I must admit that I didn't agree with all of the advice. I learned early that to respond to an insult with a clever comeback usually kept people at bay and some rivalries developed into friendships. Of course, that approach is not suitable for all occasions, but it saved me a lot of grief when I finally learned how to deliver a proper comeback.
However, placing my personal feelings aside, I loved the structure of the book and the writing. The book was 22 pages long and it had English on the top and Spanish at the bottom. The paragraphs averaged 7 lines of text per page. I read most of the book without having to refer to the English portion, however, there were a good number of words that were new, such as:
herir - to hurt
autoestima - self-esteem
lidiar - deal (Una buena forma de lidiar...)
lastimar - to hurt
fastidiarse - annoy
bravucon - bully
One thing is bothering me though. Increasingly, reading is becoming easier. The messages are becoming clearer. Yet, I know that a lot of it is due to context (pictures - clues from the entire sentence, etc.) and not necessarily my knowledge of words, grammar or syntax. It is eating me up, a little, that my ability to understand may encourage me to think I know more than I think I know.
I am reading increasingly difficult texts, however, I often wonder if someone who has never studied Spanish (and is native to English) could read the same material with no problems. I know better, but sometimes it is amazing how fast I am picking up the ability to decipher, read and understand text.
Agradezco que hacer tiempo a leer este. Hasta proximo tiempo!
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Bakari Akil is a Professor of Communication, blogs for Psychology Today and has authored many books on Communication and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is his experience learning Spanish.
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