Learn to Speak Spanish for Free!

I've been feeling a spark of interest in learning to speak Spanish lately so I've been doing some research on free websites that aim to help people learn Spanish. The main reason I really would like to learn Spanish now is because of my job. I have so many customers come in who speak only Spanish and I hate not being able to communicate with them! I did find this great website that is really helpful. It has video tutorials and teaches you how to speak and write in Spanish. It has different quizzes you can take and you can even practice speaking the language with other users. Since I followed a few of these lessons, I am finding myself recognizing more words when I hear people speaking Spanish!

Fun Fact!
One thing I learned is that there are male and female versions of words as well as formal and informal ways of addressing others.

Here's a link to the website:
http://www.spanishdict.com/

There is even an application available for smartphones which allows you to translate words.

No Hablo Español!

Theresa and me at Escapade 2009

Today I went to a club with a couple of my Hispanic co-workers. The club is called Escapade 2009. I had never been to a club quite like this before and I really did not know what to expect. The only place I've been to go dancing played country music.They warned me that a lot of people speak Spanish there and to say "No gracias," or "No hablo español," if I was having trouble talking to someone. When we arrived I felt very out of place. I didn't know what to do or how to act. There were two floors to this club. The first floor played music that I am more familiar with but the second floor is where we spent the majority of the night. The second floor had two areas as well. One played a lot of mariachi music where more couples danced and the other room had more "hip hop like" music but it was in Spanish for the most part. I feel like this was really the first time I had a complete culture shock. I tried talking to a few people but I couldn't understand them. I had to get my friends or their English speaking friends to translate for me. Even the way everyone was dancing was very different. Despite this initial culture shock, I had a lot of fun and I would love to go out dancing again!