Learning Real Latin Spanish Like Crazy
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Secondly, the type of Spanish you have attempted
to learn just seems so impractical when you try
to put it to use. I mean, you went
as far as memorizing some of the tedious words
and phrases, but when it comes time to put them
to use (what I like to call "game time"),
you just don't seem to be able to communicate
with your amigos. In other words, you
can't get your "game on." This
leads you to become even more frustrated than
you were when you were trying to memorize all
these "impractical" words and phrases.
"¿Qué pasa con eso?,"...I mean, "what's up with
that?"
Last but
not least... when you do use your newly acquired
Spanish words and phrases with your Spanish
speaking amigos from Latin
America, they don't really understand
you. In fact, very often they'll correct you
and say things like
"it's
better to say it this way . . . that's how we say
it in my country,"
or, "tranquilo!" (relax!) "you don't
have to try to sound like you're speaking
Spanish from a textbook." Now, I
want you to stop and think for one minute;
do any of these situations describe your
experience in trying to speak Spanish??? The type
of Spanish you hear in your neighborhood or
when you are on vacation in Mexico, or any other
country in
Latin America?
So....No!! The problem is not that there aren't
enough learning Spanish courses on the market
today. The real problem is that
these courses don't help people who want to
quickly and easily learn to speak Real Latin
American Spanish.
I'm
talking about the type of Spanish spoken in the
US and in Latin America...
The type
of Spanish that:
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...And I
realized this dilemma back in 1997 when I first
embarked on my journey to learn Spanish.
For me,
learning Spanish first
began as a hobby... But quickly grew into a
passion and a true desire to become fluent in
the type of Spanish that I heard in the streets
of New York City and during my vacation trips to
Latin America.
So I went
on a rampage; buying every single Spanish course
I could find (name the Spanish course and I'm sure
I have it, especially the so-called "top"
learning-Spanish courses). I spent
thousands of dollars trying to find that ONE
COURSE. You know the one I'm talking
about!
The
same one you've been looking for but have not
found yet!
I devoured
every minute of the audio portions and read
every single word of the printed materials.
I even labeled different
objects around my home in Spanish.
Like "mesa" for table, "baño," for bathroom,
etc. and I would form sentences in Spanish with
these objects. Like "tengo que ir al
baño" which means "I have to go to the
bathroom."
I would then
take
my newly learned Spanish words and phrases
around New York City...from Spanish Harlem to
the Bronx, to Washington Heights, to my native
Queens, and even Brooklyn. Here I was
talking about, "Yo Hablo Castellano," and
speaking formal "How do you do?" Spanish to
people from Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico,
Dominican Republic, Cuba and other parts of
Latin America -- and they were looking at
me as if I was speaking Spanish from another
planet!
When I was lucky enough for them
to understand some of my Spanish, it was was so
bad that they insisted on speaking back to me in
English �
even the
ones that couldn�t speak English well!
To them my Spanish must
have sounded as though I was scratching my nails
across a blackboard. Horrific!
This really shouldn't surprise you.
That's
because most of the Spanish courses you have
sitting on your book shelves right now weren't
developed by Spanish-speakers from Latin America.
That's why they have you
sounding like you speak Spanish from another
planet too!
Oh No! - It
Finally Happened - What I Dreaded Most
I will never forget the night. It was a
little more than 11 years ago. I was standing on
line by myself at a movie theatre waiting to buy
my ticket. Standing next to me was the most
beautiful Latina I had ever seen. From the
conversation she was having with her female
friend, I could tell that the two of them were both natives
of Latin
America.
I decided that this was the perfect
opportunity to meet the woman of my dreams. I
figured I�d charm her with my Spanish. That
would really impress her. Or so I thought . . .
I am not sure which of the following two
lines did it. Maybe it happened when I said:
Yo hablo Castellano.
Or maybe it happened when I said:
Me gustan las rosettas de maiz
(I like popcorn).
(By the way, both of the above lines I
learned from some of the �top� learning-Spanish
courses.)
It was right after I said one of those two
lines that both women broke out in
uncontrollable laughter.
They were absolutely hysterical.
I thought an ambulance was going to have to come
and take them away if they didn�t stop laughing.
There was only one word to describe my mood
at the time...
EMBARRASSMENT!!!
Through all their laughter, I was unable to
understand what they were saying to each other
in Spanish. But I did somehow recognize one word
that they kept saying repeatedly to each other.
That word was
GRINGO.
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*Above is the complete, A-to-Z, step-by-step
Learning Spanish Like Crazy course on how you
can begin speaking real Latin American Spanish
as easily and as quickly as a child learns a
native Language... Starting even on the very
first day!











