Spanish+(Mexico,+Cuba)

=Spanish (Mexico, Cuba)=

¡Hola!
Mexico City / México D.F. Havana / La Habana

**Basic Info:**
 * Spanish is an Ibero-Romance language, being closely related to Portuguese and Italian.
 * Spanish is spoken natively as the official language in Spain and most of Latin America, and natively or as a second language throughout most of Europe and parts of the United States. [[image:Map-Hispanophone_World.png width="689"]]
 * There are many different dialects (varying in pronunciation, vocabulary, and speed) of Spanish that vary by region, with the most common being Mexican Spanish.
 * Throughout its history Spanish has adopted words from Arabic, Amerindian languages, and most recently English.
 * Spanish is spoken natively by 470 million people, second only to Mandarin, and almost 550 million people worldwide as a first or second language.

**Language Features:**
>>> || I / Yo || We / nosotros || >>> || You (informal) / Tú || Plural you (informal) / vosotros || >>> || He/She/You (formal) / él/ella/usted || They/ Plural you (formal) / ellos/ustedes ||
 * Spanish uses the Latin alphabet, with the addition of the letter ñ. Additionally, the digraphs "ch" and "ll" are often included as part of the alphabet.
 * For the most part, barring a few regional pronunciations, such as the pronunciation of //México//, pronunciation and stressed syllables can be determined entirely by spelling.
 * Nouns and adjectives have masculine and feminine forms.
 * Spanish is conjugated by tense and formality. Infinitive forms of verbs are indicated by ending in "ar," "er," and "ir." The ending of the verb indicates how it will be conjugated. Even for irregularly conjugated verbs, there are identifiable patterns.

For more information: [|Language Differences]
 * Potential Difficulties with English:**
 * Learners may have difficulties pronouncing and spelling words with varying vowel sounds. For example, a Spanish speaker may have difficulty distinguishing the difference between "full" and "fool."
 * Learners may have difficulties producing certain consonant sounds such as saying "brish" instead of "bridge."
 * Given how it is communicated in Spanish, learners may have difficulties using comparison terms. For example, Spanish speakers may say "more tall" instead of taller.
 * Similarly, Leaners may communicate ideas more regularly in the passive voice as it is often for the emphasis of a sentence to be located at the end.
 * While there are many cognates between English and Spanish, there are still some false cognates.
 * Learners' vocabularies may sound too formal in everyday speech. English words derived from Latin tend to be used in more formal situations and these are also words that learners will probably recognize.

And while it does offer a Canadian perspective, this is a helpful **[|General Overview of Mexico]** Similarly, here is an [|Overview of Cuba]
 * Helpful Links for Teachers**
 * [|Common Phrases with Audio Files for Pronunciation]**
 * [|Spanish-Enlgish Online Dictionary]**
 * [|Free Online Spanish Courses]**
 * [|Spanish Course (videos)]**
 * [|Native Speaker Conversation (Mexico)]**