Many people are surprised to hear our claims of teaching 200 words a day or more.

Today we will go a huge leap further. Today’s French and Spanish tips show you how to create 200 words in minutes!

Any English speaker can do it.

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Spanish Tip: How to learn to access over 200 words in a few minutes!
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A great tip for Spanish learners is that there are about 30 families of words that ‘convert’ in to English with just a few changes.

An example is the family of words ending in the letters ‘–tion’.

To make them Spanish, in most cases you just change the ‘–tion’ to ‘-ción’.

So, the letter ‘t’ changes to the letter ‘c’ and then you pop an accent on top of the letter ‘o’ which tells you to raise your voice at the end of the word. In terms of how it sounds just imagine that you are Spanish or Mexican, and say the word in the appropriate accent.

revolution becomes revolución.
organization becomes organización
opposition becomes oposición

Words like this are called ‘COGNATES’.

There is one other little tip here.

All these words are feminine.

la revolución
la organización
la oposición

There are some hundreds of words for which this works.

Americans will be pleased that words like organización follow the US spelling for Spanish….. rather than the UK spelling with an ‘s’ – organisation.

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But be careful of the TRAPS – a word about Cognates
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This trick will work about 80 to 90% of the time, but you need to be careful because sometimes these cognates become what are called ‘False Friends’. For obvious reasons. You think they mean what they sound like in English, but they are slightly different. But when grasping around for that word, they should dig you out of the cactus in most cases.

My very favourite Spanish falso amigo of this ‘TION’ family is one that I hear in my life as a pilot. In Spain the Hispanics speak Spanish over the radio, while the rest speak English.

When you approach an airport you are handed over from the ‘Area Air Traffic Controller’ (who looks after the wider ‘area’) to the ‘Approach Controller’ (who brings you in for the ‘approach’).

Approach is called ‘Aproximación’ in Spanish, and this always brings a little smile to my face when the Spanish pilots report to the controller, “Aproximación, buenos días Iberia 345!”

One can of course see the origin of the words – approach – approximate…

Aproximación does also have the other meaning of approximation as well! ….so it is not always a false friend.

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Population trap
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Another trap is population actually becomes población.

There it is – over 200 words in a few minutes. I am sure you’ll think of more.

Within 4 to 8 weeks we will adding these 30 families (in addition to –‘TION’) to our list of PC programmes, to further excelerate your word learning using exceltra’s methods, plus give memory triggers, and ways of practising, remembering the words, and identifying the false friends – los falsos amigos.

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French Tip: How to learn to access over 200 words in a matter of minutes
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For French the system is even easier than Spanish – words ending in TION are in English are pretty much the same in French.

revolution becomes révolution.
organization becomes organisation.
opposition becomes opposition.

You just have to say them with a French accent.

And just like Spanish there are hundreds of them and they are all feminine.

la révolution, l’organisation, l’opposition…

There you are, over 200 words in a few minutes. See if you can think of more….

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German Tip: Slack or sleep
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Be careful of schlaf or schlaff.

schlaff - said with a short ‘a’ can sound similar to schlaf which is said with a long ‘a’ like schlaaf, but they both mean different things.

schlaff means slack or flabby (as in that belly…)

and

schlaf is the noun ‘sleep’.

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More about Alpha #2 – Floating to Alpha
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In the last issue we talked about the alpha brainwaves, and how the ‘Alpha State’ is the optimum state for learning. We are talking now about various ways of achieving the ‘alpha state’ and this issue we look at ‘floatation’.

Floatation tanks are probably the easiest way to get into an alpha state. They are basically a large bath with warm water to a depth of about 12 inches.

In the water is dissolved about 400-600 kg of epsom salts, which create an effect like the Dead Sea, and allow you to float, unaided without sinking.

The bath has a roof and a door and you close yourself in, then float in the darkness.

Because the body lacks stimuli from normal sources – visual stimuli are gone because you have closed the door and it is dark; there is no pressure on the body – eg the pressure of standing up, or sitting down; etc etc the body and mind rapidly float into a state of very deep alpha relaxation.

It is a perfect time then to pipe in sound (many of the commercial float tanks have speakers in them so you can pipe sound) – lists of words you might have learned or other study material playing on an audio CD-Rom!

To me it is the best form of relaxation imagineable, and one comes out feeling as if a vaccuum cleaner has just drained away one’s stresses and strains!

Type in ‘floatation tank’ to your favourite Search Engine to find out where your nearest commercial float centre is, and to read all about the benefits of floating, and how it can improve your studying.

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Getting a Clue during testing
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For users of the 200 Words a Day software. Remember if you are ever stuck for a clue during testing just click on the Sherlock Holmes icon! You’ll lose 1 point for each clue, out of a possible 3 points.

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Sample words from 200 Words a Day courses*
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Cake in Spanish is 'torta'.

So imagine you TAUGHT A TORTOISE to make cake....

'Hen' in French is poule.

So imagine a hen by the POOL....

Hasta la vista...À bientôt...Bis bald.

Kevin Crocombe & the 200 Words a Day Team
www.200words-a-day.com

The Team
Tom White; Odette; Nigel; Dominic; Albin Vidal; Maud Wojcik; Germain Tottet; Mariana Averza; Julia Watson; Eduardo Aceto; Maria Llorente; Chris White; Alan White.

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School Site Licences are available for schools worldwide. Words in our courses cover the syllabus in most English-speaking countries.

UK Schools qualify for e-Learning Credits.
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Trade enquiries are welcome.

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200 Words a Day!
32 Alverton, Great Linford, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK14 5EF, United Kingdom.
Tel: (+44) 1908 676 873