Fifty Ways to Have Fun With Your Bad Spanish

By Judy Schulten

Judy Schulten took her first Spanish class forty years ago and has persevered in speaking Spanish (badly, perhaps, but effectively, she says) ever since. In this book she gives surprising reasons to dare to use Spanish, even quite elementary Spanish, as often as you can. The willingness to "get out there with your bad Spanish," along with good will and a friendly smile, will open doors in today's global world.

Judy Schulten's philosophy applies not just to learning Spanish but also to any language and any learner of high school age and older. She has taught English to people from many other countries. Her key rules are: learn more vocabulary than grammar; seek opportunities to practice; and converse regularly with a partner. The fifty ideas for using Spanish come from her own experience. They are easy, mostly free, widely available, and fun.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Judy Schulten
• Release date: Aug 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301305223

Judy Schulten

Judy Schulten lives in Texas. She has been speaking bad Spanish for 40 years. For more information about Judy’s approach to language or for guest lecture engagements, please write to [e-mail].

Book preview

Fifty Ways to Have Fun with Your Bad Spanish

—by—

Judith D. Schulten

Copyright 2013 Judith D. Schulten

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Who Are You?

How do I know? Who am I?

Why it’s Not Too Late to Start Now

Free Your Thinking To Enjoy Your Spanish

Fifty Ways

Para Terminar

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Appendices

Introduction

Do you know a little Spanish? How did you learn it? Maybe you took a class, or traveled in a Spanish-speaking country. Maybe you’ve worked through a beginner textbook, or you’re interested in people who speak Spanish.

Have you ever wanted to go beyond these first steps and learn to enjoy the Spanish you know?

You can decide to use and enjoy the Spanish you have right now. It will be a great adventure. You will meet new people. It will make you feel young and exhilarated. It will exercise your brain. You will travel intelligently. You will enjoy life more.

I’ve been speaking Spanish, more or less well, for a long time. Here’s what happens: A friend greets me with, Hola. ¿Qué tal? I reply,Bién, muy bién. Then the conversation abruptly changes to English as my friend apologizes that he or she once knew some Spanish and liked it but has forgotten it all.

What a wasted opportunity. How many entertaining conversations, how many laughs could I have had by now with friends who gathered their courage and plunged into bad Spanish with me?

In most parts of the US, we are a bilingual country. Because of this, and because knowing a decent amount of Spanish is helpful in many jobs, Spanish classes seem to be on every corner. But I don’t hear many Americans enjoying an ordinary conversation in Spanish. It seems too daunting to learn the verbs and idioms. They use only whatever small amount of Spanish they might need and give up their hopes of using it in real life.

This is a waste. Just think of all the practical, everyday reasons to limber up your Spanish in today’s global world. It would be an advantage at work, at school, and in public. You would enjoy knowing enough tourist Spanish for a trip. Even beyond that, let me offer six other advantages you may not have considered:

1 It’s a portable skill.

Everything else you might do in your leisure time has requirements. You’ll need special equipment, special places, suitable partners, particular times, fees and dues. Even something as seemingly simple as playing bridge demands cards, partners, arrangements to get together, and a card table.

Not so with knowing Spanish. Everything you need lives in your mind. If your house burns down with everything in it, you can still speak Spanish. If you’re confined to bed, you can still speak Spanish. You always have whatever you’ve learned and that’s all you need. You’re always ready to have a conversation.

I’m driving my husband to the airport for a golf trip. In addition to his suitcase of clothes, he has two pairs of golf shoes, a GPS, a range finder, a golf umbrella, extra golf balls, and a forty-pound golf bag with fourteen clubs.

Leaving him and his gear, I realize once again that, without an ounce of