Month: February 2023

Categories
Improving language

10 Amazing Benefits of Learning Another Language

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10 Ventajas de Aprender un Idioma Extranjero | iScribo

Have you ever wondered what are the advantages of learning languages? There are many reasons and benefits of learning another language, not only for work but also for personal reasons. Learning languages opens your opportunities to travel, to meet new people and to immerse yourself in interesting and different cultures.

Many years ago, learning different languages was thought to confuse the brain and hinder cognitive development. Fortunately, science has shown that this is not correct and that, on the contrary, learning languages gives us much more than it takes away. Like everything in life, it has its disadvantages, but the only one we can find is the time and effort you have to consume when learning, but is this a real disadvantage? Pushing ourselves to improve and learn develops us as people and fills us with motivation and opportunities. That’s why iScribo brings you today 10 benefits of learning another language, but there are many more!

1. Your Brain Increases Your Limits

The benefits of learning another language for the brain are more than proven. By learning a second language, the language centres of our brain expand, and the more we learn, the more areas of the brain grow. The brain is a muscle, when you train it, it grows and gets stronger.

2. Your Competences at Work Improve

The benefits of learning another language for work are obvious. You will have more opportunities than other candidates and your salary could be higher as you have more skills. Work travel increases and so do your chances of growing within a company. It is proven!

3. Increased Travel Opportunities

Not only for work but knowing the language will encourage you to travel more and break the barriers of your knowledge. Travelling is always a pleasure, or it is most of the time, so what could be better than speaking the language of the country you are going to? You will discover new and more interesting facts than people who don’t speak the local language, and that’s right! For example, it opens doors to meet new people from other cultures.

4. Benefits for Your Health

By exercising the main areas of your brain, learning languages slows down the progression of diseases such as Alzheimer’s or dementia. Incredible, right? This is because speaking languages keeps your brain healthy and we are inadvertently forcing it to exercise without even knowing it.

5. Improves Your Communication Skills

Your communication skills are clearly strengthened when you speak several languages. By doing so, your brain will find the best way to communicate – by practice and experience, there is no doubt.

6. Develops Your Hearing Capability

Your senses are on alert when they are out of their comfort zone. This is precisely what happens when you learn foreign languages – your hearing is sharpened by the mere instinct to try to hear better. The same happens with the rest of your senses with other activities, like a surgeon after years of practice with a scalpel.

7. Improve Your Instinct

Elementary, my dear Watson. Once you learn and master a second language, it is incredibly easier to learn a third and then a fourth. This explains the advantages of learning a foreign language from a young age. Being bilingual since the day you were born matters!

8. Increases Your Personal Development

Everyone has concerns about what is next in life at some point, and I’m sure that at least once it has crossed your mind to pack your suitcase and start from scratch in another country. Knowing the target language gives us that push we need to calm our concerns and grow as people. Knowing a language puts an end to the ‘what ifs’.

9. You Make Better Decisions

When we think in a foreign language, we reduce the possibility of falling into cognitive biases. Our capacity for analysis is quicker and rational decision-making is superior. This reason is definitely a winner!

10. Improves Your Attention

The ability to pay attention is proportional to the effort we make to learn, another fact we bring you today. When we learn a new language, we pay more attention to making the process go faster. This creates a habit – or rather a virtue – that we apply to other aspects of life.

Learning Languages With AI

iScribo is a tool that corrects your Spanish as you write. Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in the way we learn languages, why don’t we make the most of it to apply it to our profit? Our spelling and grammar checker uses all the advantages that artificial intelligence offers us. We have shown you ten reasons why you shouldn’t waste any more time and start learning new languages. We can think of others, such as meeting new people and expanding into different cultures. Can you tell us any other benefits of learning another language you can think of? Tell us in the comments.

Categories
Culture around Spanish language

Spanish Territories Around the World & Iberian Peninsula

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Diferencia entre España y la Península Ibérica | iScribo

Do you know the Iberian Peninsula countries? The Iberian Peninsula is a piece of land in Europe, below the Pyrenees, surrounded by water and connected only in a part of its northern side with a European country, France.

Is Spain in the Iberian Peninsula? Well… Yes, but there are also other countries in the peninsula and other overseas territories of Spain outside the peninsula. This sounds like a tongue twister, but if you think about it, there are many nations that have overseas territories or that share geography with other countries. Let’s not go any further, we are talking about the United Kingdom.

Discover today with iScribo which territories make up Spain and which are the other countries that have the privilege of sharing the Iberian Peninsula with Spain.

Iberian Peninsula Countries

In the introduction we’ve explained what the Iberian Peninsula is, so now it’s time to explain which countries make it up. You probably thought it was just Spain, but no, the peninsula, despite being incredibly small, is shared by four countries:

– Spain (of course it is!).

– Portugal, located to the west of the Iberian Peninsula.

– Andorra, that curious Principality located between Spain and France.

– Gibraltar, a British territory.

Different Islands in Spain

We have just learned about peninsular Spain, but this country also has an amount of islands.

The Balearic Islands, which we already told you about in another blog post, is an archipelago located to the east of the Iberian Peninsula, in the Mediterranean Sea. The islands that make up this group are Mallorca, Cabrera, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.

The other archipelago, famous for being a sun and beach destination for tourists, is called the Canary Islands. This group of volcanic origin is located to the east of the African continent and is made up of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro and La Graciosa, as well as several islets.

Not only Canary Islands and Balearic Islands, Spain has other small islands around the world, such as Pheasant Island, between Hendaye (France) and Irun (Spain), whose sovereignty it shares amicably with France. It is curious that each country governs it every six months. The Chafarinas Islands, between Morocco and Spain, are another example, as are the Ahucemas Islands and Alboran Island.

Do you know Spanish Micronesia? It is a group of tiny islands and islets in the Pacific that are no man’s land due to political oversight, but the last owners were the Spaniards. These islands are Kapingamarangi, Mapia, Nukuoro, Rongrik and Ulithi.

Spanish Territories Around the World

Do you know that there are Spanish territories in Africa? They are Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish autonomous cities in Moroccan territory, on the Mediterranean shore. Ceuta and Melilla are located in a privileged political enclave as the gateway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. They have belonged to Spain for centuries.  

Llivia is a small village in France. Most Spaniards ignore this place, but it exists and it is Spanish.

Spain’s territory reaches as far as Antarctica. Yes! That’s right. Antarctica does not belong to any country, but it is true that there are more than twenty nations that have a base on it. It is this fact that makes Spain’s portion of territory so far away, as it has two permanent bases. Curious, isn’t it?

The Wonders of Geography

Politics plays an important role in the allocation and appropriation of territories. There are some islands that are not sovereign to any country but which, because of their location, Spain defends. This is El Perejil, an islet south of Gibraltar.

What about the Embassies? They do not function in the same way as Antarctica since Embassies are regulated and under international jurisdiction. If, in addition to know what the Iberian Peninsula countries are and the Spanish territories around the world, you want to write its wonderful language, Spanish, better, try the iScribo tool and let us know what you think in the comments!

Categories
Writing in Spanish

8 Tips to Correct Spelling Mistakes in Spanish

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8 Consejos para Escribir sin Faltas de Ortografía | iScribo

Making spelling mistakes when writing in Spanish generates confusion in the receiver of our message. Moreover, correcting spelling mistakes in your documents is perceived as a high command of the language, as well as a good cultural level.

Protecting Spanish as a language is the goal of academics and linguists. Also, writing according to Spanish spelling rules will help us to be clearer and more precise when we express ourselves. Good spelling helps to improve the communicative process, so it is important to wonder how to avoid spelling mistakes while writing.

Even if you like to read a lot and you pay attention to how to write without spelling mistakes, making errors happens to everyone sometimes. iScribo brings you a few tips about how to spell correct in Spanish, so that your fluency when writing is not affected by punctual doubts you may have.

1. Keep Reading

If you wonder how to overcome spelling mistakes while writing, we’ll tell you that reading is vital to improve your writing in any language and Spanish is no exception.

If you are one of those people who devour books and literature is your passion, you are in luck. Kill two birds with one stone! While practising your favourite hobby, you will learn how to write properly in Spanish.

If you’re not much of a storyteller, read newspapers and magazines that interest you – anything goes!

2. Learn Spanish Spelling Rules

Spanish is based on rules. Yes, there are exceptions, but we have to start somewhere. Learning basic Spanish spelling will help you to write better and better each time.

3. Write Nonstop

Practice makes perfect. The first thing is to learn the spelling rules well and the second is to put them into practice.

You can write in your own handwriting with pen and paper, the old-fashioned way, or you can use a spellchecker in Spanish to correct yourself as you write. Think that everything helps and that everything you do will improve the way you write.

4. Ask a Spanish-Speaker for Help

Globalisation has its advantages. One of them is that, as Spanish is the second most globally spoken language, you will find Spanish speakers everywhere you go!

If you know a Spanish speaker, ask them if they can dictate to you and then correct it. It’s a great way to learn the basic rules of Spanish and learn in real time.

5. Work With Synonyms

Repeat after me “the dictionary is my best friend”. Don’t say it out loud or people will think you have a social problem, but rather, repeat it to yourself in your head for a few minutes.

Why have a dictionary ‘as a friend’? Associating a word with its meaning will help you spell it well. Look up synonyms for a word and your brain will begin to associate it with what you already know. This trick is infallible to write well.

6. Identify Other’s Spelling Mistakes

Reading someone else’s text, whether from a friend or a newspaper or magazine, for example, and identifying the spelling mistakes that have been made will sharpen your instinct for spotting your own spelling mistakes.

It’s not about being cruel to others! But think that no one is perfect, so we all make spelling mistakes. First, learn to criticise yourself and then you will be able to see the mistakes of others with the constructive perspective that will help you learn.

7. Mind your Writing!

Nowadays we live surrounded by stimuli and this favours attention deficit. When typing or using a pen, concentrate on what your hands are doing and writing. This simple step is ideal for avoiding spelling mistakes. Common sense? Yes, maybe, attention plays an essential role in your writing.

8. Write Down your Most Frequent Mistakes

We tend to make the same mistakes repeatedly. What can we do? As human beings, that is our condition.

Make a list of your most frequent spelling mistakes in Spanish and look at it from time to time. That way you will train your brain… and it works!

Take Advantage of the Benefits that Internet Offers

Spanish RAE y other organisations like Fundéu are there to help us. Take advantage of a world dominated by the Internet and learn from these tools.

The more you practice and work on writing well in Spanish, the fewer spelling mistakes you will make.

Have you tried the iScribo Spanish grammar checker yet? In addition to correcting spelling mistakes, it will suggest grammatical improvements as well as synonyms. Writing well is easy and at your fingertips. Tell us in the comments section below.

Categories
Spanish as a language

Language and Communication Issues in Spanish

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Problemas Lingüísticos en la Comunicación en Español | iScribo

The role of language is fundamental in our lives and in basic communication in Spanish. Appreciating communication difficulties helps us to improve the relationships we have with others.

Understanding is vital for relationships, not only with people who speak the same language, but also in multicultural relationships of any kind. Spanish is no exception – verbal language, body language and the tone in which Spanish speakers talk can be well or badly interpreted depending on the level of the language and the culture of the interlocutor.

Today iScribo shows you communication difficulties and cultural differences, specifically in Spanish, and helps you understand how important it is to practise advanced communication so that your problems in understanding others disappear.

Spanish at Work

In this section we are going to focus on written communication in Spanish in the workplace.

When it comes to Spanish, we can tell you that it has a great variety of different ways of speaking, not only because of the diversity of countries that speak it, but also because of the number of varieties of the language within the same country. Not only this, but spelling can also be a problem when communicating in Spanish.

Imagine for a moment that you write an email to a client and it has a few spelling mistakes, what image can that person take away from you or your company? Good written communication will always improve customer relations, and to do this, you need to master the language and practice advanced communication in Spanish.

If you find it difficult to write in Spanish and have problems improving your vocabulary, we suggest you use the iScribo tool so that you can learn Spanish and start writing the advanced Spanish that you long for when it comes to work.

Spanish in Romantic Relationships

The ideal in this case is to find a way to create a symbiosis between the two cultures.

Spanish speakers are well known for speaking with a high pitch, i.e. basically speaking very loudly. In some cultures this can be perceived as disrespectful. This is compounded by difficulties in communication and language. If someone speaks to us and we do not understand them, the speaker unconsciously raises their voice in order to be better understood.

If by chance you are a Spanish speaker, and sometimes you find it difficult to communicate with your partner, think before shouting, maybe you can express your speech with other words to facilitate communication in Spanish.

If Spanish is not your mother tongue and you are learning it, be patient, knowing the cultural aspects of your partner can help you understand much better.

Simplifying the language when speaking to facilitate understanding can lead to a lack of expressions and emotions in the speech. And this is where the next section comes in.

Spanish and Non-Verbal Language

It is well known that culture plays an essential role in the impact of the structure of language and how we use it in practice.

The way we look, the way we move and how we express ourselves with our hands – sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and this is what happens when we talk to others.

When it comes to linguistic communication difficulties when speaking, the body always comes to the rescue, ask an Italian speaker about this! It is a form of survival in order to understand each other.

Did you know that when a person does not understand us, they look at our movements to get some clues as to what we are talking about?

Non-verbal communication is a powerful weapon to promote understanding, use it wisely!

Break Boundaries while Learning Spanish

A language is the tool we use to create relationships with others. Use it with respect to have fruitful and positive relationships with other people. You won’t regret it!

If you pay attention, you’ll find out the richness of Spanish in the diversity of its grammar and vocabulary as well as in the amount of non-verbal language that Spanish speakers use every day. It is amazing, isn’t it?

Have you ever had a communication problem of this kind in Spanish, and have you ever felt you were expressing yourself badly and ended up saying something you didn’t mean? Tell us in the comments, iScribo helps you to improve your written Spanish so that you can break the barrier of language and communication issues.

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