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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For years I have watched with amusement the number of courses that are offered for conversational Spanish. Inevitably the people who attend these conversational courses never learn to converse! But what does that mean anyway; to converse?

For me, that means sitting down across a table from someone and having a conversation, an interchange of information and ideas. It is the transfer of ideas and personality.

As you look at the levels of progression as one learns Spanish, you can see clearly where conversational Spanish fits.

In the beginning levels people learn to function. That is; get the things or information that they need or want. The dialogue includes social protocol, a few scattered words and sometimes simple sentences. Once they get the price, make the purchase or get the information needed, the interchange ends and people move on. Obviously functioning in Spanish is not conversational Spanish.

Low Conversation Spanish requires the ability to talk about oneself and ask about others.

High Conversation Spanish requires the ability to talk about abstract ideas.

In both cases one must have the ability to form sentences beyond Tarzan talk. Conversational Spanish requires the use of tenses and pronouns which are the moving parts of speech. This is never accomplished in one of those “conversational Spanish courses”. Usually these courses have situational based content, such as buying in the market, registering in a hotel, the airport, customs, taking a taxi etc. Rarely do they teach any Spanish grammar and if they do, they teach only the Present tense.

What I have noticed in the Warren Hardy School over the past fifteen years is the following:

Beginning Spanish students come to Level 1 – Power Verbs with no Spanish experience. The grammatical explanations are done in English and then students practice in timed exercises with a partner. In this class they learn social protocol, numbers, and days of the week. Most importantly they learn the 100 most common Mexican verbs and how to combine them with Power Verbs such as I need, I want, I am going to, etc.

They gain a vocabulary of about 300 words. When they leave this class they can go anywhere, and get anything they want with confidence. They rarely speak in complete sentences and they flub up a lot.

But they have enough skills to get by. They cannot converse. They function at a low level.

Level 2 students learn the simple past tense (Preterit) and the use of pronouns. The grammatical explanations are done in English. They learn the rules of Spanish word order and how to form good questions and how to answer using pronouns. Most people never learned about pronouns in English to begin with, so we explain how pronouns work in English before we go into Spanish.

The Preterit is a functional tense. Its purpose is to get information about past events. Most sentences are short and there is rarely more than a three sentence interchange. Here are some examples. Did you bring the key? Yes, I brought it. When did you bring it? I brought it this morning. – Did you pay the bill? Yes, I paid it. When? Yesterday. Thanks. – Where did you put the book? I put it on the table. – Did the bus leave? Yes. When? Fifteen minutes ago. Ah shucks. Sorry.

After Level 2 students can function in present and past time. They function at a high level and can look at any Spanish sentence and see the parts of speech. Spanish is no long a foreign language to them.

In Level 3 we teach the Seven Indicative tenses. This is where students break out! They already know word order, use of pronouns and now they can begin to express their thoughts and personality in Spanish. I notice that during this class most of the instruction is done in Spanish and everyone understands exactly what is going on. By the end of this class students do not want to hear English anymore. They can hear words separated in sentences and develop tense recognition.

Tense recognition is the key to understanding. If someone is using verb forms you don’t know, then there is no way you can clearly understand. In Level 3 students move into conversational Spanish.

They can express their thoughts and feelings in seven tenses. They are still at the Low conversational level but they can sit down across the table with someone and carry on a conversation in Spanish. Their language is halting and they make mistakes, but they can self-correct and understand when corrected.

In Level 4 we learn the Present and Past Subjunctive. This class is taught in Spanish unless there are issues that need to be addressed in English. The Subjunctive moves us into the Spanish language of respect and diplomacy and finishes out the Spanish tenses. It also finishes out the Foundation Course. Students are ready to officially move into the intermediate or into Conversational Spanish. The understanding of the Spanish language is in place. Now the business at hand it to enrich vocabulary and develop communication skills. It is time to converse!

At the intermediate level you move into guided Conversational Spanish. That means that the student works within a paradigm of information. Students usually do a reading before meeting with the teacher and then there is a discussion about the chosen information. Guided Conversational Spanish develops speaking skills and vocabulary development. This level moves the student towards being able to engage native speakers in free flowing dialogue.

Total immersion schools have mastered the business of developing conversational skills, particularly at the high conversational level. Usually there is a lot of preparation needed to be able to succeed in these schools. In the language business this is called the foundation work which is done at the Warren Hardy School.

Finally I should mention something for you thousands of Independent Spanish learners. The Warren Hardy Spanish Workbooks are designed for Spanish home study. These Spanish workbooks have a very clear and linear progression and they move you quickly and clearly through all the Spanish tenses. This work can be done at home or at least you will find it helpful to use these Spanish workbooks as a supplement to any course you take anywhere.

I hope this has been helpful in your understanding of Conversational Spanish and how to get there. Please send me your comments.

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There are six main Spanish Schools in San Miguel de Allende. All of these schools are total immersion schools except for The Warren Hardy School. By total immersion we mean that there is no English spoken in these schools. All of the grammar and other content is taught in the Spanish language only. Spanish is taught through a more intuitive approach and even the difficult concepts of grammar are taught only in Spanish. This method works well for young people who enter these Spanish schools after several years of high school or college Spanish. But what of the older student, particularly the adult learner that has never had any or very little Spanish? These people are left completely in the dark and within a short period of time feel frustrated and stupid. These students give up believing they were not cut out to learn Spanish or are too old to learn Spanish.

When you look at the levels of development in Spanish language acquisition, you begin to see the differences in what Spanish schools in San Miguel are offering. There are three stages of development as an adult acquires Spanish.

These are:

1. The basic foundation work.

2. The transitional intermediate and conversation work.

3. The advanced total immersion conversation work.

If you don´t have the foundation work in place, it is difficult, if not impossible to enter at the transitional intermediate level where only Spanish is spoken. The foundation work is only taught at the Warren Hardy School. There is a four level foundation course of 96 hours that puts into place the structural foundation of the Spanish language. This course teaches the nine Spanish tenses, the use of the pronouns, and the basic concepts of Spanish grammar.

This course utilizes self-grading workbooks, Spanish flashcards, and Spanish audios integrated together to create a complete learning package or learning kit.. Students can use these tools for pre-study, during the class experience, and for continued study after the class is over; or for reference books as they move into the higher levels of Spanish acquisition.

Besides the Spanish learning tools, the advantages of the Warren Hardy Foundation Course is that this is a linear path of instruction based on the one hundred most common Spanish verbs. This fits the adult brain. Spanish grammar explanations are given in English so that students are never confused or frustrated as they do the exercises. Students work with partners in the classroom so that they are always engaged in the speaking and listening process. They never have to respond in front of the class and are never intimidated or embarrassed.

Once the structural foundation is laid, students are ready to enter the intermediate Spanish level. At this level, students work with native teachers in a one to three ratio; one teacher to three students. In these Level 1A and 2A intermediate courses students transfer the knowledge they learned in the Spanish foundation course into content discussions. This is where they engage native speakers to discuss personal information, family, relations, home, daily activities, interests, personal preferences, physical and social needs. At the higher levels of Warren Hardy intermediate Spanish (Levels 3A and 4A) students discuss Mexican current events, history of Mexico, Mexican psychology, Mexican art, music, and culture. This transitional level is where students gently develop the communication skills so they can enter total immersion programs where they engage native speakers and learn to transfer their personalities into Spanish.

The adult learner finds it very difficult to acquire the Spanish language without doing the foundation work first. It is like trying to play golf, or tennis or even fly a plane with learning the rules first. Adults need clear explanations and plenty of practice with spaced repetition in a non-threatening environment. This is the unique feature of the Warren Hardy School and why it is so successful for adult learners from 40 to 70 years of age.

Warren Hardy Spanish is designed for the adult learner in mind.

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Levels of Progression in Learning Spanish

Most people I teach have no concept of the levels of progression involved when they begin the process of learning Spanish. This is understandable because we come from a culture where people have not had to learn second languages. They say that they are going to take a Spanish course and expect that at the end of a 24 hour course that they are miraculously going to speak Spanish. This is true on one hand but is very unrealistic on another. This depends on your definition of “speaking Spanish.” This is why you need to understand the levels of progression in Spanish learning.

I have been in foreign countries where I did not speak a word of their language. I remember one time in Thailand when we were lost and it was getting dark. We were desperate. I would have paid a thousand dollars for just 20 words! Yes, just a few words of social protocol are worth a lot and can give comfort. In just 24 hours in our Level 1 course you learn a lot more than that.

In Level 1 you develop a vocabulary of about 300 words. You learn the 100 most common verbs and learn to combine them with Power Verbs, time frames, glue words, and miscellaneous nouns to create hundreds of sentences. You will be able to get the things you need and want but you will mess up a lot and will not make pretty sentences. BUT, you can get the things you need and want and that is all that counts. You are able to get by just fine and that is better than nothing (Referring back to our Thailand experience of absolute desperation because we new nothing.) But remember, you are in kindergarten.

In Level 2 you learn the word order of Spanish sentences and how to use pronouns. This is the true beginner class because this is where you learn the core of the Spanish language. You also learn the most important tense in Spanish; the Preterit or Simple Past. In Level 2 people feel a lot of constriction because the Preterit is not a conversational tense. It is a functional tense that allows you to get information about past time. Sentences in this tense are usually short, about five words and you use the pronouns a lot. Typical dialogues are two or three sentences. Some examples are: Did you bring me the key? Me trajiste la llave? Sí, te la traje. Yes, I brought it to you. Did you pay the bill? Pagaste la cuenta? Sí, la pagué. Yes, I paid it. Did you speak to Jose? Le hablaste a José? Sí, le hablé. Yes, I spoke to him.

The difficulty with level two is that the word order in Spanish is backwards and so you have to move into Spanish mind to be able to communicate. This takes a huge amount of repetition and Spanish practice. As a result students feel confused and constricted in this class.

The good news is that after Level 2 you know the structure of a Spanish sentence and never have to learn that again. You can look at any sentence and pick out the parts of speech. You can see the subject, the verb, the object pronouns and the nouns. This is a huge step forward and Spanish from now on will be fun and easy! Also you will begin to hear words separated as people speak.

After Level 2 you are at the high functional level in Spanish. That means that you are able to function in present, past, and future time. You still cannot carry on a conversation but you can get the things you need and want and get information about the past in Spanish. This is a good thing.

In Level 3 your break out! This is where you move into conversational Spanish. In Level 3 you learn the seven indicative tenses. When you can communicate in seven tenses you can begin to transfer your thoughts into Spanish. You have the tools to really converse, that means you can sit down and actually have a conversation with someone. You have the tools to begin to transfer you personality from English to Spanish. This is a big step forward and everything changes after Level 3 because you have moved into the Spanish conversational level.

After Level 4 you have learned all the Spanish tenses and how to use the pronouns. Your Spanish foundation work is completed and you are ready to develop you skills to higher levels by practicing Spanish with native speakers. Here are the levels of progression and their definitions.

1. Low functional Spanish

You know social protocol and are able to get things you need in present time. Most of the time you speak in short incomplete sentences. Your vocabulary is limited to basic objects and you have difficulty formulating questions. You can do this after the Warren Hardy Level 1 course.

2. High functional Spanish

You sometimes appear to be fluent with social protocol and are able to get things you need in present time, past and future time. You also know word order and can read and begin to hear different parts of speech such as nouns, from verbs, from pronouns. You can do this after Warren Hardy Level 2 but are still in the Spanish Beginners level.

3. Low conversational Spanish

You are fluent in social protocol. You can handle predictable situations. You can talk haltingly about yourself and your activities but your language is full of errors and your conversation is reactive. You are able to self correct or understand when others correct you. You are still working on delivering the proper verb forms and begin to enrich vocabulary. This is accomplished after Warren Hardy Level 3 and you are in the Intermediate level.

Practice and reading becomes an essential part of your process so you can see how the Spanish language is used in context. This is the Spanish skill development phase.

4. High conversational Spanish

You are fluid in straight forward social situations. You can discuss personal information, family, relations, home, daily activities, interests, and personal preferences. You are able to link ideas using the nine Spanish tenses while searching for adequate vocabulary and appropriate verb forms. This is accomplished after Warren Hardy Level 4 and you are moving from intermediate to advanced Spanish. Exposure to the Spanish language is essential to continue to develop. Reading, television, radio, continued coursework and practice with Spanish speaking natives are necessary to develop your skill in this level.

5. Fluid Spanish

You are able to converse in Spanish with ease and confidence when dealing with most routine tasks and social situations. You are able to narrate and describe in all Spanish tenses using discourse of paragraph length. You sometimes have hesitation going from tense to tense but most of the time your mind is creating language “in front of the verb form.” You are flowing. Fluidity comes from total Spanish immersion over an extended period of time. This is the highest level of progression in Spanish for most adult learners.

6. Fluent Spanish

You are able to speak fluently without hesitation in Spanish and English in most topics of discussion. To do this you must live in the culture and speak only Spanish for a year or more.

7. Bilingual Spanish and English

You grow up speaking both Spanish and English and assimilating both cultures simultaneously. Vocabulary is equal in both languages.

Well, there you have it. These are the levels of progression in acquiring Spanish as a second language. I hope this helps you to be more clear about your goals for learning Spanish. This process takes a lot of work but at the end of the day this is one of the most exciting and transformation experiences in the human experience. I have done it and have seen hundreds of people do it. I know how to get you there and as a teacher I have your best interests in mind.

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As I start this dialogue I should tell you that I have been teaching Spanish to adults since 1970. Yikes, that is 37 years. I guess I have taught over 30,000 people in that period of time. That is amazing to me and what seems more amazing is that I still teach three hours a day six days a week and I still love it. In fact I continue to improve my craft and understand better how the adult mind acquires a second language. From this information you can be certain of two things. One is that I know what I am doing. Second is that I love teaching and have your success in mind.

I have developed a learning system that will provide you with the tools and a path that will make it easy for you to become a Spanish speaker. However, you have to use the tools and travel the path. If we work together, I can help you to fulfill your dream of speaking Spanish. Instead of just teaching you how to speak Spanish…I want to transform you into a Spanish speaker.

The journey to becoming a Spanish speaker began the minute you decided that you wanted to speak Spanish. I don´t know exactly what your goal is but there is something you should realize. By learning to speak Spanish you will actually improve the quality of life on the planet.

At Warren Hardy our mission is to positively change the world by providing the tools and path (the WH system) to those who commit to becoming a Spanish speaker. When this happens it will generate more communication between people and improve the well-being of humankind. I know that this sounds pretty altruistic but it is true. So what we are engaged in is not only important for you personally but for everyone on this planet. It IS important.

So lets talk about you and how you learn best. This Spanish learning system has been used used by thousands of people with great success. Each lesson builds on earlier ones and there is enough repetition to make sure that you retain what you study.

I have learned that people have different learning styles. Generally people are either artists or engineers. The artists among you are right-brain visual learners. You engineers are left-brain logical learners. No matter what your learning style, this system will teach you to read, write, and speak Spanish.

I encourage you to visit my website: www.warrenhardy.com online games for a free introductory lesson to deepen you understanding of what is being taught and how the system works.

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