November 30, 2008

Spanish Lessons For Children

learn Spanish quickly

Spanish courses designed for kids teach kids Spanish in a fun and easy way. It doesn't teach grammar and syntax in a direct manner. Kids, like a lot of adults, would be bored very quickly if they had to painstakingly conjugate regular and irregular Spanish verbs. Spanish for kids avoids all that, but still manages to teach the kids the basics too.

Children have the ability to learn Spanish fast. The younger a child is when they are first exposed to another language, the sooner they can master it. A five-year-old could learn pretty good Spanish in a matter of a couple of months, while a twelve-year-old might take more than six months. It is also dependent on their exposure. If they only hear Spanish in school, but not in the house, they will take longer to pick it up.

Children are able to learn Spanish quickly. They soon learn that Spanish for kids shows them Español es un lenguaje fonético y la pronunciación es muy clara. Unlike English where the ending, "ough" for example, can be pronounced at least six different ways, in Spanish the pronunciation is clear, straightforward and phonetic.

In general, the second to last syllable is where the emphasis goes, unless the word has a letter with an accent on it. The word, "farmacia" has the emphasis on the second "a" as there is no accented letter. The word, "problema" has its emphasis on the letter "e."

But when there is an accented letter, it becomes even easier. You simply place the emphasis of the word on that letter. For example, "fútbol" is that ever-popular ball game, or soccer, as it is known in the USA. The emphasis is naturally on the emphasized letter "u," and sounds more or less the same as the word in English. Another example is the word for "plastic" that is spelt as "plástica." Without the accented first "a" it would be pronounced as "plastEEca."

Learning Spanish for children is meant to fun. Remember, it shouldn't have been too long ago that they begun learning English. This is why children they are able to adapt so quickly; they are still learning so much every day that another language is something they take in their stride without batting an eyelid.

If you are teaching a child who cannot read yet, then you should make them involve all their senses, if possible, to learn the language. Computers are incredible for this in many ways as they can look at diagrams and animations as well as hearing the language.

Make use of your house pet as well. Your children will find it amusing to call the dog "un perro," or the cat "un gato." Of course, they should get the genders right too! If the dog and cat are female, then they will become "una perra" and "una gata" respectively.

Normally, the younger the child is when they taught Spanish, the faster they will be able to master it. If the learning process is interesting, they would not see it as a tedious task every day. Also, teach them practical phrases, such as, "may I have a glass of milk?" (¿Puede darme un vaso de leche?), and begin using them in your daily conversations. They will take to it naturally. Spanish lessons for kids can be easy and fun too.

 

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