To learn more Spanish words, please visit our website  www.spanishprograms.com

Many people think, “Why on earth does Spanish have an upside down question mark?” Actually, you will see as we talk about it, that it makes a lot of sense. You may even want to petition the people that create English grammar rules and get them to put an upside-down question mark in the English language.

Let me explain why you would need an upside-down question mark at the beginning of a sentence and how it could assist you. When I was in a High School English class, we read quite a few short stories and plays aloud. The whole class would follow along and some students would take turns reading different parts or paragraphs. I remember on more than one occasion, when I was reading a long paragraph, all of a sudden, I would get to the end and realize there was a question mark. The problem was that I had read the whole paragraph as if it were really a statement. I would then try to compensate and make my voice change at the last minute so it sounded more like a question. I know I must have sounded ridiculous trying to change my voice at the last minute and I was always a little embarrassed when this would happen to me.

Any chance this has that ever happened to you?

With the upside-down question mark, that never happens in Spanish because you see that a sentence is a question right from the very beginning! No more awkward “end of sentence voice change to compensate for question mark” phobia or embarrassment.

I truly love the Spanish language and all the cool little things they have like the “upside-down question mark.” Maybe with this newsletter, we can start a grass-roots effort to maybe change the English language and add the “upside-down question mark”! Call your senator or parliament representative today, or maybe even forward them this e-mail so we can avoid “end of sentence voice change to compensate for question mark” phobia and embarrassment once and for all!

Anyway, if you cannot tell, I love the Spanish language and hope that through this newsletter and by learning Spanish with our Visual Link Spanish™ course, you will gain the same love for it that I have.

To learn more Spanish words, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

To learn more Spanish words, please visit  our website www.spanishprograms.com

Are you ready for a heavy duty term in the world of language learning? It is the word “cognate.” A cognate is a word that looks similar in English and Spanish and has the same meaning in both of the languages. For example, the word “irregular” in Spanish and English is spelled the same, has the same meaning, and has a similar pronunciation. It is a cognate. There are many words in Spanish and English that are cognates and many words that are what we call “false cognates”. A false cognate is a word that looks the same in both languages, sounds similar, but has very different meanings. You have to watch out for “false cognates” in Spanish because they can really get you into some big trouble. Let me give you a fun though embarrassing example.

The English word “embarrassed” sounds and looks similar the Spanish word “embarazada.” Many people learning Spanish think that it has the same meaning. However, the Spanish word “embarazada” actually translates to “pregnant”! Let me tell you — there is a big difference between being “pregnant” and being “embarrassed.” The following story will illustrate this fact and hopefully make you aware of “false cognates” and save you from some potential embarrassment.

A large crowd had gathered together in an auditorium to listen to a lecture. There were some native Spanish speakers, who were dignitaries, sitting up on the stage. An American woman had been invited to speak to the audience as one of the guest speakers. As she began speaking, she introduced herself, and then to break the ice, she pointed to the person on the stage that had invited her to speak and said in Spanish, “I’m ‘embarazada’ and it’s his fault.” She meant to say “I’m embarrassed and it’s his fault,” but what she actually said was “I’m ‘pregnant’ and it’s his fault.” The crowd gasped and everyone was in total shock. You can imagine how she must have felt afterward when she found out what she had really said.  (FYI, the Spanish word for embarrassed is “vergüenza.”)

This is a pretty extreme example, but it is important to know that “false cognates” exist so you do not make the same type of mistakes. If you choose to learn Spanish with a Spanish course, it will generally teach you many of these false cognates as well as the correct way to say things in Spanish. As I mentioned before, a formal course like our Visual Link Spanish™ program will help keep you on-track and avoid cultural faux-pas, and potentially embarrassing situations.

To all of our international subscribers – are there any false cognates that we should be aware of in any of your languages? If so, we would love to hear about them. Please write me, at dave@spanishprograms.com.

To learn more about speaking Spanish, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

To learn more Spanish words, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

The Spanish culture is rich with vibrant music and dancing. They have salsa music, merengue [meh-rang-geh], tango and many other different types of music and dancing. It is a wonderful cultural experience to watch these types of dancing and hear their beautiful music.

If you ever have the chance to walk down the streets of a Latin American pueblo (village) in the evening, especially on a weekend, the air will probably be filled with Latin music. A typical setting is to see a house with the windows and doors wide open so you can hear the music from the street and see a true “fiesta” in progress — with dancing of course.

Any party in Latin America, whether it is with friends, relatives, or school groups will have music and dancing. If not, it is simply not a “fiesta.”

Remember, if you invite a native Spanish speaker to a “Fiesta” (party), you should either make sure there is dancing or be prepared to explain why our culture does not have dancing at “parties.”

Just a little side note, if any of you ever have any questions about our Level I Visual Link Spanish™ course, please let us know and we will answer them as responses in the newsletters each week. I do not personally know of any other Spanish courses available that provide this type of service. We are here to provide you complete support and help you to be successful in learning Spanish! To get a special discount on our course, click here.

To learn more about speaking Spanish, please visit out website www.spanishprograms.com

1. Friends and Relatives – Usually, when you greet friends and relatives in the Latin culture, here is what you do. When a male greets a female or when a female greets a female, they will softly touch both arms while moving their bodies to about 6 inches apart, then they cock their heads, put their cheeks together, and make a small kissing sound. Their lips don’t make any contact. This will only take about 1 or 2 seconds. For men greeting men, in most areas, it is completely customary to give each other a hug. This may seem unnatural for many people outside of the Latin culture, so you may want to practice hugging a few times before you gain any good friends or relatives that live in Latin areas.
2. Casual Parties – For a small group at someone’s house, you will usually follow the guideline for “Friends and Relatives.” In this situation you should let the host take the lead. You can follow their body language and be ready for a small hug and kiss on the cheek as explained above. In some countries and regions people may kiss two times — once on each cheek. If you are prepared to follow the lead of the Latin person, you will do great! Before some of you get too excited about all the kissing, these are the kind of hugs and kisses that are so common in the Latin culture that they have absolutely no romantic meaning.
3. Business – When you are in a business situation, you usually shake hands when greeting someone unless they are a long-time acquaintance or relative. In this case, follow the guidelines for “Friends and Relatives”, but again, be sure to follow their lead.

While I was living in Latin America, I became friends with a local man and we would have conversations about the difference between Greetings in Latin culture and Greetings in English speaking culture. He thought it was funny and so unnatural to see two Americans that were close friends greet each other. He described it like this, “It is funny to see two American friends approach each other and then just sort of stop a few feet away and say ‘Hi’, or wave their hands and say ‘hi’, or even give each other a ‘high five.’” He said, “It seems much more natural to have some contact with each other either through a hug or a kiss on the cheek.”

After hearing his point of view, the idea made more sense to me too, and I completely understood how he felt. I love the Latin culture and hope that you are gaining a love for it too!!

Be sure and take a look at our Level I Visual Link Spanish™ course (on sale right now!) for a complete range of greetings and also learn to put together thousands of other sentences giving you a full range of conversational tools for Spanish.

If you would like to learn more about Spanish culture or speaking Spanish, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

To learn more Spanish Words, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com

According to some of my upper division Spanish professors back when I was in college, there was a war many years ago in Mexico which involved the United States. The American soldiers were dressed in their military-green uniforms and the Mexicans no longer wanted them in Mexico. In an effort to get the soldiers to leave, some of the Mexicans who knew English began to yell at some of the Americans. They would say “Green, Go!!” to the soldiers in the “green” uniforms. The phrase caught on quickly and within a matter of time any foreigner, but especially those with lighter hair, became known as a “Gringo”.

Another theory believed by some experts, is derived from examining the meaning of the word “gringo” itself. According to the dictionary, “gringo” means “foreigner” or “gibberish”.  It is believed that the origin of “gringo” actually comes from the word “griego”, which is the Spanish word for “Greek”, and is used as a slang word to describe any foreigner.

If you are in a Spanish-speaking country and they happen to call you a “Gringo”, do not get upset or offended, they are just saying that you are a foreigner. While I was living in Latin America, I cannot tell you how many times people called me “Gringo”.  I soon became accustomed to hearing it and now consider it a privilege to be a “Gringo”.  Even though I might not sound like a “Gringo” when I speak, with dark blond hair, I definitely look like a “Gringo”!

With the complete Visual Link Spanish™ course you can also begin to learn Spanish well enough to avoid sounding like a “Gringo” when you speak – especially if you practice with the pronunciation CD-ROM. However, if you look like a foreigner, you will probably still be called a “Gringo”.

To learn more about Spanish culture, please visit our website www.spanishprograms.com