Hola! como es mi español?

[briansezme]

Hola! Me llamo Brian Erwin, Yo soy Norte Americano de South Carolina. Soy el estudiante en colegio. Hablo español un poco perro estoy aprendiendo.

[Rusty]

¡Bienvenido a los foros, Brian!

pero = but
perro = dog

Soy estudiante en el colegio. = I'm a student in high school. (I think you meant college, though. That is 'la universidad'.)

There's a drop-down 'Accents' menu above the text box. It has all the special characters you'll need for typing Spanish.

[briansezme]

Thank you!! yes I am a college student studying accounting but I am trying to learn Spanish as well. I am also in the U.S Army, I will be a 2nd lieutenant on may 8 2011

[Elaina]

Originally Posted by briansezme

Thank you!! yes I am a college student studying accounting but I am trying to learn Spanish as well. I am also in the U.S Army, I will be a 2nd lieutenant on may 8 2011

¡Bienvenido Brian!

Es un honor tener a un teniente de las fuerzas armadas.

[ookami]

Welcome Brian! Hope you can enjoy and learn a lot while been here
Are you going to Spanish classes or learning by yourself?
For anything you need just ask.

[chileno]

Bienvenido Brian.

[CrOtALiTo]

Hello I bid you welcome to this place.
This place is a marvelous place in the internet.
Because you here can learn the language Spanish that is your case.

I hope that your stay in the forums will be enjoyable.
If you would need to help with the Spanish, please you don't hesitate to ask us.

Have a good day.

[Jessica]

welcome

[ajak568]

No estoy segura de que si sea algo especificamente español, pero yo he aprendido que 'colegio' quiere decir escuela primaria, para niños, como 'elementary school.' También uso yo 'instituto' decir 'high school' y 'universidad' decir 'college. ¿Es esto algo español, o como es in latinoamérica?

[ookami]

In Argentina:
Escuela: primary school, but if you use it for saying "high school" it would not be bad either.
Colegio: can be primary school or high school, more common for saying the later.
Universidad/Facultad: college.

[ajak568]

Entonces, en Argentina, ¿Nunca se usaría la palabra 'instituto'?¿Mi entenderías si usara eso?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@ajak: "Instituto" is not the most common word for "highschool". The equivalent in Spanish depends much on the country and the age of the students.
In Mexico, a highschool can be "secundaria" (for students from 12 to 15 years old) or "bachillerato"/"preparatoria" (for students from 15 to 18 years old).
Here, the word "instituto" is not a specific word for educational institutions (which can be from primary school to college), but also for some governmental offices.

I think you would have to be specific about the kind of "instituto" you're talking about.

[ookami]

As Angélica said, secundaria is another option, the most common one actually if you are asked "what are you studying/doing?" because another word can be missunderstood.
"Instituto" would be hardly used in that context. You would say "Instituto", for example, when you are going to study music in a organized place: "Voy al instituto [de música]". You can go to a "Instituto" of supporting classes, or "Instituto" can be for tertiary career too, etc, etc. Anyway, you can use it too for highschool, but it's not common, and I'm sure that if someone uses it here that way, is because at the name of the school you can read the word "Instituto". Angélica explained this better.

*Here "secundaria" is for students from 13 to 18, aproximately.
*A "college" education from USA, here would be a tertiary career. A career in a public university around here would be a postgraduate course(career+2 years) in USA, aproximately.

[wafflestomp]

Instituto is the word used in Spain for a High School. They don't use colegio for it there at all. The younger kids go to "colegio" there, and "escuela" is just a general term for "school". I remember going through this with my aunt who lives in Spain.

[ajak568]

Yes, I am currently in Spain so that's why I was asking about the differences. It looks like there are a lot of different words for different levels of school! I will have to work to keep them all straight!

[CrOtALiTo]

At least in Mexico is used high school or institute that it's like to preparatoria.
With the time you will understand the different or diversity between the words.

[chileno]

So, neither in Mexico nor Argentina there are institutes that teach High School to adults?

In Chile there are or there were, that I know.

[ookami]

I said yes, and not only for adults. Those places would have the "Instituto" word on it's name, generally. But if you are asked "what/where are you studying?" and you answer... "escuela", "colegio", "instituto", it will be unclear in most cases. More than nothing with "instituto" word, because you can be someone without even kirdergarten and be studying art in a institute. If you say "Voy al instituto" to someone that doesn't know you, I think that it will be veeeery rare to that person to think of primary, secundary or college education.
I forgot to add "liceo" as another common word for a secundary education institute.

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liceo
1. m. Institución cultural o recreativa.
2. m. En algunos países, instituto (‖ centro estatal de enseñanza secundaria).

[wafflestomp]

Originally Posted by ookami

If you say "Voy al instituto" to someone that doesn't know you, I think that it will be veeeery rare to that person to think of primary, secundary or college education.

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liceo
1. m. Institución cultural o recreativa.
2. m. En algunos países, instituto (‖ centro estatal de enseñanza secundaria).

Minus in Spain.

[ookami]

I'm answering to chileno, so I'm not talking about Spain. I always talk about my country unless I point out that I'm generalazing, or unless it's really obvious because of the kind of question I'm trying to answer.