Enrollment for XKI Spanish

[MinnaCaroline]

Post here to sign up for Spanish taught by Professor San Juan Capital.

[Sinn Féin's Ireland]

Yep. Right here.

[Girlsandboys]

signing up, can't wait! However, unfortunately I will unable to attend classes from July 17th-Aug.15th

[San Juan Capital]

Oh, that's allright... Uhm... should I advertise this class around the Community?

[MinnaCaroline]

You are more than welcome to.

[San Juan Capital]

Ok... in any case, Class shall begin officially in August, although here I will tell of the basics of the class:

The Spanish Language is not an easy language to teach due to its presence in more than 23 nations (officially, that is...). And I say this, for every country has its own way of speaking it, which might be confusing to a person not used to speak the language.

Spanish (or Castilian) is divided in 2 major regions of Iberoamerica: Spain and Latin America. The major differences are mostly due the pronunciation of the /z/, /c/, and /s/, although differences in the pronunciation of letters like /y/, /ll/, /r/, /l/, etc... exist.


Now those are the two MAJOR areas of the Spanish language, but Spanish is divided in 8 phonetic regions, which are subdivided in almost 1 sub-region by each country... This is really academical, but that's how it's divided...

For example, I speak the Puerto Rican Spanish (in Spanish Habla puertorriqueña, must not be confused with Lengua; Lenguaje; or the verb Hablar). Puerto Rican Spanish is a variant of the Caribbean region Spanish (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Northern Venezuela, Yucatan Peninsula area, sections of Central America.)
Now, which countries speak Spanish in the world, you may ask yourself then. Well, first, the native speakers are between the 322 and 400 million people, making it the most spoken Romance language, and the second most spoken language by number of native speakers. The combined numbers of the native and non-native Spanish speakers is some 500 million people, making it the fourth most spoken language by total of speakers. The nations/territories that speak it are Andorra, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, El Salvador, Gibraltar, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Spain, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela. [/i]

This map of the Spanish Speaking World ought to make it simple:



It is also an official language of the United Nations Organisation; the European Union; Mercosur; and the Organisation of American States

[Positener]

I have tried several times to learn Spanish and each time I think I get a little more. I would love to try again with you.

[55 Nations]

I think I could help teach Spanish, just a Assistant, the Professor, will lead. I took spanish (i'm 13) and i took it in my eletives. I know from alapet, #'s, holiday, months, heritage, and etc. I am really busy in the Summer Time, so i will do my best to help you San Juan Capital! If you would like a assistant. Thanks

[55 Nations]

Hello! I am the assistant to Professor San Juan Capital, and I will be his aid this semester. I will help All I can, to make sure, are these the following students signed up?

Students:
Sinn
Girlsandboys
Positener

If you want to be added please post here! Thanks

[55 Nations]

Hello! I am the assistant to Professor San Juan Capital, and I will be his aid this semester. I will help All I can, to make sure, are these the following students signed up?

Students:
Sinn
Girlsandboys
Positener

Firstly I would like to thank all members joining this class! And I hope you will all be tought well! What will be the first lessons San Juan?

[San Juan Capital]

Uhm, yeah... uhm... tomorrow we shall begin with the alphabet and the pronunctiation of the language.

[San Juan Capital]

(that's for tomorrow... after that basic thing, I shall give ya the Syllabus...)

[San Juan Capital]

Hola a todos, soy el professor de la clase de español de la Universidad de la región de las 10.000 Islas. En el período que transcurrirá por los próximos meses, he de impartirles el que es la segunda lengua más hablada de los idiomas occidentales.

For the beginning of the class, I will give you the Spanish Alphabet with its sounds and variants. However I will only use my variant [for it’s the one I can teach in]. (Don’t worry, differences are small).
Special and Altered Letters of the Spanish Alphabet :
Acute accent letters: Á á, É é, Í í, Ó ó, Ú ú. (Ý ý) *
Diaeresis letters: Ü ü, (Ï ï)*
*means that these alterations exist, though are rarely used (like ï is used in poetry) or are archaisms (like ý).
Alfabeto Español

A a (a as in cat) Name: a

B b (b as in boat) Name: be

C c (c as in cat when it’s before a vowel a, o or u) Name: ce [‘se’ or ‘θe’]

LATIN AMERICAN - (c as in caesura when before vowels e or i.)
SPAIN – (c similar to English th or Greek θ)

Ch ch – (like sh, but with an almost silent t before it: tchocolate) Name: che .
ISSUE- CH and LL are digraphs and letters with unique sounds, and are equal to other letters of the Alphabet since 1803. The Royal Spanish Academy also tells in the 22nd Edition (2001) in its Ortographic sections that their writing is ‘inseparable’.

D d (d as in digit). Name: de

E e (e as in tell): Name: e

F f (f is the English f or ph. Ph was eliminated as a digraph from Spanish in the 1700s). Name: efe .

G g (g, like c, before vowels a, u, o is strong, like English get.)
LATIN AMERICA (g, before vowels e and i becomes like the English /h/)
SPAIN- (g, before vowels e and i becomes more rough sound than the /h/, like some parts of German ch in [nacht].
(g before the letter ü becomes a equivalent to the English w).

H h (h mostly does not have sound. That is the official Spanish rule. However, in rare cases it is attached of sound under certain circumstances, mostly like a Latin American /j/. The other way of /h/ having sound is after letter /c/, becoming a /ch/.) Name: hache .

I i (i, like in it). Names: i; i de punto; i latina .

J j (j sounds in Latin America similar to the English /h/, whereas in Spain it sounds more like the ancient /x/, that is, a rougher sound than the English /h/.) Name: jota (hota).

K k (rarely used in Spanish, it’s very similar to the sound of the /c/ before the a, e and o.) Name: ka .

L l (like English /l/ or /ll/) Name: ele .

Ll ll (near the English j, as in just.) Name: elle .

M m (like English m) Name: eme .

N n (like English n) Name: ene .

Ñ ñ (the symbol of the language… it’s not that hard: try to make the sound like ‘canyon’ [from Spanish: cañón], and then the ‘ny’ or ‘ni’ sound transform it into a nasal sound. For Italians and French people, it’s just the same as ‘gn’, for Portuguese people, it’s like a ‘nh’ sound. For Catalonians, it’s a ‘ny’ sound.) Name: eñe .

O o (o like in rock) Name: o .

P p (strong p, like in English, maybe a bit stronger.) Name: pe .

Q q (it’s the sound of the Spanish ‘ka’. It will normally be written ‘qu-’. Like: ¿Qué? (ké?) [what?]). Name: cu .

R r (a strong r, like the Russian or Japanese one) Name: ere

[Rr rr] (This digraph is an alveolar sound of r, that is, stronger than the normal r. Its sound also is in the words that start with /r/, like rápido.)

PUERTO RICAN SPANISH – the strong r [rr] is many times like the Spain sound for the j (rough), like the Hebrew ‘ch’ maybe…

S s (it’s the sound of the English s, with exceptions.) Name : ese
Exceptions: in Spain, certain parts spell the /s/ like the c or z, a phenomenon called ‘ceceo’. In other parts of Spain, the /s/ is spelled almost like a /sh/.
The /S/ sound is used in southern Spain, and most of Latin America as the sound of the letters /s/, /c/, and /z/.

T t (it’s 't̪e̞ according the International Phonetic Alphabet, pronounced like the letter /t/ of other Romance languages, almost like the one of English, although the sound is sharper and stronger.) Name: te .

Do not confuse with the word ‘té’, which is stressed and means ‘tea’.
U u (it’s the sound of the English double letter sound /oo/) Name: U.
V v (originally it was a unilabial sound, but it has become identical to the sound of the /b/). Name: Uve, Ve.

W w (It’s not really part of the Spanish natural alphabet. It’s of variable pronunctiation, depending of the language of origin of the word: if it comes from the German or German-like languages, it’s spelled like /v/. If it comes from the English language it sounds like the English /w/. The latter can be also written as /gü-/ or /gu-/ depending of the vowels that become afterwards.) Name : Doble U, Doble Ve, Uve Doble

X x (it’s also of variable pronunctiation: it retains the antique pronunctiation of a Spanish /j/ like sound [like English /h/] in most of Latin America, like in the word [México], pronounced like ‘Mé-hi-ko’ or the ancient spelling of Don Quijote [Don Quixote]. It also is spelled like ‘tch’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’ in Mesoamerica, mostly Mexico, and it’s mostly on náhuatl words, which are abundant in Mexico. It is also spelled like an ‘s’, and the original Latin ‘x’, or the sound ‘ks’.)
Name: equis

Y y (originally a vowel, it has a variable pronunctiation, mostly being like /ll/ and sometimes it’s softened to a more /i/ like sound. In Argentina and the near areas, the Y and the LL have a distinctive almost /ch/ like sound). Name: i griega, ye

Z z (like C, it has two major pronunctiations: the /s/ and the /θ/, depending on your region. The first one is the dominant pronunctiation of Latin America, Canary Islands, and Andalusia). Name : zeta, zeda, ceta, ceda

[San Juan Capital]

This is a pretty important part of the language, pronunciation.
Ahora, de tarea, quiero que todos se saluden mutuamente en español
(Now, as homework, I want all of you to introduce to each other and me in Spanish)

How to? Well, that's what follows:

Normal way to introduce yourself:

Hola, me llamo (nombre aquí)

Literally:

Hello, I am named (name here).

Really Means:

Hello, my name is (name here).