Speak Like a Native: Mastering Languages by Michael Janich

Before learning a language it can be useful to have a strategy about learning it. Michael Janich’s book ‘Speak Like A Native’ can assist you in understanding what it takes to effectively learn a foreign language.

Janich has distilled the techniques and strategies of the Defense Language Institute, State Department, CIA, NSA and other government agencies into an easy to understand book. He includes ten rules for establishing and achieving your goals, an provides a unique twelve-step process for accelerating your learning, along with fifty proven tips favored by professionals.

About the Author
Michael D. Janich is a two-time graduate with honors from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) in Monterey, California. After completing its basic one-year course in Chinese-Mandarin, he completed intermediate and advanced Chinese training through the National Security Agency, where he served as a political-military intelligence analyst and translator. During his second period of study at DLIFLC, he learned Vietnamese. He then worked as a POW/MIA Investigation Team Leader and an intelligence officer and served as interpreter for official negotiations between the U.S. and Vietnamese delegations.

• Ñ is considered a letter in its own right, with its own name (eñe) and its own place in the alphabet (after N).
• Ñ arose as an abbreviation of “nn”: the tilde was shorthand for the second “n”. For example, the Spanish word año (year) is derived from Latin ANNVS
• The Morse Code symbol allocated for this characteris — — · — —
• Ñ is used in a number of English words of Spanish origin, such as jalapeño, piña colada, and piñata.
• The Spanish word cañón became the English word canyon, although adapting ñ to “nn” was more common in English, as in the phrase “Battle of Corunna”.
• Ñ has come to represent the identity of the Spanish language. Latino publisher Bill Teck labeled Hispanic culture and its influence on the United States “Generation Ñ” and started a magazine later with that name.

Once mi amor wrote to me, te extraño. I looked in the dictionary and found that extraño means:

1. alien adj.
2. strange, odd
3. stranger

Google translates te extraño as “you strange”.

Well, maybe I am a little ‘strange’, but am I a stranger to mi amor? Next time we chatted I asked, “what did you mean by te extraño”, and she replied, “it means I ‘miss you’.”

The ‘problem’ for a newbie to Spanish is that extraño in this case is not from the above definition relating to “strange” or “alien” (although it kind of fits with the English phrase “don’t be a stranger”). It is actually a verb conjugation of extrañar (extrañarse): miss, be surprised.

So, the meaning of te extraño is “I miss you”. This is used mainly in Latin America. An alternative way of saying this, or in Spain, is: Te echo de menos.

For more information see: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=39485

Update 4th September 2009: Google Translator now correctly translates te extraño as “I miss you.”

Did you know?

The letter x was once commonly used to denote the sound now denoted by j (jota – the English ‘h’). Examples exist such as Don Quixote (now spelt Don Quijote in modern Spanish) and of course Mexico (Me-hi-co).

The letter ç was once used, but has since been replaced with z in modern Spanish.

More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_alphabet

The HTML Code given can be used on web pages to correctly display these characters without needing to worry about the viewer’s character set.

Letter   Alt         HTML
       + Num       Code
á        0225        á
é        0233        é
í        0237        í
ó        0243        ó
ú        0250        ú
Á        0193        Á
É        0201        É
Í        0205        Í
Ó        0211        Ó
Ú        0218        Ú
ü        0252        ü
Ü        0220        Ü
ñ        0241        ñ
Ñ        0209        Ñ
¿        0191        ¿
¡        0161        ¡

Image from Café Con Aroma De Mujer from Colombia

You can access episodes via YouTube to practice listening to Spanish language.

External Links:

• http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cafe+con+aroma+de+mujer
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216459/

How do I know? Because I’m learning Spanish…

My level of proficiency is definitely still a beginner. So in many ways this blog serves as a way for me to make notes as I continue learning and improving my skills.

Okay, so to kick off this blog, what exactly is a gringo?

Well the origin of the word is uncertain with many theories. Some Spanish speakers (in Latin American countries) say that a gringo is only someone from North America (USA). Others apply the term to all foreigners. One plausible explanation is that it comes from the word Griego – the Spanish word for “Greek”. This fits with the English saying “it’s all Greek to me” when referring to hearing a foreign language being spoken. For more information on this see the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo