Introduction to the Spanish language

[music playing] Your lecturer is Dr. Bill Worden. Dr. Worden is an Associate Professor of Spanish and the Director of Spanish Programs at The University of Alabama, where he teaches a wide variety of Spanish language and literature courses. He received his M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury College and his Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from Brown University. In addition to teaching high school Spanish, Dr. Worden is an award-winning speaker who has lectured on various subjects, including how to help beginning language students become comfortable speaking Spanish. (music playing) Hola. Bienvenidos a este curso introductorio de español. Es un placer estar aquí con ustedes. Me llamo Bill Worden y soy el profesor del curso. Español es una lengua importante no sólo en España y América Latina, sino también en los Estados Unidos. Y en este curso ustedes van a aprender a entender, hablar, leer y escribir la lengua. También van a conocer aspectos de las culturas de los países donde se habla español. Tenemos mucho trabajo que hacer, así que es hora de empezar. Hello and welcome. You just heard me begin this first lesson of our Spanish 1 course by speaking in Spanish. And you might not have understood very much of what I said. In fact, maybe you didn't understand anything I said. If so, you're in the right place. This is a Spanish course for beginners, and assumes you have no prior knowledge of the language. We're going to start at the very beginning, and work lesson by lesson toward improving your ability to communicate in Spanish. If you do have some limited experience with the language, it's nice to have you with us as well. You'll probably just find some of the early lessons will be review for you. What if you've actually had a lot of experience with Spanish, but still can't understand it or speak it nearly as well as you think you should? Maybe you've taken other courses or used books to study on your own, and you're frustrated because you just can't seem to get the hang of it. Is there hope for you? Yes, most certainly there's hope, and I'll tell you why. I've been teaching Spanish for more than two decades, and over the years I've taught a wide range of students: from middle and high schoolers, to undergraduates and graduate students, to interested adults from 18 to 80 taking night classes to learn Spanish. One of the things I've learned from all this teaching is there's a difference between what I call the what's and the how's of language study. And that difference can have a significant impact on every student's success. Let me explain what I mean by that. Any Spanish textbook will tell you lots of what's. For example, what's the word for library? What's the conjugation of a certain verb? What's an important cultural aspect related to teaching Spanish? Most introductory courses likewise focus almost exclusively on the what's of the language. In this course, you'll certainly be learning lots of vocabulary, grammar, and cultural information. So the what's are indeed important. But I learned early in my teaching career that the what's are not enough. It's not enough just to tell students learn vocabulary, learn grammar. Students must also be given a clear idea of how to do it. So in this course, in addition to teaching grammar, vocabulary, and culture, I'll also be teaching you the how's of learning Spanish. For example, how might you study vocabulary so new words become easier to remember and use? How can you think about verb forms so producing them becomes more automatic? How should you be listening to spoken Spanish so you can understand more? How can learning about culture help you speak better Spanish? In sum, I'll be showing you how successful language learners approach the challenge of acquiring Spanish. And my goal for this course is for you to become a successful language learner who communicates well in Spanish. OK, I want to talk about the first minute of this lesson, when I was speaking entirely in Spanish, and this actually has a direct bearing on the question of how to learn Spanish. Because when faced with a language they don't understand, people tend to react in one of two ways. They react either negatively or positively. Here's what I mean by that. Some people feel confused, frustrated, maybe even annoyed, where others are curious, perhaps a little intrigued. Maybe they even feel challenged in a good way. I hope your reaction to my use of Spanish was more positive than negative. Because if you want to know how to be successful language learner, well, having a positive outlook is a critical part of the process. Learning Spanish well can be difficult, yes, and not every moment of study or practice is fun, but in general, successful language learners look at Spanish as a puzzle to be solved, or an interesting challenge to be met. That attitude keeps them going when things do get difficult. OK, you may be thinking, I can try to be positive, but what does that really mean? Well, to answer that question let me take us back to the beginning of this lesson, when I was speaking entirely in Spanish. If you were fluent in the language, you would have understood everything I said. But since you're taking this course, you're not fluent in Spanish. So, being positive while listening to me is essentially a question of maintaining your focus on my words so you can do your best to make sense of something you don't understand. That's not easy, but your approach to this challenge will be crucial in determining how your Spanish studies will go. Successful language learners see a positive opportunity when they confront the unfamiliar. They certainly don't get everything the first time they hear it, but they're eager to figure out as much as they can. It's like solving a puzzle: You can begin by putting together whatever pieces you can and gradually the entire picture emerges. So when I was speaking Spanish, maybe all you heard was: blah blah blah blah blah blah, which by the way, in Spanish would be blah blah blah blah blah blah. So if you weren't understanding me, maybe that led you to think: Why is he speaking so much Spanish? I thought this was Spanish 1. Did I buy the wrong course? I don't understand anything. Help! Until maybe these thoughts subsided and you returned your attention to the last part of what I was saying, which you heard as blah blah blah. If that was your experience listening to me speak Spanish, that's OK. But, you won't listen to Spanish like that in the future. What you're going to do instead is to focus intently on my words. Rather than being distracted by extraneous thoughts, you're going to make an effort to grasp as much as you can. So that's my first how for you. How should you be listening to spoken Spanish so you can understand more? Focus on what you're hearing, work to understand something, anything. That's a positive approach to the unfamiliar. Instead of being discouraged by what you don't understand, accept the challenge before you of trying to gain some sense of what you're hearing. Let's put this into action. One thing you can do as a successful language learner is to listen for Spanish words that sound like words in English. That's one of the advantages that we English speakers have when learning Spanish: the two languages have a lot of vocabulary words that are the same or almost the same. We call these words cognates. And, listening for cognates is something that will greatly increase your understanding of spoken Spanish. So, in a moment I'm going to say my introduction to this lesson in Spanish one more time. But before I do, let's take a look at some of the words I use in it to see if you can guess what they mean. Let's start with curso introductorio. What do you think that is in English? Introductory course. What about el profesor? Right, the professor. The word importante? Well, that means important. What about Estados Unidos? Well, Estados Unidos is Spanish for United States. Here's a longer phrase: aspectos de las culturas. How would you put that into English? Bravo, if you said aspects of the cultures. Last one: mucho is much, a lot. So you could probably guess a lot of those words. And listening for cognates is one of those important skills that will help make you a successful language learner. In fact, cognates are like those puzzle pieces that you can use to build your proficiency, bit by bit. Now I'm going to say my introduction again. And this time I invite you to read what I'm saying as well. Look for cognates - they're usually easier to spot in written than in spoken Spanish - and listen for cognates as well. My guess is you'll realize there's actually a fair amount you could've understood the first time you heard it, if you were listening with the right approach. Hola. Bienvenidos a este curso introductorio de español. Es un placer estar aquí con ustedes. Me llamo Bill Worden y soy el profesor del curso. Español es una lengua importante no sólo en España y América Latina, sino también en los Estados Unidos. Y en este curso ustedes van a aprender, a entender, hablar, leer y escribir la lengua. También van a conocer aspectos de las culturas de los países donde se habla español. Tenemos mucho trabajo que hacer, así que es hora de empezar. Now take a look at what I was saying in English, as I talk about a few linguistic points related to my introduction. Bienvenidos is welcome, which is a cognate of the French word you may be familiar with, bienvenue. Solo in Spanish can mean only or alone, like the English expression "going solo". Here, no solo means not only. Una lengua is kind of a cognate for a language. Finally, hora means hour or time, so: es hora de empezar means: it's time to begin. OK, now that we've learned a little about the how of learning a language and have begun to put that how into practice, I'd like to talk a bit about Spanish itself, and address some questions you might have as we start this first course in the language. Let me point out that the language you have chosen to study is referred to either as español, or castellano. And castellano is a synonym for español because the language developed in the region of the Iberian Peninsula known as Castilla, or Castile in English. Whenever I meet someone new and explain that I teach Spanish, I most often get one of two responses. Most commonly I hear: I wish I could speak Spanish. It would be so useful to me. The other response I often get is a question, and that question is: Which kind of Spanish do you teach? Do you teach Castilian Spanish from Spain, Mexican Spanish, or some other kind? These two reactions touch on aspects of Spanish that are important to anyone interested in studying the language. So let's spend some time discussing each. Spanish is indeed a very useful language, both because it's spoken in many countries, and because it's becoming more and more important each year, especially in the United States. According to the United Nations, Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world after Mandarin Chinese and English. Roughly half a billion people speak Spanish. And where is it spoken? Well, Spanish is spoken in lots of places. Spanish is spoken on four continents and it's an official language of 20 countries worldwide. It's also one of the official languages, along with English, of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Even beyond Puerto Rico, each year Spanish is being spoken more and more within the mainland United States. According to the latest census data, almost 40 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish at home, which makes up over 12% of the country's population. And that number is growing every year. In fact, the Instituto Cervantes, a governmental organization in Spain that focuses on the Spanish language published a report in 2015, showing that there are more Spanish speakers in the United States than there are in Spain. The abundance of regions where Spanish is spoken, and its increasing presence in the United States, are the reasons that so many people comment to me on the usefulness of Spanish. And, the geographic diversity of the places the language is spoken leads those who meet me to ask: Which kind of Spanish do you teach? Clearly there are regional differences in the way just about any language is spoken. But, many languages are spoken within just one country. Others are spoken in a few neighboring countries. The vast geographical reach of Spanish, however, leads to a great variety of kinds of Spanish spoken around the world. This brings me to the three main differences that distinguish how Spanish is spoken in one place versus another. There are variations in vocabulary, in accent, and in grammar. Differences in vocabulary simply mean that different words are used in different places to refer to the same thing. To say the computer, for example, in Latin America you'd say la computadora, while in Spain it's much more common to say el ordenador. Or someone referring to the bus might say la guagua in Puerto Rico, el camión in Mexico, and el colectivo in Argentina. Now in terms of accent, there are differences between countries, and even between regions within the same country. Perhaps the most notable difference in accent among Spanish speakers relates to the way to pronounce the letter Z and the letter C followed by E or I. In Latin America, the letter Z and the letter combinations CE and CI are pronounced with a S sound, while in northern and central Spain, this is pronounced with a TH sound. So, the number 55, for example, would be cincuenta y cinco in Latin America and thincuenta y thinco in northern and central Spain. Or, to look at another example, people in Madrid pronounce the word shoe as thapato, while that word is pronounced sapato in Latin America. And finally, while there are not many grammatical differences among regions, there are a few, and I'll point out one here. In both Spain and Latin America, the word ustedes is the formal plural way to say you. In Spain there's also an informal plural way to say you, which is vosotros, in the masculine, or vosotras, in the feminine. But vosotros and vosotras are not used in Latin America. Instead, ustedes is used for the plural you in all cases. This specific difference, in fact, is not unlike a regional difference found here in the United States. In most regions of the U.S., the plural form of you is simply you. But, where I live in Alabama, and in neighboring states, it's common for someone to use the word y'all to make an informal plural form of you. Yet this word, though understood in other regions, is not commonly used outside the southern United States. So, do these differences of vocabulary, accent, and grammar lead to great difficulties in communication? Can a Mexican understand a Bolivian? What about a Cuban speaking to a Spaniard? Would they have problems understanding each other? Well, and this is something very important I'd like you to get out of this first lesson: it's all the same language, and that language is Spanish. Yes, there may occasionally be differences in the way it's spoken, but hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers communicate successfully across all the countries where the language is spoken. Speakers of Spanish, even from different regions, understand each other extremely well. You might liken it to an Australian speaking English with someone from Jamaica, or someone from England communicating with someone from Texas. At times there may be challenges, but the language is the same. So let me return to the question of what kind of Spanish I'll be using and teaching in this course. I'm speaking with a Latin American accent and teaching the language in such a way that you will be understood anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world. Let's dive deeper now into this topic of Spanish pronunciation. And the first point I want to make regarding pronunciation is this: Pronouncing words in Spanish is simpler than it is in English. I don't mean to say it's always easy. There are some sounds in Spanish we don't have in English, and those can be difficult at first. But by simple, I mean that when you look at a letter in Spanish, with very rare exceptions you know how to pronounce the sound associated with that letter. That's clearly not the case in English. Let's take a quick example, for instance, let's look at the letter O in English. Think about the words: hot, wrote, oven, who, women. Right there in five words we have five different sounds for the vowel o: aw, oh, uh, oo, e. No wonder English language learners often struggle with pronunciation. One vowel producing a variety of sounds just doesn't happen in Spanish. O in Spanish, for instance, is always o, as in the country Colombia, the number dos, and the city Toledo, o is o. And it's the same with the other vowels. Each one makes just one sound. So let's look at the sounds associated with the five vowels in Spanish. And these are the same vowels we have in English: a, e, i, o, and u. Repeat these Spanish vowel sounds: ah, eh, ee, oh, oo. That's it. The five vowel sounds in Spanish always make those sounds. Let's practice one more time. Repeat: ah, eh, ee, oh, oo. Muy bien. Ah is the easiest sound to make. Here are some Spanish words that include the sound ah. Repeat after me: Casa, España, Málaga, Panamá. Bien. For the other four vowel sounds I want to point out how to say them, and how not to say them. And I'd like you to repeat the correct pronunciations after me. E is, repeat: eh. Again, eh. Bien. It's is not ey, you don't close it off at the end as you often do in English. I is ee. Repeat: ee. It's not iy. O is repeat: oh. Again, oh. Bien. It's not ow. U is repeat: oo. Again, oo. Muy bien. It's not uw. Why do I mention these incorrect ways of pronouncing the vowels? Because sometimes when an English speaker wants to say, for example, "Hello, friend", in Spanish, they say "Hola, amigo". That's not Spanish. No native speaker would say that. What a native speaker would say is "hola, amigo". Say that after me: hola amigo. The difference is the shortening of the vowel sounds, and not closing off the vowel sounds at the end. So the five vowel sounds one last time are, repeat: ah, eh, ee, oh, oo. Bien. Let's practice saying some words with the vowels e, i, o, and u. Repeat after me: Pepe, tener, excelente, ir, índice, inteligente, honor, ojo, horroroso, Uruguay, último, película. Excelente. That's a cognate for excellent. Excelente. Now from basic sounds, let's move to some basic greetings you'll need to know. What I'm about to say are words and expressions you'll be saying all the time. Please repeat after me: Hola. ¿Qué tal? ¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo está usted? ¿Cómo estás? is the informal way to say how are you to someone. ¿Cómo está usted? also asks how are you, but is used with someone you address formally. One more time, repeat after me: ¿Qué tal? ¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo está usted? Now I'm going to introduce myself. Me llamo Bill. Literally, this means I call myself Bill, but the more natural translation is simply, My name is Bill. Now you repeat using your name instead of Bill: Me llamo... One more time: Me llamo... Of course, if your name is Bill, you were saying me llamo Bill. Here are two other ways of introducing yourself: Soy Bill and mi nombre es Bill. Now here are some ways to respond when someone asks you how you are. And we'll move here from what you say when you're feeling great, to what you say when you're having a bad day. Note that the word muy means very. Please repeat: Estoy muy bien. Estoy bien. Regular. Más o menos. No estoy bien. Estoy muy mal. Here are a few more useful greetings. Repeat: Mucho gusto. Encantado. Encantada. Igualmente. Let me point out that Encantado is used by male speakers, and encantada is used by female speakers. Now, repeat these greetings you may be familiar with: Buenos días. Buen día. Buenas tardes. Buenas noches. Finally, let's say goodbye. Repeat after me: Adiós. Chau. Hasta luego. Hasta mañana. Hasta pronto. Nos vemos. That's clearly just a quick start to greetings, but you'll be learning and practicing much more soon. As we get toward the end of this first lesson, I'd like to talk a bit more in detail about this introductory Spanish course. I think there are really three basic ways you could approach this course. One approach you could take is to watch the 30 lectures, but do nothing else. You'll be exposed to lots of grammar, vocabulary, and culture in these 30 lectures. You'll also learn a lot about how to improve your skills in Spanish. So watching the 30 lectures will definitely help you understand and speak more than you do now. If, however, you'd like to make significant progress with your language skills, you'll need to practice what's presented in the lectures. And that leads me to the second way you could take this course, and this is appropriate for students whose goal is to work toward proficiency in Spanish. Beyond just watching the 30 lectures, you'll need to engage with the other course materials. Let me tell you what they are. When you finish a lecture, you should next listen to the audio glossary, which will give you the pronunciation and definition of all new vocabulary words. Then it will be time to practice what you've learned. The Speaking Activities for each lesson are designed to help you improve your listening and speaking skills. And, the workbook exercises will allow you to practice your reading and writing. You can decide if you want to do the speaking activities before or after you do the workbook exercises, but I recommend that you do both of these only after watching the lecture and listening to the audio glossary. So this second approach to the course is to make use of the lectures, audio glossary, speaking activities, and workbook. Using all these course components to help you practice will result in much more development of your Spanish skills than if you only watch the lectures. So what's the third approach to the course? Well, if you're interacting with all the course materials, you'll most definitely improve your Spanish skills. But if in addition, you're able to involve someone else with your studies, even better. Languages are meant for social interaction, so take the course with a friend, or seek out opportunities to speak Spanish with someone who already knows the language. The more contact you have with Spanish, both within the course and beyond it, the better. Early in today's lesson I talked about the usefulness of Spanish. And, though it may seem that Spanish has gained importance in this country only over the last several decades, consider the words that Thomas Jefferson wrote in the year 1787. Jefferson was living in Paris at the time, and in a letter to his nephew, he says the following about the Spanish language. Quote, "Bestow great attention on this, and endeavor to acquire an accurate knowledge of it. Our future connections with Spain and Spanish America will render that language a valuable acquisition." What was true in Jefferson's time remains true today. Spanish is a world language, and its importance now extends beyond borders with other countries to the mainland of the United States itself. So in a very real sense, acquiring this language is a way of broadening your horizons, of becoming more connected to the diverse traditions that are being lived out across oceans and right next door. Yes, it's true, mastering Spanish is a challenge. But a positive attitude helps greatly, as long as you make use of strategies for better understanding the language that I'll be talking about throughout the course. So far, for example, we've discussed the importance of working to understand anything you can, particularly by listening for cognates. Acquiring Spanish is indeed an achievable goal for students of all ages. I'll do my best to make this an enjoyable course for you, so let your study of Spanish be a fun experience. After all, half a billion people are waiting to talk with you. Chau. Nos vemos. Hasta pronto. Hola. Soy Bill Worden. Y yo me llamo Laura Rojas-Arce. Welcome to the audio excercises for Learning Spanish. Each lesson has two segments: an audio glossary, or glosario, and speaking activities, or actividades de conversación. During the audio glossary segment, I will say a word in English, and Laura will provide the Spanish. This will be followed by a pause so that you can repeat what Laura says. The speaking activities will include a variety of exercises that will consolidate the grammar and vocabulary that I teach in each lecture. Just follow the instructions that I provide for each exercise. Empecemos. Glosario Lección 1 Hello. - Hola. How's it going? - ¿Qué tal? How are you? [informal, singular] - ¿Cómo estás? How are you? [formal, singular] - ¿Cómo está usted? How are you? [formal, plural] - ¿ Cómo están ustedes? Fine thanks, and you? [informal, singular] - Bien gracias, ¿Y tú? Fine thanks, and you? [formal, singular] - Bien gracias, ¿Y usted? Fine thanks, and you? [formal, plural] - Bien gracias, ¿Y ustedes? Well. - Bien. I'm well. - Estoy bien. Not well. - Mal. I'm not well. - Estoy mal. So-so. - Regular. So-so. - Más o menos. Not very well. - No muy bien. Good morning. - Buenos días. Good morning. - Buen día. Good afternoon. - Buenas tardes. Good evening. Good night. - Buenas noches. My name is... - Me llamo... I am... - Soy... My name is... - Mi nombre es... What's your name? [informal, singular] - ¿Cómo te llamas? What's your name? [formal, singular] - ¿Cómo se llama usted? Nice to meet you. - Mucho gusto. Pleased to meet you. [speaker masculine] - Encantado. Pleased to meet you. [speaker feminine] - Encantada. It's a pleasure. - Es un placer. Likewise. - Igualmente. Thank you. - Gracias. Very. - Muy. Very well, thank you. - Muy bien, gracias. Just fine. - Bastante bien. Welcome. [plural] - Bienvenidos. Let me introduce you to... [informal, singular] - Te presento a... Let me introduce you to... [formal, singular] - Le presento a... Let me introduce you to... [plural] - Les presento a... Good-bye. - Adiós. Bye. - Chau. See you later. - Hasta luego. See you tomorrow. - Hasta mañana. See you soon. - Hasta pronto. See you. - Nos vemos. Course - el curso United States - los Estados Unidos aspect - el aspecto culture - la cultura language - la lengua Spanish language - el español Spanish language - el castellano Introductory - introductorio Important - importante alone, only - solo Actividades de Conversación Lección 1 Choose the right answer for each greeting. 1.¡Hola! - ¡Hola! a.¡Hola, buenos días! b.¡Muy bien, gracias! c. Adiós The right answer is: a.¡Hola, Buenos días! La respuesta correcta es: a.¡Hola, Buenos días! 2.¡Mucho gusto! - ¡Mucho gusto! a.¡Hola! b. Regular. c. Igualmente. The right answer is: c. Igualmente. La respuesta correcta es: c. Igualmente. 3. ¿Cuál es su nombre? - ¿Cuál es su nombre? a. Mi nombre es Marisa. b. ¿Cómo está? c.¡Bien, gracias! The right answer is: a. Mi nombre es Marisa. La respuesta correcta es: a. Mi nombre es Marisa. c. Bien. ¿Y tú? The right answer is c. Bien. ¿Y tú? La respuesta correcta es c. Bien ¿Y tú? 5. Soy Daniela. - Soy Daniela. a. Me llamo Daniela. b.¡Mucho gusto! c.¡Hasta mañana! The right answer is: b.¡Mucho gusto! La respuesta correcta es: b.¡Mucho gusto! Repeat these vowel sounds. a, e, i, o, u a, e, i, o, u You'll now hear a conversation two times. This first time, just listen. ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal? ¡Muy bien gracias. ¿Y usted? ¡Bien, gracias! Le presento al profesor Solís. Mucho gusto, profesor. Igualmente. Now this time through, repeat what each speaker is saying. ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal? ¡Muy bien gracias. ¿Y usted? ¡Bien, gracias! Le presento al profesor Solís. Mucho gusto, profesor. Igualmente. Now our next conversation. The first time through, just listen. ¡Hola, buenas tardes! ¡Hola, ¿cómo estás? Regular, ¿y tú? Más o menos. Te presento a Adrián. ¡Hola Adrián, encantada! Igualmente. ¡Bueno, nos vemos! ¡Hasta pronto! Now this time through, repeat what each speaker is saying. ¡Hola, buenas tardes! ¡Hola, ¿cómo estás? Regular, ¿y tú? Más o menos. Te presento a Adrián. ¡Hola Adrián, encantada! Igualmente. ¡Bueno, nos vemos! ¡Hasta pronto! Listen to the following words and try to guess the cognate in English. la computadora computer la familia family la universidad university el teléfono telephone la oficina office el momento moment la lección lesson el funeral funeral el animal animal la clase class el color color la explosión explosion