Sunday 7 August 2011

What are you doing . . . right now?

Here's an exercise I find very useful, whether it's while I'm driving to work, wandering around the shops or waiting in a queue at a favourite takeaway.
Talk to yourself.
It doesn't have to out loud, but it's probably more effective that way.
Now, I'm not referring to tables of verb conjugations, or anything else that you might be trying to crowbar into your brain, ready for your next lesson.
I'm talking about description.
Think about what you're doing at this exact moment, and try and figure out how you would describe it in Spanish. Or if you're in a situation where you're not actually doing much, like sitting on a train, look out of the window, and try and describe what you can see. Alternatively, if you've progressed to where you're using the past tense, imagine you're telling someone what you did last night, last week, or during your holidays.

I find that, apart from the practise of composing sentences,it's a great diagnostic tool for identifying words that you might use in normal daily life, that you don't actually know the Spanish equivalents for, so have your dictionary ready, or at least a notepad, so you can look the words up later.

You'll probably also find that this encourages you to find ways around words you don't know. Some of your constructions might be a little clumsy, or outlandish, to begin with, but we're talking about communication,not works of literature, so don't be afraid to be creative ;¬)

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