• Sep. 10, 2009
LIVE in one hour! Today only!

Hey Everyone!  Don't forget I will be live at 11 am ET/10CST/9MT/8PST on the Communication Comedy Network with JoJo Tabares talking about miscommunications in the Spanish language and culture.

Join us for some fun stories and tips for keeping yourselves out of trouble when speaking Spanish.

Click on this link and join us Communication Comdey Network you can listen for free with a Talk Shoe account or listen via telephone at 724-444-7444 pin number 19736.

Hope to see you there!
Michelle Rothwell, Founder
Dora & Diego Homeschool Spanish
http://www.DoraHomeSchoolSpanish.com
The most comprehensive missions-minded Biblically-based text.

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• Sep. 7, 2009
Communication Differences in the Spanish Language and Culture

Coming this Thursday I will be a guest on the Communication Comedy Network talking to JoJo Tabares about the communication differences in the Spanish language and culture.

Listen to us as we share how fun learning Spanish can be even when there are miscommunications.  There will be funny stories as well as an opportunity to learn the proper way to speak Spanish.  No one is perfect and on Thursday's show you will see even the experts can have trouble with communication differences in the Spanish language and culture.

To log on to our broadcast this Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 10 am CST go toTalk Shoe  If you aren't available live then you will find our recorded broadcast later that day in JoJo's archives.

I hope you will join us and experience the fun in learning Spanish.

Hasta jueves,
Michelle Rothwell, Founder
Dora & Diego Homeschool Spanish
The most comprehensive missions-minded Biblically-based Spanish text.

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• Mar. 16, 2009
Teaching Tip: Adopt a Missionary Family

Adopt a missionary family.  Together with your children learn everything you can about the country and people group with which the missionaries work.  Experiment with recipes of the food they eat.  Put together scrapbooks depicting the geography, agriculture, and industry.  Learn about the religious beliefs of the people and their form of government.  Find out how their culture impacts the ways the people think and act and why it differs from us.  Practice phrases in the language.  Learn how the missionaries explain the gospel to their people group, etc.

Together with your children, write to your missionary.  If they have children, maybe they would like to be pen pals with your children. Most importantly, pray for your missionary family.  Consider what your family can do to help support them.

As Christian homeschoolers, studying missions is one of the most important areas in which to be involved.  Christ instructed us to "go into all the world..."  This certainly is a reason to study geography, history, anthropology, and foreign languages.

Since this blog is geared towards learning Spanish we encourage you to look for missionary families in Spanish speaking countries.  For example Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Spain, etc.  Hispanic people love to share their language with others so ask your missionary family if any of the kids in their church would want to be pen pals with your kids.  This would be a great way for your kids to learn to translate as well as read and write Spanish.  It's a great way to reiterate their Spanish skills.

In order to find missionary families contact your church denominations' missions department.  If your denomination doesn't have any missionaries in Spanish speaking countries, just write to me, Michelle@dorahomeschoolspanish.com, and I can get you hooked up.

Blessings to you until next time,

Michelle Rothwell, Founder

Dora & Diego Homeschool Spanish

www.DoraHomeSchoolSpanish.com

The most comprehensive Biblically-based Spanish text.

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• Feb. 3, 2009
What Is The Best Age To Learn a Language?

What is the best age to learn a language?

This question is asked a lot along with the question, "How Can My Children Become Bilingual?"  In this posting we will be explaining the best age to learn a language hopefully giving you the answer you are looking for.

According to Wikipedia, "Children are able to take on accents at a fast rate; children of traveling families, for example, can change their accents within a short period of time. This generally remains true until a person's early twenties,after which, a person's accent seems to become more entrenched."  Well there's one answer for you.  Children can at least learn accents easily.

According to the ESL Program, "The answer, according to current research, is early adolescence, so about 11-13. And the more motivated the child is to learn the new language, the more successful he will be!"

Well I personally believe you can teach an old dog new tricks.  You can learn a language at any age.  The more time you have to put into learning the more successful you will be.

I tend to think children have less stuff clogging their brains so they can retain what they've learned.  Plus to quote a phrase the "Flight of The Navigator",  human brains leak.

Have a great night,
Michelle Rothwell, Founder
Dora & Diego Homeschool Spanish
http://www.DoraHomeSchoolSpanish.com
The first ever Spanish curriculum from the Biblical world view.

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• Jul. 21, 2008
Why Should You Choose Spanish For Your Homeschooled Children?

     It’s a blessing to homeschool your children.  Teaching your children at home brings the family closer together.  Les than one generation ago homeschooling was virtually unknown as a way to educate your kids and keep them away from the dangers of public schools.  On the other hand it can be challenging to teach a second language especially if you don’t know one yourself

      Learning Spanish will help prepare your children for their high school language credits and many colleges look for language credits.  Here are some practical reasons to choose Spanish for your child’s language credit.

      Spanish is much easier to learn because the basic building blocks are straightforward.  You can have meaningful communication in Spanish after only a few lessons.  At the high school level, more than 95% percent of my fellow students chose Spanish to meet the foreign language requirement, according to internet research.

      Employment opportunities are multiplied by having Spanish as a second language.  Adding this skill to your child’s resume when they start working will give them preference over other job applicants.  Employers like hiring people with diversity in their backgrounds and the initiative to reach out to others.

      There are more opportunities in America to use Spanish in the U.S. workforce than any other language.  Just a few professions where Spanish is a necessity include Police Officers, EMS, Doctors and Nurses, Teachers, Grocers, and Sales Personnel.

      Spanish is considered an official language on four continents and is of historical importance elsewhere.  From Spain in Europe to the Philippines , many countries in Africa , all over the USA, Mexico, Central America and nearly all of South America. It is, also an official United Nations language.

      “Ethnologue: Languages of the World” is a web and print publication of SIL International, a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages.  In 2005, Ethnologue calculated 322 million people around the globe speak Spanish as their native language.

      “Encarta” by Microsoft came to the same conclusion as Ethnologue about native Spanish speakers.  But they also found that an additional 100 million people who speak Spanish as a second language.

      With these statistics Spanish is ranked as the second most common language spoken in the world making English the third most spoken language.

      Make sure your child takes part in choosing the language he/she studies.  Children should not be “assigned” to a foreign language class.  Why?  Pressuring children will back fire on you.  Just like with music lessons, unless your child enjoys the language they bock and complain when it comes time to study.

      Show them how Spanish is already a part of English with words like taco, burrito, the game Uno.  You could even show them a Spanish article written for kids from the internet where they can pick out words that are similar to English words.  These gestures will show your child how easy it will be to learn Spanish.

      Children love secrets.  Perhaps that's one reason children sometimes speak in Pig Latin or devise secret codes of their own.  Tell them if they learn Spanish, they can use the language to create an exclusive club where Spanish has to be spoken to enter.

      Native Spanish speakers tend to be more relaxed and understanding about Americans who speak incorrect Spanish.  Incorrect Spanish is easy to understand.  Last year when my church group went on a trip to Guadalupe, Chihuahua, Mexico, we had an American Mexican that was helping us translate.

      My friend, Rosa, was the most experienced Spanish speaker in the group.  Rosa was the one who made the biggest language mistake.  She meant to say to two Pastors and a little girl, “tengo caliente.”  In Spanish that means, “I am hot.”  The funny thing is that kind of hot means she was standing too close to her husband.

      Rosa thought the Pastors looked at her kind of funny.  However, when the little girl’s eyes got really big and she cried out to her mother for help, our “translator” knew she was in trouble.  The mother of the little girl almost fell off her chair with laughter when she heard what Rosa said.  Of course when the rest of us heard what happened we didn’t let Rosa forget about it the rest of the trip.

      Now that Spanish is your language of choice, consider a new learning environment that will excite and encourage your child to learn.  Online teleclasses incorporate new computer skills as well as provide a fun interactive venue for your children.  This is a great way to keep Spanish fresh and inviting for your children.

 Michelle Rothwell has been instructing Spanish classes since 1998.  She is the Founder and Owner of Dora & Diego Homeschool Spanish.  The most comprehensive Biblically-based Spanish text.

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• May. 3, 2008
The Difference Between

As in all languages there are tricks to the trade.  In order to learn better we develop keys to our understanding.  In Spanish it isn't any different.  Today I want to share with you the difference between buenos dias, buenas tardes and buenas noches.

The nice part about most languages that have Latin as their "grandparent" is each language uses feminine and masculine differences.  Now it doesn't mean the feminine words are girly and the masculine ones are rough and tough.  Most times you would be able to tell the difference if they are masculine or feminine by their endings.

For instance, in Spanish if a word ends in "o" then it is considered masculine.  The difference for feminine is the words would end in "a".

Now plural words are the same way but with an "s" added to it.  The difference between masculine and feminine plural words are the feminine words will end in "as" and the masculine "os".

Aren't we having fun yet?!

What type of word is "buenos"?

I hope you said masculine because that's the right answer.

Buenos ends in "os" so it it masculine.

You can say the mornings are for the men.

Buenos dias.  Good morning.  Or good day.

With our trick to the trade, what type of word is "buenas"?

Ding!  Ding!  Ding!

We have a winner!  I know you said buenas is feminine.

You can say the afternoon and evening is for the women.

Buenas tardes.  Good afternoon.

Buenas noches.  Good evening.  Or good night.

Please don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying "lady of the evening".  We are a family blog so don't let your mind go there.  LOL!

Now you will remember to always say buenas noches (the right way) instead of buenos noches (the wrong way).

The difference between all three are very clear once you apply the keys.

Please let me know if this information has been helpful or not.  And, if you have other problem areas, let us know about them.  We are here to help make your Spanish learning easy and fun.

Adios, hasta luego,

Michelle Rothwell

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