Synergy Spanish Systems Blog

Some say George Bush was the first American president who thought he spoke Spanish.

He would use a sentence or two in Spanish during his speeches, which his speechwriters would have made sure he got correct.

Ted, One of the characters from the Sitcom “How I Met Your Mother”, is kind of like George Bush, he thinks he can speak Spanish.

In an episode of the show he went to pick up a Latin American from the airport.
Here is what he said,

“Yo eres Ted. Esta soy Lily.”
“I ARE Ted. This AM Lily. “

Here are a couple of hints to avoid making these tedisms.

Firstly the obvious one, soy means I am, and it’s the easiest way to introduce yourself.

“Soy Ted.”
I am Ted.

An easy casual way to introduce someone else you can simply say,
“Ella es Lily.”
“She is Lily.”

Or if you are introducing a male friend you can use, “él es”
For example:

“Él es Denis Lillee”
“He is Denis Lillee”

Here is a common “tedism” for you to avoid.

Imagine you knock on the door at an amigos house. They ask,
Quien es? (Who is it?)

In English you’d probably reply, “it is me”.

If you translate that to, es yo, it will sound very strange to Spanish ears. In Spanish you say,

“Soy yo” (Literally, I am I.)

It’s better to say,
“Soy yo, Marcus.”
“It’s me, Marcus.”

Try out, “soy yo” with your amigos. You’ll avoid the Tedisms and you’ll sound authentic and real with your Spanish.

Spanish is not only a different language it’s also a different culture whether you are beginner or advanced it’s possible you are still making tedisms.

I now have 3 levels of sequential Synergy Spanish lessons for beginner, intermediate and advanced Spanish. You can go from zero to authentic, real, everyday Spanish and avoid the tedisms. Click here for details.

http://www.synergyspanishsystems.com/courses.html

Saludos

Hi Marcus,

I want to share with you a breakthrough combination that has been staring me in the face for a long, long time.

Yet, somehow I missed the obvious.

A cocktail of tactics that make it almost impossible not to speak Spanish.

I’m very excited to give this to you.

To get my latest, best and most brain friendly lesson ever, go to:

So why is it so hard?

Spare a thought for anyone trying to learn Chinese. They have to deal with a tonal language.

If you say mai with a falling then rising tone it means buy. However if you say it with just a falling tone it means sell.

That’s tough!

If you want to learn Chinese, I hope you’re not busy for the next decade or so.

There’s just nothing in Chinese to grab onto. The words, writing system and pronunciation are so different.

Spanish on the other hand has much in common with English.

These commonalities can make it easy to start speaking Spanish.

Unfortunately most textbooks do their best to make Spanish just as complicated as Chinese.

Flip open a Spanish textbook and see for yourself.

They’ll most likely start talking about how Spanish nouns have gender and English nouns don’t. And how the noun gender has to agree with the adjective gender and agree whether plural or singular.

I’m falling asleep just thinking about it.

You could study those minor points of grammar for weeks, months and years on end and still not be able to hold a decent Spanish conversation.

Right now there are people all over the world sitting in Spanish classes suffering.

Es absolutamente absurdo.
It’s absolutely absurd.

Es completamente ridiculo.
It’s completely ridiculous.

Here’s how to stop your Spanish suffering.

Firstly, take a look at the two Spanish sentences above. I’ll bet you could have had a good idea of what they were even without the translation right next to them.

That’s because there are literally thousands of Spanish words that are almost the same as English words. Por ejemplo;

completamente, absolutamente, ridiculo, absurdo.

They are familiar aren’t they?

Here’s a tip:

Many English words that end in LY end in mente in Spanish

Posiblemente, finalmente básicamente, totalmente, personalmente

Francamente, It made Spanish a lot more doable for me when I started noticing patterns to make Spanish words. It takes just 31 patterns like changing LY to mente and you can have a 3145 word Spanish vocabulary.

Spanish also has speaking patterns that English speakers can use instantly.

Por ejemplo, to talk about what you and your family, friends or spouse will do you just use:

vamos a + verbo

Vamos a hablar mucho Espanol pronto.
We are going to speak Spanish soon.

Vamos a practicar con nuestros amigos mañana.
We are going to practice with our friends tomorrow.

Vamos a visitar Costa Rica en mayo.
We are going to visit Costa Rica in May.

Put these patterns into use and you can make as many as 88, 000 phrases from just 138 words.

Here’s a package that gives you everything to take full advantage of these commonalties between Spanish and English.

http://www.how-to-speak.com/synergyshortcut.html

You can stop the textbook trauma and get on the road to finally speaking the language. This package gives you 3145 Spanish words and the power patterns to speak as many as 88, 000 Spanish phrases from just 138 words.

Click below to make Spanish easy.

He’s a Spanish Jedi Knight prepared to become your mentor.

That’s right, I actually recruited Yamil Atala, who overdubbed into Spanish the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi in La Guerra de las Galaxias 1- La Amenaza Fantasma (Star Wars 1 – The Phantom Menace)

He’s also the voice of Thomas el Ferrocarril Mágico (Thomas the Tank Engine), Flash Thompson en el Hombre Araña (Spiderman) and Charlie Simms in Perfume de Mujer. (Scent of a Woman.)

You can hear Yamil’s dulcet tones on the free audio lesson, Hard Spanish Made Easy, on the page below:

You get Christmas gifts and then tomorrow Jan 6 even more presents.

Mañana is el Día De Los Reyes. It’s more exciting than Christmas for many Spanish-speaking kids.

Why not make 2012 the year you join them in the Spanish-speaking world?
Here’s by great offer for beginning Spanish speakers to get you started.

http://www.how-to-speak.com/synergyshortcut.html

I always love going to visit Mexico City over the Christmas period; there are a lot of great traditions.

Santa Claus is becoming more popular but he’s still got nothing on Los Reyes Magos.

Literally, Los Tres Reyes Magos means the Three Magic Kings but in English they are better known as the Three Wise Men.

The Kings are in all the city parks. The kids line up with their families to take a photo with the Kings.

Here’s one of us with the kings from a few years back.

Instead of asking the Magic Kings for presents the parents buy big balloons filled with helium. Then in the night on Jan 5th they tie a letter to the balloon. The letter tells Kings what presents to bring.

Tonight we’ll be watching our kids balloon go up into the sky as it makes it’s way to the line of three stars that are part of the big dipper. Those stars are los Reyes Magos.

Then, we’ll each leave a zapato (shoe) out in the living room. Magically the next morning in or next to the shoes will appear the presents from Los Reyes Magos.

See the Kings really are magical in the Spanish-speaking world.

Here’s that link again to get you started in the fun of the Spanish-speaking world.

http://www.how-to-speak.com/synergyshortcut.html

Feliz Día de los Reyes