The blog uses WordPress, which allows you to add pages or make as many posts as you want.  WordPress is really easy to use.  And the rest of the site is built with Dreamweaver, so you would need a copy of that program to make page changes (Dreamweaver is not included with this sale).  Some familiarity with Dreamweaver would be useful but isn’t absolutely necessary  ( I built this site with no web building experience to begin with).

Interested?  Look around the site and see how much it has to offer.  Then send me an email at learnspanishtravelspanish@triad.rr.com.

I’m giving the site up because I just have too much on me right now.  My aging father in law has just moved in with us and he has several health issues, so we’ve got our hands full.  It’s been a while since I’ve done much on the site.  No sense in letting it sit idle.  Go for it.  If you’ve priced other websites, or if you’ve looked into having someone build one for you, then you’ll be surprised at what a good deal this is.

Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepcion, Cuenca, Ecuador

Here are a few interesting things about Ecuador:

Located between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador includes the Galapagos Islands.

Slightly smaller than Nevada, it’s the 73rd largest country in the world.

Cotopaxi in the Andes is the highest active volcano in the world.

Age of population:

• 0-14 years: 31.1%
• 15-64 years: 62.7%
• 65 years and over: 6.2%
• Median age: 25
• life expectancy: 75.3 years

66% live in cities

rate of urbanization: 2.1% added per year

Frequent earthquakes; landslides; volcanic activity; floods; periodic droughts.

Major infectious diseases:

• food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
• vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria
• water contact disease: leptospirosis
• degree of risk: high

Ethnic groups:

mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 65%

• Amerindian 25%
• Spanish and others 7%
• black 3%

Religions:  Roman Catholic 95%, other 5%

total population literacy: 91%

Education expenditures: 1% of GDP

Military service age and obligation:  20 years of age for compulsive military service; 12-month service obligation.

Military expenditures:  2.8% of GDP

Population below poverty line:  38.3%

The Moor's tears.

If you read our Christmas Newsletter, then you know that we had planned on going to Spain in 2010.  We have friends there, and we were really looking forward to traveling for 14 days through mostly southern Spain.  We had even considered a side trip (a daytrip) to Morocco and maybe a day or two in Portugal, neither of which we’ve ever visited.

But it was not to be.  We still hope to go, but just not in May like we had hoped.  Maybe in the late fall, while the weather is still good, IF the dollar recovers. Or 2011, although we might go to Germany with friends that year.

Anyway… this is what our trip (or at least our possible trip) was going to be.     We usually travel with a mix of schedule and serendipity.

We like to have a room waiting for us.  Someone advised us once that on a trip to Italy that we could save a ton of money by not booking ahead.  The cheapest rooms aren’t in the books or online, he said.  You get off the train and go with one of the hawkers.  Dirt cheap, he said.  And that may be true, but we arrived on a holiday that wasn’t listed in ANY of the guidebooks.  Not only were there no rooms, we couldn’t even drive our car down into the town (“it’s full”, the policeman said).   We spent 6 hours looking for a room.  That’s the only time we’ve ever done that (or ever will again).

But for the rest…… we play it by ear.  If we know that there is something we absolutely want to see (Machu Picchu for instance), we buy our tickets as far ahead as possible.  Otherwise, we make a list of what there is to do and then decide what to do when we get there.  With the list,  we don’t miss something important, since we knew it was there.  When we showed our photos of a great trip to Montreal to dear friends who had been there the year before (and said it was, “eh… okay”), they said,  “We didn’t know that was there.  How did we miss that?”     But by not planning too tightly, we aren’t set into a rushed schedule.  Besides, our favorite travel thing is just to walk and look.  We once spent a week across from the Louvre and never went inside.  We just never got around to it.  We walked and walked, sat at sidewalk cafes, went to a movie in a tiny Parisien theater.

So when I say this is the plan for Spain….  take it with a grain of salt.

Anway, arrive a.m. Barcelona, stay two nights, a couple of days with our friends in a village just west of Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Segovia, Cordoba, Granada, Morocco, and a day or two in Portugal.  A couple of these would be day trips or  1/2 day stops along the way to the next overnight stay  (we were planning on getting a Eurail Pass).  A rental car only to go into Portugal (and even that’s a maybe).  A ferry across to Morocco for just the one day. Sounds like an exciting trip, doesn’t it?  Oh well, maybe next time.  If we dropped someplace, it would probably be Portugal.  We’d love to see Portugal, but couldn’t do it justice in a day or two.  For that matter, I’d bet that a day trip to Morocco probably only shows the worst of Morocco, but it’s too exotic to pass up.

Here’s a Fodor’s itinerary for 10 days, and all of these cities are on the Spain page of our (this) website.

And don’t forget our other websites.  We’re really excited about Rooms With Great Views.  Perusing the pages there sure makes me want to go someplace.  The views are incredible.  Type “Spain” into the “Search this site…” box for photos of great views taken from hotels in Spain.

You can also visit A Garden in the City.  Enjoy.

From our house to yours.

We’ve had a good year.   We’ve done more traveling this year than … maybe ever.  In the last 14 months we’ve been to Argentina, Mexico and Peru.  I’m the master of cheap, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to do it.  For instance, we went to Peru for a little over $1000.  That’s cheap.  And the other two weren’t much more expensive (per week).  You can’t drive to Myrtle Beach  and stay a week for $1000.  Love those frequent flyer miles.  All of this travel was connected to learning to speak Spanish, of course.   And the most expensive part of the trips were the classes.

I’m not putting much time into Spanish right now.  After all,  I’m still working for “the man”, but Sherry (now retired) has really been determined and is doing great.  She does well enough to serve as a volunteer at a medical clinic downtown that has a large Spanish speaking clientele. Her vocabulary and accent are very good.  Spanish speakers can’t believe she’s only been studying for two years.   Especially since only, at most, 13 weeks of that has been in Spanish speaking countries.

She studies at least two hours a day.  She uses a lot of diverse media.  She takes 2 very different classes, has a conversation group here at  the house and goes to a church for another one, reads the local Spanish language paper “Que Pasa”, watches Spanish tv and movies, etc etc etc.

We were supposed to go to Spain this coming year but (and this has happened to us before) the dollar just kept dropping and dropping until now the Euro costs about a dollar and a half.  That can make a trip really expensive really quickly.  We were even going to use frequent flyer miles, but 10 days of lodging, Eurail passes, buses, meals and incidentals suddenly started adding up to too much.   We’ve never been to Spain and were really looking forward to it.  We even have friends there.   Our music teacher, Jesse, just married a lovely woman of Spain (Maria) and they now live in nothern Spain.  It would have  been nice to visit them.

I said that this has happened to us before:  a couple of years ago, we cancelled a trip to Germany for the same reason.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to go soon.  We’ll keep an eye on the exchange rate, and if it gets below 1.25, we’ll go.

So instead, we’ve booked a cruise in the Caribbean.  Oh Well.   We’ll get in a little Spanish (but only a little).  Stops in Grand Caymen, Cozumel, Belize and Honduras.  It’s not the same, but we do actually like cruises. What we like best is waking up in a new place each morning without catching a train or unpacking.  If we ever win a really big (REALLY BIG) lottery, we would consider buying a suite on a residential ocean liner.

Well, this has been sort of our Christmas newsletter, hasn’t it?    Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or the Winter Solstice, we wish you the very best of holidays.   For us, that means Feliz Navidad.  We hope your holiday is a happy one.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons and gabdurakhmanov.

Our local Spanish language station has just been replaced by a station that plans to play Rush Limbaugh all day long.  No matter what your politics are, you have to admit that that is ironic.  So where do we go for Spanish language music?   Your area may be fortunate to have at least one Spanish language station.  If you have satelite radio, there are plenty of choices there.  If none of that applies to you, try the internet.  There is a plethora of websites that lead you to Spanish speaking radio.

Be forewarned, however, that some of these sites may be difficult to navigate.  For one thing, they’re usually in Spanish, so if you are a beginner, that makes it a little difficult from the outset.  Also, several of these sites either just don’t seem to be very user friendly or intuitive, or some (or most) of the station links don’t work.  Sometimes, I think they work but they just won’t work with my computer (or at least I don’t know how to make them work with my computer).  Sometimes the file endings are not what I’m used to.

And finally, just like English language radio, a lot of the music is just plain boring.  It’s mostly top 40 radio, only Latino.   So if you like top 40 radio at home (I don’t), you might like these.   Here are a few links to get you started.  You can also Google Spanish Radio, Mexico Radio, Spain Radio, etc.

Multiligual Books has an interesting site.  Pick a country from anywhere in the world, any language, and it will give you a list of radio and tv stations from that country, and (supposedly) links to hear them.  I had trouble opening a few (okay, most) of the links.  If you know what I’m doing wrong, please let me know.

Listen Live,  Radio Time (I had much better luck playing these),  E-Spanyol,  Batanga.

Photo courtesy of Gilbijim.

So you need someone to talk with in order to practice your Spanish?   Okay.  That’s a reasonable request.  But how do you find the time, place and person when you already have such a busy life?   Well, there are several avenues you could explore.  How successful you’ll be depends partly on how much Spanish you already know.  The better your Spanish, the more opportunities that will be available to you.  I’m going to assume that you have a conversational level and that you want to practice your existing skills so that you don’t lose them.

If you want face to face exchange, try these:

Local churches sometimes have language exchange nights.   My wife goes to a Catholic church (we’re not Catholic) one night a week for a language exchange.  The number of English/Spanish speakers varies from week to week, but on average there are about 5 or 6 of each.  A topic will asssigned, a partner found and then, normally, the pair will speak in English for half an hour and then in Spanish for half an hour.  Sometimes, though, a small group of, say, 3 to 5 will gather.  When that happens, the Spanish speakers will speak only in English and the English speakers will speak only in Spanish.  They correct each other as they go.  Gently.  Sometimes there won’t be enough native  Spanish speakers for everyone, but since everyone there speaks Spanish (native or otherwise), there is still the opportunity to practice, though maybe not with a native speaker.

Another avenue for practice is volunteering, and there are many many places to volunteer (depending on your skill level, of course).   My wife volunteers at a free clinic downtown one afternoon a week.  The clinic has a large, but by no means exclusive, Spanish speaking clientele.  She helps them fill out the paperwork to qualify for the free help.  Almost everyone there is a volunteer, including the medical staff, so there is a camaraderie among the staff.

Volunteers are also needed at the hospital, the library and local charities.  Schools need Spanish speaking volunteers as well.

If you don’t need face to face conversation, or are too unsure of yourself to volunteer, then there are opportunities online as well.  Here is a short list.  The sites are similar but not totally alike, so I’ll just let them speak for themselves rather than try to explain them here.  Good luck.  Let us know if you have experiences to share.

The Polyglot Club,  The Mixxer,  Shared Talk, Conversation Exchange, My Language Exchange, and iTalki.

What if I can't do it?

My wife started learning Spanish just over two years ago.  At that time, she knew enough Spanish to order off the Taco Bell menu.   She was 55 years old.  She had only had two other language experiences.  One – as a freshman in high school, she had a year of French.  But in the middle of that year her family moved to another state, and she went from a very weak class (in English) to a very good class totally in French.  Unfortunately, she changed in the middle of the year and was pretty lost in the immersion class.  Although she passed, it left her with a sort of fear of languages.  I’m sure you know what I mean.

Her other language experience was when we traveled.  But I was the one who learned some of whatever language we needed.  She just stayed close to me.  And none of the languages were Spanish.

Today, two years and three months later, she volunteers for a local clinic that needs translators.   And in the past 13 months we’ve been to Argentina, Mexico and Peru, and she’s had no trouble at all getting around.

But before you think “well then”, I have to tell you that there are a couple of disclaimers.  First, she’s retired.  She has more time than those of us who aren’t retired.  Second, she’s devoted herself to learning Spanish.  Other than gardening, she has put all her retirement plans and anticipated hobbies on hold while she has given learning Spanish her all.  Seven days a week, she studies for at least two hours, often more, and sometimes much more.  Right now she has a conversation group on Monday evenings, a class on Tuesday morning, volunteer work for 5 hours on Tuesday afternoon, a class on Wednesday evening and she meets with a couple of classmates for two or three hours before that Wednesday class.

AND she has gone, both with me and without me, to immersion schools.  She did seven weeks in Oaxaca and Cuernavaca one time and four weeks another time.  (And yes it was tough – for her and for me).

The problems she encountered were…   first and foremost was self doubt.  She struggled with that, even to the point of not starting to learn.  She thought she was going to be the oldest person (by far) in the local classes (she usually wasn’t, and when she was, it wasn’t by much).  She thought her memory might not be up to it.  Well, the memory doesn’t work as well as when you’re fourteen, but it still works.

One thing we didn’t think about, but that came into play, was the disadvantage of poorer hearing.  We were in a school in Buenos Aires that was right on a street (and BA streets are busy) with the windows open.  It was very difficult to hear for everyone, but more for us, I think.

BUT there were advantages to being older too.  My wife found that she was far more focused.  In immersion schools, she studied while her younger classmates went dancing.  She knew what she wanted from the classes.  And when she wasn’t in school settings, she knew how to keep the studying interesting.  She changed medias often, switching from Pimsleur to Destinos to classes to Rosetta Stone to reading Spanish newspapers and books and watching Spanish tv and listening to Spanish radio.

So yes, there are disadvantages for the older learner.  But there are many advantages as well.  You can do it.  Jump right in.  And remember that the more time you put in, the faster you’re going to learn.  Use a variety of resources.  You don’t have to spend a fortune.  The “Learn” page on this website has enough to keep you going for years.  If you want to know more about aging and learning Spanish, here are some links.

The “Learn” page. Right hand column, fourth from the top.  Check out the other stuff on that page while you’re there. Good Luck.  Share your story with us.

Slate.      Ezine.   Japan Today.    ESL Teacher.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons and Nick Johnson.

Having trouble translating things?  I’m sure you’re aware of some really good online translators, such as Yahoo’s BableFish, World Lingo and Free-Translator.  It’s no problem to copy and paste a word or phrase, or even whole paragraphs, to translate from one language to another.  But what happens when you run across a Website that you think is exactly what you’re looking for but it’s entirely in Spanish (or French or German)?  Sometimes there are those little flags up in the right hand corner (English is usually a British flag), but sometimes there isn’t.  What to do?

Google to the rescue.  Go to translate.google.com/ and you can not only type or paste that word, phrase or paragraph, but you can type in (or paste) the URL from a website and it will reload that website IN ENGLISH (or whatever you want).   I don’t have to tell you that this is REALLY useful.

And that’s not all it does.  You can upload an entire document and it will translate it for you.  Wow.  Try it out.  And let us know how it does.

Well, good news!  You can watch it online – for free.  It’s more or less aimed at teachers, and all 52 episodes are represented.  It’s great.  You don’t have to just hope you can catch it on your local PBS station.   Here’s a link that will take you to the Page.

There’s more…..  Here is a link to a Study site.  It has a series of short tests for each episode.  When you go to the site, look in the upper left hand corner for a little pull down box.  Click it open to Episode one (you may have to download a media windows plug-in to play it).  Once Episode One is open, that same pull down box will have a list of tests.  Pick one.  They’re all short.

And still more….. Our old friend Wikipedia has a great synopsis of Destinos.  It tells the plot, eveything you want to know about every character, links to all the places to which they travel, and even a little trivia.

If you want an in depth summary of each episode, go to Helpful Notes.

Need more?  Here’s a Review.  And here’s Our Own Review that we did about a year ago.

If you’ve been reading this blog for long, then you already know the answer to that —  It depends on who you ask! So after reading much of the disparate material, I’m going to give you an estimate.   If you just want to understand what’s being said to you and be understood when you speak (but  not be considered really, really smart), then certainly much less than 1000 words would do it.  Many linguists think that 700 or 800 words will easily get you through the daily life of markets, movies and moving vehicles.  And over 1000 will keep you in conversations that are about more than finding a room for the night (as long as they’re not about existentialism or the time/space continuum).  The more specialized a conversation is, then the more of that specialized vocabulary you’ll need to know.  And I’m not talking just rocket science here.   Every little aspect of life has its own vocabulary.  That’s true no matter what language you’re speaking.  Spending some time in the kitchen?   In English, you’ll need to know the words colander, sizzle, fry, broil, dice, spice, rice and so many more.  Well, in the Spanish speaking kitchen you’ll need to know those same words, except in Spanish of course.

So, guys, think you’ll skip the kitchen and stick to sports?  If the only word you know is fútbol (and you think it’s a football), you’re in for a short conversation.  But as you become more skilled with Spanish, you’ll find those areas (and those vocabularies) that interest you.

And of course it’s not just about the vocabulary.  There’s that pesky grammar.  (Subjunctive, oh no!)  But for vocabulary, here are a few sites to help you increase your word base.

Vocabulary by Category;  Vocabulary by Skill Level;  Vocabulary by Frequency; and 1000 Most Common Words.