Thanks for the info Vagabond. I'll look into cheaper options.
I foxed that one, the temp company sent in a bunch or workers and they were assigned to my line. I was told all spoke English, HA, 2 days of my complaining that these people I was suppose to train could not speak English and the boss man saying they could, I headed for Barns& Nobel and the children's section. There I picked up Spanish learning tapes for Kids not Adults. Grades 0 to 2.
Teaching children to speak a language be it the Mother tongue or another is much the same in most cultures. Do any of you remember singing the Alphabet song, as a kid????? Why is it a 3 year old can sing the words to a song they hear played about the house often and at times repeat a word spoken in anger??? My first learned the word shit when I tripped over a vaccum cleaner. She passed that on to her younger siblings.
So I brought the tapes and played the age 0 first. The sound of a running faucet and the Spanish word for water.
I sort of compaired to teaching Helen Keller to understand through touch the world around her.
So on the tape went, sounds first then the Spanish word. Nothing complex just to associate words with sounds.
First 2 listening to only 30 minutes I could go to work and just using one word and allot of hand gestures give the workers a short break at the water fountain. Came break and I could just use one word or too ---- To eat that also includes drinking to let the workers know their break had arrived. Hand motions helped, to mimic breaking something and just one word to let the workers know
Much I learned to recognise when the workers were talking among themselves. There is so much in English that cannot be translated into their own language that the English word has to be used. Then the foreign words we use in English. Every one over the age of 15 has heard the word Gringo, then the curse words but no country yet has been able to beat English with the F word and the one finger salute.
The last hour of so of the tape was MUSIC. All the words used before had been placed in a catching songs. You know like the music and song from an ad that gets into the brain and drives us crazy.
I never got to the next tape for the 5 year olds, I was really feeling good about myself and finally on a 3 year old vocabulary instruct them and they UNDERSTOOD me.
Came to work one day and THEY were gone. The next group to come in were Cambodians, YIKES, One worker became my Angel, spoke English and guided me into the Phonetic pronouncing of the word. Not the spelling or written word, just the Pronouncing of the word. They stayed 3 weeks.
Had the Latinos stayed a year with us I would have been able to master the language some what. Once they were gone there was no one I could practice with those that spoke Spanish, or any of the 50+ derivatives of it.
By the way Panama has Portuguese as does Brazil as a common language.
The most important thing is to find someone you see every day that wants to learn with you, to try to learn a language by yourself is difficult at best. Think back on how you as a child learned English, pause a moment to remember what were your child's first words, Mama, daddy, so learn the same in what ever language you wish to learn, on to your child learning to request their bottle or a drink of water. -----BY BY and a hand wave placed the idea that someone was going away. Mind connection to a word and an action is the key.
Want to really learn another language, the kid tapes are the best way to start, Darn I speak English and if a split infinitive and a dangling partsable were to sneak up on me in the night, ------Clean up in Master Bed room, Verb and Noun now engaged in fight over who comes first.
By the way I tried this on Hubby, used words in Spanish to force him into learning with me. Table has food to take . Disaster, if one has no interest in learning new words, don't force them. One time I tried to request him to head out to buy us some Avocados, He as a Boston Irishman thought I wanted a new car. He spent hours in car lots looking for some kind of car that he could not pronounce after 30 minutes or so.
Remember the Nova, nice fun car -----Unfortunately if I had asked him in Spanish to head for the junk yard and find a Chevie Nova we could rebuild, he would have come with Lords knows what ------Here she is, she no go.
