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What is Spanish Small Talk?

When most people say they want to learn Spanish, they think in terms of being fluent, or attaining the fluency like that of some of their some bilingual friends or acquaintances they know. They say to themselves, “I want to get to that level of Spanish, and then I could travel the world, live in another country, volunteer with an organization, or strike up conversations with people in public.” Let me tell you now, it’s not necessary to get to that level of Spanish to do any of those things, and I don’t think that’s what you want anyway.

What I think you’re really after, is what most of us are aiming for when we learn Spanish:

We just want to be able to have a conversation in Spanish.

Think about it. Do you really think you’ll want to give a speech for a Spanish-speaking audience? Or conduct a business meeting? Handle customers in a store? Probably not. So you’re not going to want or need those abilities now, so why focus on getting to that level of fluency as you begin your Spanish studies?  Well the good news is, you don’t have to know or hundreds and hundreds of Spanish vocabulary, or memorize strange looking verb conjugations to have a conversation. Really, you just have to have the tools and the structure to do small talk in Spanish.

What are the Building Blocks of Small Talk Spanish?

In America, we generally think of “small talk” relating to things like:

  • Your name
  • Where you’re from
  • What you do for a living: study/work/retired
  • What the weather is like
  • Who won last nights game

Small talk usually gets a bad rap because it’s just regular conversation and not very interesting, but I would argue that it all depends on who’s talking! If you’re the one leading the conversation you can make it as interesting as you’d like, and believe me, learning to speak Spanish and talking with people in Spanish is incredibly more exciting than what we think of as “small talk.”

Spanish Small Talk is a Community of People

What you’ll find here at www.SpanishSmallTalk.com is a community of people interested in learning to have normal, everyday conversations in Spanish. We’re aiming for the kind of fluency of a foreign diplomat, because we never wanted that anyway. What we really wanted to learn are the tools and techniques necessary to have a conversation in Spanish.

Your first step in being part of the community is joining the daily email list.

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