Spanish I, Semester I; Saludos

Sections:

Introduction  |   Section 1  |  Section 2  |   Section 3   |  Dictionaries

Section Two:

Part A |   Part B  |  Part C

Section Two - Part A Taxco: The Spaniards found silver just to the west of Mexico City. They colonized the area and employed locals to run the mines. Taxco is such an area. The large church was in large part sponsored by José de la Borda, a man who made a fortune in Taxco and decided to give back by seeing that this cathedral was built here. In Taxco today, there are more than 200 shops where silver jewelry is made. ¡Bienvenidos! Welcome to Section Two! Are you beginning to feel more confident with practicing and speaking the Spanish that you're learning? If you continue to practice speaking Spanish, it will become increasingly easier as the days go by. In Section 1, you learned to give some basic information about yourself. In review, see if you can answer these questions in Spanish, using complete sentences. ¿Cómo te llamas? Yo me llamo (John). ¿Cómo estás? Estoy muy bien. ¿De dónde eres? Soy de Texas. ¿Dónde vives? Vivo en Texas. Now would be a good time for us to talk about things you should do on a regular basis, that is, every time you log in to the course. You should do some kind of warm-up activity, just as in a sport. If you think that sounds silly, it really isn't. Some warm-up activities that would be very good ones for you for Section 2: recite the alphabet; spell words to someone also in the course; practice the vocabulary you know using the games or other activities you found in Section 1. Whatever you choose to do, you will experience a greater level of success if you do some kind of activity to practice. You should be taking notes in written form so that you have vocabulary to study when you are not looking at the actual course pages. You should be in constant communication with your teacher and checking back after your assignments are graded to see what mistakes you are making that you can learn from. While we are talking about practice...let's also talk about how you are studying for the Spanish course outside of our classtime together. There are a variety of activities to engage you while you are in the course. Are you doing anything to study vocabulary outside of our classtime? If not, you need to begin now! What are some things you can do? You can.... teach a younger person what you're learning; make flash cards to practice vocabulary when you are away from the course; make a vocabulary list while looking at the vocabulary online, then away from the course, try to fill in the meanings of the words you are expected to know without looking for help. By doing these activities, you will be helping yourself to "learn to learn" a foreign language! We had better get busy! In Section 1, we learned how to say "How are you?", "Where do you live?", "Where are you from?" and "What is your name?" However, there is more than one way to say "you" in Spanish (and in the other Romance Languages, as a matter of fact!). In Spanish, there are two ways of addressing an individual as you. In English, no distinction is made with regard to age or formality. In Spanish, however, this is a very common practice. If you are talking to a friend, you would use an informal tone of address, such as what you saw observed in the conversation between Rosa and Anita in Section 1. This "you" is "tú" in Spanish and you saw and heard its use in Section 1. (If you do not remember this, it would be a good idea to go back and review, as this is a very important part of the Spanish language.) If you do not know someone, or do not know them well, you use a more formal tone of address. This word in Spanish for "you" is "Usted" (almost always abbreviated as "Ud." but still pronounced as "Usted"). A good rule of thumb is to never use "tú" until you are invited to do so. Now go on to Part B.

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