This Will Make You Understand The Path To Speaking Spanish

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Heidi

The new year has begun and with that, we have set some personal goals and we have a fairly clear path to Pueblo Español. As we confessed earlier, Alan and I need to step it up a notch when it comes to speaking Spanish. We shared all of our rational and excuses as to why we aren’t better Spanish speakers, but it needs to stop! We have an opportunity to work with Pueblo Español this year and we don’t want to mess that up! Just a reminder, we need to be at least intermediate level with our Spanish, in order to attend Pueblo Español.

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What Happened To Speaking Spanish? Expat Confessions

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Heidi

It’s 2am, the bar is closing down and the young female manager has walked the last patron out the door. She walks to the back of the restaurant and lets in the cleaning crew. The crew consists of 4 cleaners from Mexico and they don’t speak a word of English, the manager doesn’t speak any Spanish. This is a daily routine and over time they learn to communicate. Through spending a little time playing charades, she was able to get them to understand, and after several weeks, the communication became a mix of charades and Spanish words. This was her first taste of speaking Spanish. Ah, the beauty of learning new things.

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A Novel Way to Learn a Foreign Language Online

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Alan Wagoner

As a person who has tried learning a foreign language, it can be tough and slow-going. There are a lot of different courses out there, but I’ve recently been exposed to a new offering called FluentU. FluentU really provides a novel way to learn a foreign language online.

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Education in our Spanish Public School – Tutoring

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Heidi

I know you have loads of questions about Education in our Spanish Public School . We are trying to play catch up on some of these topics. On the first day of school, each of the kids brought home their individually made weekly agenda. They show what subjects are going to be taught in class each our of the day. The first week the kids were getting their sea legs on and attended all of the sessions. While the class doesn’t move about the school to attend the different topics, they may have a teacher other than their own teach a particular topic. Continue reading →

The Purple Chicken Challenge Days 1-7: Learning Spanish Language

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Heidi

As promised, here is my journal of The Purple Chicken 14 Day Challenge.

The games I play for Learning the Spanish Language.

Day 1 – I awoke this morning a nervous wreck knowing my post about the challenge was going to publish today. That means I really have to do this. UG!!! Maybe I can just cancel the post. After all, I am a good 6 hrs ahead of the East Coast USA, so no one would know the difference. In my mind I am just tormenting myself over this silly challenge of learning the Spanish language. Continue reading →

The Purple Chicken 14 Day Challenge – Spanish Language

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Heidi

So we have been here in Spain for just over 2 months and we are by no means fluent in the Spanish Language. We have made great progress and are very proud, but need to kick ourselves in the pants a bit more and get out there with the locals. We have met many expats while here. Some have been here a few months like us and others for 10-15 years and not many are fluent either! I can’t let that happen to me, I must improve. Continue reading →

Purple Chicken

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Heidi

It was another gloomy rainy day. It was 5 pm and I was antsy to get out of the house. I wanted to walk about 15 min away to the Tourist Info center, to pick up this weeks papers. I invited the kids to go for a walk with me in the rain. They respond “Yes!”, with no hesitation whatsoever. So we bundle up with what little “winter/rain” clothing we brought along and out we go, with no umbrella. Continue reading →

Please watch more TV

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Heidi

It is very encouraging that the kids are excited to learn Spanish. They have such a desire to fully communicate with others and would love to just blurt it all out in Spanish, but we just aren’t quite there yet. They keep complaining that they aren’t learning fast enough, but don’t realize it takes time for these things. We keep telling them it took years to learn English and they are still learning. Either way they want to learn more.

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Waka Waka Wagoner

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Heidi

The kids are learning Spanish! Each Tuesday and Thursday from 12-2 they are pulled from their class, along with two Russian girls, to attend a special Spanish tutoring session. For the past 2 weeks, some of their “tutor homework” consisted of learning the Waka Waka song in Spanish. Thought you may enjoy hearing what they have learned. As you can see, they are enjoying it!