Ellie Rojas-Baumann

I feel I am the ideal Ambassador for Latin Culture, the Spanish language and its Lamerican development. I also love to open new horizons in people and to bring them closer to our culture, gastronomy, joy, history and European heritage. I also like to introduce people to the different accents and local language.

Through my long experience teaching languages, I have found that speaking the local language of the people you encounter creates a special bond, opens hearts and minds. True communication is born!

Wow, excellent question (and a bit embarrassing at the same time. LOL!), I started when I was very young, in my twenties, I remember it very well, I was the youngest Spanish teacher at that time. I had the pleasure of teaching and supporting the Greenpeace Group, not only in the teaching of Spanish, but also in the understanding of Latin American idiosyncrasies.

First of all, Spanish is the 4th most spoken language on planet earth! In the business world it is also an extremely important language

Another reason is the predominance of the Latin American world and its culture in the world. People speak Spanish all over the world, so if you don't speak the local language, say, French, German, or Italian, Spanish will always open doors for you in non-Spanish speaking countries as well.

The most beautiful holiday paradises are in Latin America! Who doesn't want to visit Tulum or Cancun!

And to sum up, as there are plenty of reasons to do so! Mexican gastronomy, for example, is world famous, everybody wants to eat 'tacos' and that makes people feel close to the Latin American culture!

Well, this question depends on your mother tongue, because being Spanish a Romance language, if your mother tongue is French, Italian, Portuguese, or Romansh, you will have a great facility to learn it, faster than an English speaker, whose grammar is not similar to Spanish; the structures are different and if you compare them, Spanish is more vast than English, so it is difficult to build mental bridges to link both languages.

Actually if you have a good tutor/teacher/coach Spanish will not present any difficulty in learning it. It is a fun and rich language!

If you compare peninsular Spanish (Spain) it is very different! To begin with, the accent is softer, the pronunciation is more melodious.

The 'ç' is not pronounced, the letter 'j' is very soft, the speed of speech is slower and the words have a nice touch of 'Nahuatl' the language of the Aztec culture.

It is worth mentioning that Mexican Spanish is the official Spanish for dubbing films, cartoons, documentaries and other audiovisual expressions shown in Latin America, due to the very clear pronunciation of the words, e.g. we don't swallow the 's' and the expressions are not complicated either.

Although the motivations and goals for wanting to learn Spanish are different for everyone, the predominant interest is tourism.

Not only the paradisiacal beaches that Mexico has, but also the richness of the native cultures, among them the most known and admired, the Mayan culture, then the Aztec culture and another of the strongest motivators, is the Mexican gastronomy, which occupies the 5th place worldwide as a preference in the diner, believe it or not!

Definitely composed verbs! The verbs that are used in written Spanish in books, literature, history and novels.

The past compounds, the conditional and sometimes the gender of the words.

These verb tenses are learned and used by advanced students of literature or history, they are not tenses used in everyday speech...fortunately!

First of all, the best student will always be the motivated student!

Whatever it is, motivation is the engine of learning in any subject.

Everyone learns differently; the approach I use with an engineer is not the same as the one I use for a marketer, nor the one I use for a tourist.

So the most important thing that makes the best learner is a highly motivated learner!

I guess from my point of view it's, learn to think in Spanish!

To learn it intuitively without having your 'own brain translation machine', but to use directly your words and tools developed by yourself while learning Spanish.

Parts like grammar, exceptions, verb tenses, you learn with practice.

Change the method or Change the Teacher!

Analyse deeply and consciously, what is the specific issue, which is holding you back, distracting or frustrating you when you learn Spanish.

Talk to your teacher and together change the strategy, tools, exercises and way of learning!