Book Review - La Casa: Short and Easy Spanish Novels

This book caught me by surprise. It is not your regular bland story for beginners. LA Casa: Short & Easy Spanish Novel for Beginners is about a family that finds the perfect house or so they think. The story picks up quickly and I found myself asking the characters (out loud) why they chose to do certain things. I found myself concentrating on the story and not the level of the material. I have to admit that the book was nothing like I expected.

The bi-lingual book is written for people at the A2 level (Advanced beginner) and it has an interesting design. Twenty-one chapters - Ten sentences each chapter - No more than 12 words per line. That was the format.

It was a quick and easy read and I finished it in about 30 to 45 minutes.

Joe Arenas, the author, has written a jewel of a short story here and I think it would a good tool in the quest to retain or increase your level of Spanish.

Me gustó mucho este libro y se lo recomendaría a los principiantes y los lectores intermedios.
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Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

Book Review - Citas en el Restaurante

Citas en el restaurante is a quick and easy read if you are at least an advanced beginner to intermediate reader. The e-book follows the foibles of a guy who enters the dating scene after 6 years of being in a relationship. His method of finding love is through e-dating. As you can guess, he is a mess when it comes to dating and his best foot forward is often his worst.

The chapters are short and easy to digest. The author keeps it interesting by changing the scenes in every chapter. I think this is a great book to help the reader maintain their level of Spanish while also picking up some interesting words and phrases. I enjoyed reading it and it took me only 2 days to finish it by periodically reading a chapter when I had a bit of free time. 

The book is one of a series of e-books created by Jorge from thatspanish.com. I could not find a last name for the author and I think he meant it to be that way. Anyway, it is free if you are with Kindle Unlimited ($9.99 for unlimited number of books each month that are registered with Amazon's KU program). Or, it costs $1.69, if not enrolled in the KU program.

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Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

Inspiring Spanish Learners - No. 1

While learning Spanish, many have inspired me to continue when I have felt my worst. When I need motivation, I often look for videos of people who have succeeded or that teach in a way that makes me want to believe my goals are possible. This will be one of a series of posts that highlight these individuals as they deserve much attention for their work.

1. Nathan Heightz

Nathan is a passionate learner of languages and when he focuses on a language it has nowhere to hide but in his brain. Watching this guy's growth in languages was amazing and he offers many good tips on how to process languages. Here are a few of his other videos that are inspiring or helpful to language learners.

My Spanish speaking progress: 6 months
How To Learn Spanish Fast (In 6 months or Less!)
My Spanish speaking progress: 7 months
My Spanish speaking progress: 8 months
Me speaking after 1 year of intense study

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Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

FluentU - Powering up my Listening Skills (and my ability to read, write...)

               

¿Que estoy haciendo ahora?/What am I doing now?

Even though I am always all over the map in my Spanish adventure, there is always one thing I am focusing on for an extended period of time. For now, that is using FluentU for listening comprehension.

FluentU is probably one of the best services that can be used to learn Spanish. Sometimes, I wonder how long the service will last because it is so valuable. It covers listening, reading and writing. If you desire, you can add a an aspect of speaking by reading aloud. In short, they offer the learner short video clips of all types and they provide:

Advanced bi-lateral subtitles
Dialogue (line by line)
Definitions for words (that you place the arrow over)
Interactive questions for reinforcement
PDF transcripts

You see, hear, read and experience the learning process in a totally different way than you are used to. They also offer videos ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. Pick your medicine.

They offer different tracts for the beginner, intermediate and advanced learners. It also predicts how much you will know of the vocabulary that is new in the video. It keeps track of what you learn so it can forecast what you will know as you advance and it allows you to master videos. Or if you just want to watch videos in another language then you can choose between ¨Learn¨ or ¨Watch¨

When I have free time I just go through the list of videos (Upper Intermediate for now). I watch it first and see how much I know. Then I go through the dialogue page. Next, I watch the video again and maybe once more. After that I go to the next video. When I want to be more thorough I will choose ¨Learn¨ and spend a few minutes going in depth.

There is no better feeling than watching a video after reviewing the dialogue and the person speaking Spanish seems like they are using English.

I pay $18 a month for there Premium version and I am grandfathered in (until they change the policy of course). They do have a free version which will provide many features that allows it to still be very useful. I like watching videos so it is a painless way of learning and no drudgery is involved.

¡Paz!
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Si tienes tiempo, visita el sitio. Me lo puedes agradecer después.


Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

Pato muy hambrienta - A very hungry duck - Kindle Unlimited

Okay, I read this book by using the Kindle Unlimited program (KU) through Amazon. For $9.99 a month I can read as many books as I want on my Kindle and devices that have Kindle apps. You can check out ten books at a time and can exchange them as often or as much as you would like. Also, Amazon has a general fund that they use to pay the authors or publishers so all parties profit.

For now, I only spend money on children's books in Spanish if they are classic fairy tales, such as Peter Pan or Jack and the Beanstalk. However, with the Kindle Unlimited program I can read as many books in Spanish that I can stand.

Pato Muy Hambrienta is a simple book that introduces or reinforces many simple words for pieces of furniture, fruit and animals. The easy sentences and structure will help to build sentence making ability and to learn easy phrases. The repetitive nature of the book will ensure that the reader will take away valuable skills for the future.

It is a cute book for beginning Spanish learners and can be shared with a child learning the language. It is not a bilingual book, but you can easily look up anything you don't know and will not be slowed down too much, as it is a short book. It is a good book for learning and will give beginners a sense of accomplishment for reading a book.

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Agradezco que la lectura de mi blog. Hasta la próxima vez.



Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

Easy to learn Spanish Nursery Rhymes - Book: Tortillitas para Mama

This is a really cool book! Many bilingual books for kids go off the rails with the translations, but the Spanish closely mirrors the English. I bought this book to read to my daughter as well as to satisfy my constant quest to find new material.

The rhymes in this book capture the essence of life and the relationships shared between parents and children. Plus, there are also some general rhymes that could easily be applied to regular life. There will not be any Humpty Dumpty type nursery rhymes here. "Not that there is anything wrong with that!" - Seinfeld

In all, there are a total of 16 nursery rhymes and they are really sweet. I read this book in 20 minutes. Depending upon your level, it will probably not take you that long. However, I tried to memorize some of the nursery rhymes, which slowed me down a bit.

It is a good thing I read it as soon as I bought it, because when my daughter saw it she wanted me to read it right away. (I always read books first before reading to her because I do not want to have to stumble over the Spanish or skip over words I do not know.)

Also, the illustrations (by Barbara Cooney) are very well done and convey a sense of culture. I would recommend this book for any level of learner.

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Este libro es un excelente manera para practicar su español. También se proporcionará rimas fáciles de aprender.


Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

I Need to Talk! - ¡Yo Necessito Hablar!

Estoy muy frustrado. Necesito hablar con alguien. Estoy aprendiendo español, pero gran parte del lenguaje está en mi cabeza. Tuve un tutor en el año pasado y hablamos dos veces por semana. Sin embargo, no más. No es suficiente para hablar con el aire. Tal vez voy a encontrar un tutor de nuevo.

Excuse my Spanish.

I had to get that out. Spanish is swimming around in every direction in my brain. Input, input and more input. However, I am not doing enough in terms of output. I found that the online classes were great at first, however, there is too much sitting around and waiting to be chosen. I have quickly lost the urge to attend an hour session and get a chance to say something 3 to 5 times during that time.

In the meet ups that I attend (two different groups), the first 40 minutes is spent by the leaders trying to decide what to do. As a college professor, I have to resist the urge to take charge and get things started. I resist because I am a novice at Spanish and because I don't have the dedication they have to maintaining and running a group.

The last tutor I tried to get missed three appointments in a row and I just continued to study on my own after that. I should have looked for someone else, immediately, but I didn't.

Yeah, I am going to find another tutor.

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Gracias, por leer!
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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.

SaySomethingin Spanish - My Glowing Review! - I do not know the owner/nor was I paid!

Okay, I finished level one of SaySomethingin Spanish (25 lessons about 20 to 30 minutes each) in about a week and here is my assessment;

Fantastic!

In the past 8 months I have completed and reviewed, a few times, listen and repeat programs, have read over 100 children's books, have read over 200 news articles and a few Spanish texts. (Yes, I count everything and my wife calls me Numbers - No Joke!). I am currently slogging my way through Pimsluer (level B). So, I have exposed myself to a lot of different programs and I have put in the time to finish them. As you can guess, I didn't know if this program would help me.

I was presently surprised!

SaySomethingin Spanish helped me fill in the gaps immediately that I have been missing in other programs. I liked the fact that the material takes you into deep water quickly, but not in a way that overwhelms you. I knew a majority of the words already, however, the construction, placements and usage is what I valued most as I can plug and mix and match later. After the very first lesson I could feel my fluency increase, immediately.

It was that simple. Additionally, the 2x the speed listening sessions for each fifth session is revolutionary. Especially, since a few programs that offer sped up listening, charges for them as a different course and don't include it as a part of training for the actual course they offer. After the 10th listening session I went back to the fifth lesson and it felt as if I could literally grab words out of the air. Each time I listen to them, Spanish I hear spoken elsewhere seems much slower and I like that! After lesson twenty, one of the podcasts I listen to at its intermediate level felt like listening to 'paint dry.' I had to turn it off and jump to the advance podcasts because I didn't have the patience to wait for them to talk so slow. I can't wait to hear 3x speed!

Bravo SaySomethingin!!

Now, I do not know how a raw beginner would fare because I had a strong background coming in. However, I do know that if you have some basic training this course will be perfect for you. I plan to go back over the 25 lessons again in the next two weeks to sear the speaking style it uses into my brain and will be adding it to my regular rotation over the next few months for a refresher.

A few more points:

-I appreciated the length of the pauses that allows you to think about the answer. Many programs do not give you enough of a chance to think and I believe that does the learner a disservice.
-I liked the use of spaced repetition.
-I liked the use of two different speakers (saying it slightly differently).
-Each lesson builds on the next and he encourages you to move forward and not repeat.
-I liked the fact that he encouraged me along the way and let me know I was headed into advanced territory, but would be okay.
-I don't feel marketed to and I feel that I received a fair trade.
-You don't get insulted with material that is too easy...
-I liked the cost ($13.27 equivalent of 9 British Sterling Pounds).
-Oh yeah, I liked the book (H.I.L.T.), which introduced me to the course (free Kindle Unlimited/.99 cents otherwise).

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Nos vemos el 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.

Karaoke and Learning Spanish - Karoake and Aprendiendo Español

Last year while scouring Youtube for language learning videos, I bumped into this guy, ConcentrationReborn, who helped alter my approach to language. He said he learned how to speak Spanish the hard way, but for his new language, Vietnamese, he learned through Karaoke. He said that after 6 months of Karaoke he had no problems reading, speaking and having conversations in Vietnamese. To verify his claims, he recorded himself singing in a Karaoke bar and read a tome of a book in Vietnamese. Although to me it might have well have been Martian.

In his video, Fluency Training, he demonstrated with a German song how he primed himself by listening and singing along with the lyrics to be ready to learn German when he was ready. He then demonstrated with a Spanish song Mitad y Mitad (Half and Half). The song was catchy and I was hooked. I don't believe he provided the title so I captured some of the lyrics and found the song on Youtube (YT). For the next two days I practiced singing that and a couple of other songs that I found on YT.

My wife, who loves, loves, loves Karaoke even tried to chime in on the songs and was surprised at my sudden interest in Karaoke when I always avoided her when she was in her Karaoke mood at the house. The guy was right! I learned a few things immediately about how certain words were combined and how certain letters are dropped. I then went to LyricTraining and found a couple of songs to practice and spent another two days immersed in mastering those songs. Over the next couple of months I periodically revisited those songs. Later that year when we celebrated Christmas and everyone came over to our house, my wife pulled out her Karaoke mic stand, fired up the projector and everybody started singing Karaoke.

Now, my family had been hearing for a few months that I had started to learn Spanish and I think they treated it just like everything else people tell them about something that's really hard. They will believe it when they see it. Well, when I was asked to sing, I casually said to my wife, "Why don't you pull up Mitad y Mitad. The music started playing and I sung like I was in a Mariachi band. Eyes widened, I heard a gasp, people started smiling and I heard someone say, "I knew you said he was learning Spanish, but he learned it for real!"

Recently, when my mother-in-law (suegra) visited, I sang it again. Only this time, I had a couple more months of intense practice behind me. She was amazed as well and also made a comment that she didn't know I could speak Spanish so well. I didn't intend for my practice of Karaoke to learn language to become a party trick, but it has. It also showed me that it seems many people don't take people seriously when they say they want to learn another language. However, more than anything else, it has become a tool in my language belt. I like variety so I will not Karaoke for six months straight, but it is in my rotation of activities to keep things fresh and interesting.

Also, after listening to Spanish songs, especially fast ones, spoken Spanish always seems slower to me. Even if the effect is temporary.

Oh yeah, if you do go listen to Mitad y Mitad, make sure to come back and thank me for introducing you to one of the coolest songs ever!!

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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.

Luego! Luego!

Okay, a cute story. As I have been learning Spanish I have been teaching my daughter as well. She was close to 2 years old when I began and is now 2 1/2. I began by learning commands or small phrases I said in English and then started saying them to her in Spanish.

For instance:

Put that in the trash.  -  Punlo en la basura.
It is time to change your diaper. - Es tiempo de cambiar su pañal.
Let's go upstairs - Vamos a subir las escaleras.

Now, granted, this was the blind leading the blind in language learning and I am sure at times (if not all the time) I was probably not saying things the way that native Spanish speakers say them, but those phrases came up when I used my translating apps.

My daughter, started following my commands and seemed to begin to understand some of the things I would say to her from the beginning, but she never answered or would say things back to me in Spanish. For example, if I said, "zapato," she would often reply with, "shoe." I began to get frustrated as this had been going on for months.

However, a couple of weeks ago, when she was leaving our bedroom to go find her mother in one of the other rooms, she said bye to me like the dozens of times she does throughout the day. I had been saying adios to her for months with no luck. So this time, I said, "Hasta luego!" -- A slight pause occurred then I heard, "Luego." She then turned her head back to me and waved.

I was stunned and excited at the same time!

When she coupled the wave with the word, luego, it seemed she grasped the concept immediately. But I said it again to make sure. "Hasta Luego."

"Luego," was her response.

That was her first word in Spanish and I could not stop grinning. That night, my wife told me that she was proud of me. She said she had been noticing how much I had been trying to work with her and she was glad that I stuck it out. That made me feel good.

So for the past couple of weeks, my daughter and I have traded goodbyes and luegos. She even said it to both of her grandmothers (with a little urging from me, of course).

I can see now that her learning Spanish is going to happen.

Why?

Porque because! - (Shout out to Bill Santiago!)

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Hay que tratar, para ganar. - Me

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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.

Two new books just arrived! - ¡Dos libros acaba de llegar!

Okay, two books have just arrived that I have been anticipating! While searching on Amazon for libros en español to read earlier this week, I found this little book by Alan Galán titled, ¡Qué Cosas Dice Mi Abuela! (The Things my Grandmother Says!) No, it isn't a profanity laced diatribe like the book,  S#@% my Father Says. This book is for children aged 4-8 or pre-k to 3rd grade and it has words of wisdom for little tykes learning to read.

However, that is not why I bought the book. I bought it, because, when I read the first couple of pages the words flew off the pages and I understood them in a way that made me feel good. I understood most of it, but the parts I didn't understand was written in a way that I could guess easily what I missed. I have read over 100 children's books and not every writer is capable of doing this, so I got excited. It has a solid paragraph on every page and yes, I will probably finish it 5 or 10 minutes. But, I reinforce my ability to read in all types of ways so I don't view this as a bad investment ($2.99).

Finding this gem of a book made me hungry for more so I searched for every book Alan Galán has ever written and I came across this book Mondragó: La gran prueba, Libro 1. It's about a little boy who gets a dragon for his birthday and runs into a whole lot of trouble afterward.

Now this book is 142 pages and is written for juveniles or could be considered YA. I have scrupulously avoided books like these because I have been gradually trying to build my reading skills up by taking baby steps. But this guy's writing style translates well to his YA books too. I found that I could easily understand the part that I sampled on Amazon so I figure I will not have a problem for the rest. I abhor having to continuously check the dictionary or having to always resort to a contextual understanding. I like to fully grasp what I am reading.

This is a new challenge for me, but I need to start reading denser books, especially since I am going to be tackling a John Grisham novel this summer. I am up to the task though, as I read Spanish articles and study Spanish everyday.

It's time to crack them open and see what's happening!


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Gracias por leyendo este. Nos vemos en mi próximo entrada!
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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.

I can read! - Puedo leer!

This weekend, my wife and I went to the movies to see the Wedding Ringer at the local mall. We had some time on our hands before the movie, so we stopped by the Books-A-Million. My behavior was noticeably different this time. Usually, I make a beeline to the Language section and start searching for Spanish books to study. This time I looked for the Libros in Espanol.

I skipped over the children's books and instead started to look at the novels. One of the first ones I picked up was a John Grisham novel. Lo and behold, I could understand most of it without any problems. I would venture 80 percent. I want a smooth read so I will not start reading books like this yet, however, I was more than happy that I could read a book like that. I predict that at my current rate of learning I should be able to read books like this in about 4 months. I am also close to being able to read regular news articles without out having to constantly look up words and terms. I figure I will be able to have no problems with that by August.

This is a major breakthrough for me as I having been working non-stop on learning to read Spanish (and in other aspects to).

After learning that I was almost novel ready I went to the Spanish section. I ended up buying Ingles para Conversar. Why would I buy a book written in Spanish that teaches English? Well, this book is amazing! It uses Spanish to explain American terminologies, sayings and expressions. It also tells you how to say something in many different ways. I find that most Spanish instruction books in English only teaches you one way at a time. I love the fact that this book tells you five different ways to say something and I learn the natural way of saying it in Spanish as well. It is also full of pictures, conversations and doesn't use the standard word lists that bore me to tears. Also, there are no, "Where is the bathroom?" type stuff. It is realistic.

Anyway, I am ripping my way through the book.
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Gracias para visitando mi blog. Hasta pronto!
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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.

Verbling! First Spanish Class online - and I took no prisoners!!!

Okay, it has been two months since I have posted to this blog. In that time I have done so much with my Spanish training that I am getting tired just thinking about it. Yet, that will have to wait for future posts and I will just start with my present adventures.


Yesterday, I had my first online Spanish lesson. After months of looking at the Verbling website, which offers language classes and tutors 24-7, I finally decided to try it out. They have two major plans. You can choose 10 classes a month for $19 monthly or you can pick the unlimited plan for $49 a month. I chose the $19 plan. As I have to carefully carve out time for something like this due to work, a wife and a two year old, 10 classes a month is more than enough for me.

I signed up for a class at 7AM and the theme would be Jeopardy. In Verbling you can have up to 9 students in a class and they use Google hangout to run them. In the classes that I watched on Youtube before signing up there were usually four or five people in each class and mine ended up being no different. There were four of us that showed up at the beginning and another guy popped in 20 minutes later.

The instructor seemed easy going and had an air of experience about him. Since it was a beginner class, he used both English and Spanish. After the intros he explained the rules of the game and the categories. Some of the categories were - tener - saber vs. conocer - ir...

To be brief, I ended up winning the game. Now, I didn't go in with the intention of winning, but when it became apparent that I could win I did everything in my power to do so. I also learned a few things such as I need to brush up on saber and conocer. Overall, it was a good experience. I was able to speak a little Spanish, hear it spoken live and interact with a native speaker. Even though in the past two months I have had quite a few conversations in Spanish (I will tell you how I managed that in future posts.), each time it feels as if I am new to the battlefield. I have to remember to relax more when first engaging with native speakers.

Verbling seems like a great tool and they offer many classes throughout the day so I will be able to use it to my advantage. I was wary of doing the Google Hangout thing, but it felt natural and I was comfortable. I already have my next class picked out so I am looking forward to it.

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Ha sido un tiempo, pero todo es bueno. No noticias es bueno noticias!

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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.

Spanish Workshop! - "You've Gotten Much Better!"

Okay, I attended my third Spanish workshop this weekend. It is the third one in two months. Nothing says dedication like attending a workshop. Two hours of working on a foreign language is hardcore!

The regulars were in attendance (15 in total) and they seem to be a serious group of characters all motivated to learn, maintain or share their knowledge. People seem to come from all backgrounds and I have seen people from 10 to 70 years old.

We started off by introducing ourselves and sharing why we were learning Spanish (en espanol). Then we had readings followed by questions (all in Spanish). Following that, we all had to answer a question about how we celebrated holidays and what countries we have traveled to.

Highlights: I engaged the instructor in a conversation and didn't bail when I felt a little nervous. I asked him about his job and he asked me about mine. He was drawn away, first, by someone who came up to him.

That's what I'm talking about!

When I read out loud, today, it was was much smoother than last time. (I have a new issue though. I have to reconstruct my voice to sound natural. Since I mimic the instructors on audio, my voice sounds like a radio announcer when I read.)

Also, a guy who I saw a month ago told me three times how much I had improved.

Three times!

I shared with him that I had been reading children's books and studying an audio course since I last saw him. I didn't share that I had probably completed two semesters of college level work in the past 30 days. It is a wonderful thing to be able to study as much as I have and have the passion to continue (even when frustrated).

Low points: When we introduced ourselves and on one of the questions, instead of just talking and using the language as I know how, I focused too much on not making any mistakes. I felt like a newbie both times.


Overall, it was a very solid day.

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Hoy, fue un dia de buen desarollo. Estoy agradecido!

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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.

Dealing with Insults (Que hacer con los insultos)

The title of this post is also the name of one of the books I just finished. It is one of a series of books for kids aged 8-12 that deals with issues many kids face, but may have never received advice on how to deal with them.

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.

A commute is good for one thing...

Man, I hate my commute!

It is 45 minutes at best and usually, it is 1 hr and 15 minutes w/traffic at its worst. There is only one thing that I can hang on to in order to stay sane and it is listening to my Spanish CDs. I practically seared the Berlitz Passport Spanish into my brain by listening to all 12 tracks every day for three weeks. I play Vocabulearn CDs until I can barely think in English. I keep my Assimil tracks on repeat.

It is that serious!

I am a professor, so I look at everything in four month increments. I expect my Spanish to be vastly improved by the end of the fall semester due to my commute listening habits. Further, I will admit that my listening habit decreases when the weekend starts. It's hard to stick to audio media when I can watch TV or read a book.

I know I would not have listened to the Berlitz Passport CD as much in my house. So thanks to my commute I can now rattle off phrases such as:

Hola. Quisiera pedir desayuno por favor. Quisiera cafe con leche y azucar, huevo rancheros, sin picante, pan dulce con mantequilla y jugo de naranjo por favor.

I have most of those phrases from that CD locked and loaded.

I will not let my commutes be in vain!


La tortuga gana porque el sigue caminando.

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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.

Weekend of Espanol - A Tally!

A perk of my job is that I do not have to work on Fridays. So my weekend begins Friday (or Thursday afternoon). That means I have plenty of time to work on my Spanish. Of course, that is when I am not watching our two year old, taking care of our lawn/house, running errands...

That aside, here is what I accomplished this weekend:

5 lessons in Spanish text and audio (Spanish)
2 children's books (read)
2 comics strips in Spanish (read)
3 episodes of a novella* (watched)
Watched an episode of UFC Latin America (en Espanol)
Viewed 3 episodes of a Spanish podcast (4 minutes each)
*Started a new blog about my Spanish journey - Habermelo Dicho!

I was a little bummed out about my progress this weekend until I realized that I accomplished quite a bit.

Y que tenga un buen dia!
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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.

E-bay Spanish

My wife is going to be irritated with me!

Since I re-started my Spanish journey, I have always checked out children's books from the library. I didn't feel like paying $3.99 to $8.00 for books that I would probably finish in 10 to 30 minutes. Plus, with my goal of reading 100 children's books in Spanish, that would easily mean hundreds of dollars.

However, this past weekend, I decided to look for some Spanish products on e-bay and lo and behold, I bumped into cartloads of children's books. Let me get to the point, I bought 85 Spanish books for kids for $35 and $6 shipping and handling. The books are for kids aged 8 to 12 and are perfect for me. They cover a range of subjects, ranging from Henry Ford, Ghandi, astronauts, The Trail of Tears, etc., etc.

So not only will I be able to read, I will also learn or refresh my memories on a few things as well.

Now, I have to find out where I am going to put 85 books.


Yo soy feliz que tengo la capacidad de comprar libros y utilizar el Internet.

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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.

31st Book - Cuenta Ratones (First Post!)

I just finished reading my 31st children's book in Spanish! The book is titled, Cuenta Ratones. It is about a snake, mice, a glass jar and incomprehensible greed.There were about 1.5 long sentences per page and I didn't have to look up too many words to complete the book. I read it twice because it was relatively short. The new words I picked up this time are:

frasco - glass jar
hallar - to find
volcaron - (they) overturned - from volcar - to tip over

I want to become a MONSTER when it comes to reading Spanish books for kids and I am well on my way.

My goal is to read 100 books (50 before the Dec 24th).

Why? Well, sometimes the best way to start is from the beginning. I realized that after studying Spanish at the university (FSU), and off and on for years, that I never read a proper book in Spanish. I just studied textbooks and books solely about Spanish. Furthermore, I never, ever completed any of them. (More about that later).

Therefore, I had a lot of holes in my game when it came to reading Spanish. I used to get really frustrated whenever I came across a piece of Spanish literature and would be easily stumped. It didn't matter if it was a Jehovah's witness magazine left on a park bench in Spanish or the back of a cereal box, I had a lot of problems when it came to reading the language. Reading children's books has helped me turn that problem around and on its head. (I also do a lot of other things.)

Also, this weekend I did something that is going to take my Spanish training to the next level. My wife is going to be seriously irritated! I will talk about that in my next blog.

Gracias a todos para visitando mi blog!


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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.