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  1. The First Step In Your Expatriation Adventure

    by Douglas Bower - 2008-05-11
    The very first thing you should consider once you've made your mind up as to where you are going to live overseas might surprise you. The many letters we receive from potential expats always begin wit...

  2. Learning Spanish: Begin By Listening - Part 3

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-31
    The way in which adult Africans, and I believe many of the adults I've met in the resort areas of Mexico, have developed a high degree of spoken fluency is the same way in which we learned our native ...

  3. Learning Spanish: Begin By Listening - Part 2

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-27
    The place most worth considering where instruction in how to learn a second language abounds just might surprise you. Africa is the place where more people are multilingual than anywhere else in the w...

  4. Learning Spanish: Begin By Listening - Part 1

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-24
    I remain convinced the primary reason why so many Americans are attracted to Mexico is in the Gringolandias, or Gringo Expat Enclaves, they will never be faced with what seems to be the overwhelming t...

  5. Learning Spanish Part Twenty-Five: The Monitor Hypothesis

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-22
    Dr. Krashen explains that this idea, The Monitor Hypothesis, shows how language learning (grammar) affects language acquisition. This is, according to Krashen, the useful outcome of learning grammar. ...

  6. Learning Spanish Part Twenty-Three: Language Learning Versus Language Acquisition

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-22
    In the field of second language acquisition, Stephen Krashen, Ph.D, is a name that rises above the academic din that usually begins when the subject of Language Acquisition versus Language Learning is...

  7. Learning Spanish: The Natural Order Hypothesis

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-22
    In second language acquisition research conducted in 1974-75, 1980 and 1987, it was postulated that the acquisition of grammatical forms followed a natural and predictable order. How this happens is c...

  8. Learning Spanish Part Twenty-four: The Acquisition-learning Hypothesis

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-22
    Dr. Stephen Krashen's foundational principle in his theory of Second Language Acquisition is called "The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis." In this idea, a distinction is made in that wonderfully excit...

  9. Learning Spanish Part Seventeen: The Translation Method Of Language Instruction

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-20
    The grammar translation method of second language acquisition is virtually the only method used in most language courses taught in classrooms all over the world. It is also known as The Classical Meth...

  10. Learning Spanish Part Eighteen: The Direct Method Of Language Instruction

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-19
    Realizing that The Grammar Translation Method of second language instruction did not work to impart spoken proficiency in the target language, in the late 1800's, The Direct Method surfaced in languag...

  11. Learning Spanish Part Nineteen: The Audiolingual Method

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-07-19
    This method of second language instruction was a further development or evolution of The Direct Method. World War II rose up and slapped the U.S. government in its linguistically challenged face, waki...

  12. Guanajuato: The Death Of Heritage

    by Douglas Bower - 2007-01-17
    Gentrification is "the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier, usually poorer, residents" (W...

  13. Mexican Living Survival Tip # 10 - Love, Belonging, Power, And Fun

    by Douglas Bower - 2006-12-30
    William Glasser, M.D., of Reality Therapy fame, said this,"...I believe that we are genetically programmed to satisfy four psychological needs: love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun." If this is...

  14. Mexican Living Survival Tip # 11 - Restaurants

    by Douglas Bower - 2006-12-30
    Eating out is a source of pleasure and cheap entertainment in Mexico in general and in Guanajuato in particular. We are always being asked where we recommend visitors eat. The difficulty in answering ...

  15. Mexican Living Survival Tip #8- Credit and ATM Cards

    by Douglas Bower - 2006-12-30
    Something too few tourists will ask before coming to Guanajuato, Mexico, for a visit is, "Can I use my ATM and credit card for everything or anything?" I have seen many a display of the Ugly American ...

  16. Mexican Living Survival Tip #7- Other Gringos

    by Douglas Bower - 2006-12-30
    You would not think that mentioning Other Gringos in an Expat Survival Guide would be necessary but after I am through you will write to thank me. It is necessary and we struggle with this on a daily ...

  17. Mexican Survival Tip # 5 - Transportation

    by Douglas Bower - 2006-12-26
    When my wife and I first visited the city in Mexico where we eventually chose to settle, we had a conversation along these lines:Me: "Do you know what I am thinking, my sweet darling dove?"Wife: "No, ...

  18. Mexican Survival Tip # 4 - Communication

    by Douglas Bower - 2006-12-26
    If you want to communicate from Mexico to anywhere else in the world, do not use the Postal Service. If it is not the worst in the world, it has to be in the top ten. I have harangued and harangued ab...

  19. Mexican Living Survival Tip # 1 - Water

    by Douglas Bower - 2006-12-26
    A typical day in the life of an American expat living in Mexico will include trying to find drinking water. You might be surprised by this but everyone knows that you cannot "drink the water in Mexico...

  20. Mexican Living Survival Tip # 3 - Finding Work

    by Douglas Bower - 2006-12-26
    Though I have written a lot on the issue of expatriation to Mexico, one of the most common questions from the "younger crowd" is, "Can I find work?".This is, in a way, a pathetic commentary on life in...