations is unnecessary — it’s already been done for you.
- AFTER FINISHING WITH ONE ALBUM, MOVE ON TO ANOTHER ONE. YOU’LL QUICKLY NOTICE THAT KEY PHRASES AND CONSTRUCTIONS, THAT YOU NOW ALREADY KNOW, HAVE BEEN WRITTEN INTO THE LYRICS OF THE NEW SONGS.
- AS YOU MOVE FROM ALBUM TO ALBUM, YOUR VOCABULARY WILL START TO GROW RAPIDLY.
Other groups that I used include: Enrique Iglesias, Lucero, Patricia Manterola,Shakira, Gloria Estefan, Fey, Ricky Martin, Sentidos Opuestos, Ricardo Arjona, Ricardo Montaner, Chayanne, among others.
After my vocabulary had grown somewhat…
- I started watching…soap operas — THAT’S RIGHT, SOAP OPERAS (TELENOVELAS)! They are cheesy, contrived stories, but IMHO, they are absolutely the best medium to gain understanding quickly. There is a story, a scene, professional actors, clearly-enunciated dialogue. I suggest recording them, to be replayed — scene-by-scene — WITH SUBTITLES IN SPANISH! I used them as a gauge by which I measured my progress (by how many words I still didn’t understand).
- I bought a children’s SPANISH-ONLY dictionary off the internet, which was used to “wean” me off of the English-Spanish dictionary I had been using. I STARTED LOOKING UP UNFAMILIAR WORDS, as I watched the soap operas. You can also watch movies that have been dubbed into Spanish, along with the subtitles in Spanish, however I discovered that the words don’t always match up as well as they do in the soaps (different companies do the dubbing and subtitling, I imagine.)
- As your vocabulary grows, along with your self-confidence, start speaking in Spanish with anyone and everyone you can — to the maximum level of your ability. I found all Spanish-speakers to be gracious, understanding and helpful in my quest to learn their language. After all, they’re trying to learn a harder language — ENGLISH!
- READ BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, AND ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON. PRACTICE WRITING, TOO.
