Ecuador Bound

Lets start with the basics – the alphabet.

The Spanish alphabet is amost exactly the same as the English alphabet, with a few exceptions, which I placed in bold:

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a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ
o, p, q, r, rr s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z

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I found a wonderfully helpful webpage that lets you hear the sounds of each letter by hovering over them at SpanishSpanish.

The following chart shows the capital letters along with name of each letter and the sound I think it makes. Please note I am a beginner, like you, so I may be off on some of my sounds:

Letter	Sound I Think it Makes
A: a (/ah)	“o” in “mop”
B: be	“bay”
C: ce	“say” in ce & ci but like “kay” with ca, co & cu
CH: che	“cha” in “change”
D: de	“day”
E: e (/eh)	hard “a”
F: efe	“ef” in “Jeff” with a hard “a” at the end
G: ge	“hay” in ge & gi but “gee” in ga, go & gu
H: hache (“h” is silent)	“ah” with a “ch” and a hard “a”
I: i (/eeh)	hard “e”
J: jota	“hot” in “hotel” ending with a “ah”
K: ka	“co” in “cot”
L: ele	“el” ending in hard “a”
LL: elle	hard “a” and “jay”
M: eme	“em” in “hem” with hard “a” at end
N: ene	“en” in “pen” with a hard “a” at end
Ñ: eñe	“en” in pen with “yay” at end
O: o (/oh)	simply hard “o”
P: pe	“pay”
Q: cu	“coo”
R: ere	“ebb” & hard “a”
RR: erre	“air and hard “a” but roll the toungue for double sound of R – fun!
S: ese	“essay”
T: te	“tay”
U: u (/oo)	simply “oo”
V: ve	“bay”
W: uve doble	“doubl” in “double” with soft “a” at end of 1st sound & “bay”
X: equis	“ek” in “trek” and “iss”
Y: i griega	hard “e” “Gregg” & soft “a”
Z: zeta	“set” with soft “a” at end

Right off the bat I see which ones I will have problems with. They would be: R, V, W, X, Y. Which ones will you have problems with? Woo-Hoo I remembered how to build a table, it makes it SO much nicer to read, don’t you think?

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Please be sure to visit my Learn Basic Spanish Videos & More page. The alphabet is in the first grouping along with a few alphabet songs to help remember them. Also check out the new Spanish learning items listed on eBay (Spanish is at bottom of listings).

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These folks advertise “for Kids” but when I checked them out further, they offer all the way from Elementary School up to Spanish III. They know their Spanish! Try Before You Buy!:

Take a free trial and access a week’s worth of course material. See how a student is engaged in contextual learning activities, games, and interactive quizzes to make learning a new language fun and intuitive. See how powerspeaK¹² exposes students to a story in their native language and gradually transitions words and phrases from the story into the new language, making comprehension and retention of the new words almost effortless.

They may be worth looking at!

Quechua (“qheshwa”) is an indigenous language of the Andean region, spoken today by close to 13 million people in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, No. Chile, Argentina, and So. Colombia. It once was the official language of Tawantinsuyu “The Inca Empire.” You will hear it a lot in Ecuador, especially in the Octavalo Market. Almost half of the vendors speak it along with Spanish, while some only speak Quechua.

Distinctive forms of Quechua are found in the north of Peru (Cajamarca, San Martín, Loreto) and in Ecuador, where it is known as Quichua. I used the general term instead of the Ecuadorian version, just to avoid confusion as there are 2 other dialects of the same language in So. America.

These following videos give you an idea of what it sounds like and a little background of the Quechua peoples. These are not learning videos like the Spanish I grouped up for you:

There are NO learning videos that I have found. It is a spoken language carried down by generations of indiginous peoples of the Andes in South America. I have heard that is has a Sanskrit base but I am not positive. I found a site that gives free internet lessons on Quechua. If you have mastered Spanish and are ready for more, this would be a good addition to your language skill set in Ecuador.

Another resource I found is “Fun Facts to Know About Quechua.” On that site they say:

Here’s some English words derived from Quechua: coca, condor, guano, gaucho, guanaco, Inca, jerky, lagniappe, lima [bean], llama, pampa, puma, quipu, quinine, quinoa, and vicuña.

I managed to find one book on the Quechua language. It doesn’t come up with “Quechua” in the search so use: ISBN: 9781740597708 in the search box. Click on this to enter site then put in previous search term: Lonely Planet Country Guides

I also found a few items on eBay for Quechua. These change all the time so check back if you don’t see anything.