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.

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.