Learning the Language 231Spanish Language
Your trip begins with a continuing education course in
Spanish. Spanish is phonetic, and its grammar, although
distinct from English, is quite sensible, consistent and easily
reduced to basics. It is the type of language that can be picked
up abroad once one has learnt the basics.
My experience, having taught Spanish at both the
university and continuing education level, is that mastery
of the minimum basic concepts will provide a suffi cient
foundation for one’s arrival in Bolivia.
The Basics
Pronunciation
Spanish is a phonetic language, with only fi ve vowel sounds
that never vary. Learn these simple sounds:
a ‘ah’
e ‘eh’
i ‘ee’
o a shortened ‘oh’
u a shortened ‘oo’
Discover that most consonants differ only slightly in
pronunciation between English and Spanish, with Spanish
consonants softer or less explosive. Although some sounds
in Spanish may be represented by letters that don’t
correspond to English, there are only two sounds in the
whole language, both consonants, that ‘feel foreign’ to the