My husband has finally enrolled in to a Spanish class. He’s actually pretty excited and so am I. I’ll finally have someone to speak Spanish too and maybe even have the kids pick up more Spanish. He’s just entered week 1 of his Spanish class and with books, flash cards, audio, and me — We’re learning this is going to be quite the process.
The hubs and I have been married for 8 years now and he’s done pretty well at understanding bits and pieces of conversations. Living away from my Spanish speaking family has also been difficult because I don’t speak Spanish often and so he hears it a lot less than when we were in living in San Diego.
I never wanted to force the language on my husband but I wanted him to learn so that he can better communicate with my family and help with having bilingual babies. Now that he’s taken the first step in learning to speak Spanish, I want to be as supportive and helpful as I can be.
We’ve found 3 fun and consistent ways to learn to speak Spanish
1-Flash Cards
Yes this is an old school method but we’ve made it fun. I give clues like “It’s a greeting” “Hello in English hola in Spanish” It may seem child like but it’s consistent baby steps that help increase his memory. It allows him to see the spelling, hear the pronunciation, and learn to identify with clues in the language he already knows so that his brain can link and start translating as he learns! WIN WIN!
We also use them to form sentences or conversations. Greetings and introductions are key to engaging in a conversation.
2- Conversations: First in English then in Spanish
This is definitely hard work for both of us. We carry on the same conversations of hi my name is and add a little something new every time. We do a lot of repeating and this includes saying it in english first and immediately in Spanish.
What do you want eat? qué quieres comer
If he says something in english because he doesn’t know it in Spanish it’s an opportunity at that moment to learn another word.
Our newest words : Rotisserie chicken – pollo rostizado He said rotisserie pollo so I repeated Pollo rostizado which he then repeats after me.
I later ask what did we eat for dinner? Qué comimos para la cena He’ll respond with pollo rostizado and I will add comimos pollo rostizado para la cena Again it’s all about repeating and keeping it relevant.
3-Spanish entertainment with English Subtitles
The hubs discovered watching cartoon shows in Spanish is enjoyable and a learning experience. We’ve discovered that Netflix offers audio and subtitles in english and Spanish. The hubs has been watching Star Wars cartoons in Spanish with english subtitles. And movie nights are now going to be in Spanish too!
It’s gonna be a challenging journey for our whole family but we are so excited for the benefits of having a bilingual English Spanish speaking family!
Are you a bilingual family? Have you helped someone learn another language?
One thing I’ve done is, I put post it’s around the house with names of whatever the object is. I wrote it in English then spanish, then phonetically so he knew how to pronounce the word…sounds like your hubby is way more advanced than mine.
C