Introduction to Spanish 1

Spanish is a language spoken by millions of people on four continents: Europe, and North, Central and South America. Here in the United States, there are many Spanish speaking people. If you look in the library, you will find Spanish for Educators, Spanish for Construction, Spanish for Nurses, and Spanish for Customer Service. People in these professions need to be able to communicate to students, workers, customers and patients whose native language is Spanish. Pronunciation and spelling are much easier in Spanish than they are in English. Most letters are pronounced one way and there is only one silent letter. Learning a new language is not just about different vocabulary. Word order is different, too. In Spanish, the date is written with the number first and then the month. September 18th becomes the 18 of September, or “el dieciocho de septiembre”. All nouns are masculine or feminine, so you refer to a thing as “he” or “she”. If you lost your wallet, you would say, “Her I lost!” instead of “I lost it”. It is a lot of fun to practice a different way of speaking.