It seems to me that the last several entries have been rather heavy, so this one ought to lighten things up, I hope!

I wanted to share with you some of the tools I've been creating to teach the children of Hogar Amiguitos English. So far we've learned the days of the week, the months of the year, the English Alphabet, and the 7 basic English subjects.

One of the things I've been emphasizing the most with the kids is proper English pronunciation. Oh, and spelling using the English Alphabet. I thought I'd share with you guys the tools I've been developing to help the kids learn proper English pronunciation.

I'm very careful in class to emphasize over and over again that the pronunciation hints I give the kids should NEVER be used as written English, as it looks basically like gibberish. However, when the kids read my gibberish in Spanish pronunciation, it comes out as close to perfect English as we can get it.

Here are some examples, copied from my blackboard:

Days of the Week
days= dias
week= semana

Español Ingles Pronunciacion
Lunes - Monday - Mandey
Martes - Tuesday - Tusdey
Miercoles - Wednesday - Wensdey
Jueves - Thursday - Thersdey (they have to work on the TH sound)
Viernes - Friday - Fraydey
Sabado - Saturday - Saderdey
Domingo - Sunday - Sandey

Here's the English Alphabet with Spanish Pronunciation. Please note that while the English alphabet has 26 letters, the Spanish alphabet has 27-29, as the letter "ñ" (pronounced "enyay") is its own letter and the letters ch together ("chay") and ll ("doblay-ELLay"; it makes a "y" sound, like in tortilla) are both their own letters, while they're not always counted in all renditions of the Spanish alphabet.

English Alphabet
alphabet=alfabeto

A- ei
B -bi
C- si
D- di
E- I
F- ef
G- yí
H- eitch
I -hay
J - yeí (siempre duro, fuerte, como Jeyson, nunca como José) (always hard, strong, like Jeyson, never like José)
K- que
L- Él
M- em
N- en
O- o
P- pi
Q - qiu
R- ar
S- es
T -ti
U- yiu (suave, no duro) (soft, not hard or it sounds like "jew")
V- vi
W- dábel-yiu (suave, no duro) (again, or it sounds like "double-Jew)
X- ex
Y- wai
Z- zi (como el ruido de una abeja) (like the sound a bee makes)


Right now, I'm teaching the kids the English subjects - for those a little lost, that's I, You, He, She, We, They, and It. The interesting thing though is that while every proper English sentence includes a subject, in Spanish they often omit the subject since their verbs are conjugated according to subject, so the latinos know what subject is being used by the verb form. Therefore, the actual subject is often omitted from the sentence.

For example, "Yo quiero ir al baño" (I want to go to the bathroom) could be just as easily said "Quiero ir al baño" (with the subject "yo" or "I" removed).

Anyways, here are the English subjects as I've been teaching them to my kids... just reverse them if you want to learn the Spanish subjects! I've formatted them in two different ways and the kids have copied both so they reference whichever is easiest for them.

English Subjects
subjects= subjetos

Singular		Plural
Spanish	English	Spanish	English
Yo	I	Nosotros	We
Tú(Vos)	You	Vosotros	You
Él	He	Ellos	They
Ella	She	Ellas	They
Usted	You	Ustedes	You
Cosas singulares	It	Cosas plurales	They

Here's the other format:

Español	Ingles	Pronunciacion
Yo	I	(hay)
Tú, Vos, Usted, Vosotros, Ustedes	You	(yiu- suave)
Él	He	(ji)
Ella	She	(shi)	(they have to work on the SH sound- otherwise it's "ch")
Nosotros	We	(wi)
Ellos, Ellas, cosas plurales	They	(they)	(working on the "th" sound)
Objetos- cosas sin género	It	(hit)	(really, no matter what I do this one comes out as "eet")

Oh, one other thing with the English subjects. For those of you who remember French class, you will remember that most latin-based languages refer to all objects by a gender, such as "le livre" (the book) and "la porte" (the door). Well, spanish is the same - "el libro" and "la puerta" - so I had to introduce the concept to the kids of a gender-neutral subject for these objects. I explained that only things with actual gender, such as humans and pets, are referred to as masculine or feminine. Currently we're working on memorizing the English subjects, and I'm drilling the kids on them.

My nerdy English classes might end up taking a very different turn next week, as Joy will be returning on Sunday, and will likely want me to follow the curriculum they've used here previously, as opposed to the random stuff I'm making up. I've tried to figure out the curriculum, but apparently there's supposed to be a notebook accompanying it explaning what's been taught and where it was left off, and I haven't found that, nor have I been able to make heads or tails of the curriculum - I just see pages of pictures and colours. For this reason I've been subjecting the kids to my hard-core, grammar-style, nerd-city English class. However, I think we're all having fun with it, and I'm sure we'll all make it through next week's redirection just fine.

Anyways, thanks for stepping into my geeky teaching world for a few moments! And I am expecting you'll all have mastered the English alphabet by the time I get back...