Spanish for Success

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Spanish for Success

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• Hello
• Bon Jour
• Hola
• Buon Giorno Guten Tag
• Namaste
• Shalom Konnichiwa
• Salam
• Alekum Aloha
• Zdravstvuite

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Topics in Question

• Why study Spanish?
• Where is Spanish spoken?
• What other languages/dialects are spoken in
  Spanish-speaking countries?
• What politically correct terms are to be used for
  ethnicity and race in reference to
  Spanish-speaking cultures?
• What are some successful memory techniques?

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Why study Spanish?

• Its official. Latinos have overtaken African
  Americans as the largest minority in the US (Nov.
  2003). Numbering 38.8 million, Latinos now make
  up 13 of the nations demographic total.
  Latinos have more than doubled their presence in
  the US in the past 2 decades and added 3.5
  million since the 2000 census. Over 350 million
  people speak Spanish worldwide, making it one of
  the largest markets for businesses and one of the
  most useful languages in the world for travel. In
  the past, learning Spanish used to be a way to
  open doors, but now it is a necessity.

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Why study Spanish

• Employers are seeking applicants who can speak
  Spanish in nearly every profession (medical,
  government, legal, journalism, finance,
  education, sales, etc.).
• A large body of literary work is written in
  Spanish and Spanish-language films continue to
  receive praise from the film industry and
  viewers. At last count, there were more than
  16,000 Spanish publications, 250 Spanish TV
  stations and 5,100 Spanish radio stations.

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Why study Spanish

• Learning Spanish can help you learn the other
  Latin-based languages such as French and Italian.
  These languages all have Indo-European roots and
  share some characteristics (such as gender and
  extensive conjugation) that are present in
  Spanish but not English.
• Because of its Latin roots, nearly identical
  alphabet and pronunciation rules, Spanish is one
  of the easiest languages for an English speaker
  to learn.

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Why study Spanish

• Knowing Spanish can make your travel experiences
  more enjoyable. It is estimated that U.S.
  citizens spend more travel time in
  Spanish-speaking countries than in any other
  foreign country (excluding English-speaking
  countries).
• Spanish is the official language in 21 countries
  and an official language in the European Union,
  UNESCO, GATT and many other international
  organizations.

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Why study Spanish

• A Spanish concentration gives you the opportunity
  to develop language proficiency while expanding
  your knowledge of Hispanic cultures and
  literature. Many Spanish concentrators combine
  their studies with fields such as political
  science (pre-law), pre-med, American culture,
  organizational studies, communications,
  psychology, and economics.
• If you are majoring in another field, a Spanish
  minor gives you the opportunity to complement the
  knowledge gained in your principal field while
  focusing on linguistic competence and
  acquaintance with the culture and literature of
  the Hispanic world.

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Where is Spanish spoken?

• Spanish is the most widely spoken of the Romance
  languages, both in terms of number of speakers
  and the number of countries in which it is the
  dominant language. Besides being spoken in Spain,
  it is the official language of all the South
  American republics except Brazil and Guyana, of
  the six republics of Central America, as well as
  Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto
  Rico. Additionally it is spoken in the Balearic
  and Canary Islands, in parts of Morocco and the
  west coast of Africa, and also in Equatorial
  Guinea.

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Where is Spanish spoken?

• In the United States it is spoken in Texas, New
  Mexico (co-official with English), Arizona, and
  California, in New York City due to large Puerto
  Rican population, and southern Florida due to
  Cuban population. A variety of Spanish known as
  Lad mo is spoken in Turkey and Israel by
  descendants of Jews who were expelled from Spain
  in 1492.

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Historical perspective

• The purist form of Spanish is known as Castilian,
  originally one of the dialects that developed
  from the Latin of the common people (el latín
  vulgar) in contrast with the aristocratic Latin
  of the clergy. This Latin dialect developed
  after the Roman conquest of Hispania in the 3rd
  century A.D. After the disintegration of the
  Roman Empire, Spain was overrun by the Visigoths,
  and in the 8th century the Arabic-speaking Moors
  conquered all but the northernmost part of the
  peninsula. In the Christian reconquest, Castile,
  an independent kingdom, took the initiative
  (under the auspices of the king, Alfonso X) and
  by the time of the unification of Spain in the
  15th century, Castilian had become the dominant
  dialect.

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Historical perspective

• The various dialects of Spanish spoken in the
  Americas relate to the dialects in Spain for
  historical reasons. In the highland areas (Mexico
  City, Cuzco, Quito, Bogotá, La Paz) the dialects
  have elements evolved from the Spanish of the
  conquistadores, most representative of the
  Spanish spoken in Extremadura around 1520. The
  Spanish spoken in the coastal and Caribbean areas
  likewise have elements evolved from the Spanish
  spoken by the merchants from the Andalusian area,
  perhaps 50-75 years later.

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Variety of dialects of Spain

• Current co-official languages of Spain
• Galicia gallego y castellano
• Cataluña catalán y castellano
• País Vasco (Basque Country) euskera y
  castellano

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Variety of dialects of pre-conquest Americas

• Inca quechua
• Maya
• words were in hieroglyphics, each picture with
  its own meaning
• Only nobles priests knew the whole language
• Examples Hi, How are you? Bix (sh) a belex
  (sh).
• I am ok. Maloob. Thank you. Yum botic.
• Aztec náhuatl

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Definition of terms

• Orlando is from Buenos Aires and has white skin,
  blue eyes and blonde hair. Is he Hispanic, Latin
  or white?
• Pls. copy the following list of terms and skip a
  line. With pencil, write a short definition of
  each term as you understand it. OK, so take a
  second to compare with your classmates!

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Terms

• latin (latino/a)
• America
• American (americano/a)
• North/Central/South America
• Caribbean Islands
• Latin America
• Latin American (latinoamericano/a)

• Spanish (Hispanic) America
• hispanic (hispánico/a)
• Spaniard (español/a)
• lndigenous
• Native American
• Chicano

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Revise your definitions as necessary

• The terms hispano and latino are confused with
  other racial terms such as indigenous/native, of
  color, white, Asian. The terms hispano and latino
  are not based on racial differences but rather on
  cultural differences. Latino describes those
  persons who speak any of the romance languages or
  those languages of Latin origin, such as
  Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish. The term
  latino is as much cultural as linguistic in
  nature. The hispano is an inhabitant of the
  ancient Roman province of Hispania, today known
  as Spain.

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Coming to Terms

• Latino and hispano carry no racial connotations
  since there are white, Asian and indigenous
  hispanos as well as hispanos of color. Latino is
  an abbreviation of latinoamericano, a term that
  includes the hispanos, the Brazilians and the
  Haitians. It excludes native inhabitants who do
  not speak Spanish or Portuguese and are not
  considered latinos. Neither hispanos nor
  mexicanos speak Mexican both speak Spanish.

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Coming to Terms

• Latinoamérica and Hispanoamérica are
  geographic-cultural terms. Latinoamérica includes
  all of the countries speaking Latin-based
  languages with their corresponding cultures while
  Hispanoamérica is composed of the 19
  Spanish-speaking countries with Hispanic
  cultures. North, Central, South America and the
  Caribbean are strictly geographical. In Spanish,
  the term América refers to the continent that
  stretches from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego.

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Coming to Terms

• Because the word estadounidense is too formal and
  burocrático and because norteamericano includes
  Canada and Mexico, by default, the term americano
  has an implied reference to the people of the
  United States. Chicano refers to people of
  Mexican heritage.

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Coming to Terms

• Geographically, Latinoamérica includes Canada,
  Mexico, Central and South America (including
  Brazil), and the Caribbean Islands.
  Hispanoamérica includes 19 Spanish-speaking
  countries but excludes Canada, Brazil, Haiti,
  British and French Guyana. Only the
  Spanish-speaking Spaniards are hispanos. The
  Spanish citizens of Spain are NOT
  latinoamericanos (latinos, for short) nor
  hispanoamericanos because they are European
  Spaniards, not americanos from the Américas.

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Un americano es . . .

• norteamericano
• centroameericano
• caribeño
• suramericano
• estadounidense
• canadiense

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How would you label the following people?

• Some may have more than one category
• A. latinoamericano (latino)
• B. hispano
• C. hispanoamericano
• D. americano
• E. does not apply

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Exercise

• ___1. Canadian who speaks native French.
• ___2. Mexican American who speaks native Spanish.
• ___3. Spaniard who speaks only native Galician.
• ___4. Brazilian who speaks native Portugues.
• ___5. Spaniard who speaks native Spanish.
• ___6. Chilean who speaks native Spanish.
• ___7. Spaniard who speaks only native Basque (not
  a Latin-based language)
• ___8. Mexican who speaks native náhuatl (Aztec
  language)
• ___9. Puerto Rican who speaks only native English
• __10. English-speaking U.S. student learning
  Spanish as a second language

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Answers

• AD 1. Canadian who speaks native French.
• BD 2. Mexican American who speaks native Spanish.
• E 3. Spaniard who speaks only native Galician.
• AD 4. Brazilian who speaks native Portugues.
• B 5. Spaniard who speaks native Spanish.
• ABCD 6. Chilean who speaks native Spanish.
• E 7. Spaniard who speaks only native Basque
  (not a Latin-based language)
• AD 8. Mexican who speaks native náhuatl (Aztec
  language)
• AD 9. Puerto Rican who speaks only native English
• D 10. English-speaking U.S. student learning
  Spanish as a second language

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Power of the human mind

• The paomnnehil pweor of the hmuan mnid.
  Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
  Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the
  ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng
  is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit
  pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can
  sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae
  the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
  istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig eh?

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Memory Flow Chart

• The flowchart for the theory of memory indicates
  that all incoming information first passes
  through Sensory Memory (SM) before it enters
  ShortTerm Memory (STM). There it can be
  maintained by rehearsal and either successfully
  encoded for storage in LongTerm Memory (LTM) or
  forgotten. In retrieval, the information passes
  from LTM back to STM, where it enters our
  consciousness. A summary of the characteristics
  of each stage of memory follows.

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• Three Stages of Memory

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Mnemonic

• 'Mnemonic' is another word for memory tool.
  Mnemonics are methods for remembering information
  that is otherwise quite difficult to recall. The
  basic principle of mnemonics is to use as many of
  the best functions of your brain as possible to
  store information.

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Use Your Whole Mind To Remember

• By coding language and numbers in striking
  images, you can reliably code both information
  and the structure of information. You can then
  easily recall these later.

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You can do the following things to make your
mnemonics more memorable

• Use positive, pleasant images. The brain often
  blocks out unpleasant ones
• Use vivid, colorful, sense-laden images - these
  are easier to remember than drab ones
• Use all your senses to code information or dress
  up an image. Remember that your mnemonic can
  contain sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movements
  and feelings as well as pictures.

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Mnemonics continued . . .

• Give your image three dimensions, movement and
  space to make it more vivid. You can use movement
  either to maintain the flow of association, or to
  help you to remember actions.
• Exaggerate the size of important parts of the
  image
• Use humor! Funny or peculiar things are easier to
  remember than normal ones.
• Similarly rude rhymes are very difficult to
  forget!
• Symbols (red traffic lights, pointing fingers,
  road signs, etc.) can code quite complex messages
  quickly and effectively.

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Association

• Because memory works by association, we actively
  work to create an association between two bits of
  information. For example, for the plane that we
  need to catch at 2 P.M., we can imagine the plane
  in our mind, and notice that it has 2 wings. Two
  wings, 2 P.M. There's an association by means of
  a visualization. We are now ten times more likely
  to remember the take-off time long after it has
  faded from our short-term memory.

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Association

• When pieces of information are not obviously
  related in any way, however, we have to be a bit
  more creative in linking things together. But it
  isn't as hard as it seems. Most of us learned
  rhymes and acronyms in school that helped us
  remember things. Do any of the following look
  familiar to you?
• i before e except after c, or when sounded like a
  as in neighbor and weigh (rule for remembering ei
  or ie)
• ROY G. BIV (colors of the rainbow)
• All Cows Eat Grass Every Good Boy Does Fine
  (notes of musical scale)

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Association exercise

• To demonstrate how effectively this works, look
  at the following list of words, and try to come
  up with an association between the left word and
  the right word of each row. Some will be easy
  others may be harder. As an example, for the
  first pair, you might want to imagine a mouse
  that has a long, wavy tail that is in the shape
  of the letter S.

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Association exercise

• mouse S
• fur R
• train bridge
• moat boat
• popcorn chair
• elephant pancake
• toothbrush canal
• umbrella triangle

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Association exercise

• After you have formed the associations, cover up
  the right side of the list and then try to name
  the word associated with each word on the left.
  If you formed vivid, clear associations, you may
  be surprised at how quickly and easily you were
  able to remember everything!

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Association exercise

• mouse
• fur
• train
• moat
• popcorn
• elephant
• toothbrush
• umbrella

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Law of Recency

• A list of 20 words will be read. Your job is to
  remember as many of the words as possible. Write
  down the words that you can remember immediately
  after reading the list.

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List of words

• cat apple ball tree square head
  house door box car king hammer milk
  fish book tape arrow flower key shoe

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Concrete Words, Abstract Words and Foreign
Words

• The ability to recall a word depends on how
  meaningful the word is to a person. Along with
  the meaningfulness of a word, the "concreteness"
  of a word is important for memory. Concreteness
  refers the ability of a word to form a mental
  image. A word with high concreteness is easy to
  "see" a word with low concreteness (an
  "abstract" word) is difficult to visualize.

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Concrete words

• Here are three lists of words concrete words,
  abstract words and nonsense words. See which list
  is easier to memorize. You could also read these
  lists to other people to see how many words from
  each list they remember.

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Concrete words

• alligatorapplearrowbabybirdbookbutterfly
  carcornflower

• hammerhouselemonmicroscopeoceanpencilrock
  shoestablewindow

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Abstract words

• angerbeliefboredomchanceconcepteffortfatefr
  eedomgloryhappiness

• honorhopeideainterestknowledgemercymoodmora
  ltheorytruth

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foreign words

• amorfondoluegococinahastacabezanaranjac
  enanartillomariposa

• sillarelojcohetecasaheladotijerasmanzana
  hermoso
• moreno

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Short Term Memory Test

• Directions
• You are about do a small short term memory
  test. A few letters will flash on your computer
  monitor for 3 seconds. Your job is to write down
  as many letters as you can remember after they
  disappear.

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U M
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T Z L D
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KXCEJO
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AVCYISEH
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LBFQRPMAUX
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ZQECTBUMONRV
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STM exercise
Trial letters Total letters your letters your letters
1 2 UM
2 4 TZLD
3 6 KXCEJO
4 8 AVCYISEH
5 10 LBFQRPMAUX
6 12 ZQECTBUMONRV
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STM exercise

• How did you do? Compare your results with the
  table on this page. How many letters from each
  trial did you remember? Is there a "pattern" to
  the letters that you remembered? For example, did
  you remember the first few letters better than
  the middle letters? Did you remember the last
  letters?

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Law of Vividness

• We are much better at remembering pictures than
  we are at remembering words and names. When
  subjects are asked to recognize a small set of
  photos that they saw the previous day from a
  larger set, they typically recognize around 97.

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Short Term Memory Test - Pictures

• Draw a 4x4 grid of boxes.
• Look at the objects that you should remember. The
  objects will stay on your screen for 30 seconds.
  Then write down the names of all the items you
  remember inside the appropriate boxes.

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Here are the pictures . . .




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Picture test

• How many objects did you remember?
• Were the objects that you remembered also placed
  correctly on the grid?
• What categories of objects did you remember
  animals, food, building, animated objects, piano

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Interference The Stroop Effect

• Don't read the words on the right--justsay the
  colors they're printed in, and do this aloud as
  fast as you can.
• You're in for a surprise!

• redyellowgreenblueredblueyellowgreenbluer
  ed

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The famous "Stroop Effect" is named after J.
Ridley Stroop who discovered this phenomenon in
the 1930s.

• If you're like most people, your first
  inclination was to read the words, 'red, yellow,
  green...,' rather than the colors they're printed
  in, 'blue, green, red...'
• You've just experienced interference.
• When you look at one of the words, you see both
  its color and its meaning. If those two pieces of
  evidence are in conflict, you have to make a
  choice. Because experience has taught you that
  word meaning is more important than ink color,
  interference occurs when you try to pay attention
  only to the ink color.

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How to Improve Your Memory

• There are many things you can do to improve your
  memory, among them the use of certain mental
  techniques, as well as special care with
  nutrition and medicines.

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To stimulate memory

• Use your memory to the utmost. Challenge a
  novelty. Learn new skills. If you work in an
  office, learn to dance. If you are a dancer,
  learn to deal with a computer if you work with
  sales, learn to play chess if you are a
  programmer, learn to paint. This could stimulate
  your brain's neural circuits to grow.

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Pay attention

• Don't try to memorize all the facts that happen,
  but focus your attention and concentrate in what
  you consider more important, avoiding all other
  thoughts. Exercise take any object, such as a
  pen, and concentrate on it. Think on its various
  characteristics its material, its function, its
  color, its anatomy, etc. Don't allow any other
  thought to occupy your mind while you are
  concentrating on that pen.

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Relax

• It is impossible to pay attention if you are
  tense or nervous. Exercise hold your breath for
  ten seconds, then release it slowly.

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Associate facts to images

• Learn mnemonic techniques. They are a very
  efficient way to memorize large quantities of
  information.

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Visualize images

• See figures with the "eyes of your mind". Use a
  visualizing technique to learn the following
  translations for S/he is cool!
• Chile Es genial.
• Venezuela Es chévere.
• Costa Rica Es taunis.
• Ecuador Es bestial.
• Perú Es mostro.
• España Es chulo. Ella es maja.
• Mexico Es genial, padre, chido (not polite).

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Foods

• Some vitamins are essential for the proper
  working of memory thiamin, folic acid, and B12
  vitamin. They are found in bread and cereal,
  vegetables and fruits.

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Water

• Water helps maintain the memory systems working,
  specially in older persons. According to Dr.
  Turkington, lack of water in the body has an
  immediate and deep effect on memory dehydration
  can generate confusion and other thought
  difficulties.

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Sleep

• To be able to have a good memory, it is essential
  that we allow the brain to have enough sleep and
  rest. While sleeping, the brain disconnects from
  the senses, and proceeds to revising and storing
  memory. Insomnia would produce a chronic fatigue
  and would impair the ability of concentration and
  the storing of information.

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Medication

• Some medicines can cause loss of memory
  tranquilizers, muscular relaxants, sleeping
  pills, and anti-anxiety drugs, such as valium.
  Some medicine for the control of high blood
  pressure (hypertension) may cause memory problems
  and depression.

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Alcohol

• Alcohol interferes specially with short-term
  memory, which impairs the ability of retaining
  new information. Studies have shown that even the
  ingestion of low quantities of alcoholic beverage
  during one whole week will interfere with the
  ability of remembering.

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Smoking

• Studies have shown that, when compared with
  non-smokers, individual smokers of one or more
  packs of cigarettes a day had difficulties
  remembering people's faces and names in a test of
  visual and verbal memory (Turkinaton 1996)

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Caffeine

• Coffee and tea have a very positive effect to
  maintain attention and to end sleepiness, but the
  excitation promoted by these drinks may interfere
  with the memory function.

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Practice

• Practice improves memory, but how you practice
  also affects it. The same amounts of practice,
  but distributed in the one case and massed in the
  other, lead to different outcomes.
• Distributed practice is when practice is spread
  out over time. For example, you may study a total
  of 12 hours for a test but you did so over 6
  days.
• Massed practice is when practice is done all at
  once. For example, you study 12 hours the night
  before the test.
• Many studies have confirmed that the first
  strategy is the better one. Subjects remember
  more and for longer periods of time when they
  distribute their practice.

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Overlearning

• Overlearning is when practice is continued beyond
  the criterion of one error-free trial. Actors
  overlearn their lines. They will rehearse far
  beyond the time necessary for the criterion
  above. In the military, drills constitute
  overlearning. In all of the cases above,
  overlearning helps to negate the negative effects
  of stress on memory. Overlearned items can be
  recalled under higher levels of stress than can
  items that were not overlearned.

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How many of these associations do you remember
now?

• mouse
• fur
• train
• moat
• popcorn
• elephant
• toothbrush
• umbrella

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In conclusion . . .

• For the most part, memory does a magnificent job
  for us. Every time you spell a word, drive a car
  or pick up a telephone and recognize your
  mother's voice, it's a wonder.

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Success is at hand . . .
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