Teaching my girlfriend English

shilgia, No, I don't think that's to much of a generalization UNLESS perhaps the OP doesn't speak Spanish. Then I would say, "it depends".

I had 4 years of on and off study of Spanish when I met my (future) wife, but I certainly was not at the conversational stage. My wife was just beginning to study English. Since I had so much more vocabulary in Spanish than she did in English, it was easier to converse in Spanish, so even though she has taken English classes now for nearly 7 years, my Spanish did not stagnate and continues to outstrip her English, so when the complex subjects of running a household, an family of 6 and a business are part of the day to day conversation, it's much easier to have error free communication in Spanish, rather than in English.

Also, and this may be unique to México, the English classes taught in the schools here in Sinaloa are not what I would call English as a second language classes, since they concentrate on grammar, grammar and more grammar and give very little instruction in vocabulary and pronunciation.

#10, as nutrax's signature line reminds us every day: "the plural of anecdote is not data."

In this case, however, we don't even have "the plural"; we simply have one anecdote. To extrapolate from your personal experience with your wife into a sweeping statement about native Spanish-speakers ability and/or motivation to learn English is not merely a generalization, it is an odious generalization.

If you demand "error free communication," though, then your poor spouse never stood a chance. Most people, however, are a little more generous with their life-partners.

Guys - there's way too much tension out here!!

To go back to my original post, She needs to learn English because I will only be in Colombia for a year - after that, she may leave with me. I speak pretty decent Spanish. And that's the problem - while we can communicate very well, neither of us have that much patience to do it in English. So I figured that if I could find a semi-fun book of e.g. grammar exercises, it would force us to speak English, for at least 1 hour each time.

I'm in the UK at the moment, so figured that it would be better (and cheaper) to get the stuff out here.

Thanks again

S

Tense? Who's tense? Just call 'em like I see 'em.

But it looks like mazgringo was right in this instance: if neither of you "have that much patience" to actually speak English, than the textbook doesn't exist that'll be of much use, even if there were such a thing a "semi-fun" grammar exercises.

I agree that grammar exercises seem like the least fun way to go about this! Many learners would kill (you know what I mean) for the opportunity to practise conversation regularly with a native speaker.

Yeah, but it's just a way of focussing, isn't it? It's hard, otherwise, because my Spanish is pretty fluent, so it's just too natural to slip back into it.

If you are fluent in Spanish, and it's "just to natural to slip back into it," I would suggest that you need self-discipline more than you need a book of any kind. If you set aside 30 minutes as "English-only" time, it must be up to you not to slip back into Spanish during that period.

I am fairly fluent in Spanish, and the vast majority of students in my tutoring group were from Central or South America, but we spoke no Spanish in the group. I told new students that they very likely would discover that they could communicate in English better than they thought they could. You may not know the word "uncle," but you can say "my father's brother," or "my cousin's father." If you don't know the word "dog" or "cat," you can say "animal" and have people guess from the context which animal you mean. When they ask "a dog?" or "a cat?" you learn the word itself.

It's not easy to see someone struggling to say something sensible when you can just interrupt with the right word or phrase, but I think that your girlfriend won't make much progress in English until you discipline yourself to help her in some similar fashion.

Good luck!

So, you are on a great job man. You can take help from "Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language: A Teacher Self-development and Methodology Guide", this a nice book for beginners. Don't forget to have a good conversation with her.This will also help you a lot. Good Luck!!

Love is said to be a bad teacher...

Semi-fun grammar exercises to help you focus: get some music CD's that she likes in English. Print out the lyrics to her favorite songs and go over them together. Help her learn and understand as you spend time together. It's not grammar specifically, but it's a good way to learn and somewhat fun/informal. Books of children's stories are also good. Write her some short love letters, at a level that will challenge her somewhat, and let her translate it with a dictionary and your help. Be creative. If you enjoy her company, then just about any activity should be fun. Cole B. Ozbourne