Why “EE.UU.” and not “E.U.” for “Estados Unidos”?

This is a common question I get. The answer is very simple.

In Spanish, when we want a word to be “initialized” (for the sake of this explanation we are going to assume that “to initialize” means “to write the initials of a word”), we have to use double letter if the word is in plural. See the examples below:

• Estados Unidos EE. UU.
• Naciones Unidas NN. UU.
• Relaciones Públicas RR. PP.
• Recursos Humanos RR. HH.
• Servicios Higiénicos SS. HH.

That was a short and easy explanation to give.

Let's "try"

In Spanish, we can "try" with either "tratar," "intentar," or "probar." It all depends on what you are "trying" to do. To the point:

1. "To try" will be "tratar de" or "intentar" if you mean "to attempt." Therefore you can say something like "Voy a tratar de estudiar más los fines de semana" or "Intentaré ser más organizado."
2. "To try" will be "probar" if you mean "to sample" or "to taste." For example, "Quiero probar ese carro antes de comprarlo" or "Tienes que probar la comida peruana."

Yesterday, my student was confused because he thought that "to taste" was "probar." The truth is that "to taste" will ONLY be "probar" if it ALSO means "to try." So if you say something like "This food tastes like.... " it will not work. "To taste like" is "saber a," therefore "to taste" - when not meaning "to try" - is "saber." For example "¿A qué sabe esa comida?"

¿Entienden? Espero que sí.

The Diary of a Spanish Teacher

Hola blogueros,

I had originally launched this blog (over a year ago) with the intention of posting Spanish lessons. My original title was “Learning Spanish.... Let’s Keep It Simple.” A few minutes ago I renamed it as “Learn or Teach Spanish... Let’s Keep It Simple”... but that won’t do either. I had actually abandoned this blog since I first started it more than a year ago... and shamefully forgotten about it. Good thing nobody was following it. I just accidently ran into again after googling myself to see what I was up to in the cyber-space.

I will actually follow my own advice and “keep it simple” for me too. I have too many things going on in my professional life (running my school, teaching classes, trying to beat the recession, writing and editing my books to be published soon) and my private life (my two little girls, wife and mother) to be devoting much time to actually posting well elaborated teaching lessons.

This blog will be a diary of some of the interesting occurrences that come up during my exciting life as a Spanish teacher (profesor de español) during my classes. I will keep the anonymity of all of my students and not share any personal information about them or their stories. However, I will share any interesting facts about the Spanish language for those interested in learning or teaching Spanish.

I will now rename my blog (for a third time) as “El Diario de un Profesor de Español” (The Diary of a Spanish Teacher). Who knows? Maybe some day a movie like “Julia and Julie” will be done about me and my blog. Maybe it could be called “Juan y su Blog” and I could be played by Jimmy Smits or Benjamin Bratt.

We’ll see how this venture goes.

Hasta pronto,

Juan

twitter.com/spanishlc

Hola Blogueros,

I am currently involved in several huge projects that have kept me away from my blog. However, I now have a twitter account (www.twitter.com/spanishlc) where I post phrases in Spanish every other day.

I will try to continue with this blog as I continue with my other projects.

Hasta pronto,

Juan