When I and my family were spending our vacations in Cancún, I took numerous opportunities to ask questions to natives about different nuances of Spanish. In some cases they would answer me: “Puede decir así, pero (…) es mas educado”
It reminded me of how tricky cognates can be.
While educación means in the first place education, the primary meaning of educado is polite or well mannered and it makes no reference to your education. Una mujer educada can be señora de limpieza, while profesor universitario can be mal educado or sin educación.
Still, I think cognates are a great way to learn Spanish for an English speaker and you will be 100% when you say educación for education.
Lots of success with your Spanish!
Martina
I am Polish, temporarily living in Florida. Apart from my native Polish, I speak fluently English, German and Spanish. Having seen how many Poles struggle to learn a foreign language, I have written a book “How to quickly learn foreign languages” that has hit a bestseller list and stays there for almost 2 years now.
I truly believe that anyone can successfully learn foreign languages. There are no unskilled individuals. Thorough my education, I have been told that I will have difficulties learning languages. I heard several myths, like: “a gift for languages goes with a gift for music” (I can’t sing a simple song without a false note ;)) or “you are an introvert, you won’t speak a foreign language” and others. I scored lowest in Russian comparing to other subjects in elementary school. Finally, I chose Finance and Banking for my Master’s Degree. Could I even more diminish my chances to learn a language? You don’t think so? So, I add to it, that I effectively started learning a language at the age of 17. Again, contrary to the popular belief that only a child can learn a language.
Spending the last year in the US, I had the opportunity to speak to a lot of people (you guys in America are so open-minded and easy going that it is easy to practice my English). Lots of them complemented my English and sometimes told me about their ordeal with Spanish.
What surprised me is that most people here just take regular stationary classes in a foreign language with a teacher and a group of fellow learners. Moreover, in many cases people learn Spanish, I would say, backwards. They focus on totally irrelevant aspects of this language.
In Poland, my country, it is a necessity to learn foreign languages. Our native language – Polish is not spoken by too many people around the world. When I first arrived in the US and went to a Barnes & Noble store in San Francisco, I was surprised at how small was a section with language learning textbooks, software and other aids. In any major Polish bookstore it is twice that big.
Altogether, I arrived at a conclusion that if the Poles needed my book, the Americans would at least need my blog :) And here I am to help you learn Spanish!
