'The shortcut to fluency'
You may or may not know that the Spanish and English languages share a very interesting feature, which you might have already come across if you speak both languages proficiently. If not, no worries; I will attempt to provide you with some elucidation in a bit.
My fiancee, a professional English editor/proofreader, often looks at me flabbergasted by my lexicon and says, 'How well spoken you are'. But what she means is that I am capable of managing a wide range of Latin-origin words, many of which can be spotted in classic Victorian novels. These words make the difference to my speech as they provide me with an air of utter literacy. But no way! I am just kind of cheating; believe me.
For instance, as a Spanish native speaker I find easier to say 'masticate' in lieu of 'chew' for 'masticar' (Spanish), or adolescent rather than 'teenager' for 'adolescente' (Spanish). I will list several words with their respective translation below for further clarification.
Superfluous = superflúo
Adolescence = adolescencia
compendium = compendio
Lexicon = léxico
Stupefaction = estupefacción
By now you might be thinking that at least 3 of the English words listed above are obscure, and that is true to a certain degree. They can be found in any Jane Austen's or some other contemporaneous novels. Nevertheless, that is not the case in Spanish. While it is true that these words would not be our first choice, they are not obscure at all for the average native speaker of Spanish.
The bottom line is that there are hundreds maybe thousands of these 'overlapped words' (cognates) that both languages share because of their Latin origin.
How could this be helpful then for learning language learning purposes?
Based on my own teaching and learning experience I am utterly convinced that this is very useful stuff for both native speakers of English and Spanish learning the other language. Sometimes while speaking English I throw at my listeners obscure words without ever having actually learned them. It is all based on my native language, taking advantage of the existence of these cognates in English. I simply guess at a word existing in English, and it bloody works!
What are your thoughts on the subject then?
Look forward to reading your comments.
If I have just tickled your fancy, please have a look at my teaching profile. Thank you.
https://www.italki.com/jonathan.chavez
