Learning Spanish

Learning Spanish is fun and easy. It is even much easier to learn if one already knows English and Bahasa Malaysia and a mish mash of Arabic. This is because Spanish lies in the same family tree as the French and Italian languages. Learning Spanish is a whole lot easier when compared to learning French because, in Spanish, except for a few words (especially involving the alphabets j and h), what you see is what you pronounce.

A new learner can actually 'guess' what the particular Spanish word means once one gets the hang of it. The following are examples of some familiar words to an English/French/Italian speaking learner:

Spanish - English

mucho - much

hola - hello

tengo - have

desperado - desperate

estudiante - student

mi - my

persona - person

muy - very

bien - good/well

y - and

tarde - late/later

bueno - good

buenos dias - good morning

buenas tardes - good afternoon

buenas noches - good night

gracias - thank you

dinero - money

si - yes/ if

palabra - word

amor - love

silencio - silent/silence

oportunidad - opportunity

capacidad - capacity

por - for

preparar - to prepare

amigo - friend

tipo - type

maestro - teacher

coche - car

pobre - poor

selectivo - selective

paz - peace

promesa - promise

pronto - quick

educacion - education

hambre - hungry

vida - life

loca - mad

Dios mio - my God

hombre - man

mujer - woman

hermana - sister

hermano - brother

abuela - grandmother

abuelo - grandfather

madre - mother

padre - father

algodon - cotton

Ojala - hopefully (originated from Oh Allah)

uno/una - one

paloma - dove/pigeon

blanca - white

zorro - fox

arriba - above, high

esposa - wife

marido - husband

leccion - lesson

cuando - when

ser - to be

que - that, which, who, whom, when

and so on and so forth.

Any how, beware... there are always exceptions.... My Spanish professor warned us not to generalize things. For example the phrase : " Tengo embarazada" does not mean "I am embarass" (even though it sounds like one), but , "I am pregnant"!

Writing this piece reminds me of my Spanish Professor's class years ago. Profesor Jorge Febles was trying to introduce to the class the phrase " Si tuviera dinero..... que compraria usted?" (which means : "If you have the money... what would you buy?"). When it came to my turn, I answered like this : "Si tuviera dinero, compraria un coche" (If I have the money, I would buy a car).

Professor Febles then asked me again: "Que tipo (del coche)?" - which means what type (of car?)

I answered : "Un corvette!" (A corvette - it's a type of sports car but not as expensive as the Lamborghini...) , to which there was complete silence before the class broke into uncontrollable guffaws... The professor slapped his forehead and unable to contain his laughter, laughed together with the class.

Perhaps it was because I looked like a nun (to them) that made them so taken aback by my answer. Nuns are not supposed to have any desires of having any worldly things, I supposed. Any how, that incident stuck in my mind... until today.