In this post (below the form), I’ll share a little about my proven teaching methods. During 20 years of language instruction, I’ve learned to quickly assess a student’s level and learning style. This post goes into detail on how I do it. When you’re ready, fill out the form below or call to schedule your first lesson. You can pay as you go one lesson at a time or save some money with a 10-class package. Details are below.

(346) 202-5001

Online Spanish Lessons with Joseph Gonzales

I’m the Director of Prime Instruction & Language, an Austin-based language school which focuses on adult learning. In addition to my class-coordinating duties for the school, I also teach a number of students as my schedule permits.

I thoroughly enjoy the language-learning process. To me, it’s so satisfying to guide others through it. I got started as a teacher with a loaded schedule…one class after another all day long. I maintained that routine for many years. These days, I have several other responsibilities with the school, but I still keep a few slots open so I can continue teaching. I never want to lose that firsthand experience with our students.

How to Learn Spanish

One thing I learned a long time ago is that the language must become second-nature to the student. The right combination of words needs to come out of their mouths without them having to think about it. It has to become automatic. And the only way this happens is if they’re repeatedly uttering these words and phrases…not only during their brief lessons with me…but during their daily routine. I train my students to make Spanish a part of their daily lives.

I adapt my approach to the learning styles of my students. Whether they’re visual, auditory, analytical or conversational learners, I figure out their learning style and I take advantage of it. I lean into their strengths so they can quickly absorb as much information as possible in a short period of time.

There’s nothing new or special in this first phase of teaching and learning. This is the time-tested method of presenting new words and phrases to the student…and then helping them to pronounce them and use them in sentences. My method of reinforcing the language, however, is the key factor in how I get my students to retain what they learn…to the point where they can use those words and phrases in conversational situations.

Another post you may like…

How to Learn a Language Fast through Daily Application

A New Way of Learning

Languages must be learned with an approach that is entirely different than any other academic subject. Whereas one can learn algebra, chemistry or history with a passive approach of listening, taking notes and reviewing those notes, this approach does not help students to learn foreign languages. It certainly does help them to pass exams. And it definitely gives them a theoretical understanding of how the language works. But it does little to prepare them for conversations.

I’m never surprised when new students attempt the passive approach during our lessons. They quietly listen and take notes. They write everything down and try to understand what they hear before they’ll repeat it. This makes sense because the passive approach worked for them the last time they had to study a subject.

It doesn’t take long, however, for me to steer them towards a more aggressive, vocal approach. I wrote all about this approach in another post, 5 Steps to Learning a Language. Our goal in these online Spanish lessons to not to pass a test. Our goal is to converse…specifically, to help you understand what you hear and accurately speak the sentences you wish to express.

Aggressive, Purposeful Learning

Instead of the passive approach, I strongly push an aggressive strategy with my students. It’s not a “natural” approach. It’s not strictly conversational. On the contrary, it’s an ongoing effort to bring up the most common contexts of the language. And then…after hearing, learning and repeating those phrases during our lessons, we put together several lists of sentences which you will simply read and speak on a daily basis. This out-of-class repetition is the key to reinforce your in-class learning.

Book Your Online Spanish Lessons Today

The big emphasis these days is online learning. It’s a little ironic. The primary goal of language learning is to converse with others in social or business settings. But these types of face-to-face interactions are quite limited these days due to COVID fears and restrictions. On the other hand, prolonged periods of staying home is one of the driving factors that’s causing people to seek to learn Spanish online. In any case, online Spanish lessons are in-demand like never before. Hopefully we’ll soon be able to resume the social interactions we took for granted before.

Regardless of your Spanish-learning goals, I’m here to help. I’ll work with you on a lesson schedule that works with your schedule. I’ll train you to implement our online lessons during your daily routine.

Of course, we also offer face-to-face Spanish lessons in Austin and Houston. Don’t hesitate to call or email us with your questions and inquiries.

(346) 202-5001

The post Professional Online Spanish Lessons with Joseph Gonzales appeared first on Prime Instruction & Language | Austin's Premier Language School.

When to Use ESTAR

• to express the location of people, places and things
• to express the temporary status or condition (including feelings and positions) of people and things
• in progressive (action) sentences in which something “is happening” or someone “is doing” something

When to Use SER

• expressing characteristics of people, places and things that are not likely to change
• stating someone’s nationality, ethnicity, religion, occupation or identity
• stating the origin, material, quality or natural color of something
• expressing possession
• telling time or dates.

In English, we use the infinitive to be and its conjugations (am, are, is) for all of the situations listed above. In Spanish, however, that work is divided between ser and estar. While ser handles the more permanent situations, estar covers the more temporary situations.

Here’s another lesson you may find helpful. It’s an in-depth study of SER and ESTAR with examples and quizzes;

The Difference Between SER and ESTAR

ESTAR Conjugation Chart

(mobile users, view in landscape mode to view the whole chart)

Not as Simple as Temporary vs Permanent

Teachers often answer the when to use estar question by saying that it’s for temporary situations. This is generally true. This quick answer, however, can be a little misleading. There are plenty of times when you’ll use estar for situations that are pretty permanent.

Paris está en Francia.

Is Paris in France only temporarily? Certainly not! It’s always been in France and always will be. This example perfectly underscores the importance of relying on the contexts of estar instead of considering the permanence of the situation.

The very first context we listed above is that estar is for when you’re expressing location. That location may be temporary (I am in France / Yo estoy en Francia) or it may be permanent (Paris is in France / Paris está en Francia). In both cases, however, you are expressing location. Therefore, estar is the correct verb to use…not ser. Let’s make that point very clear;

Use ESTAR to express the location of a person, place or thing…even if that location is permanent.

Florida está en el sureste de los estado unidos (Florida is in the southeast of the United States)

Know the Adjectives Frequently Used with ESTAR

The second context we listed above is when you’re expressing the temporary status or condition (including feelings and positions) of people and things. These sentences are going to include an estar + adjective combination, which is very common.

Again, however, thinking in terms of temporary vs permanent can lead to confusion. If you want to say that someone is crazy (loco) or married (casado) or alive (vivo) or dead (muerto), you might spend too much time wondering whether or not these are temporary conditions (in which you should use estar) or permanent conditions (in which you should use ser).

Hmm…I’m married…but am I temporarily married or permanently married??

The answer to this question is this; you’re thinking too much!

The key to preventing all these questions and all the confusion is to simply know which verbs go with estar and which ones go with ser. Click here to view a separate post which includes a long list of estar adjectives.

Just so you know, all the adjectives listed above (loco, casado, vivo, muerto) go with estar, not ser.

Why? Well honestly…it doesn’t matter why. That’s just the way it is. I think that being dead is a pretty permanent condition. Nonetheless, if you want to say that “Charlie is dead,” you say “Charlie está muerto” and that’s all there is to it. Don’t overthink it.

Roberto y Angela ahora están casados (Roberto and Angela are now married).

The Progressive Tenses

Progressive sentences are action sentences in which something “is happening” or that someone “is doing” something. If it’s happening now or if the person is doing it now, that’s the present progressive tense. If it was happening or if someone was doing it in the past, that’s the past progressive tense. And if it will be happening or if someone will be doing it in the future, that’s the future progressive tense.

Regardless of whether it’s past, present or future, the sentence will have an estar + gerund combination.

In English, a gerund is the form of a verb that ends with “ing.”

In Spanish, the gerund form of verbs usually ends with either “ando” or “iendo”. Let’s look at a few examples. “AR verbs” like explicar, prestar and trabajar will end with “ando.”

Yo estoy explicando los usos de estar.
(I am explaining the uses of estar.)

Tú estás prestando atención.
(You are paying attention.)

José no está trabajando.
(José is not working.)

ER and IR verbs like aprender, correr and describir will end with “iendo” in most cases;

Nosotros estamos aprendiendo algo nuevo.
(We are learning something new.)

Ustedes están corriendo muy rápido.
(Y’all are running very fast.)

Carlos y Anita están describiendo el problema.
(Carlos and Anita are describing the problem.)

Do you want to give it a try? Here’s a 10-question quiz in which you’ll need to fill in the blank with the correct gerund form;

I just completed an exercise in which I learned the three contexts in which to use the verb ESTAR. | LESSON: When to Use ESTAR
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ESTAR Adjectives that Describe People

The post Adjectives Frequently Used with <em>ESTAR</em> appeared first on Prime Instruction & Language | Austin's Premier Language School.

In this lesson, we’ll cover the difference between ser and estar. We’ll learn the conjugations of estar and the contexts in which to use them. This lesson also includes a ser and estar quiz to assist your comprehension of these two fundamental verbs of the Spanish language.

am, are and is are the conjugations of the verb to be. It’s the most important, most-commonly used verb in all of English. It’s challenging to learn because am, are and is don’t look or sound anything like each other. Nor do they look or sound like to be. In Spanish, the complexity of this verb is not due to its conjugations, but rather, the fact that it’s expressed by two different verbs; ser and estar.

The Difference Between ser and estar

ser is the most commonly-spoken verb in the Spanish language. ser implies being in a permanent sense to express things that are not likely to change. Our identity, origin and characteristics all fall under this category;

I am Joseph

You are tall

She is from Texas

On the other hand, estar expresses temporary situations such as how a person feels at a given moment or where something or someone is located. Unlike ser, estar expresses conditions that *are* likely to change.

I am tired

You are at work.

Contexts of estar

• To express the location and/or position of people, places and things.
• To express the temporary conditions (states, feelings, moods) of people, places and things.

Let’s focus first on estar. We’ll cover ser down below.

Conjugations of estar

The form of estar you use will depend on the subject of your sentence. In the same way that am follows I, are follows you and is follows he, estar has a corresponding conjugation for all of the subject pronouns. Here they are:

Keep in mind that the subject of a sentence is not necessarily the person who’s talking. But rather, it’s the person(s) or thing(s) they are talking about. For example:

I may be the one speaking the above sentences. But only in the first example am *I* the subject. The other sentences are about someone or something else. Therefore, I must use the corresponding conjugation for those different subjects.

ESTAR conjugation quiz

Choose the correct form of estar for the following sentences.

Adjectives Frequently-Used with ESTAR

Since estar is generally used to express temporary locations and conditions, the adjectives that are commonly used with estar often describe a person’s feelings or momentary status. The following list includes several of these adjectives. Notice that adjectives like “tall,” “short,” “smart” and “funny” are not on this list. That’s because those adjectives are more descriptive of a person’s characteristics or permanent qualities. Therefore, these “more-permanent” adjectives are commonly expressed with ser.

Also, notice that most of the adjectives have a masculine form (ending in “o”) and a feminine form (ending in “a”). The form of the adjective you use will depend on the gender of whomever you’re describing. Only a few of the adjectives like bien, disponible and triste are “gender neutral.”

Think about it…any person can experience any one of the above conditions in a given day. We all get tired, busy and sick sometimes, regardless of what kind of person we are. That’s why these adjectives are usually expressed with estar, the more temporary way to express to be in Spanish.

Opposite Adjectives Frequently-Used with ESTAR

Again, here’s another round of common adjectives that are usually expressed with estar. Most of these words describe things more often than they describe people. Nonetheless, the gender of the adjective should be the same as the gender of the thing it describes. An open book (libro m.), for example, is abierto. An open door (puerta f.), on the other hand, is abierta.

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