Learning Spanish is hard!

Have you ever said or thought that? Or how about "Spanish is so confusing! That sentence doesn't make sense to me". I have heard statements such as these made by students over the years. One response I have for this is "If you think Spanish is hard and confusing, you should try learning English as a second language!" We are blessed to have English as our native language. Learning to read, write, and speak English as a second language is harder than you think! Let's take a look at a few example of just how confusing English can be. As you read, imagine being a native speaker of another language and trying to learn some of these concepts for the first time.

Learning Vocabulary and Phrases

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? Why do we say that your house can burn up as it burns down or that you fill in a form by filling it out? In the English language, why does an alarm clock goes off by coming on? Why is it said that people recite lines at a play and play at a recital? Why do we ship by truck and send cargo by ship, have noses that run and feet that smell, and park on driveways and drive on parkways?

Analyzing Sentences 

1 ) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2 ) The farm was used to produce produce.
3 ) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4 ) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5 ) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
6 ) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
7 )  A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
8.) After a number of injections my jaw got number.

Why study Spanish?

This post is open to both Fifth and Sixth graders. 

This year in Spanish class you are building on previous knowledge to begin to read, write, and communicate orally in the Spanish language. This is a very exciting process that will continue for years before you can say that you have finally "arrived" at Spanish language fluency. However, it is easy to study a language (or some other trade) for years and never come to the place where you use it and it "sticks" with you. In the coming weeks we will talk about ways to make Spanish "sticky, but now it is your turn to respond:


 Why is learning Spanish important? What subject/activities/hobbies have become "sticky" to you and why?

Ayuda Billy Bob

Sixth Graders Using the verb phrase "Tener Que +Verb", please comment in Spanish on the following situation: Billy Bob is a new student to sixth grade at Christ Methodist and he is feeling very nervous about starting the year late. Please help him out by offering some helpful advice that he can follow to have a successful year. Post your sentence in Spanish using Tener que + Verb format discussed in class and state ONE thing that he will need to do. Please do not list several tips or post more than once until everyone in sixth grade has had a chance to respond. 


Last day to post is October 14th.

¿Cómo es?

Alright, Fifth Graders! It's your turn-- let's create a thread telling how Justin Bieber is using the verb SER. Remember- just post ONE sentence using ONE adjective. Use your notes from class and your Spanish dictionary-- NO ONLINE TRANSLATORS! 
¡Vámanos!

Last day to post has been extended to October 11!

Students, make sure what you want to say has not already been posted.

Memphis tiene...

Sixth Graders- Let's practice Tener! We are going to create a thread telling what Memphis has. Please post your comments of this post, stating one thing that Memphis has in Spanish. You will have to view the comments of your other classmates in order to not post the same thing. I will combine all sentences into a paragraph and we will discuss them later in class. I've written the first sentence for you, please add on with more details! 

The deadline to complete this is September 26!


Initial post: Memphis tiene un rio.

Sacrifice! Sacrifice!

Ok ok, estudiantes! As promised, I am finally responding to all the overwhelming requests to talk about the oh-so controversial topic from  Aztec and Mayan culture- human sacrifice. As many of you may remember from our third grade Mexico study, the Aztec and Maya practiced human sacrifice and almost any innocent person could become a victim. For example, if you lost a ballgame of Tlatchtli or if you were chosen by an aztec leader, you could find yourself facing beheading or worse...


Sounds pretty brutal, huh? Well, before I continue with this sacrifice, lets talk about another sacrificial system. In the Old Testament, God gave the Israelites a unique system of sacrifice that would be used to cover the sins of that nation. A person would bring an animal offering to the priest and the innocent animal would be killed on behalf of the guilty. In the book of Hebrews (verse 10:4), it says that the blood of animals could never take away our sins. Under this Old Testament system, sins were only covered for a temporary period of time. However, these rituals provided types and shadows of the real sacrifice that would come one day and take all sin away forever, never to be repeated again. Do you know who I am talking about?


Now, back to the Aztecs.  In hindsight, They also had what seems to be of types and shadows. They knew the concept of sin and atonement, but they didn't quite have the whole picture. They knew someone else had to shed blood to provide life and to send blessing on them and their nation but they didn't know who. They also believed that their many gods can sacrifice themselves at one point to help creation. Remember the chocolate drink that they dyed red to represent the blood of their gods? Does that sound like any of the sacraments we might partake in at church? Who knows how many countless lives were lost and how much blood was shed and yes-- from a literal since, it was pretty gruesome. However, that doesn't make the Aztec or Mayan nations gruesome people- they simply didn't know what we know today. I think of it to be like having a thirst and not knowing what water is. You might do some pretty crazy things too to try not to be thirsty!  


Have you figured it out the real sacrifice system yet? The perfect innocent sacrifice that we all have now is Jesus. The writer of Hebrews is right- the blood of animals could not provide forgiveness for us humans. But then again, neither can another "innocent" human being because everyone has sinned and fallen short (Romans 3:23). We couldn't reach God, so God came down to us, through His perfect, sinless Son Jesus, who choose to lay down His life for us. And He didn't have to try and beat someone at a game of Thalchtli or anything like that- He choose to lay His life down and now we have complete forgiveness because of that one perfect sacrifce. Wow- how awesome! 


So, it seemed the Aztecs and Maya had bits and pieces of the way to salvation, but didn't have the whole picture until later. Today, the descendants of the Maya and the Aztecs are predominantly Catholic and many nations are becoming more and more protestant. I would say that one "plus" of the european conquest of Latin America was the introduction of Christianity. The Spanish may not have found all the gold they were looking for, but at least the natives found "water". 

Los Novios

Many centuries ago, there was an Aztec emperor who had a very good and beautiful daughter named Ixtaccihuatl. One day, the emperor received news that his enemies were getting ready to attack his country. So the emperor called the bravest young warriors to his palance and said to them, "Since I am an old man, I cannot fight. So name the bravest warrior to act as head of our Aztec army. If he can conquer our enemies and establish peace in our lands, I shall give him my throne and the hand of my daughter."

"Popo is the bravest and the strongest. He should be our chief," all the warriors shouted, except one.

"Very well. Popocatepetl, you are the cheif," said the emperor. "I know that our gods ae going to help you to be victorious."

Among the warriors there was one who was very jealous of Popocatepetl. He thought that he should have been chosen chief, but he didn't say anything of his thoughts.

No one knew that the princess and Popocatepetl were in love. Before leaving for the war, the young cheif went to the palace garden to say goodbye to his beloved.

"I shall return soon, my beloved, " The young man told the princess. "Then, we shall be married." "Yes, and you will always be by my side, isn't that true?"replied the princess. "That's right. I am going to be by your side forever," said the young man.

With these words, Popocatepetl left for the war, which was long and cruel. No one was as brave as the Aztec chief. Finally, the Aztec warriors were victorious and they all prepared to return to the capital. But the warrior who was jealous of Popcatepetl left first. He ran back so fast that he arrived two days before the others. He immediately announced that Popocatepetl was dead that he himself had been the hero of the last battles. For this reason, he should be the next emperor and the husband of the princess.

The poor princess! She was so sad that she wanted to die. The emperor was also sad because he believed that warrior was telling the truth about Popo.

The following day, there was a great party at the palace to celebrate the wedding of the princess and the jealous warrior. Suddenly, the princess screamed, "Oh, my poor Popocatepetl!" and she dropped dead.

At that moment, the Aztec warriors entered the palace. Popocatepetl ran to the side fo the emperor and announced, "We have won. Now the princess and I can be married." There was a great silence. Everyone looked toward the princess.

On seeing that his beloved was dead, the young man ran weeping to her side. He took her in his arms and said "I will be at your side, my darling, until the end of time."

Then the brave chief sadly carried the body of the princess to the highest mountains. He placed her in a bed of beautiful flowers and sat down by her side.

Many days went by. Finally, one of the good gods changed the sweethearts into volcanoes. "Ixy" is silent. But from time to time, "Popo" trembles and from its heart come tears of fire. Then everyone in Mexico knows that "Popo" is weeping for his beloved princess.