After many months of thought, I’ve taken the plunge and have started a “Word of the Day” feature called the Daily Spanish Word. It will be a little bit of work to write this every day, but I’m hoping it will useful to many of you who are learning Spanish.

On the technical side, I will choose a beginner to intermediate level Spanish word and then give the translation(s) for it in English, it’s gender, and then finish with a sample sentence, exemplifying its use. The sentence will also be translated into English, for easier understanding of the sentence if needed.

I will try to use additional, more advanced vocabulary and syntactic structures in the example sentence to make the daily word more relevant for more advanced learners. And given that the sample sentence is in both languages, hopefully it will be of benefit to learners of English as well.

Enjoy, and if you have any comments or suggestions, leave them here or on the forums.

Texans whose homes will be bulldozed and whose properties will be decimated to make way for the 18 foot steel and concrete border fence want to know why the fence will skip the properties of the rich and connected.

From the Texas Observer:

Along the border, preliminary plans for fencing seem to target landowners of modest means and cities and public institutions such as the University of Texas at Brownsville, which rely on the federal government to pay their bills.

Local landowners realized that the fence’s location had everything to do with politics and private profit, and nothing to do with stopping illegal immigration.

A 2007 congressional report estimates the cost of maintaining and building the fence could be as much as $49 billion over its expected 25-year life span.

“They are just going to push this problem on the next administration, and nobody is going to talk about immigration reform, and that’s the illness,” Foster says. “The wall is a Band-Aid on the problem. And to blow $49 billion and not walk away with a secure border—that’s a travesty.”

Without even getting into the pros and cons of the fence, and superior solutions to the illegal immigration problem, my question is: How will 370 miles of fence (what they’re planning to build) along a 1900+ mile border increase security?

Read the full story. Photo credit: june+raul.

Today Lima, Perú turns 473, and I thought I’d give a shout out to anyone in Lima today and celebrate for the rest of us with a few pictures of Lima.

The library at the San Francisco Monastery and Church. Photo by That Other Guy.

The Pirámide de Agua in the Parque de la Reserva. Photo by Javi270270.

This is the Cerro San Cristóbal. Now that’s a lot of houses, almost on top of each other. Photo taken by anaisanais.

Larcomar is an upscale shopping center in the Miraflores area of Lima. Pictured here with the Telmex headquarters and a Marriot hotel as a backdrop. Photo by Hazelbrae.

Plaza San Martín by night. Photo also by Hazelbrae.

Some colorful clothing. Photo by TravelingMan.

And if you haven’t had enough, you can browse Flickr’s Lima, Peru Photo pool, or take a satellite tour below.

View Larger Map

Now, can anyone tell me how they sing Happy Birthady or if they have a song they sing at birthday parties in Perú?

Practicing your Spanish is one of the things you’re going to have to do if you want to cross the border from I took 2 years of college Spanish territory to the country of I can fluently converse in this language.

You should take every opportunity you have to speak with someone in Spanish, and use it for your benefit. You might start with just a word or a comment, and the other person will most likely welcome the conversation.

How to start? It’s as easy as “Hola”, “Buenos Días”, “Hace mucho frío”, “Hace mucho calor”, or “Gracias”.

If you do this you’ll start reaping the benefits.

Benefits of striking up conversation with strangers

1. You meet new people, and possibly even gain new friends.
2. You will get more respect– others who have a fear of talking to strangers will respect you more, as well as your interlocutor.
3. You’ll learn new things. The person you’re talking with has interests, ideas, and goals. Finding out what they think will open doors for you and you’ll learn all kinds of things.
4. Every time you do it, it will become easier. You will start overcoming fear if you’re fearful of speaking with strangers, and if it simply makes you uncomfortable, once you’re used to it, that uneasiness will be gone.
5. There’s really no risk– after all, you don’t know the person, so what would it possibly matter if they think poorly of you?
6. Your Spanish will improve. Every chance you get to speak with someone in Spanish is another chance for your conversational skills to improve.

So, when was the last time you talked with a complete stranger in Spanish? When was the last time you talked to anyone in Spanish?

2008 is officially here and I wanted to wish you all the best.

I hope this year will be a good year for learning Spanish. It should be, since the UN has declared 2008 the international year of languages in an effort to promote unity in diversity, and global understanding. Thanks Simon for that link.

So what are your plans and goals for 2008?