Visual Link Spanish Newsletter (V:1; I:41)

Visual Link Spanish™ Works!!-----

Most courses teach individuals a lot of words and grammar rules but students never learn to speak and converse in Spanish. Visual Link Spanish™ teaches individuals to build sentences, ask and answer questions and speak and converse in Spanish. It has been sold in all 50 states and in 27 countries around the world! Click here to go to our web site for more information or to purchase. Remember, the complete Visual Link Spanish™ course contains:

• 2 Computer CD-ROM's with over 200 interactive lessons:
  • 48 interactive learning lessons
  • 28 Vocabulary Review Lessons
  • 37 Review Games
  • 46 Verbal Quizzes
  • 13 Written Practice Quizzes
  • 28 Pronunciation Lessons
• 10 Audio CD's to review in your car or CD player
• Conversation Manual
• Travel Case for the CD's.

Please e-mail us with any questions at: info@spanishprograms.com

Visit our Website: www.spanishprograms.com

Holiday Spanish Words of the Week-----
Here's a short list of holiday words.

	English	Spanish
Monday	Merry Christmas!	¡Feliz Navidad!
Tuesday	Happy New Year!(they literally say "Prosperous New Year!")	¡Próspero Año Nuevo!
Wednesday	gift / present	regalo
Thursday	Here's your present.	Aquí está tu regalo.
Friday	Where's my present? (Hopefully you won't need to use this one, but just in case...)	¿Dónde está mi regalo?
Saturday	Santa Claus	Papá Noel / Santa Claus
Sunday	Happy Holidays!	¡Felices Fiestas!
Bonus	Christmas Eve (literally: Good Night)	Noche Buena
Bonus	New Years Eve (literally: old night)	Nochevieja
New Year's Resolutions	Time to start thinking about New Year's Resolutions. Learning Spanish is a popular one as our sales usually increase in January. Click here for purchasing information.

Spanish Culture ----- The Holiday Season in Latin America.

Due to the fact that about 95% of Latin America is Catholic, Christmas is as widely, maybe even more widely, celebrated holiday than in the US. Because a majority of Latin Americans live south of the equator, for them Christmas is actually during the summer. As you will see later, this influences some of their holiday traditions. If you plan to learn Spanish, you might as well learn the customs so you can speak Spanish and celebrate with the natives!

Let's begin by talking about Christmas. In Latin America, on Christmas Eve, there is mass (religious worship service) at many Christian churches at 11:00 p.m. As soon as the preacher or priest finishes speaking, the children run home and wait for Santa Claus, who usually arrives at 12:00 midnight with gifts. He knocks on the door and brings them right in for the family. (For those of you under age 10 reading our newsletter: Since Santa can't be at everyone's home at the same time, he usually gets a neighbor to be his official helper.)

Because they live in a warmer climate, there are fireworks around midnight. Christmas dinner is also after midnight where the main course is a traditional turkey. Even families who don't have a lot of money and can't afford a turkey, save their money long beforehand so they can buy a turkey for Christmas. If they still don't have enough money for a turkey, they eat chicken. After dinner, children will usually play with their gifts for a few hours and then go to bed around 3:00 a.m. Needless to say, they sleep-in on Christmas morning.

On New Year's Eve, they stay up at least until midnight (like we do here in the U.S.) and like Christmas, they again light fireworks. One thing they do that I found interesting is they build a large doll out of old clothes -- usually stuffed with straw. On New Year's Eve (Nochevieja) [no-chay bee-eh-hah] around midnight they take their large dolls out in the streets, light them on fire, and burn them. (Do not try this at home!) For many people, this represents the end of the "old person" and the beginning of a "new person".

As with any area of the world, traditions vary slightly family to family and region to region.

¡Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo! (Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!)

 

Continue learning Spanish with our free Spanish lessons.

Sneak peek at next week: Water - Drinkability, Customs, and Beliefs.


David S. Clark -- President
U.S. Institute of Languages
dave@spanishprograms.com
http://www.spanishprograms.com

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