Email in Spanish

In order to write in Spanish on the computer, you need to set up a Spanish keyboard. If you don’t, you won’t be able to put accents over vowels or type the letter “ñ.”

Spanish students seem to resist typing in Spanish. They would rather go back and insert the accent marks and ñ’s by hand. But that takes extra time and it doesn’t look as good. I always insist that my students type up their papers properly. So, occasionally I have to send them an email from a computer that is not my own. Therefore, I cannot put accent marks and use the ñ.

However, as a Spanish professor, I want to be a role model for my students. In situations such as these, when I write in Spanish, I avoid Spanish words with accent marks and ñ. Most of the time, I’m successful. And, no one has ever noticed because I try to do this as inconspicously as possible.