II Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Hola! Buenos Dias!

So, last night was my first Spanish class at church. (the first of 12). The teacher told us that by the end of week 12, we will be able to attend a social gathering (which will be held at our church) and ONLY speak Spanish at it the whole time! Wow! Last night we started with the alphabet. It's pretty different. Did you know that in the Spanish language, the "H" sound is Always silent....you Never pronounce the "huh" sound. Here are a few key phrases we learned last night:
Buenos Dias = Good Morning or Good Day because "dias" actually means day.
Buenas Tardes = Good Afternoon
Buenas Noches = Good Evening or Good Night because "noches" actually means night
Also manana (mon-yawn-ah) means tomorrow. I always thought it meant Monday!
This will certainly be an interesting class. I just hope I have the want-to enough to follow through with it. The main reason I am taking the class is so that I can communicate with my next-door neighbor who only speaks Spanish (and a teeny bit of broken English). Her daughter, who likes to come over and play with my kids, ONLY speaks Spanish so I can't ever communicate with her at all. Plus, I think it will be a helpful tool in many areas of life.
Anyhow, just curious...how many of you know Spanish?

9 comments:

Kate said...

fluent in Spanish (I'm half Mexican / half Irish) - if you ever need any help, just drop by and leave a comment.

btw - for Good Afternoon, it's BuenAs Tardes b/c "tarde" is considered a feminine noun ;)

Good luck w/ your lessons. It's so fun to communicate in other languages. When we have our kids we plan on my just speaking to them in Spanish and hubby speaking to them in English. Amazingly enough - they don't get confused.

Kate said...

oops . . . I meant to say Buenas NochEs, b/c La Noche is considered feminine ;)

KC said...

I only know basic words. I REALLY need to learn Spanish, and become fluent though.
I did know the words you posted, and I knew Manana (spell?). We had a family in our church when I was growing up, and the wife was born in Mexico. She spoke English really well, and taught us a new Spanish word each week. She was the happiest/funniest woman I ever met. I loved her so much! I wish I still lived up there, so I could see her more often.

I do wish I could speak sentences though, and not just "words". I can pick out words when I hear people talking in Spanish, but not enough to put it all together and know what they are talking about.

Jen said...

Thanks Kate for the tip on "noches". I went in an fixed it. I was typing that post this morning without my notes from last week thinking..."boy, I hope I spell these right"...oops! guess not! ha ha..but hey...I've only had 1 hour of learning so far. ha ha
I'll tell you one thing though, I TOTALLY don't understand that male/female thing. How can words have a sex? Does that mean you use certain words when you talk to girls and certain words when you talk to guys? Or when you're talking girls vs. guys? I just don't get it. Up until this point, the only Spanish words I know I learned from watching Dora with my daughter! ha ha...

Logzie said...

I know a teensy weensy bit but I can answer your question...yes Spanish words do have a sex. For example (correct me if I am wrong Kate) Ella-pronounced-Aya is femine and El-pronounced-L is masculine. I am sure Kate can expound more on this but I just wanted to show off a bit. HA!

(please God, let me be right!)HA! :0)

Amy said...

Jenni,
You'd think I'd be totally fluent in Spanish after 2 full years (4 semesters) in high school and 4 courses (2 of them honors classes) in college Spanish. But it is very true that if you don't use it you lose it and now about all I remember are some nouns and some verbs and couldn't actually conjugate a verb correctly in spanish if my life depended on it. :) Lot of good all those classes did, huh? Good luck!!
(Buena suerte, if I remember right.)
Love ya!
Amy

MLM said...

Hubby watches Telemundo and other Spanish channels all the time, and we hope that someday we'll learn the language by osmosis (taking all those courses in school sure didn't work for us!). My son can say "azul" (from Dora), so does that count? :o)

Hubby started teaching him to count in Spanish, but I asked Hubby to wait until our son mastered English first. I had heard somewhere that teaching them 2 languages at once can actually slow down their communication progress. But I've also heard that learning as a kid is the best way to really learn it (and remember it). ????

Unknown said...

Hey MJ. I took 4 years of Spanish in High School. My heart wasn't in it though b/c I wanted to take German. But my mom thought Spanish would be more practical. So, I know un poquito (is that right kate?). My 4 year old can count to 10 in Spanish. Wish I could teach her more while she is so young and catches on fast.

Enjoy the course!

Amos said...

I have to say that I was sitting there listening to the guy say the alphabet and was wondering if this really was a good idea for me to be in the class too, because I am trying to teach my son phonics at home. Am I going to start telling him his letters in Spanish instead? Oh well, it sounds fine so I will give it a go, but the thought was definitely there.