Monthly Archives: July 2013

10 tips for teaching languages to dyslexic learners

Published July 31, 2013 | By Fiona

Over the past ten years I’ve taught several students who have been dyslexic. Although learning a language is challenging for everyone, it can be particularly daunting for people with a learning disability. However, if you adapt general language learning techniques it has been proven that even those with dyslexia can learn to communicate effectively in another language.

Here are some tips for helping people with dyslexia learn a language: Continue reading →

Posted in Spanish Learning Tips | Tagged Teaching languages to dyslexic learners

Spanish Idioms using “Estar” (to be)

Published July 30, 2013 | By Fiona

One of the interesting parts of learning a new language is seeing how it compares to your own language. It is interesting to see the similarities and differences when using idiomatic expressions in another language. Here are some common phrases that use “estar” (the temporary/situational verb for “to be”):

Estar todavía en pañales – To still be in nappies/naïve
Estar como pez en el agua – To be like a fish in water (To be in one’s element, enjoy your own comforts)
Estar como agua para chocolate – To be like water for chocolate (To be at boiling point) Continue reading →

Posted in Spanish Language | Tagged Spanish idioms using "estar"

Spanish Market Development

Published July 20, 2013 | By Fiona

Press, Communication and Marketing

“In 2013, corporations must invest more wisely and strategically in the Hispanic consumer – who are not only early adopters of social media and mobile device use, but are now translating their superstar status into super-consumers via social and tablet shopping. In doing so, Hispanic consumers have become super-trendsetters.” – Glenn Llopis, who wrote the Forbes magazine article, “Advertisers must pay attention to Hispanic consumers as rising trendsetters”, (9th January 2013).

There are 26 Spanish-speaking countries in the world and 469 million speakers. Companies need to make sure their products are understandable for Spanish-speaking consumers and no legal issues may arise for using unsuitable terms or concepts. We can assist in the market research stage and investigate the industry and competitors to help you identify new business opportunities in the Spanish-speaking world. Continue reading →

Posted in Learning Spanish Online, South America, Spanish Business | Tagged Spanish Business

Medellin, Colombia, the most innovative city in the world

Published July 17, 2013 | By Sophie Jarman

Medellin is known by its residents as the ‘City of Eternal Spring’ due to its warm weather and cool nights all year round. Now maybe they will add on to that description the fact that it is also currently the world’s most innovative city. Continue reading →

Posted in South America | Tagged Colombia, Medellin

Spanish nouns (III) – Exceptions!

Published July 12, 2013 | By Fiona

As nearly always with learning grammar there are exceptions to the general rules. With nouns in Spanish try to remember the following changes:

Nouns that end in –o that are feminine:

There are words that appear to be masculine from their -o ending but they are feminine.
Often these words have been shortened:

la radio [is orginially from “la radiografía”] (radio)
la foto [la fotografía] (photograph)
la moto [la motocicleta] (motorbike) Continue reading →

Posted in Spanish Grammar help, Spanish Language | Tagged Spanish nouns exceptions

Spanish nouns (II) – Patterns to watch out for

Published July 9, 2013 | By Fiona

As explained in the previous blog post, words that end in –o are classed as masculine and words that end in –a are feminine. What about words ending in other letters? Although this is more tricky because they can be either masculine or feminine. there are patterns to watch out for. If you can remember them, you can quickly work out if a word is masculine or feminine. Here are the main patterns to watch out for: Continue reading →