This is Me

I would like to welcome you and your child to Southwest Preparatory 2021-2022 School Year. I am excited to be part of your child’s success and I am looking forward to meeting and/or speaking with you about your child’s progress throughout the semester. 

My name is José A. Soto and I am from Mexico. I was born and raised in a small city of Zacatecas and I lived in Spain for 7 years but I have been living in USA for more than 15 years. I’m a dad of two daughters (14 and 17 years old).

I became a teacher in order to make a meaningful and positive impact on the lives of our future leaders. Every student is a unique individual. All students want to feel special and all have something to contribute. 

I have been in education for 16 years, which 14 of those years as a proud member of Southwest Preparatory School.

I am working as Spanish Teacher, self-paced classes and math. I teach students from different levels from beginner and advanced. My students come from different countries with different backgrounds.

It is amazing how smart kids are these days, and in many different ways, but one thing is constant I always give my hundred percent in each class I always make sure that the student will feel relaxed and comfortable in my class.

Spanish Class

Teacher: José A. Soto

Tips for Language Learning 

 Relax and enjoy yourself: To learn a new language, you have to start at the beginning. Most of the knowledge you've accumulated to date will not help you master the new challenges you face. You will make errors, so look for improvement in your ability to communicate rather than perfect replication of the language you are learning. 

 Immerse yourself in the language as much as you can. Replay audio, especially extended audio passages, to gain familiarity with the sound and meanings of the language. Look for opportunities to learn songs and watch media content in the language. 

 Use the mobile games that are packaged with this course to increase your fluency and comprehension of the new language. 

 Take advantage of and create additional opportunities besides those offered in the course to communicate in the language in everyday situations. 

o Use the audio recorder device provided with the course package (or any other recording device installed in your PC) to practice speaking, and play back your recordings to check for vocabulary and grammar usage and clarity of pronunciation (not perfection). 

o Practice reading the language aloud. 

o Use the discussion forums provided to practice communicating in written form with other learners. 

o Look for online language practice chat forums and real-life situations in which you can use the language, at whatever level you are comfortable with. 

 Use the opportunities offered in the course to compare your responses with the sample answers provided in written form or as audio files. Your responses need not be exactly the same as sample answers; rather you should check for correctness of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. If you’re in doubt, you can consult your teacher (or anyone else you know who is proficient in Spanish). 

 Learn the language in the context of the words and the situations in which they are used, instead of learning by a process of translating between Spanish and English.

Why Learn Spanish

More than 330 million people speak Spanish, making it the fourth-most utilized language in the world today. Spanish is the official language of Spain, Mexico, Equatorial Guinea, Colombia, Argentina and numerous other countries in Central and South America. Spanish is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

¿Por qué español?

1. Because you enjoy connecting with people.

Learning Spanish will help you connect in new ways with people in your town, at your school, in the restaurants where you eat and the stores where you shop. Spanish also helps you get the most out of international travel.

2. Because you want to prepare for your future.

As the number of Spanish-speakers in the U.S. and around the world continues to grow, the ability to understand and speak Spanish gets more valuable every day. If you’re interested in a career in healthcare, civil service, business or education, you’ll be amazed by how useful even basic skills can be.

3. Because you’d like to understand your past.

Learning Spanish may help you feel more connected to your ancestors.

Did you know?

The United States is currently home to the fifth largest Spanish-speaking population in the world? According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 28.1 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish at home, and 40 million people know and use Spanish regularly.