Today in my Level 2 class we were doing timed exercises striving to get a gold star.   In a three minute period one student delivers a cue in English and the partner translates it into Spanish.  There are 40 cues and they all have to be translated in three minutes.  When I do this exercises, even though I know the answers perfectly, I find my mind starting to melt down after about 25 cues.  I have to stay focused and the three minutes seems like a half hour.  It is intense and requires a strong brain to get a gold star in this exercise.

What amazes me is the number of people that can do this successfully who are between 60 and 70 years old.  Who are these people?  They are my students, people who are engaged in life long learning, people who are reinventing themselves right before my eyes.

These folks have completely changed their paradigm of reality.  They have moved to a foreign country and are learning a new language.  They are actually building a better brain.

On page 67 in his book, The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge, Doidge says, “Learning a new language in old age is so good for improving memory generally. Because it requires intense focus. Studying a new language turns on the control system for plasticity and keeps it in good shape for laying down sharp memories of all kinds.“

The experience of learning a new language and creating new memories using is is one of the best ways to build a better brain and a more youthful life.

A language is a mind made up of patterns called sentences. The mind map of these patterns are what create the neuron connections in the brain.  Your mother language is a mind map and the longer you speak it, the more rigid it becomes. 

Doidge says that “unlearning” the mother tongue map we have in our brains is an important first step. The longer, more eloquently we speak our native language in old age the more stubbornly we cling to those maps.

Learning Spanish creates plasticity and stops rigidity by building new brain maps. The brain is plastic and the more plasticity the better the brain. 

The Warren Hardy Method was designed to build a better brain.  Over the 40 years of working with adult learners I have developed a method that takes into consideration the learning modalities of older brains. Here is why it works:

The “cross-training methodology” develops both an understanding of sentence structure and the ability to speak and understand at the same time.

It builds power of focus because you are engaged in a different activity almost every three minutes.

Repletion is spaced and there is plenty of it.

There are filling the blank/self grading workbooks with plenty of exercises and flashcards that develop visual links in the brain.  Finally, these materials are carefully integrated with audios that develop speaking and understanding skills.

I acknowledge my students and am inspired by their enthusiasm for continued growth.  Do you want to build a better brain?  Come join us at Warren Hardy Spanish.

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Mexico is less deadly than ten years ago

A study reveals tourists as well as locals are safer than many believe

Monday, February 8, 2010

BY ALEXANDRA OLSON

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY – The drug war-related violence in the country has obscured a significant fact: A falling homicide rate means people in Mexico are less likely to die violently now than they were more than a decade ago.

It also means tourists as well as locals may be safer than many believe.  Mexico City’s homicide rate today is about on par with Los Angeles and is less than a third of that for Washington, D.C.

Yet many Americans are leery of visiting Mexico at all. Drug violence and the swine flu outbreak contributed to a 12.5 percent decline in air travel to Mexico by U.S. citizens in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, a blow to Mexico’s third-largest source of foreign income.

Mexico, Colombia and Haiti are the only countries in the hemisphere subject to a U.S. government advisory warning travelers about violence, even though homicide rates in many Latin American countries are far higher.

“What we hear is, ’Oh the drug war! The dead people on the streets, and the policeman losing his head,’” said Tobias Schluter, 34, a civil engineer from Berlin having a beer at a cafe behind Mexico City’s 16th-century cathedral. “But we don’t see it. We haven’t heard a gunshot or anything.”

Mexico’s homicide rate has fallen steadily from a high in 1997 of 17 per 100,000 people to 14 per 100,000 in 2009, a year marked by an unprecedented spate of drug slayings concentrated in a few states and cities, Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna said. The national rate hit a low of 10 per 100,000 people in 2007, according to government figures compiled by the independent Citizens’ Institute for Crime Studies.

By comparison, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have homicide rates of between 40 and 60 per 100,000 people, according to recent government statistics. Colombia was close behind with a rate of 33 in 2008. Brazil’s was 24 in 2006, the last year when national figures were available.  Mexico City’s rate was about 9 per 100,000 in 2008, while Washington, D.C. was more than 30 that year.

“In terms of security, we are like those women who aren’t overweight but when they look in the mirror, they think they’re fat,” said Luis de la Barreda, director of the Citizens’ Institute. “We are an unsafe country, but we think we are much more unsafe that we really are.”

Of course, drug violence has turned some places in Mexico, including the U.S. border region and some parts of the Pacific coast, into near-war zones since President Felipe Calderón intensified the war against cartels with a massive troop deployment in 2006. That has made Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, among the most dangerous cities in the world.
“The violence, homicides and cruel and inhuman assassinations, which fill the pages of our media, make us feel that there has been much more violence since this war against drug trafficking,” said Bishop Miguel Alba Díaz of La Paz, a vacation city at the tip of the Baja California peninsula.

Mexico’s violence is often more shocking than elsewhere in Latin America because powerful cartels go to extremes to intimidate the government and rival smugglers.
Authorities say the vast majority of victims are drug suspects, but bystanders, including children, sometimes get caught in the crossfire.

Mexico has the same problems with corrupt police, gang violence and poverty as other Latin American countries with higher homicide rates. So why the decline in murders?
Experts say while drug violence is up, land disputes have eased. Many farmers have migrated to the cities or abroad and the government has pushed to resolve the land disputes, some centuries old.

De la Barreda attributes the downward trend to a general improvement in Mexico’s quality of life. More Mexicans have joined the ranks of the middle class in the past two decades, while education levels and life expectancy have also risen.

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Can an old brain learn, and then remember what it learns? Put another way, is this a brain that should be studying Spanish?

As it happens, yes. While it’s tempting to focus on the flaws in older brains, that inducement overlooks how capable they’ve become. Over the past several years, scientists have looked deeper into how brains age and confirmed that they continue to develop through and beyond middle age.

Many long held views, including the one that 40 percent of brain cells are lost, have been overturned. What is stuffed into your head may not have vanished but has simply been squirreled away in the folds of your neurons.

One explanation for how this occurs comes from Deborah M. Burke, a professor of psychology at Pomona College in California. Dr. Burke has done research on “tots,” those tip-of-the-tongue times when you know something but can’t quite call it to mind. Dr. Burke’s research shows that such incidents increase in part because neural connections, which receive, process and transmit information, can weaken with disuse or age.

Recently, researchers found some positive news. The brain, as it traverses middle age, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture. If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, learn Spanish much faster than a young person can.

The trick is finding ways to keep brain connections in good condition and to grow more of them.

“The brain is plastic and continues to change, not in getting bigger but allowing for greater complexity and deeper understanding,” says Kathleen Taylor, a professor at St. Mary’s College of California, who has studied ways to teach adults effectively. “As adults we may not always learn quite as fast, but we are set up for this next developmental step.”

Educators say that, for adults, one way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked so hard to accumulate while young. With a brain already full of well-connected pathways, adult learners should “jiggle their synapses a bit” by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own, says Dr. Taylor, who is 66.

Teaching new facts should not be the focus of adult education, she says. Instead, continued brain development and a richer form of learning may require that you “bump up against people and ideas” that are different. In a history class, that might mean reading multiple viewpoints, and then prying open brain networks by reflecting on how what was learned has changed your view of the world.

“There’s a place for information,” Dr. Taylor says. “We need to know stuff. But we need to move beyond that and challenge our perception of the world. If you always hang around with those you agree with and read things that agree with what you already know, you’re not going to wrestle with your established brain connections.”

Such stretching is exactly what scientists say best keeps a brain in tune: get out of the comfort zone to push and nourish your brain. Move to Mexico, learn Spanish, or just take a different route to work.

Jack Mezirow, a professor emeritus at Columbia Teachers College, has proposed that adults learn best if presented with what he calls a “disorienting dilemma,” or something that “helps you critically reflect on the assumptions you’ve acquired.”  Moving to a Mexico and learning Spanish will challenge your assumptions!

No wonder we see people in San Miguel de Allende studying Spanish and running around town who are in their seventies and eighties.  These folks are jiggling their synapses!

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Spanish has two you’s, just like in English where we have the
“you” =  you formal
and
“thou” =  you informal.

In English the “thou” form has become obsolete in daily life. However, in Spanish, both formal and personal forms are used. It is important to use them appropriately.

You usually won’t offend people if you use the wrong “you.” Spanish-speakers are very forgiving and usually appreciate the fact that you are trying to speak their language. If you don’t know a person, it is usually better to use the “you formal”  to show respect.

Women should use caution not to use the personal you (tú), with a man until she develops confidence in him. A man may misinterpret the use of the personal you as an invitation to intimacy. If a man is using the personal you (tú) with a woman inappropriately, she can simply say, Usted, por favor, and he will get the idea.

You probably won’t be on first-name basis with most people, so the formal you will be more appropriate most of the time.

OK, HERE IS A BASIC LIST OF RULES;

YOU formal (Usted) vs. You personal (tú)
The formal you (USTED) is used with:
1.    people whom you don’t know or whom you don’t call by their first name.
2.    people who are in authority over you, or to whom you wish to show respect.
3.    people who are older than you.
4.    people with whom you have no level of intimacy or confidence.
The Personal You (TÚ) is used with:
1.    people with whom you are on a first-name basis.
2.    people with whom you are on equal terms.
3.    people who are younger than you.
4.    people with whom you have a level of intimacy or confidence.

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The Total Immersion Myth

You’ve heard it a hundred times: "If you really want to learn a foreign language, you have to start with a total immersion course in the target language’s country." And every time you heard it, it was wrong.

In a total immersion Spanish class, the only language spoken is Spanish. No other language is allowed. All teaching and explanations are in Spanish.

Now imagine the scene. You don’t speak a word of Spanish, but you’ve been told to start with a Total Immersion program in Mexico. By living in the culture, immersing yourself in the language all day, you’re sure you’ll go home in a few weeks speaking fluent Spanish.

At the school, they give you a placement test and tell you you’re a beginner. (Well, you knew that.) Your new teacher greets you. Or you assume that’s what it was but since it was in Spanish, you’re not sure. You smile back. Then he starts talking at you in Spanish and you have no idea what he’s saying. He talks louder, gestures, holds up objects and points, pouring this stream of foreign sounds over you.

It’s only the first day and already you’re lost.

If you’ve studied any foreign language in a classroom anywhere, you know how difficult it can be to grasp critical concepts even when the explanation is in your own language. Now imagine trying to do all that when it’s delivered in a language you don’t understand. When you think it through, it’s a crazy idea.

But there is a place for total immersion in language learning and I want to explain where it fits into the way adults learn.

What Comes First?

Research has taught us that adults are left-brain dominant learners. We like to know how to put sentences together structurally before we start speaking them. The problem with total immersion teaching for adults has always been the critical question: How do you clearly explain grammar and language constructs and develop fluent speaking skills at the same time.

My life’s work has been to develop a method that does just that. It’s based on the premise that you have to begin at the beginning and build in a logical pattern. My foundation course teaches the tenses and grammar of Spanish by using a paired learning method. Students work with partners in timed exercises called games while being facilitated by native Spanish speakers. They use flashcards and workbooks to interact in Spanish while learning correct sentence structure. This "cross-training" teaches language structure and develops speaking skills at the same time.

And it’s fun. You understand what you’re doing. Everyone has a chance to develop. And no one ever has to "perform" for the class.

After you’ve gone through all four levels of the Foundation Course (96 hours), you’ve learned all the tenses of Spanish and developed an ability to use them. And that’s when your speaking skills will advance at lightning speed by interacting with native speakers.

After each level of the Foundation Course there is a Skill Development Course using the structure you just learned. In Warren Hardy’s conversation classes you practice Spanish in specific contexts with native speakers in class and in the streets of San Miguel. Because you have a solid foundation in the language, you know how to self-correct and understand when corrected. Progress is smooth and fun. There are four levels of Intermediate Conversation Spanish at Warren Hardy which coincide with the Foundation Courses.

After this Intermediate Conversation level, you’re ready for advanced training. This is called total immersion! This experience takes you into Spanish mind. You move from Spanish Learner to Spanish Practitioner. You speak and hear Spanish only for days at a time. This is when you break through and become fluid in Spanish.

Many Warren Hardy students graduate to total immersion schools. When they report back they all say the same thing. “I am by far the oldest person in my class, but I’m the only one who knows what’s going on. Everyone comes to me for help.” 

You see, there is a place in adult language learning for total immersion. The myth is that immersion is the place to start.

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Dear friends,

As we begin this new year I am sure we all consider ourselves blessed. Tuli and I count you, our student friends, as one of the greatest blessings in our lives. You bring us so much joy and helping you to learn Spanish gives our lives meaning. I would like to begin this year with the famous Spanish toast that we all know and then add some of my own words.

SALUD, AMOR, DINERO Y EL TIEMPO PARA GOZARLOS.

Notice that the last word is gozar. The last part of this toast can be said in three ways:
1. Y el tiempo para gastarlos, which means the time to spend them.
2. Y el tiempo para disfrutarlos, which means the time to reap the fruits of them.
3. Y el tiempo para gozarlos, which means the time to enjoy them.

I like the last one the most because I like the word gozar. It is easier to say for starters and living in a state of joy is the focus of my life.The noun from this verb gozar is el gozo which means joy. Enseñar español me da gozo. Teaching Spanish gives me joy.

So here is the toast with my own blessing attached to each part. Read it out loud and let the words resonate. I hope you enjoy it and that this blessing will be a reality in your life in 2008.

SALUD
I imbue my life with good health so that I may awaken every day filled with vitality and a sense of well being.

AMOR
I imbue my life with love so that love will reign in my heart every day of my life.

DINERO
I imbue my life with prosperity so that a river of abundance will flow through me, fountain from me and shower unlimited riches all around me.

Y EL TIEMPO PARA GOZARLOS
I imbue my life with joy so that every moment of every day will be joy filled. May I live happily ever after.

Tuli and I begin this year filled with gratitude for our good lives and for your presence and support. We hope that In 2008 we can serve you better in your desires to learn Spanish and appreciate the Mexican culture.

Salud, amor, y dinero.

Warren and Tuli

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Learning Spanish is a two step process in which you move from being a Spanish learner to a Spanish speaker.

When you learn to use Power Verbs in Level 1 you develop the ability to express your needs and wants in Spanish. This gives you the confidence to move around. You are in the functional or beginner Spanish level.

Your learn Spanish process continues when you learn the simple Spanish past tense and the use of the pronouns in Level 2. Now you will know how Spanish sentences are put together and develop the skill to use the Spanish pronouns. You have the ability to speak Spanish in the most important tense and how to make sentences. You are now functional in present, past, and future time but don’t yet have the skills to really converse in Spanish.

One of the challenges here is that once you learn the Preterit (simple past), because it is such a powerful tense, students often forget the Present tense. This is why in your learn Spanish process I teach Power Verbs first and then the Preterit. I teach the Present tense in level 3.

After you know how to put sentences together, then you need to continue your learn Spanish process by learning more tenses. In level 3 you learn the seven indicative tenses. These are: I speak, I spoke, I used to speak, I will speak, I would speak, I am speaking, I have spoken.

Once you know these seven tenses you can really begin to express your thoughts accurately in Spanish. This is a key part of your learn Spanish process because this builds a lot of confidence. You are officially in conversational Spanish or the intermediate level. Now the process changes.

At this stage of your learn Spanish process the idea is to practice Spanish and enrich your Spanish vocabulary. You also should finish out your knowledge to the Spanish tenses. There are two more and they are the Subjunctive tenses; the Present and Past Subjunctive.

What is the Subjunctive, you say?

The Subjunctive portrays the other side of reality. It talks about things that are not real. It talks about things that haven’t happened, we hope will happen, that might happen or things we would have done if they had happened.

The Subjunctive mood is taught in level 4. There are two moods in Spanish: The Subjunctive mood and the Indicative mood which indicates realities. These are things that have happened, are happening, or we are sure will happen. There are seven indicative tenses and there are two subjunctive tenses. These are the Present Subjunctive which portrays present and future time and the Past Subjunctive. Thus Present, past, and future.

Once you have learned the Present and Past Subjunctive, then you have completed your Foundation Course. In your learn Spanish process you are ready to develop yourself to the advanced conversation level. You are now moving from being a Spanish Learner to a Spanish Speaker. Now the focus is on practice instead of learning. Most learning occurs with practice at this point, or at least the style of learning Spanish changes.

You need to develop conversational Spanish skills. You learn to speak Spanish by picking up vocabulary and expressions on the fly and you must read, practice and watching TV is a good thing. The idea here is to get better with practice and that takes playing with the Spanish language. I will talk about the learn Spanish at the conversational level in another blog but for now here is the two step learn Spanish process:

The learn Spanish Process includes two main steps:

1. Spanish learner. You must learn the Spanish tenses and basic grammar so that you have the tools to begin conversing. These are taught in the Warren Hardy Foundation Course.

2. Spanish speaker. You must become a Spanish speaker by playing with Spanish in conversational Spanish classes or with native Spanish speakers.

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When I started teaching Spanish 35 years ago, my first job was teaching a group of doctors that wanted to go fishing in Mexico. They wanted “fishing Spanish”. To meet their unusual needs, I created a bunch of handouts with fishing vocabulary and some grammar components in the Present Tense. This in fact, became my first Spanish workbook of about 20 pages. My course was successful and they all declared that without it they wouldn’t have caught as many fish.

Upon returning from Mexico this same group engaged me to teach them medical Spanish in the local hospital. Again there were no workbooks to teach to their specific needs. I took the same tact of finding out their special vocabulary and then created the grammar components they needed to communicate with their patients. I had now created two Spanish workbooks and I was still in college. This workbook grew over a period of years from a few handouts to a bound Spanish workbook of about one hundred pages.

During this evolution I became a student of Spanish workbooks. I was getting a degree in Spanish education and had studied with many Spanish books both with the purpose of teaching Spanish grammar and literature. As I began to teach Spanish to adult learners I found that none of these workbooks were designed for my students. I researched Spanish workbooks in bookstores and found that there were many reference books but no Spanish workbooks with exercises.

I began to talk to teachers that were teaching adults. These teachers were teaching in community colleges, community centers, and in private schools. Without exception these teachers complained about the same problem. There were no good Spanish workbooks that supported their teaching. In all cases they had to create their own materials that turned out to be a bunch of handouts.

Teachers complained that the available Spanish workbooks offered some explanations but very few exercises. The content was rarely relevant to their students needs. The teaching components bounced from place to place without any logical progression. There were never any exams that allowed evaluation of student progress.

After graduating from college I was offered a contract with the Public Health Service training doctors who were entering rural health clinics where only Spanish was spoken. Again I used my own workbook.

Several years later I founded my own school for adult learners. These students were learning Spanish for tourism and work. At this point I had been teaching Spanish and writing Spanish workbooks for over 10 years and was beginning to master the art of the Spanish workbook and what worked for the adult Spanish learner.

In 1990 I moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with the purpose of refining and publishing my learning system. I had learned several things about the needs of my students and what makes a good Spanish workbook

What makes a good Spanish Workbook?:

1. A clear and logical learning path.

2. Plenty of exercises for retention.

3. Relevant content to the learner’s communication needs.

4. Review sections to repeat and reinforce each concept.

5. Self-correcting quizzes or exams to test progress.

6. Integrated flashcards as a left-brain learning tool.

7. Integrated audios that contain the same content found in the workbooks.

With this in mind I began to write my course of study. Instead of basing the content on situations like the hotel or restaurant, I decided to base it on the one hundred most common Spanish verbs. This would allow flexibility with the vocabulary and provide a linear path through the Spanish tenses and basic Spanish grammar.

I began to use the workbooks immediately in class and developed a paired learning method that used both my Spanish workbooks and Spanish flashcards as learning tools in the classroom. Over a period of 10 years and 5000 students I refined and honed my Spanish workbooks to perfection in the Warren Hardy School in San Miguel de Allende.

In 2000 I published my course of study. It had developed into a four level curriculum with four Spanish workbooks integrated with flashcards and audios. Each Spanish workbook contains 160 pages of exercises gently layered together with self-correcting quizzes. These workbooks take you through all the tenses and the basics of Spanish grammar in a clear and gentle way and it is fun.

Besides meeting all the criteria for a good Spanish workbook, I wanted to make sure the books themselves were user friendly. I chose the finest in materials for easy use and writing. They have a lay flat binder and 90 lb.white bond paper.

I am proud to say that the Warren Hardy Spanish workbooks are used by successful Spanish teachers and independent learners worldwide at home, in community colleges, private schools, home schools, and companies. This learning system is created for the adult brain and is the result of 20 years of teaching and learning what works for adults.

I can guarantee you will like my workbooks or I will happily return your money.

As you can see, all Spanish Workbooks are not created equal.

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