Image (public domain)

Check out all the Spanish–speaking countries in the world… there’re lots of them! How many do you know?

Greetings, goodbyes, courtesy

Vocabulario: Greetings (saludos)

Just like there are hundreds of different languages and dialects in the Spanish-speaking world, there are hundreds of different First Australians’ languages and dialects, so if you are wondering how to say hello or any other salutations or goodbyes in First Australians’ or Torres Strait Islander, that is amazing! Exploring another culture opens you up to learning different viewpoints and helps you connect and have empathy, just as you are now learning Spanish. You can start by looking at the most common greetings or the language of the land you live or work in.

Vocabulario: Saying goodbye (despedidas)

Vocabulario: Courtesy (cortesía)

Vocabulario: Courtesy questions (preguntas de cortesía)

Vocabulario: Answers (respuestas)

And now… let’s introduce ourselves…

Introducing yourself (presentaciones)

The Spanish alphabet (el abecedario español)

Spanish is pretty straightforward to pronounce. It is. Really. I mean, you’re thinking, “sure, mate, it’s easy for you because you’re not only Spanish but also a teacher of Spanish”. Well, that is true, but if compared to French, German, or even English (English pronunciation is pure chaos!!!) Spanish is definitely easier to pronounce because there are clear, simple rules:

• You pronounce every single letter that you see written down. You don’t do that in English. Imagine, for example, the word “through” you have 7 letters, and you pronounce 3 sounds (TH-R-U). In Spanish, if you have 7 letters, you pronounce every single one of them. We don’t go around wasting our letters!
• Except for the letter H. H is mute in Spanish. You never pronounce H. Never ever. Even if you’re really tempted to do it. Don’t.
• Some sounds are almost identical to English (most of them, D, T, S, CH, B, L, M, N, P, X, W, F…). A few sounds are different, and you’ll need to practice. Focus on Ñ, RR, J, G we will look into it soon.
• Vowels (A, E, I, O, U) in Spanish are very stable in their pronunciation. That is, they don’t change in pronunciation according to the word. Think English again. A is different in MAN and CAR. E is different in ENOUGH and BED. U is different in UNIVERSITY and BURN and BUS and… An absolute HELL for those of us who learned English as a second language! In Spanish, vowels always sound pretty much the same regardless of word, clustering, or position.
• We have accents. They have specific rules. For the time being, just try to remember words with accents and use them. The good news is that we only have one type of accent and always on vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú). French, for example, has three main types of accents (you know the French, always better, always bigger… whatever).

As Australia and New Zealand are multicultural countries and we have students from different nationalities, I want to take the opportunity to introduce you to the international symbol of phonetics //. You have probably seen this in dictionaries; it means sound. So, I encourage you to write in between the two dashes how a word sounds for you in English or your language of preference.

Now, we are going to look at the alphabet (starting with vowels, then consonants). By the end of the week, you’ll be able to read any text in Spanish! (though you probably won’t understand what you’re reading).

Las vocales (the vowels)

Let´s build a vocabulary list based on the alphabet:

Las consonantes (consonants)