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guanajuato tagged articles (0-50 of 63)

  • Spanishing In Guanajuato - I've been in Spanish classes for the past two weeks. It's been great. As a non-native Spanish speaker, it is important to refresh your Spanish by having a professional correct your mistakes. I tend to pick up bad habits along the way and to go back to the class, every now and then, is excellent for retuning my Latin Linguistic Skills. What has been equally excellent and most refreshing are the contacts I've made with Americans who have been in the school. There have been the usual bunch of the "way-out-there" crowd. There have also been some individuals who have been simply marvelous.
  • Living In Mexico: Sugar And Spice But Not Always Nice Part 3 - To be honest with you, I don't see why more Gringos in Guanajuato aren't getting ripped off when trying to rent, or God forbid, buy a house on their own. It never occurred to us to move here without as much Spanish under our belts as possible. We had a high degree of fluency BEFORE coming. I find it miraculous that those who move here without any Spanish are able to find housing. Yet, they do come and they aren't speaking Spanish. Tell me what you would have done in this circumstance: With little-to-no linguistic ability you find a landlord with whom you manage to communicate. She shows you the apartment she has for rent. You love it and have to rent it. She tells you if you pay for six months in advance, she will give you a discount.
  • Learning Spanish: Financing Your Spanish Education - A couple of years ago, an American lady came to Guanajuato to learn Spanish. She enrolled in one of the most expensive schools in town. This school is good, by the way, and I always recommend it to people who want to come study Spanish in Guanajuato. This poor woman was a rank beginner. When she arrived, she was put in a class commensurate with her level; only the class was in the middle of the beginning class cycle.
  • Living In Mexico And Taking Spanish Classes – Why? - The wife and I walked downtown from our East Guanajuato Barrio today. On the way back, I stopped in one of the local Spanish Schools.
  • Guanajuato: Too Many False Expectations - A friend of mine told me about a conversation she had with a person she knows in one of the Mexican Prime Living Locations on the west coast of Mexico.
  • Learning Spanish Part Twenty-four: The Acquisition-learning Hypothesis - Dr. Stephen Krashen's foundational principle in his theory of Second Language Acquisition is called "The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis." In this idea, a distinction is made in that wonderfully exciting and gaiety-galore world of linguistics and language pedagogy between learning a language and acquiring it. "The acquired system" is the means through which spoken fluency is acquired.
  • Living In Mexico: Sugar And Spice But Not Always Nice Part 4 - You and your business partner have been working your tails off trying to get a bunch of modern, Mexican-style duplexes off the ground.
  • Mexico As A Concept And Not A Reality Part 2 - It has been the Prime Living Locations such as the Lake Chapala area, Puerto Vallarta, San Miguel de Allende, Cuernavaca, Mazatlán, and others to which Gringos have been attracted.
  • Living In Mexico: Where Did That Bus Driver Go? - Gringolandians, those living in Gringo enclaves, live such isolated and bizarrely separate lives from the Mexicans in the same town that they have on more than one occasion called me an absolute liar for the things I've reported happening in the Mexican city where I live. One thing with which they take particular exception is what I've written about buses. I've reported the incidents in which I've been hit by buses as the result of being shoved off the dangerously narrow sidewalks in the city of Guanajuato. I also reported that two Mexican women from Puerto Vallarta, visiting Guanajuato for the first time, wrote to tell me they, too, were shoved off the sidewalk and narrowly avoided injury.

  • Learning Spanish Part Eleven : Taking Classes In Spanish - If you have successfully completed at least The Learnables and The Pimsleur Spanish, Learning Spanish Like Crazy courses, you are ready for the formal study of Spanish (i.e., grammar). I know this is very costly.
  • Living In Mexico: Sugar And Spice But Not Always Nice Part 5 - There is a great restaurant in town where I love to eat steak. It is cheap, though they don't offer the best cuts of meat. However, the steak is tender, comes with a load of sides, and is cooked perfectly for my tastes. It is a popular place and listed in all the guidebooks. I've even referred people to it. The ambience is 20th-century jazz and very classy. The location is also perfect and easy as pie to find. I don't know if a tourist would notice this or not, but when Gringos come into the place, they seemed to be served last, and only after the Mexicans are served.
  • Living In Mexico: Confessions Of An Insane Gringo - Let me first say that whether or not I am actually insane could be debated. However, my personal pendulum tends to swing toward the yes column. So, there you go, my first confession. The second confession is that I totally get that more than a little umbrage has been garnered as the result of my insane rant about Gringolandia and her citizens, The Gringolandians. Ok, I get why these communities end up coming into existence. It's easier for people to have a refined and well-developed gringo infrastructure. It is easier living in an enclave where you don't have to learn the language so you could live with the locals. It is as the Blogger says, "The overwhelming majority of Gringos who live in Mexico have moved directly onto a movie set...But, this is okay.
  • Learning Spanish Part Sixteen: This Time Do It Right! - I've been thinking about this lady in San Miguel de Allende. I don't know her well. I've never met her, actually, but we have corresponded. She told me that she's tried learning Spanish. She's spent money she didn't have to attend classes that yielded little in the way of spoken fluency in the language. Her experience? It's very typical. You come to Mexico, you might even come to live, and take classes only to find very little, if any, success in learning the language. Imagine the despair, the frustration, and the emptiness. I've seen a trend in the research I've been doing lately. I've been looking at American expats in many different countries involved from Foreign Service to simple retirement.
  • I Was Just In The Middle Of A Dream - I was dreaming. I was eating Carnitas. They were very good Carnitas. The waitress was about to bring me another heaping plate of deliciously fatty, artery-clogging Carnitas when I heard tom-toms. The drums had a driving beat that if you weren't dreaming; the sound would make you want to murder someone to make them stop.
  • Mentor For Hire Services Eases Your Move To Mexico - Sometimes I marvel at how my wife and I arrived in Guanajuato, Mexico, with so little Spanish and with so few cultural skills. Somehow we managed to survive some pretty severe bumps in the expatriation road.
  • How-To Conquer Central Mexico In Your Next Vacation - I've noticed lately the tourists that make their way to central Mexico (Guanajuato) tend to be either the loosey-goosey backpackers or the tourist elite who tend to have a lot of experience in coming to strange and new places. The backpackers (and there's nothing wrong with loosey-goosey, I would like to add) seem to be a highly adaptable group that can, more or less, stay almost anywhere, under most conditions, and more easily go with the flow, no matter what the flow throws their way. The tourist elite group has the money to stay in places that cater to every wish.
  • Learning Spanish Part Twelve : Total Immersion Courses In Mexico? - Going to the host country of the target language has always taken on a sort of mythical quality. It has been believed that you could not learn a foreign language unless you went to the country associated with the target language and engaged in something called Total Immersion. Total Immersion is NOT a protracted amount of time of traditional language learning instruction in the target language’s country. Coming to Mexico and studying Spanish using traditional language learning methods is NOT a Total Immersion program. It bears repeating once again: What is not commonly known is most of these university-level programs require that you have at least 4 semesters of the target language before going abroad. This was true more than 30 years ago. Here is the myth.
  • Learning Spanish Part Twenty-Five: The Monitor Hypothesis - Dr. Krashen explains that this idea, The Monitor Hypothesis, shows how language learning (grammar) affects language acquisition. This is, according to Krashen, the useful outcome of learning grammar. It acts as a "monitor" of spoken language. Krashen postulates that this monitor brings refinement and correctness to speech.
  • Learning Spanish Part Twenty-Three: Language Learning Versus Language Acquisition - In the field of second language acquisition, Stephen Krashen, Ph.D, is a name that rises above the academic din that usually begins when the subject of Language Acquisition versus Language Learning is brought up. The noise becomes even more deafening when someone, such as myself, would dare to report how the theories of Dr. Krashen have affected his personal adventure in trying to achieve the highest possible degree of spoken fluency. Without at least one Ph.D under your belt, you are considered (I want to say "an idiot" but I won't) unqualified to utter the words, "I get it…" We live in an age that those in white coats are the final arbiters of truth.
  • Learning Spanish: The Natural Order Hypothesis - In second language acquisition research conducted in 1974-75, 1980 and 1987, it was postulated that the acquisition of grammatical forms followed a natural and predictable order. How this happens is contingent upon multiple factors. The learner's age and the learner's circumstances seemed not to be a significant influence on this natural order. Dr. Krashen makes the point that this does not mean some sort of curriculum should be devised based on this order.
  • Learning Spanish: The Affective Factor - The chief problem for most Americans who want to learn Spanish but who don't succeed is the Affective Factor. Plainly put, this means the emotional issues; that is, adults become freaked out at the thought.
  • Learning Spanish Part Nineteen: The Audiolingual Method - This method of second language instruction was a further development or evolution of The Direct Method. World War II rose up and slapped the U.S. government in its linguistically challenged face, waking it to the need and definite lack of language competency to deal with the other nations of the world. Apparently, the U.S. continues to find itself in this position with International conflicts. The lesson has to be relearned over and over again that bilingual fluency is crucial for Americans.
  • Learning Spanish Part Two : Some Solutions - “Foreign language learning is not something that happens overnight; it takes a commitment of time and money. U.S. schools compound the problem by waiting too long to start foreign language instruction. According to ACTFL Professional Programs Director Elvira Swender, U.S. students often start learning foreign languages at puberty, “an age at which their brains are least receptive to language learning.” Swender also notes the relative unimportance that schools assign to languages. “It doesn’t occur to anyone that we should wait to teach students math,” she points out, “so why do we wait with foreign languages?” Why has America always had this love-hate relationship with learning a second language?
  • Learning Spanish: Intercambios - What got me started on an Intercambio jag was learning how Mexicans in the tourist industry on Mexico's Gold Coast learn English and achieve an amazing level of proficiency.
  • Puffy Wet Lips - There's this guy who lives across the street from us who we have renamed Wet Lips. When we are in a really lighthearted mood, we refer to him as Puffy Wet Lips. This gomer is in his late 60's to early 70' and has a body like Mr. McGoo and lips like Angelina Jolie's. I mean they are two huge puffy red and unnatural things that look like a pair of slugs. I keep waiting for them to take off in a race around his little head at any moment.
  • Living In Mexico: Gringolandia Denial - I cannot begin to imagine what life must be like in isolated little enclaves where the inhabitants have only one another for socializing. In areas like Guanajuato that still have such few Gringolandians, the "Social Incest" (as the southeast Asian locals used to say the Americans there committed) must be incredibly horrid. At least in San Miguel de Allende there are enough Gringos (about 12,000) so one can avoid some and commune with others. In Guanajuato, that luxury is not yet open to the Gringo. Since they cannot speak Spanish, for the most part, they are forced to deal with one another.
  • Cyberstalking Is A Worldwide Problem - I live in a medium-sized central Mexican town called Guanajuato. Guanajuato is the capital of the state of Guanajuato. We moved here in 2003 for a multitude of reasons.
  • Living In Mexico: It's The Rainy Season And I'm Bored - We've been holed up in the house pretty much now for two weeks and counting. We venture out between downpours. Such is life in Central Mexico during the rainy season. Really, there has not been as much rain as we had last year by mid-June.
  • Not Knowing Spanish And Living In Mexico? A Dangerous Mix - If you happen to have an interest in expatriation and are targeting Mexico as a possibility, here is some of the banter you most certainly will read on the forums: "To Learn Spanish or Not To Learn Spanish, That is the Question!" I fall, of course, on the "You've got to learn Spanish" side of the fence. My main arguments in my columns have been that you can never, ever learn the culture of Mexico without the access to the Cultural Portal--the language! But, my arguments generally, not always, fall on deaf ears.
  • Learning Spanish: Begin By Listening - Part 5 - To maximize our brain's ability to store visual and auditory impressions in the target language, we must constantly, each day, create an atmosphere in which we are hearing and seeing the language we seek to acquire in an immersion situation. This is not only possible to do in a country in which the target language is not spoken but is being accomplished all the time.
  • Learning Spanish Part Eighteen: The Direct Method Of Language Instruction - Realizing that The Grammar Translation Method of second language instruction did not work to impart spoken proficiency in the target language, in the late 1800's, The Direct Method surfaced in language instruction. The need for a system that worked to teach spoken competence is what drove those to create The Direct Method. What it entailed was methods of language acquisition that were more closely related to how first (native) languages were acquired.
  • Learning Spanish Part Twenty-Two: Suggestopedia - Georgi Lozanov, a Bulgarian psychologist, introduced what he undoubtedly thought an original and brilliant premise: "… students naturally set up psychological barriers to learning - based on fears that they will be unable to perform and are limited in terms of their ability to learn." Anyone who has ever taught American Junior High school could have told him that. Adults, particularly, have what I call, "the embarrassment factor" when it come to learning a new language. The thought of losing face is a hindrance to learning a language. Lozanov held the idea that the human brain could retain and process much more if a more ideal learning environment (conditions) could be achieved. A kind of hypnosis-like hocus-pocus was thought to help the learner overcome self-perceived limitations.
  • Living In Mexico: Everyone Loves The Theater! - If you haven't been following my articles plastered all over the Internet, what I've been writing about with much alacrity is how life for the American expat in Mexico basically falls into two classifications. First, there are the Expats who actually live in the trenches. We live in Mexican neighborhoods and that's because we bothered to try to become bilingual.
  • Learning Spanish: Begin By Listening - Part 2 - The place most worth considering where instruction in how to learn a second language abounds just might surprise you.
  • Learning Spanish Part Twenty: The Silent Way Method - A most bizarre philosophy of education called "Discovery Learning," based partly on the educational ideas of Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Dewey, led to The Silent Way Method of Second Language acquisition. It also enjoyed the support of psycho-babblists (psychologists) Piaget, Bruner, and Papert. Seymour Papert said, "You can't teach people everything they need to know.
  • Learning Spanish Part Seventeen: The Translation Method Of Language Instruction - The grammar translation method of second language acquisition is virtually the only method used in most language courses taught in classrooms all over the world. It is also known as The Classical Method. This method was developed over centuries to teach classical languages. Latin and Greek were seen as important "dead languages" to learn in order to read ancient texts, understand the origins and basics of the grammar and vocabulary of modern languages as well as the influences Latin and Greek had on them.
  • Want To Succeed At Writing? You Need A Platform! - When I finished my book, "The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico," I sent queries to a number of publishers. On a lark, I queried McGraw-Hill. To my utter shock and awe, they wanted to look at the completed manuscript.
  • Mexico As A Concept And Not As A Reality Part 1 - Most, if not all, Americans who decide to move to Mexico to "get away from it all" seem to do so based on the merits of at least two books, a handful of websites, some seminars (in the Guadalajara area), and a host of chat rooms and forums whose themes are how wonderfully cheap, relaxing, easy, and convenient it will be living in Mexico.
  • Living In Mexico: Fight Well, Love Better - Though a conservative, I read liberal points of view. I do so for two reasons. One, their views help me refine my own. The second reason is that I owe it to "the other side" to be able to fairly and accurately characterize their position on an issue with which I take exception. Not to do so and then try to argue against that liberal position is dishonest, unfair, and unthinking.
  • Heading Back To Spanish Class--Again! - I am 19 days away from starting my Spanish classes-again! When the wife and I first moved to Mexico, we enrolled in Spanish classes. In fact, we took about four months of classes and after I completed them, I am proud to tell you I could say the following: Hi! My name is Doug. Hi! What's your name? Can I have a cheese sandwich? Which way is the bathroom, please! I took Spanish in high school, college, and for two years before moving to Mexico.
  • Learning Spanish Part Ten : Even More Horsing Around - There are two additional courses that I recommend. In fact, they are so effective that these, along with The Learnables, I credit with helping on my road to a high degree of spoken fluency. These courses are Pimsleur Spanish and Learning Spanish Like Crazy. Without this trio of courses I would not be where I am today linguistically living in Mexico for going on five years.
  • Learning Spanish: Begin By Listening - Part 6 - Most folks, when they set out to study a new language, begin by enrolling in Spanish I at their local Junior College. This is not the way to begin. In fact, the formal learning about the language in a course at the JuCo is about 5 years away from where you are at if you've had no experience at acquiring the target language. You begin by listening. You need this exposure to grow accustomed to the sounds of the language.
  • Want To Be Fluent In Spanish? Watch Cartoons! - I've enjoyed my return to Spanish class here in Guanajuato immensely. It's been a little strange because basically one ends up taking classes mainly with other Americans with a few other nationalities thrown in for good measure. I haven't been around my fellow Americans in so long that it's taken a bit of getting used to. In the last five years, I have actually forgotten social cues and topics of conversation within polite company. But, it's been fun, informative, and actually a confidence booster. It's been an encouragement to notice just how advanced I've become in my Spanish.
  • Learning Spanish Part Nine : Still Looking For That Horse - What do we know so far? We found the best approach to language learning is to learn Spanish the very same way you learned your native tongue. Lots and lots of intensive listening without speaking comes first. This is how you learned your native language. This is how children instinctively approach learning a second language. By the time speaking comes, you will have mastered the fundamentals of the target language.
  • Want To Retire Or Work In Mexico? You'd Better Read This! - Let me shoot straight from the hip. No fancy introductions to this article, no witty sayings, no clever expressions, no wildly used adjectives. Just plain talk about what you will find if you are planning your retirement in Mexico or if you are coming here to work. You will find two basic groups of expatriates in Mexico.
  • There's No Reality, Only Perceptions - It has occurred to me lately just how the filters through which we see and read events determine how we evaluate and react to them.
  • The Gringolandizing Of Mexico-pt 1 - The literature that exists in book form and especially in online newsletters and magazines presents to the "Move-To-Mexico Wannebee" Mexico as an Image and not Mexico as it Really Is. I found an excellent example of this in an email featuring a popular living-in-Mexico magazine that appeals to the potential expat to Mexico.
  • When Gringos Attack - I thought I would write another article about a subject that's been near and dear to my heart since the wife and I moved to Central Mexico.
  • Learning Spanish Part Three : Why Acquire A Second Language? - Why should an American learn a foreign language in the 21st century? What and where is the need? If we are not connected in close proximity to our International Neighbors, as are Europeans, then why should Americans learn another language? Why should Americans learn Spanish? Spanish is the most commonly spoken foreign language by America’s largest immigrant group.
  • Learning Spanish Part Six : More On Conversation Classes - Think about this very seriously for a moment. If you have children, just think what degree of spoken fluency your child had when you first packed him off to first grade. Think of all he could understand and say before he ever started his formal education. When your child was 6 years old, he or she had already achieved a high degree of spoken fluency and you didn’t have to enroll him in a “Total Immersion” course in order for him to achieve fluency. He could understand and use prepositions and other parts of speech long before he ever learned what a “part of speech” even was.

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