About Me

Hi, My name is Anna Christine. I have a love for travel and cultures of the world,  I have traveled a lot in my short lifetime and intend to travel much much more as the years go by.  There is so much culture in this amazing world and so much to learn.  I love food, and am constantly searching for the best meals and most importantly the healthiest.  How can I continue on my quest to travel the world if I’m not healthy right? I also love learning languages.

So far in my life I was able to learn conversational Malay fluently. You are probably wondering, why Malay, what use could you have for a language that is so rarely used? Well, I was lucky enough to live in the beautiful country of Malaysia for one year as an exchange student while I was 16. It was the experience of a lifetime. And I say to anyone who has the opportunity to do an exchange student program anywhere in the world, to "take it". If you are fortunate enough that your parents are willing to do that for you, so that you can have that kind of experience, do it. You will never regret it.

They also have teaching programs for adults, they have college programs and you can even go on a short 3 month exchange and stay with a Spanish speaking family, and you don't have to be in high school. So please keep in mind, that it is never too late.

Not only does it make you stronger, but it helps you see that the rest of the world is not like your world, there are other cultures out there and other worlds out there. You get to learn the ins and outs of that culture and if you work at it, and learn their language too.

I am not totally immune to other cultures though. I was born and raised in Southern Africa and have travelled throughout the world many times over, but that is another story in itself.

So why Spanish? Well, why not?

I live in California now, and Spanish is so widely spoken here that sometimes, I wonder if I am still in the U.S. So after taking German in high school, which to this day, I have never used, to learning Zulu and Afrikaans and remembering nothing but a few words, I realized that learning a language with complete immersion was the best way to go. And that was what happened when I learned Malay, I lived there, and I had no choice.

But of course not everyone has the opportunity for total immersion, so let's continue.

I carried my little dictionary around with me everywhere. I bought school books for elementary school kids to learn Malay, because with the beginner's level and all the helpful pictures you can find in kids books, it made it a lot easier for me. And I just made every effort possible to learn the language. It worked! I was fluent within 6 months. Now keep in mind though, this was predominantly conversational only, although I knew how to read and spell in Malay, they speak WAAAY differently than they write. I equate it to the difference between Queen's English and Ebonics LOL.

Anyway, I created this website not only to help other people to learn Spanish, but also to share with you, my journey to Spanish fluency. No I am not fluent in Spanish, I am learning and will continue learning for a long long time. And I am confident that I will end up being a lot more fluent in Spanish that I ever have been in Malay, and the main reason for that is because I get to use it, I have ample opportunities to use it, and practice Spanish.

Although I am not using the immersion method, I truly believe it is possible for all of us. The reason why, I because we are not learning it in school, out of a text book, bored out of our minds in class. This is the real deal, nowadays we are fortunate enough to have software programs available to us with downloadable packages so we can workout or clean the house while learning a language. There are forums online where you can talk to other Spanish speakers or others who are in the same boat as you. And not to mention, with the invention of DVDs and BlueRay, we can turn on Spanish subtitles now for an extra boost.

You know, I don’t know if you’re like this too, but I find myself searching for the best programs to learn Spanish, and I believe I have found those, you can read more on my reviews page. I purchased a bunch of different programs, tried them out and sifted out the ones I felt were not "up to par". I ended up with 4 that are "worthy". I also use dictionaries, Spanish subtitles in movies, verb books and programs, you name it, I continue looking for the best ways to learn Spanish, and that is where this site comes in handy for you.

I will constantly share my findings with you. I will let you know what I think about a book, movie, learn Spanish software program or just general stories about everything Spanish. My reviews will be honest and come from my own experiences.

I’d love you to come along for the ride. You can follow my journey to learning Spanish and sharing it with the rest of the internet world. If you’d like to follow along regularly feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed and you’ll be notified of all new posts.

I love feedback, encouragement and a good kick in the butt when needed so feel free to comment on the posts, or send me an email if you feel like it!

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