el desafío.

General Plan:

Weeks 1 and 2: Purpose:

Learn the fundamentals sentence construction

Learn how to spell and count

Start building a phrase stockpile with basic greetings

The Alphabet

Numbers 1 - 100

Subject Pronouns

Common Greetings

Conjugate the Two Most Important Verbs: to be and to have

Basic Definite and Indefinite Articles

Weeks 3 and 4: Purpose:

Learn essential vocabulary for the day-to-day

Start conjugating regular verbs

Days of the Week and Months of the Year

How to tell the time

How to talk about the weather

Family Vocabulary

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 5 and 6: Purpose:

Warm up with the last of the day-to-day vocabulary

Add more complex types of sentences to your grammar

Colours

House vocabulary

How to ask questions

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Forming negatives

Weeks 7 and 8: Purpose:

Learn how to navigate basic situations in a region of your target language country

Finish memorising regular conjugation rules

Food Vocabulary and Ordering at Restaurants

Money and Shopping Phrases

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 9 and 10: Purpose:

Start constructing descriptive and more complex sentences

Adjectives

Reflective verbs

Places vocabulary

Weeks 11 and 12: Purpose:

Add more complex descriptions to your sentences with adverbs

Wrap up vocabulary essentials

Adverbs

Parts of the body and medical vocabulary

Tips for Learning a Foreign Language:

Learning Vocabulary:

What vocabulary should I be learning?

There are hundreds of thousands of words in every language, and the large majority of them won’t be immediately relevant to you when you’re starting out.Typically, the most frequent 3000 words make up 90% of the language that a native speaker uses on any given day. Instead try to learn the most useful words in a language, and then expand outwards from there according to your needs and interests.

Choose the words you want/need to learn.

Relate them to what you already know.

Review them until they’ve reached your long-term memory.

Record them so learning is never lost.

Use them in meaningful human conversation and communication.

How should I record the vocabulary?

Learners need to see and/or hear a new word of phrase 6 to 17 times before they really know a piece of vocabulary.

Keep a careful record of new vocabulary.

Record the vocabulary in a way that is helpful to you and will ensure that you will practice the vocabulary, e.g. flashcards.

Vocabulary should be organised so that words are easier to find, e.g. alphabetically or according to topic.

Ideally when noting vocabulary you should write down not only the meaning, but the grammatical class, and example in a sentence, and where needed information about structure.

How should I practice using the vocabulary?

Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check - Use this method for learning and remembering vocabulary. This method is really good for learning spellings.

Make flashcards. Write the vocabulary on the front with the definition and examples on the back.

Draw mind maps or make visual representations of the new vocabulary groups.

Stick labels or post it notes on corresponding objects, e.g when learning kitchen vocabulary you could label items in your house.

How often should I be practising vocabulary?

A valuable technique is ‘the principle of expanding rehearsal’. This means reviewing vocabulary shortly after first learning them then at increasingly longer intervals.

Ideally, words should be reviewed:

5-10 minutes later

24 hours later

One week later

1-2 months later

6 months later

Knowing a vocabulary item well enough to use it productively means knowing:

Its written and spoken forms (spelling and pronunciation).

Its grammatical category and other grammatical information

Related words and word families, e.g. adjective, adverb, verb, noun.

Common collocations (Words that often come before or after it).

Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading

Reading is probably one of the most effective ways of building vocabulary knowledge.

Listening is also important because it occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating.

Tips for reading in a foreign language:

Start basic and small.  Children’s books are great practice for beginners. Don’t try to dive into a novel or newspaper too early, since it can be discouraging and time consuming if you have to look up every other word.

Read things you’ve already read in your native language. The fact that you at least know the gist of the story will help you to pick up context clues, learn new vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

Read books with their accompanying audio books. Reading a book while listening to the accompanying audio will improve your “ear training”. It will also help you to learn the pronunciation of words.

Tips for listening in a foreign language:

Watch films in your target language.

Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.

Listen to the radio in your target language.

Watch videos online in your target language.

Activities to do to show that you’ve understood what you’ve been listening to:

Try drawing a picture of what was said.

Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.

Provide a summary of what was said.

Suggest what might come next in the “story.”

Translate what was said into another language.

“Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation.

Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing

Tips for speaking in a foreign language:

If you can, try to speak the language every day either out loud to yourself or chat to another native speaker whether it is a colleague, a friend, a tutor or a language exchange partner. 

Write a list of topics and think about what you could say about each one. First you could write out your thoughts and then read them out loud. Look up the words you don’t know. You could also come up with questions at the end to ask someone else.

A really good way to improve your own speaking is to listen to how native speakers talk and imitate their accent, their rhythm of speech and tone of voice. Watch how their lips move and pay attention to the stressed sounds. You could watch interviews on YouTube or online news websites and pause every so often to copy what you have just heard. You could even sing along to songs sung in the target language.

Walk around the house and describe what you say. Say what you like or dislike about the room or the furniture or the decor. Talk about what you want to change.This gets you to practise every day vocabulary.

Tips for writing in a foreign language:

Practice writing in your target language. Keep it simple to start with. Beginner vocabulary and grammar concepts are generally very descriptive and concrete.

Practice writing by hand. Here are some things you can write out by hand:

Diary entries

Shopping lists

Reminders

What could I write about?

Write about your day, an interesting event, how you’re feeling, or what you’re thinking.

Make up a conversation between two people. 

Write a letter to a friend, yourself, or a celebrity. You don’t need to send it; just writing it will be helpful.

Translate a text you’ve written in your native language into your foreign language.

Write a review or a book you’ve recently read or a film you’ve recently watched.

Write Facebook statuses, Tweets or Tumblr posts (whether you post them or not will be up to you).

Write a short story or poem.

Writing is one of the hardest things to do well as a non-native speaker of a language, because there’s no room to hide. 

There are lots of ways to improve your writing ability, but they can be essentially boiled down to three key components:

Read a lot

Write a lot

Is there a skill you’ve always wanted to master someday, but kept procrastinating on? A language you started learning – then abandoned? A topic in class you’ve never quite grasped? Or maybe you just want to expand your horizon and try something new? Distract yourself from your usual studies?

This challenge is the perfect opportunity to achieve that! Pick a skill and see how much you can improve and grow in 30 days – or really start working on your to-read list (I know those books have been piling up), your portfolio for that dream job in Illustration you want, or your blog you’ve been meaning to post more original content on.

Self-growth and development are so, so important, which is the main reason why I created this challenge.

The idea of this challenge is that people from all communities come together to gain knowledge, add skills and just have fun with the amazing amount of resources out there. This way, we can all support and motivate each other, whatever field you might be interested in.

Post an introduction with the hashtag #30dol with your goals and expectations for the month (starting June 1st), and what your current level is. (Of course, you can join in later as well, but it’s fun to start a the same time!) In the end, you’ll be able to compare and see how much has changed!

Rules:

choose a topic or field you want to concentrate on

post an introduction to #30dol 

define your goals or aspirations

update daily or weekly, we want to hear from you! ♥

post a picture, a sketch, or audio, whatever you deem fitting to show us all your progress for the day/week

Here are some ideas for you:

bullet journaling (read about it here on @emmastudies, here’s an amazing online course on it) 

books/reading (if you don’t have a personal to-read list, here is one with the best books of the 20th century, best series with a gay plot/subplot, and books everyone should have read at least once)

coding (here are some sites to learn html, css, data science, python 3, java, etc.: x x x x)

design/illustration ( stickers and illustration, character illustration, Ink Illustration, 45 best adobe illustrator tutorials, 

business/freelance/open your own shop (tips on how to open your own sticker shop, digital skills: web analytics and marketing)

languages (apps like lingodeer, duolingo, lingvist, busuu, blogs like @lovelybluepanda. there are also so many pdfs and amazing websites out there depending on your target language!)

online mass education courses (edx, coursera, skillshare, futurelearn where universities and professionals teach you about their subject - be that astronomy, engineering, ancient greek history, artificial intelligence or medicine!)

social media (learn to take iphone photos for your tumblr or instagram, and here’s a great post by @studyquill on how to start and maintain a studyblr!)

photography (travel street photography, find photographers you admire like annie leibovitz or henri cartier bresson and read about their path, or browse youtube channels like negative feedback which specialize on photography)

creative writing (there are tons of workshops online - you could also try to set yourself a piece or word limit similar to nanowrimo) 

culinary (check recipe websites, or challenge yourself to try one new recipe a day, or dedicate the month to a specific cuisine)

music (learn music production, andrew huang has also made a video on how to start making music here)

film and filmmaking (karsten runquist’s channel is wonderful for film analysis,  learn about cinematography basics here and film history here)

painting (acrylic painting, sketchbook illustration. you could challenge yourself to fill an entire sketchbook/create a piece every day or week, or to improve a specific technique) 

Every resource linked is free (if you click on the links you can get Skillshare for free for two months and cancel anytime), so all you need is some free time and lots of motivation!!

I’m very happy to be announcing this to you all, and will be working on my Japanese for this challenge – so excited to see what you all and I will do and how far we can come!

Use #30dol as the general tag, and add your field (your specific subject, or writing, painting, lang(uages), pho(tography), film, book, design) to find people doing something similar! Though honestly one of the things I’m most excited about is the multidisciplinary aspect - we are such a brilliant and colorful community :)

The tip: Copy down (entire) passages of text

Why it works: You get WRITING SKILLS since you are writing down every word. You become familiar with the spelling, grammar, different writing styles, script (if you are unfamiliar with it), etc. You get READING SKILLS because obviously you are reading, exposed to the written text in context. You can even incorporate SPEAKING and LISTENING SKILLS by listen to the audio format (you can try google translate audio if you find nothing else) and/or read it aloud to yourself. Since you are limited by the speed of your writing, you will pay more attention to pronunciation. *Also, everyone knows you retain more information when you write by hand.*

How to:

1. Select a text. Make sure it is appropriate to your level and desired new vocabulary set. If I want to know more political vocabulary, I will read a news article. But for colloquial language/slang, I will read a YA novel.

(Btw you can find tons of texts for novels online if you search: “title name” + pdf)

2. Get a paper and writing utensil (you can dedicate a notebook to this if you want).

3. Don’t stop until the text is done or your hand hurts

4. Limit looking up vocabulary. If the text is more challenging for you, allow yourself to look up about one word per paragraph. If it is at your level, then wait to the end of the session to open the dictionary. Chances are, you’ll figure out the word’s meaning a few lines later.

4. Go back to the text later to review and/or make vocabulary lists from what you learned (flashcards like anki or memrise would be great especially if you put the sentence on one side with the word indicated and a representative picture on the other side

Ex. Side one: I planted a *rose* today

Side two: picture of a rose in a pot)

Please like/reblog this if you:

-are a Spanish langblr

-post tips for learning languages (particularly Spanish)

-are an English or Literature major

-or you are at a university level of study!

I’m not sure how many of you know about this website - but bUT BUT - it has a TON of languages with awesome beginner/intermediate vocabulary lists - and as a bonus, it has the pronunciation of NEARLY ALL the languages offered which is super helpful! Languages like Ukrainian, Persian, Swahili, and even Amharic all have their pronunciations.

yes, sure! sorry it took me a bit long to reply i read your ask a few days ago but wanted to think about it before recommending anything. this is going to be mostly books for children and teenagers

manolito gafotas, by elvira lindo. this is a classic from the 90s and early 2000s. it talks about manolito gafotas and his experiences with his friends and family. the books can be read independently.

anything by laura gallego garcía, as long as IT IS NOT FANTASY. she mostly writes fantasy, but you have, for example, the series “Sara y las goleadoras”. It’s about a female football team (6 books in total)

if you don’t mind reading translated fiction into Spanish, then you can try el pequeño nicolás, by Goscinny-Sempé. There’re many books about this character and they’re quite easy to read

anything by jordi serra i fabra. he has written over 420 books, in spanish and catalan. his most well-known book is probably campo de fresas. you can find the list of his novels here

non-fantasy books by javier ruescas. some are: play (it’s the first part of a series), El (Sin)sentido del amor or pulsaciones

sin noticias de Gurb, by eduardo mendoza. this is the story of an alien who lands in barcelona and he pretends to be a human and it’s basically about the adventures he has in the city while trying to fit in.

el mundo amarillo, by albert espinosa. this book talks about the author’s experience with cancer. it was adapted into a tv show in catalan (polseres vermelles). he’s also the author of “todo lo que podríamos haber sido tú y yo si no fuéramos tú y yo” and “si tu me dices ven lo dejo todo… pero dime ven.”

mortadelo y filemón, by f. ibáñez. this is A CLASSIC. mortadelo y filemón are the main characters of comics created by francisco ibáñez. they’re two spies from la TIA and they’re a disaster. it’s obviouslyfilled with humor and a key part in Spanish culture.

mafalda, by quino. malfada is an argentinian child who is the main character of quino’s comics. she has a turtle called democracy because it’s too slow and it talks about the world’s problems form a child point of view.

and there’re more, of course! since YA is easier to read, here you have the website for YA books of La casa del libro, one of the largest bookshop chains in Spain. there’s also a national prize for YA and children’s literature. you can check the authors who’ve won the prize here.

Hi loves! I don’t know if anyone actually wants this but here’s another writing challenge. Let me know if there are repeats from last month!

Also, I would like to give shoutouts to the following lovely people for consistently keeping up with last month’s challenge. I’m proud of you guys and thanks for playing (and sorry if I forgot anyone)! @kulmvihm @slightly-weird-book-worm @tari-elenion @sourjen @almostapolyglot @doitforthek-s 

If you don’t know about this challenge: Want to maintain or improve your writing skills in your target language this summer? Try this 30-day writing challenge for June: Every day, answer the following prompts in your target language (in a personal journal or in a tumblr post). Good luck!

What traits make someone attractive to you?

What is your zodiac sign? Do you think it is accurate? Why?

Name a weird habit and a common habit of yours. 

Describe your favorite scent and why.

How is your life better than it was a year ago?

Name some of your favorite blogs and why you love them! (Be sure to translate them into their language if they don’t know your target language).

What is one tradition you have with your family or friends?

What is your ideal date, or an ideal day with a friend?

Do you ever plan on having kids? Why?

3 strange facts about you.

Write a letter to future self 10 years from now.

What is something you did recently that made you proud of yourself?

What did you eat today (or if you haven’t eaten, what do you plan on eating)?

Something that made you cry recently (or not so recently).

Something you’re proud of.

Put your music on shuffle. Translate some lyrics of the first song that comes on.

Name a place you would seriously move to.

Describe a weird dream that you’ve had.

Name a fictional character who you identify with.

Write whatever’s on your mind :) (can you tell I’m running out of ideas?)

What does self love mean to you?

What’s in your bag/backpack/purse/etc?

What are you looking forward to next month?

Again, write your to-do list in your target language.

Why did you create your blog?

What was the best year for music? Translate some song titles from that year. 

What do you do when you’re home alone?

How do you express your creativity?

Describe your childhood room.

What are some healthy choices you have made this week, and what are some decisions you are going to make to be healthier? (diet, mental health, productivity…)

Goals for next month?

hola buenas que hay??? for those of you that need to brush up on your listening skills or would just like to kill some time i have compiled a little list of podcasts you could check out.

this is a pretty good list published by verne, a magazine ran by the Spanish newspaper El País. Among them, the most interesting series in my opinion are Histocast, described as “mucha historia militar, batallas y pifostios internacionales que nos recuerdan que no hay ficción capaz de superar en interés a los hilos de la historia” and Vuelo 180, “tan desopilante como educativo” but have a browse through the others as well.

Memorias de un Tambor (ES) is another historical podcast, focussed on the history of Spain specifically.

here is another decent list of podcasts that re specifically educational. 

Así Como Suena (MX) is a website with sound clips on politics, music, culture, and more.

Nómadas (ES) - travel

Radio Ambulante features stories on a variety of topics from all over Latin America

A Tu Ritmo (ES) - short audio clips for runners

Requested by anon ✨ Listen while studying

Head and neck

la Boca. Mouth

la Cabeza. Head

el Cachete, la Mejilla. Cheek

la Cara, el Rostro. Face

la Ceja, el Ceño. Eyebrow

el Cerebro. Brain

el Cuello. Neck

los Dientes. Teeth

la Frente. Forehead

la Garganta, el Cuello. Throat

el Labio. Lip

la Lengua. Tongue

la Nariz. Nose

la Nuez, la Manzana de Adán, la Nuez de Adán. Adam’s apple

la Mandíbula. Jaw

el Mentón, la Barbilla, la Pera. Chin

el Ojo. Eye

la Oreja, el Oído. Ear

el Párpado. Eyelid

el Pelo. Hair

la Pestaña. Eyelash

Middle part of the body

el Abdomen. Abdomen

el Ano. Anus

el Apéndice. Appendix

la Cadera. Hip

la Cintura. Waist

la Clavícula. Clavicle, collar bone

el Corazón. Heart

las Costillas. Ribs

la Espalda. Back

las Nalgas, el Trasero. Buttocks

el Ombligo. Belly button

el Pecho. Chest

la Pelvis. Pelvis

los Pulmones. Lungs

la Vejiga. Bladder

Extremities

el Brazo. Arm

el Codo. Elbow

el Dedo. Finger

el Hombro. Shoulder

la Mano. Hand

la Muñeca. Wrist

el Muslo. Thigh

el Pie. Foot

la Pierna. Leg

los Pies. Feet

la Rodilla. Knee

el Talón. Heel

el Tobillo. Ankle

la Uña. Fingernail, nail

Misc.

la Arteria. Artery

el Cartílago. Cartilage

el Hueso. Bone

el Músculo. Muscle

el Órgano. Organ

la Piel. Skin

la Sangre. Blood

la Vena. Vein

Here you have some words/expressions (in bold) that you can use to show off while speaking Spanish. A native will know them, but if you use these you will impress them. Also, in your writings these words will look quite good. NOTE: Some of them are quite formal and not used in conversations.

similar - semejante, afín, cercano, aproximado, símil, parecido (adj.) (similar)

parecerse - asemejarse, semejar, darse un aire, recordar a (to resemble)

divertido - ameno, entretenido (adj.) (fun)

difícil - peliagudo, arduo, espinoso (adj.) (difficult)

fácil - sencillo, factible (adj.) (easy)

empezar - emprender (to begin)

terminar - concluir, ultimar, finiquitar (to finish)

la misión -  la empresa, el cometido, la tarea, la labor, el quehacer  (mission, duty)

caro - costoso, prohibitivo (adj.) (expensive)

barato - asequible, económico (adj.) (cheap)

distraer, desentender, simular - hacerse el sueco (expression, lit.

to do the Swedish. To avoid doing something that you must do)

enfermo - aquejado, indispuesto, alicaído (adj.) (sick, ill)

la historia - el cuento, la leyenda, la fábula (story, tale)

el cotilleo - chisme, chismorreo, enredo (gossip)

aprender - cultivarse, formarse, educarse, empollar (to learn)

gustar - cautivar, embelesar (to like)

saber - estar al corriente, estar al tanto (to know about something)

siempre - perpetuamente, constantemente, continuamente (always)

malo - diabólico, maléfico, maldito, ruin, infame, sinvergüenza, insolente, maligno, malicioso, depravado, inmoral, pérfido (adj.) (bad, as in “a bad person”)

malo - nocivo, dañino, perjudicial, nefasto (adj.) (bad)

comprar - adquirir, obtener (to buy)

la tienda -el comercio, el establecimiento, el negocio, la botica (shop)

continuar -prorrogar, prolongar, preservar, aguantar, proseguir (to continue)

buscar - indagar, rebuscar, escudriñar, revolver (to search)

contestar - objetar, contradecir, rebatir, refutar, rechazar, disputar, discutir, argüir (to reply, as in refute)

abandonar - marcharse, desaparecer, largarse, ausentarse (to abandon, as in “to leave a place”)

feliz - radiante, contento, risueño, campante (adj.) (happy)

triste - afligido, apenado, desconsolado, abatido, entristecido, apesumbrado, desolado, deshecho, desamparado, mustio, taciturno, tristón (adj.) - sad

antipático - desagradable, enojoso, aguafiestas, pesado (adj.) (obnoxious)

la ciudad - la urbe, la localidad, el municipio, la población

 (city)

el país - la nación, la patria, el pueblo, el estado (country)

la familia - la estirpe, el linaje (family)

los padres - los progenitores, los ascendientes, los antecesores (parents)

This cool little website, called readlang, allows you to upload your book, in your target language, from epub form into their website, right? And you just read your book from there. When you don’t know a word, what do you do? Do you go to google dot com and type in that word? Nope. You fucking click it. And it tells you the word.