Not that I have to, but that I want to
Christopher Timothy McGuirk, University of Central Lancashire Online gaming has become a concern for some parents in the past few years and there are worries children might become addicted, with negative effects on their socialisation. This has led some parents to think of creative ways to reduce gaming, including rationing the time children spend online. …
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There are many YouTube channels dedicated to teaching Spanish. My favorite is Butterfly Spanish, hosted by Ana, a Mexican language teacher. There are more than 50 YouTube Butterfly Spanish videos, according to her website. Quite frankly, language lessons can be quite tedious sometimes, so it helps if the instructor is as animated as Ana. At …
Dictionaries are indispensable for language learning. Not just for learners, but also for native speakers of the language. One key difference is that a native Spanish speaker uses a Spanish-Spanish dictionary, while learners may use a Spanish-English dictionary. In fact, it is a sign that a learner has reached fluency status if they can exclusively …
Bachata, a popular Caribbean music and dance style, is relatively less known outside the region. The music originated from Dominican Republic, a country small in geographical area but big in music influence. Besides bachata, merengue also attributes its origin to the small island state. I’ve collected several of my favorite bachata songs below for you …
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To go from point A to point B, one tends to take the path of least resistance, sometimes taking the longer but easier route to get there. Communication between people is the same: 2 persons will speak in the common language that is easiest to understand each other. Spanish learners often seek out opportunities to …
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Stuart Webb, Western University and Elke Peters, KU Leuven With university classrooms and language schools closed because of the pandemic, language students must find new ways to practise and improve. In recent years, an increasing number of applied linguists have been advocating regular TV viewing to learn English. Research shows that students are motivated to …
Music is the universal language of mankind, according to U.S. poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Studies have confirmed that claim by showing that music listeners can accurately discern the mood and function of a song without understanding the lyrics written in a foreign language. Learners of Spanish, from novices to near fluent, are often encouraged to …
Where is Spanish broken? In answering, most people may blurt out Spain and countries in Latin America. The more mindful may know that Spanish is the second most spoken language in the U.S., after English. Little known, perhaps, is that Spanish is actually an official language of the African nation and former Spanish colony, Equatorial …
The U.S. Foreign Service Institute classifies world languages into categories 1 to 4, in ascending order of learning difficulty for native or native-level English speakers. To no one’s surprise, Spanish is in category 1, meaning it is among the easiest to learn for English speakers. Spanish, like other languages in category 1 (Portuguese, Italian, French), …
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Last week, I watched a Netflix documentary named ‘Perú: tesoro escondido’ or ‘Peru: Hidden Treasure’. The film runs for 1 hour 16 minutes which is a tad long to watch in one sitting for most people. After a lengthy but beautifully filmed and narrated prologue, the first theme is surfing along the coastline. I as …