Fun Facts About Spanish

Here are some interesting facts about Spanish. They vary from the rates of use of verb tenses to "false friends" (or words that kind of look the same in Spanish and English, but mean different things.) I will periodically update this page as I find more. Feel free to make suggestions!

Random Tidbits:
 - El esposo = husband, la esposa = wife, las esposas = wives, los esposas = handcuffs
 - Trabajar (to work) comes from the Latin word tripalium, which was a form of torture
 - Most verbs in English have 2 conjugations** (excluding compound forms), most verbs in Spanish have 53 conjugations (excluding compound forms)
 - English has about 200,000 words, Spanish has about 100,000 words
 - On average, a text in Spanish is 15% longer than its equivalent in English.

False Friends:
 - Embarazada means "pregnant", not "embarrassed".
 - Carpeta means "folder", not "carpet".
 - Emocionado means "excited", not "emotional".
 - Molestar means "to bother", not "to molest".
 - Éxito means "success", not "exit".
 - Bombero means "firefighter", not "bomber".
 - Constipación means "a cold", not "constipated".
 - Gracioso means "funny", not "gracious".
 - Grocería means "rudeness", not "grocery store".
 - Mama means "breast", not "mom".
 - Papa means "potato", not "dad".
 - Bebe means "he/she/you/it drinks", not "baby".
 - Preservativo means "condom", not "preservative".
 - Revolver means "to turn over", not "revolver".
 - Sobre means "over, on, above", not "sober".
 - Sopa means "soup", not "soap".
 - Trampa means "trap, cheat", not "tramp".

Tense usage (Bull (1947) found the following tense frequencies across several genres of written Spanish):
 - 34.496% Present indicative (hablo)
 - 19.623% Infinitive (hablar)
 - 14.310% Preterite indicative (hablé)
 - 11.303% Imperfect indicative (hablaba)
 - 4.110% Gerund (hablado)
 - 3.554% Present subjunctive (hable)
 - 2.606% Present perfect indicative (he hablado)
 - 2.268% Future indicative (hablaré)
 - 2.220% Imperative (¡hable!)
 - 1.965% Past subjunctive (hablara/hablase)
 - 1.600% Conditional perfect (habría hablado)
 - 1.535% Conditional (hablaría)
 - 1.091% Past perfect indicative (había hablado)
 - 0.406% Past perfect subjunctive (hubiera hablado)
 - 0.284% Perfect infinitive (haber hablado)
 - 0.154% Present perfect subjunctive (haya hablado)
 - 0.098% Future perfect indicative (habré hablado)
 - 0.005% Preterite perfect (hube hablado)
 - 0.003% Future subjunctive (hablare)
* So, if you know the present indicative, infinitive, preterit and imperfect tenses, you will be able to understand approximately 79.732% of the verb conjugations you encounter.
** See Bauer and Nation 1993.

Extra Credit

Want some extra points? Here's all the info for my classes:

OJO: The total number of XP you can receive for a semester from Extra Credit cannot exceed 5% of the maximum number of XP possible in a course for that class (see the course Syllabus). (e.g. if your course's maximum number of XP is 2000, then you cannot earn more than 100 XP from Extra Credit.)

Here are the Extra Credit opportunities that are currently available:

Approved Quests:
- Report an Issue (bug) with a Course. (No limit.)

- Only bugs reported after a class officially starts will be considered for XP.

- Before you report an issue, please look through the announcements on Blackboard to see if anyone else has already reported this issue.

- If no one else has already reported the issue, please report the issue using this link.

- To be eligible for XP, the issue cannot be something that is inherently temporary (e.g. Blackboard being down.)

- Your report must be detailed (so that I can clearly understand what the problem is and where it is located.)

- If applicable, the inclusion of screenshots would be very much appreciated.

- Once I have confirmed the issue, I will reward you the XP and email you to let you know.

- You will receive 10 XP for each bug you are the first to properly report.

- Attend Spanish Club Meetings. (No limit.)

- Spanish use: You must actually speak at least a little in Spanish during Spanish Club Meeting to get credit.

- Attendance: Take a selfie of yourself at the meeting to confirm attendance.
- You will receive 10 XP for each time you attend and actively participate in Spanish Club Meeting. Send me an email telling me what you said in Spanish, how the meeting went, and including your selfie at the meeting.

- Attend Spanish Club Activity. (No limit.)

- Spanish use: You must actually speak at least a little in Spanish during Spanish Club Activity.

- Attendance: Make sure that the facilitator has recorded your name and that you are there for my class so that you can get your credit.
- You will receive XP varies for each activity. I will send out an email with the specific point value for each activity. Please be sure the facilitator knows you are there for my class so that they let me know.

- Use one of the Free Tutoring Options. (No limit.)

- Spanish use: You must actually use the tutor for tutoring to get credit. For example - studying for a test, practicing a grammar point, etc.

- Duration: The tutoring session must last at least 15 minutes.

- Report: If you are using one of the local tutors, please have them email me to confirm your tutoring session so that I can give you credit. In their email they should mention what you worked on. If you used tutor.com, please take a screenshot which includes a chat message from the tutor confirming that they worked with you on something for at least 15 minutes. In their message it should indicate what you worked on.
- You will receive 10 XP for each time you meet with a tutor.

- Propose a MAGE. (No limit.)

- MAGEs are online tools that provide a randomly generated game environment for the purpose of language practice in a communicative environment in the classroom.

- You can see several examples of MAGEs created by Dr. Agon here.

- If you find a MAGE that is NOT on Dr. Agon's page, you can submit a link to it here and you will still receive the minimum credit for it.

- If you are submitting a new idea, your idea must be clearly explained and must be original.

- To be acceptable, your proposal must meet the following requirements:

- It must be for a language practice activity (think of the different grammar and vocabulary points we are covering / have covered in class. What kind of game could we play as a class with them?)

- It must be communicative, which means that the players must have to use the language, there can't just be a right or wrong answer, there needs to be guessing or something involved. (Like Guess Who?)

- It must be for a game / activity that can be played by the entire class with the content on one central screen (projector screen).

- The content must be randomizable (e.g. a grid of random pictures).

- The content on the screen should be language-independent (e.g. only pictures)

- It cannot be a MAGE that has already been created.

- You will receive 10 - 50 XP for each proposed MAGE that meets these requirements. The exact amount received will depend on my subjective evaluation of the merit of your idea.

- Review a product or business online in Spanish. (Limit 2 per semester.)

- Pre-approval: You must email me beforehand with the following:

- A link to the site where you wish to make the review (e.g. a product's page on Amazon*, Best Buy, Walmart, etc., or a local business, school, church, etc. through Google or Yahoo, etc.)

- The id under which you will be making the review.

- After you get approval, do the review:

 - Your review must contain grammar and/or vocabulary from the target quiz or test.

- You may NOT use an online translator or help from another person in writing your review. (Though you are allowed to have someone help you proof-read it AFTER you have written it.)

- Your review must be of sufficient quality (this will be subjectively determined by myself).
- Span 1113 reviews should be at least 50 words long. Span 1123 reviews should be at least 100 words long. Span 2*** reviews should be at least 200 words long. Span 3*** and Span 4*** reviews should be at least 400 words long.

- Content may not be "borrowed" or translated.

- You must complete the review at least a week before classes end.

- After the review:

- Email me the link to the review.

- If your review is approved you will earn 20 XP.

- Email me the link to an online Spanish music video of a song that was originally created and popularized in English. (Limit 5 per semester.)

- Videos must be freely available and must not require a special account in order to view them.

- Songs must be sung in Spanish.
- Songs must have captions in Spanish.
- Songs must have captions in English of translations of Spanish captions.

- Videos and music must be of professional quality.

- Videos and lyrics must be rated PG (e.g. modest dress code and no suggestive dancing).

- Links to videos already on the list "Canciones con capciones en ambos idiomas" on this page will not be approved (but feel free to find ones for any of the other lists of songs!)

- In your email you must mention one phrase sung in the video and how it illustrates / is an example of something that we've covered in class.

- If your submission is approved you will earn 10 XP.

- Create, perform, and record a skit or music video in Spanish, and then post it online and caption it. (Limit 1 per semester.)

- Videos must be posted in a public forum so they are easily accessible by the general public without the need to create an account (e.g. on YouTube as "public").
- Videos must be between 2 and 4 minutes in length.
- Captions must contain at least 222 words in Spanish, must match what is said/sung, and must contain good grammar and vocabulary.
- The video and transcript must be PG.
- You must email me a link to the video on YouTube, along with a note explaining how something we have covered in class is present in the video.
- The student(s) wanting the extra credit must speak/sing in the video. Extra credit will be divided up by me among the students according to how much of the speaking/singing they did. (e.g. if one student did 60% of the talking, one did 10%, and one did 50%, that is how I will divide up the extra credit.)
- The video must be easily understood and of sufficient quality. (As determined subjectively by myself.)
- Copying appropriate skits/music videos is perfectly acceptable, as long as that particular skit/music video doesn't already exist in Spanish. (e.g. skits from Studio C, Brian Regan, Saturday Night Live, etc.)
- What is said must make sense. (i.e. The ¿Qué hora es? videos and the First Semester of Spanish - Spanish Love Song would not qualify.)
- If your skit is approved you can earn up to 50 XP for each participant (depending on quality).

- Give a public presentation in Spanish, or about a Hispanic topic. (No limit.)

- You must get approval ahead of time for your presentation to count.
- Possibilities include presenting at the Visions Conference, Undergraduate Research Day, etc.
- You must provide confirmation that you will be presenting by emailing a copy of the program.
- Afterwards, you must provide confirmation that you actually presented by emailing a picture of you giving your presentation.
- You can get up to 50 XP for each presentation (depending on the nature of your presentation.)

- Create an Interactive Fiction that uses exclusively grammar and vocabulary covered up to this point this semester. (No limit.)

- You must get approval ahead of time for your Interactive Fiction idea (where it will be hosted, what the story will be about).
- The resulting activity must be freely accessible online without having to create an account. For example, on Twine.
- The grammar and vocabulary employed in the Interactive Fiction must be thoroughly proofed.
- The story must be engaging.
- After you have finished creating the Interactive Fiction, you must email me the link. I will play it at least twice, choosing different options.
- You must also allow me to see all the content (everything you wrote). This can be by giving me direct access to the Interactive Fiction, or by providing me with a blueprint for it.
- You can get up to 50 XP or for each Interactive Fiction you prepare (depending on its quality and how big it is.)

- With a partner or small group, watch a movie dubbed in Spanish or read a book in Spanish. Then, make a video of you all discussing the movie or book in Spanish. (No limit.)

- You must email me a list of who will be participating and the book or movie you will be doing for permission ahead of time.

- Videos must be posted in a public forum so they are easily accessible by the general public without the need to create an account (e.g. on YouTube as "public").
- Your discussion should last at least one minute for each participant. (e.g. if there are two of you, it should last at least 2 minutes).
- Each person seeking extra credit should participate equally in the discussion.
- Each person must mention at least one interesting thing about the Spanish used in the movie or book.
- The amount of extra credit awarded will be decided on an individual basis, based on their participation in the video.
- The discussion must be entirely in Spanish, though if the book or movie used names in English, those are permitted.
- The discussion should be that, a discussion. The participants should not read from a script or notes. They can practice ahead of time and briefly refer to notes, but the video itself should not have any reading.
- All participants must be fully visible during the entire video. (Overlays are acceptable.)
- The video must be PG, even if the original book or movie is not.
- The video and audio must be of sufficiently high quality (as determined subjectively by myself.)
- Optional: Inclusion of carefully edited captions will result in more extra credit. (Email me info on who did them.)
- Once the video is ready, email me the link.
- You can get up to 20 XP or for each participant for each for each movie / book discussion video you prepare (depending on its quality and how much you contribute to the discussion.)

If you have an idea for another Extra Credit opportunity you think I should offer, keep in mind that I will only consider ideas that meet the following requirements:

Requirements for Quests:
1. Language Use: The activity must require an appropriate amount of use of Spanish (e.g. not much for foundational Spanish courses, a lot for intermediate and advanced Spanish courses.)
2. Beneficial: The activity must benefit the learner (contribute to enjoyment of the language/lifelong learning), the local community, and/or the university.
3. Verifiable: There must be a way to verify that a student has completed the activity (e.g. a sign-in sheet).
4. Free: The activity cannot require expense on the part of the learner or the instructor.
5. No Double Dipping: This cannot be an activity that is being completed for any other course at the university.
6. Universality: The activity must be one that can be completed with equal ease by all students.

Here are some ideas that I'm considering, but haven't yet approved:

Considered Quests:
- There are no submitted ideas currently under consideration. If you have an idea, submit it!

Here are some ideas that I have rejected:

Rejected Quests:
- Homework-like activities. These do not comply with Beneficial. Basically all they do is give me more to grade. I highly encourage doing these types of activities in order to help you master the language, but they have no other value. (Examples include making a family tree, researching a Spanish-speaking country, and writing an essay.)
- Create a social media profile in Spanish. This does not comply with Beneficial. Who would visit your social media site in Spanish when they can just visit your "real" site in English?

This post is primarily a place for my own students to make suggestions; but I welcome any and all comments and suggestions!

*If the product on Amazon is not an explicitly Spanish product, then you may need to write your review in English and then underneath (in the same review) write it in Spanish.

How to Foster a Little Healthy Group Competition

One of the teaching methodologies that I am a big fan of is called Gamification. In gamification you take principles, tools, and strategies that make games successful and apply them into a non-game setting in order to hopefully boost its success. For example, you can take the idea of competition between players and apply it in the classroom.

Now, granted, this isn't new ground. After all, teachers have been playing Jeopardy with their students for years. Ah, but what if you took the concept of a Leaderboard and used that in the classroom? And what if you made it a little more interesting by making the competition last a while and have some form of tangible reward? Now your students will really start to pay attention!

Okay, so here's what I do. At the beginning of each semester I randomly divide each class into groups and have them name their groups. Each group has a score that is always available to the students on our course leaderboard (a google chart fed from a google spreadsheet and inserted into a google site). Here is an example of what they see:

Group scores can increase and decrease in several ways. Each time we have a quiz, test, lab, etc. I average the scores for each group and each group gets that number of points. Each time we have a game in class, the final score for each group for that game is added to their group score. Each time a student is absent or tardy, their group score drops. Finally, I give out points for other things that suit my fancy. For example, if a student finds a mistake in the textbook or on our course website, they get some points.

I have groups stay together for 1/4th to 1/3rd of each semester (depending on how many tests we have each semester), and then they are dissolved and new groups are formed. When the groups are about to be dissolved, I announce the winning group, and give each member of that group a small prize that they have picked (usually a $3 thing of candy). It may not seem like much, but a lot of students REALLY get into the competition. Several times I've had students make comments like: "I hate Spanish, but I'll be darned if I don't do my homework so that we can get the homework points for our group!"

And best of all, using the google chart, spreadsheet, site combo is easy and FREE! :D Of course, the candy isn't, but you could always pick some other reward system that is. (My students keep begging me to make their group scores count as extra credit for their course grades. So far I haven't caved.)

Random Sentence Generator using Excel

When my students come up to me to ask how they can practice making sentences, one of the things I always suggest is to just randomly pick some words from the chapter's vocabulary list and make a sentence out of them. Then they can come to me, or go to a tutor, and have the sentence evaluated for content and form. But somehow students seem to think that the process of randomly selecting sentence pieces doesn't make sense. To help them understand the concept I've created the Random Sentence Generator using Excel. There are two versions of this tool. The first generates a list of random words in Spanish that the students should then combine into a sentence, and the second generates a random list of words in English, that the students then need to translate into Spanish and then combine into a sentence. (Here is a copy of a Random Sentence Generator of the second type.) I've used these Random Sentence Generators several times in class and students really seem to like them! They especially have fun when the randomly generated list of words makes absolutely no sense, so they have to get creative! When we use this tool in class I usually provide them with four or five different lists of words, and then give them a few minutes to create their sentences, and finally I have them write their sentences on the board so that we can go over them as a class.

Technical Stuff:
The way the generator works is fairly straightforward. Put each vocabulary category into a single column. Then, use the formula:

=INDEX(Table14[Name],1+INT(RAND()*COUNTA(Table14[Name])))

Example (for a list of words contained in cells A11 through A20):

=INDEX(A$11:A$20,1+INT(RAND()*COUNTA(A$11:A$20)))

to have a word randomly selected from each column each time you refresh.

Shooter Safety Game (Brainstorm)

So I was sitting through another really boring orientation meeting about how to react when there is an active shooter on campus and I thought to myself. Someone should make a game for this! You could have all the different situations and have the player react to them, and if they make a mistake they die!

Is anyone aware of any such game that's already out there? If so, please link it in the comments!

Chaboonary

One of the learning activities that I enjoy doing with my students (and which they enjoy as well, as far as I can tell) is something that I affectionately call Chaboonary. Basically, it is a hodgepodge of Charades, Taboo, and Pictionary. Chaboonary is a simple vocabulary review game that can be played with zero prep time.

To play Chaboonary, divide the class into groups. Then have one student at a time come to the front of the class. (I usually rotate through the groups, but you can also just call them randomly.) Pick a word from the vocabulary list at the back of the textbook chapter and show it to the student (who will almost invariably moan and say that that was the one word that they were hoping you wouldn't pick). The student then has one minute to try and get someone to guess what the word was (more on this shortly). The team that correctly guesses the word gets 5 points.

The student has four different approaches that they can use to try and get their peers to guess the word (one from each source game, and then the mix-and-match option):

Speaking: The student can try to explain the word using circumlocution. They are not allowed to use any words on the vocabulary page (including words like "noun").

Drawing/writing: The student can write, draw anything on the chalkboard/whiteboard. The same restrictions on which words can be written apply as those for which words can be spoken.

Acting: Students more inclined to movement can act out the word.

Mix-and-match: Students are allowed to mix-and-match any of the previous techniques. One of the favorite ways that students will do this is to draw something, point emphatically at it, and say something like: "The opposite of this."

I developed this approach because I had found that whenever I tried to do a quick vocabulary review using the framework of just one of the source games that there were invariably students who would complain and zone-out. (I.e. less artistic students did not enjoy playing pictionary.) With the Chaboonary approach this issue is eliminated.

Enjoy!

How to get good grades in college foreign language courses

The purpose of this post is to help students have a better idea of what they can do in order to get good grades in college foreign language courses regardless of their aptitude with foreign languages. Although some of the information in this post is repeated from earlier posts, there is also new content that I believe will be helpful. Much of this content is also generalizable to other courses, and even to other levels (such as high school), but I've found that many of my own students were not familiar with these ideas, or at least the benefits of their application.

Let's start with some general things that will help with grades in any course at any level:

1. Go to class. Research has found that even if your attendance does not directly affect your grade (i.e. your grade doesn't get dinged if you skip), it will be correlated with your grade. (See for example Gunn 1993)
2. Do your homework. Research has also found that even if your homework does not directly affect your grade (i.e. the homework is not graded), it will be correlated with your grade. (See for example Cooper et al. 2006)
3. Eat right. Healthy eating habits have been shown to correlate with better grades. (See for example this report)
4. Get good sleep. Sufficient sleep has been correlated with better grades. (See for example Curcio et al. 2006)
5. Exercise. Regular physical activity has been correlated with better grades. (See for example Singh et al. 2012)

Now let's move on to college foreign language courses. Basically, this section has to do with working on the "Four Skills" beyond how you are already supposed to be practicing them:

1. Listening (you are trying to improve your ability to tell where words begin and end, and to pick out general meaning from context). I recommend that you watch your favorite movies dubbed in the language. This approach has several advantages: It's simple and easy (so you are more likely to do it). You already know the basic ideas behind what is being said (so you will understand more). You will enjoy the movies (so you will practice more).
2. Speaking (you are trying to make pronunciation, vocabulary selection, and grammar as natural as possible). The best way to practice is to simply speak in the language as much as possible in class. In the beginning this will mostly consist of you using words and phrases in the target language within sentences in your native language. For example: "Could I borrow a boligrafo?" This is great! Who cares if no one else (possibly even your instructor) is using the new language? And don't worry about perfection. This is practice we're talking about.
3. Reading (you are trying to pick out more detailed meaning than with listening). Read books that are below your regular reading level that you have already read and enjoyed in your native language (for adults I usually suggest that they pick up books that they enjoyed in their middle school / high school years). One popular approach is to read the book in both languages at the same time, switching back and forth at chapter boundaries.
4. Writing (you are trying to use the grammar and vocabulary that you are being taught). Write sentences using randomly selected grammar and vocabulary that you are covering in class. Then have someone (such as your instructor) look over your sentences and correct them. This works especially well if you provide them with a rubric (e.g. give me 5 points for using the grammar in the right way, 2 points for spelling correctly, 3 points for using vocabulary words correctly, etc.), and then having them score you and then see if you can improve your score each time.