One of the world’s most used languages, spoken by approximately 400 thousand people worldwide, Spanish is very popular for people wanting to learn a second language. It is spoken on all continents, notably Europe and South America.

Learning a language can be done in several ways. Most public libraries have books that either serve as a dictionary of phrases which will help you if you are stuck, or actual learning books which allow self teaching of the language. Some schools or colleges stock these books or even give lessons; check your local area for courses. You can also get audio tapes which help you to learn Spanish. These give you phrases and the counterparts and help you to memorise them through repetition, which many feel is a very effective method. Lastly the internet provides many sites that teach languages, the BBC being noted for it.

Spanish is one of the easier languages as the letters used are the same as English and many words share similar roots. For example, ‘no’ is ‘no’, ‘hola’ is ‘hi’, etc, meaning that some words can be guessed at. Another thing which helps is that most people know more Spanish than they realise, from movies and television. Most people know that ‘gracias’ means ‘thank you’ and ‘adios’ means ‘goodbye’ just from their repeated use in the media. The Terminator films became famous for the Spanish phrase ‘hasta la vista’ – roughly, ‘until I see you again’, a farewell.

Due to the wide use of Spanish the available recourses for learning are high, with lessons, websites and phrase books being easy to find and use. The BBC Spanish website gives phrases in audio format for correct pronunciation and teaches grammar. It is also very useful because it teaches slang terms. Most people would rather be able to talk in slang now and then than constantly have to use very broken and formal sounding sentences just to say their name. This also includes a list of rude phrases to avoid any embarrassing confusion!

John Gibb
www.learn-spanish-info-and-guidance.info