Microsoft has probably played a part in promoting this perception with its Microsoft Office Language Options screen.

I’ve written this post to help dispel some common misconceptions about the Spanish language.

Key Differences

The biggest difference between Spain and Latin America’s Spanish is in the pronunciation of the letter “z”.

In Spain, the letter “z” is pronounced like the “th” sound in “think” while in Latin America, it is pronounced like the letter “s”.

You can hear the difference in these sample sound files: Spanish Pronunciation Sound of the letter Z

The letter “c” in some cases is also pronounced as a Spanish “z” as in the word “cocido” (cooked).

If I talk to a Spaniard and I say “zapato” (shoe) without making the Spanish ‘z’ sound I will be perfectly understood. They’ll just know I’m not from Spain.

Another difference in Spanish pronunciation: People from Argentina pronounce “ll” (as in lluvia — rain) or “y” (as in yogur — yogurt) the way the letter “j” is pronounced in French (as in je). They also use vos instead of the second person singular pronoun tu (you).

Word usage and colloquial words

In Spain the word “ordenador” (from the French ordinateur) is used to refer to a computer while in Latin America we use the word “computadora” (as in computer).

I don’t use the word “ordenador” in my normal speech but I’m familiar with it and will use if I’m writing for a Spanish audience.

I never use the word “chamaca” (girl) in my daily speech either but I am familiar with the word and its meaning as I am familiar with other slang words from various Latin American countries and Spain.

Normally, you would not use such colloquial words in standard business communications anyway, so for all practical purposes those word variations are irrelevant.

Unlike British and U.S. English, there are NO SPELLING VARIATIONS between Spanish from Spain and Latin America.

One reason for this is that the Spanish language is officially regulated by the Royal Spanish Academy. This institution is a major publisher of dictionaries, grammar and style guides and has a formal procedure for admitting words into its publications.

In contrast, there’s not a governing body overseeing the English language, which explains the numerous differences in English spellings and pronunciation. New words are added to the English language every year from many sources including social trends, the media and new technology.

(There are other socio-historical factors that have kept the Spanish language or Castellano in a more standard form throughout the various Spanish speaking countries that are beyond the scope of this article).

Spanish in the U.S.

One can always find exceptions but in general, if someone has been raised and educated in a Spanish speaking country, then there’s a good probability they have a decent command of the Spanish language.

On the other hand, if someone has been raised in the U.S. or some other non-Spanish speaking country, even if Spanish is their native language it is likely they will not have mastery of the language, (unless they have pursued advanced studies in Spanish linguistics).

This is true particularly in the case of immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico, who have distorted the Spanish language a bit after living and working in the U.S. for a number of years.

One can not ignore the influence and role of the media in a person’s knowledge and mastery of a language. Spanish speaking attorneys and media personalities in the U.S. can often be heard on Spanish TV saying “La Corte” (The Court) instead of “El Tribunal” and “ticket” as in traffic ticket instead of “multa”. Spanish speakers living in the U.S. naturally pick up and use these words in their every day speech.

British vs. American English

The differences between British and American English are much more pronounced than those between Spain and Latin America’s Spanish when you consider the vast number of spelling variations, a situation that thankfully, we don’t have in Spanish.

The following is just a short sample of these variances:

          and there are many more…

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

Imagine you are talking to a friend and using some of these phrases in conversation. Is there be any difference in the way they are pronounced?

These examples illustrate the ambiguity in sounds found in the English language and the challenge this presents to both English teachers and their students.

In English there is little correspondence between how the words are written and how they are spoken.

Homophones – Different spelling, same sound

Some words have different spellings but are pronounced exactly the same way. These words are called “homophones”.

Below are some examples:

• sea, see
• mail, male
• for, four
• hear, here
• one, won
• knight, night
• him, hymn
• to, too, two

Homographs – Same spelling, different sound

Some words have exactly the same spelling but are pronounced differently when the meaning is different. These words are called “homographs”.

Below are some examples:

• bow (noun: front of ship) – rhymes with cow
• bow (noun: fancy knot) – rhymes with go
• lead (verb: to guide) – rhymes with feed
• lead (noun: metal) – rhymes with fed
• wind (noun: airflow) – rhymes with pinned
• wind (verb: to turn) – rhymes with find

Long vs. Short Vowels

English students often struggle with words that have a similar sound but differ in vowel length.

These variations in spelling and pronunciation present a real challenge to English learners. To help students understand spoken English and the many rules of English, it is important for them to know the context or the general theme or topic being discussed. For this reason, the use of images and illustrations is essential to facilitate learning and comprehension.

One of the reasons why I haven’t purchased a DSLR yet is because as soon as I read about f-stops my mind freezes and I can’t justify spending $2,000 in camera equipment until I am able to have the time and patience to study photography.

The Cannon Rebel XSi, retailing at around $500, takes some of that fear of commitment away.

Rather than bore you with specs and features, take a look at these photos from my friend Kelly Summers.

She owns a Rebel XSi and uses it with a 50 1.8 lens. (Kelly does not recommend this lens for travel though because it does not zoom in and out).

I like having the option of shooting both the color and Sepia/B&W version of the same shot.

Kelly Summer’s photos are a celebration of life, love and family. She has an eye for capturing mood and feelings but having a camera like the Rebel XSi no doubt helps her create these evocative photos. Her people portraits and images of Paris are simply gorgeous.

I could spend all day posting more of her photos but I think you get the picture. For the price, the Cannon Rebel XSi over delivers.

Find out more here: Cannon Rebel XSi. (This is not an affiliate link).

www.mattandkellysummers.blogspot.com is the personal blog of Kelly Summers. All photos on this post are copyright Kelly Summers.

I’ve already tried removing and reinstalling MS Office 2007 but the problem continues.

After several lengthy calls to Microsoft I was told that my operating system (Windows Vista) is corrupted and one solution would be to buy and install Windows 7.

Reinstalling windows for me would be almost as disruptive as buying a new PC.

So I think my options are:

1. Do nothing and risk having my PC blow up on me. (I keep getting strange pop up “dll” errors signaling there may be trouble ahead…)
2. Install Windows 7 (it can’t possibly be worse than Vista).
3. Do what several people, including my sister, have suggested and switch to a Mac.

I’m tempted to follow Mae West’s advice on this one: “When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried before“, so now I’m seriously thinking about the benefits/disadvantages of switching to a Mac.

Considerations

• I’ve been a PC user since Windows 3.1 was released and I’m not looking forward to another learning curve.
• On the other hand, do I want to continue supporting the company that released Windows Vista and MS Office 2007?

I’ve read several articles including Should I Buy a Mac or a PC? from WiseGeek and after reading all the comments from readers and their strong arguments for both the Mac and the PC, I’m still undecided.

Ok, I’m headed to Best Buy now just to look around and ask a few questions…

Even if you already have this plugin configured you may find sometimes you loose all the settings (as it happened to me this morning on my other blog). I think I may have lost the settings when I upgraded to the latest version of the plugin, who knows.

I’m inserting the image from the post for future reference. Although I’m sure in time it may become outdated, for now I think it’s a handy, time saving tool.

To read the entire post see My All-In-One-SEO Settings and Summary at www.realestatebloglab.com.

The only setting not shown above is the checkbox next to Canonical URL. I can’t seem to find a simple answer about what it means to have it checked/unchecked. I’ve seen several long winded posts with multiple comments about 301 redirects but no one seems to have a concrete answer as to when or why we should check this box.

Update: I just checked Jack Leblond’s All in One SEO Configuration Chart and found information on this setting:

Canonical URLs

This newly added feature is enabled by default – leave it that way. If you are not familiar with canonical URLs, and would like to be – read this Google webmaster blog post. For the rest of you, just know that this feature helps avoid duplicate content issues with the major search engines. That’s a good thing.

Related Post

For a more in-depth description of every single setting see All in one SEO Pack configuration by Jack Leblond.

Well, think about it, the internal revenue code of the United States and all the forms required to prepare our annual income tax returns are available to all for free at www.irs.gov. Still, I think most of us use either TurboTax or pay someone to do our taxes.

eBooks sell because they deliver information in a fast and convenient way. I prefer having information neatly organized in one single place rather than scattered throughout the Internet.

When it comes to technical information, I need to follow step by step written instructions and I always keep hard copies of newsletters and eBooks in my gym bag or briefcase to catch up on my reading and take advantage of waiting time.

I’ve studied eBooks while sitting on the beach or at an airport. I admit I’m an eBook junkie and my Paypal account shows evidence of this bad habit.

Problogger Nathan Hangen recently put together a collection of his best blog posts (more than a year’s worth of output) into one eBook called Claiming your Destiny.

Grant Griffiths, co-founder of G2WebMedia provides some excellent tips on how to recycle content to create information products.

Related Post

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