Ira Riklis

You say that class is out for the summer? (Or you don’t take classes?) Learning Spanish is an ongoing process. How about reviewing materials used this past year (or in the distant past) in class? If you have a workbook that you will continue to use next year, do a few pages of work per day.

Feeling lazy? Ira Riklis likes to switch on a Spanish language television channel. You say that you can’t understand most of the dialogue? Relax and just let the Spanish flow over you. You’ll be surprised at how much you will pick up. You might even get hooked on a “novella” (Spanish language soap opera). You’ll get a handle on the story soon and begin to understand the words spoken by the characters.

On vacation and traveling? Don’t leave home without a little phrase book. Read (or study) a few pages every time you have to wait for someone or something (spouse stopping to fill the car tank with gas, sitting in an airport/airplane etc.).

Ira Riklis adds that while you are at it, don’t be afraid to use your Spanish with any Spanish-speaking person that you meet.

Keep your eyes open. Do you see a free Spanish language newspaper? See how much you can read with understanding. So just don’t wait for when “class is in session”. Be your own teacher and keep the learning going.

There are many reasons to study Spanish but one of the very best reasons for people who are senior citizens is that brain science is finding that studying a foreign language helps to ward off dementia. Well, Ira Riklis knows that that is a good thing. In addition to all other reasons like helpfulness when traveling, talking to landscapers, etc., we can actually do something to improve our chances for staying independent to an older age. When you read almost daily of the increasing percentage of the American population that is over 65 years of age, we need to promote any way we can to help the elderly avoid mental deterioration and institutionalization.

Some elderly find it very rewarding also to work with the immigrant population on a one to one basis helping the motivated immigrant to acquire English-language skills. Although Ira Riklis knows that extensive knowledge of Spanish is not necessary for this type of project, it does show respect for the other when the immigrant student knows that his “teacher” has made the effort to learn the immigrant’s native language.

The elderly will also find that their grandchildren most likely are studying Spanish in grade school now, sometimes as early as kindergarten. Studying Spanish can also be a social activity for the elderly when study takes place in centers for lifelong learning. When several students are gathered together opportunities for conversation abound. What fun!!!

What is that you say? No matter what country you travel to people generally speak English? That is where you are wrong. Ira Riklis knows that Spanish-speaking people in countries of Central and South America as well as in Spain may very well not have a working knowledge of English thus one may be in situations where a little Spanish language speaking ability can make the difference between getting something you want and suffering without.

In Mexican resorts, the desk staff and most of the other higher level customer service people actually want guests to speak English to them because these staff members want and need to maintain their English-speaking skills in order to retain their jobs and continue on the track for promotion within their companies. Other staff such as maids and maintenance workers have very little knowledge of English and the traveler needs to know enough Spanish to communicate his needs. Ira Riklis has found that words like “soap, towels, how to express time when the maid can clean the room, etc.” make the stay more comfortable.

Oddly it seems that fewer people in Spain in the hotel and transportation industries may even make the effort to know and use English despite the many visitors that travel there especially from the U.K. (Spain is an inexpensive holiday destination for Europeans.)

Try to get salt and pepper in the above places without knowing “sal y pimienta”–that’s if you are in a fast food restaurant.

Why would you ever need to buy Spanish study materials. With one rare exception, free sources are really the best. If one searches for Spanish study on the Internet many sites pop up which approach the study of Spanish from many different angles. Do you want conversational assistance? Do you want help with grammar? Are sources for reading materials such as online news or free or inexpensive magazine subscriptions what you are looking for? All these Ira Riklis knows are as close as your computer. Don’t have one of your own? Our old friend the public library has computers for use free of charge available during regular library hours.

Speaking of the library, there is a multitude of books and language courses free for the borrowing. Because they have to be returned in a certain period of time there is that little push not to procrastinate but to actually use these resources unlike when you buy a book and it just sits there gathering dust.

If you have any input into the development of Spanish study courses or study groups, you can show the powers that be how it is not necessary to have the students or participants buys Spanish study materials when just looking around, searching on the Internet, noticing package labeling, picking up free pamphlets especially government publications can be a way of studying Spanish for almost no money.

Ira Riklis points out the one exception mentioned above. A little inexpensive book entitled Spanish at a Glance is one item that is worth the small price tag.

Children have a natural ability to learn a language. They are capable of mastering sounds and structures in a way that is unique to the young. Children tend to learn Spanish when they encounter words in context.

As Ira Riklis knows, teachers at the lowest elementary levels in school programs focus on the physical world using sight and hearing to cue the students understanding of the language. Time spent in studying the language can reinforce concepts in the entire school curriculum thereby not taking away time from studying the basics that need to be mastered. Social skills of greeting each other, shaking hands, saying please and thank you, etc. can compare and contrast these skills using both English and Spanish.

Ira Riklis wishes he had had this type of experience early in his education because of the ease in which children learn to count, recognize calendar elements (days of the week, months of the year, important dates to remember). Information about cultures of countries that are Spanish-speaking is learned very naturally in the native language and besides is more fun for the students. Games, music, food-tasting, sports talk, as well as calculations in mathematics and science experiments also enhance the learning experience.

Children have an opportunity in the above ways to build a foundation for further study and use of Spanish.