We want to learn how to speak Spanish. We've purchased several lesson books and tapes. Still We can't speak it. The big trouble for us is that in teaching Proper Spanish most instructors use Proper English. Logically they begin with grammar, past particles, future perfect tense, gerunds and such.

Our problem rests in the fact that Americans learn basic grammar - past particles, future perfect tense, gerunds and such - in the seventh grade. During most of the seventh grade We were praying for Bonnie's bust line to grow - not for my sake mind you, rather for her's. I loved her. I knew it bothered her to be so, well, horizontally challenged. I wanted her to be happy, you see? So I was praying for her every day. But we digress.

We didn't pay much attention to Mrs. Davis's instruction about past particles, future perfect tense, gerunds and such. Consequently, when we open a Spanish Lesson book today, We are lost at the first mention of past participles, the tenses - future, past, perfect or otherwise - or gerunds.

Still, We really wanted to learn Spanish.

We reasoned out that, while proper language instruction may rest on a foundation of good grammar, a huge chunk of day to day conversation, at least amongst my friends, can happen using little more than grunts and finger pointing.

Since the benefits of being able to speak Spanish in Los Angeles far out weigh the little embarrassment of not being able to speak it correctly, our goal is to develop a system for improving on the "grunts and finger pointing" without worrying ourselves too much over past participles, future perfect tense, gerunds and such. The resulting "Spanglish" may make our old high school Spanish teacher, Mr. Cisneros, weep in bitter frustration but if it works, who cares?

Some people have pointed out that Spanglish is already spoken in Southwestern America. The difference between the Spanglish of a bi-lingual person and Spanglish por los Gringos is that a bilingual person generally sprinkles their conversation with Spanish nouns. "Jamie is at la Marketa" In order to play that game, the gringo would have to learn literally thousands of words.

We created a system which loosely and almost horribly translates roughly 120 of the most commonly used words. We can use this basic vocabulary to "frame" a conversation "in context."

"In Context" is the key. See how it works...