Spanish Courses For Kids
Spanish courses designed for kids teach kids Spanish in an interesting and easy approach. It doesn’t go into grammar and syntax in a direct manner. Kids, like a lot of adults, would be bored very quickly if they had to laboriously conjugate regular and irregular Spanish verbs. Spanish for kids avoids all that, but still manages to teach children 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 are able to learn it. A five-year-old could learn pretty good Spanish in a matter of a few 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 learn.
Children can learn Spanish quickly. They soon realized 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 half a dozen different ways, in Spanish the pronunciation is clear, straightforward and phonetic.
Generally, 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 gets 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 instance 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 should be fun. Remember, it won’t have been too long ago that they started to learn English. This is why kids they are able to adapt so fast; they are always learning so much daily that another language is something they take in their stride without batting an eyelid.
If you are teaching a child who have not learnt how to read yet, then you should make them engage all their senses, as much as possible, to learn the language. Computers are great for this in numerous ways as they can look at diagrams and animations as well as hearing the language.
Employ the family pet as well. Your children will be amused to call the dog “un perro,” or the cat “un gato.” Needless to say, they have to 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 are first exposed to Spanish, the quicker they will be able to master it. If the learning process is fun, children would not treat it as a tedious task that they need to go through. Also, teach them useful phrases, such as, “may I have a glass of milk?” (¿Puede darme un vaso de leche?), and begin using them in every day speech. They will take to it naturally. Spanish lessons for kids can be easy and fun too.
Related Articles