Spanish for America

SPANISH FOR AMERICA was conceived, developed, and written with these thoughts in mind: Suggest something, anything, to a teenager, and in all likelihood the very first word we hear coming out of his/her lips will be, "WHY?" That word sounds to many of us adults like an authority-questioning retort. IT IS NOT In fact, it's the natural and normal response we expect from a developing personality. Teenagers are then just being themselves -normal, inquisitive, and desirous to know the reasons behind of everything. Their minds have evolved to a level where receiving the answer to their "whys" carries more weight than being told the "how." To the contrary, it makes his mental progress and personality development suspect That mental inquisitiveness and that desire to know the reason "why" become more pronounced to a developing mind attempting to learn a second language. None of us was born with a language. We acquired it. As infants and young children, we learned a language from our parents and our peers. Our minds then were like dry and empty sponge, absorbing anything that came in touch with it. We imitated and replicated whatever it was we heard from others or were asked to repeat. And we acquired a language quick hastened and bolstered by the ever approving applause and praises our parents heaped upon us. To a teenager and young adults, however, that no longer seems to be the case. Adolescent minds tend to resist the automatic acceptance of anything unless tendered along with reasonable and understandable explanations. Memory works and repetitive recitations of simple phrases and sentences as a method and a way of acquiring a new language, while helpful and perhaps even exciting at the beginning, can and does eventually become a boring, tiring, and meaningless exercise. Knowledge acquired through that process can neither be permanent nor lasting. Spanish for America was written with those thoughts in mind. The basic principles of the language are presented in simple and understandable language that never flies over the heads of its young readers, supported all along by practical and imitate-able examples. Topics are arranged in a gradual to increasingly challenging way. Words are explained from a completely new and innovative perspective: they are symbols. They are the pictures in written or in sound bytes forms -the symbolic representations of objects and realities found all around us. And so also are the phrases and sentences we create out of those words: They are all symbols of our thoughts, feelings, emotions, opinions, our ideas and our dreams in life. Similarities rather than differences between the two languages - English and Spanish - are emphasized. It makes the knowledge of one's own language a bridge to as yet unknown and unfamiliar language -Spanish. The intended and primary market for the book is the U.S. American and Canadian high school students in sophomore and junior grades. The author however believes that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever why it cannot also serve as a major language reference manual -- and even as a textbook in American and Canadian Universities and Colleges.