Spanish 1-2 is the first course of Spanish you will take. What is exciting about this class is that you will learn something new every day and little by little, you will begin to understand, to speak, read and write Spanish.
Spanish is spoken by over 400,000+ million people throughout the world. Knowing Spanish opens up almost all of Latin America, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Spain and even Equatorial Guinea for travel and learning.
What are the benefits of learning another language?
Learning another language also opens up one’s brains to learning other languages and to a lot of the difficult vocabulary of science because Spanish is based in Latin. Someone who knows Spanish can learn French, Portuguese (the Portugal and Brazil varieties), Italian and other Latin based languages. Knowing Spanish helps students do better on the SAT and the ACT because it’s easier to figure out words that have Latin roots. Learning Spanish, or any language, changes your brain and makes it more flexible and better able to solve more complex problems. Why? All languages are reflected in the brain structure of native speakers. Superimpose another brain structure from another language and connections are made making your brain more powerful. Also, knowing English and Spanish will make it a lot easier to learn a third language because the skills required to learn a language are the same as those needed to learn any other language. In sum, learning a second language is good for you no matter how you look at it, but living in Southern California, the usefulness of Spanish is obvious with Mexico just two and a half hours away and a lot of Latin America not all that much further away!
Another reason to know other languages is that it protects your brain if you use it regularly from degradation in your old age. People who speak two or more languages have full control of their mind longer than people who only speak one language.
What to expect
I will work hard to make sure that we learn something new every day that is connected to real world needs. We will also have some fun in the process. Of course, there will be things we’ll need to buckle down to study, but everything we do is aimed at helping students learn how to use the language in real world situations.
It is critical that students in a language class be focused on learning the language at all times while in class. Doing all the work that is assigned both in class and as homework results in good grades. Students who spend their class time talking about things in English, who don’t pay attention and don’t do the work that is assigned end up with less than good grades. The first year of any language is critical to success in future years, so working hard in Spanish 1-2 this year will make your class next year easier.