Voices en Español

LingusTV: Learning Spanish by watching online video

eleena — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:40:34 +0000

There’s a new Spanish learning web site up and running called Lingus.TV. It offers to teach you Spanish via online videos. But unlike other language learning web sites, Lingus.TV is, at least initially, taking a decidedly different tack to teaching Spanish. The focus is on entertaining its students/viewers, and to that end the first series [...]

Protesto: How to complain, vent and gripe in Spanish

eleena — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:48:02 +0000

Traveling to a Spanish-speaking country or living in one is an exciting, thrilling experience. But there is one thing that can kill the good times almost immediately…being on the receiving end of poor or downright awful customer service. Yeah, sure you know how to order tapas and vino in a restaurant like a local or [...]

Spanish vowels: The secret weapon to a more native Spanish pronunciation

eleena — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:14:22 +0000

Want to dramatically improve the way your Spanish sounds? Focus on pronouncing the Spanish vowels correctly. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking….“But what about the Spanish “R”? Isn’t that the Holy Grail of Spanish pronunciation?” Well, yes, of course, pronouncing the Spanish erre correctly is extremely important. However, there is another integral aspect of Spanish [...]

Spanish pronunciation 101: Vowels

eleena — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:13:12 +0000

Martín Ventola’s 3 rules to remember about Spanish vowels: They are short sounds They are “pure” sounds They start and end differently from English vowels. Visit Martin’s blog, Spanish Pronunciation 101, for a detailed description of the correct pronunciation of Spanish vowels. Vowel A : In Spanish, the “a” is similar in sound to the “a” in the English word [...]

Radio Televisión Española’s online makeover

eleena — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:50:07 +0000

Spain’s Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) recently underwent an online makeover this past spring, creating a new web portal for its radio and television programming. In an interview with Spanish media, Rosalía Lloret, director of RTVE’s interactive media division, said that if she could, she’d love for RTVE online to be a carbon copy of the [...]

Speaking in tongues: 21 accents in Spanish

eleena — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:47:56 +0000

Remember that talented actress who did the 21 accents in English? Well, we knew it was just a matter of time before somebody would follow her lead and do the same thing in Spanish. Carlos Santos, host of MTV’s Mi TRL, takes a crack at it. Not sure how accurate he is but he is [...]

There’s something about Betty

eleena — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:50:46 +0000

Betty la fea: It’s unquestionably one of the most popular television programs ever created. What started in Colombia almost a decade ago as an afternoon soap opera has spawned a veritable television franchise with more than a dozen versions of Betty la fea in different countries and dramatically different cultures, such as Belgium, Croatia, Greece, [...]

Back on duty

eleena — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:32:14 +0000

I’ve been around but not blogging for the past week due to a rather diabolical spam attack to this blog. It was nothing personal, that much was obvious, but it was an attack that was so insidious and so extensive that it really took my breath away. (Thanks to blogger Graham A. Stephen who initially [...]

BYKI: “Before You Know It” language learning software

eleena — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:33:20 +0000

I heard about a language learning software that may be of interest to some of you. It’s called BYKI (Before You Know It) and it’s an interactive flashcard system. Personally, I’m not big on memorizing words off of flashcards but I know that for some people this an effective way to build vocabulary in a [...]

Off-topic: Happy 4th!

eleena — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:04:04 +0000

This post has nothing to do with Spanish but today’s Independence Day in the U.S. of A, so I figured you’ll forgive me for going (way) off-topic. Also, I’ve got a soft spot for Beaker. To all of you guys in the U.S., this one’s for you!

El pobre Starbucks

eleena — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:31:38 +0000

Whenever I need a good chuckle, I head on over to 20 Minutos and click on a random story to read the reader comments. They never disappoint. If you want to read unadulterated, real-life colloquial Spanish and have a good laugh at the same time, there is no better place online. Open 24/7, 365 [...]

New month, new season, new voices

eleena — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:09:02 +0000

Summer’s here and I’m bushed. I’m soooo looking forward to summer vacation. The great news is that I’ve recruited two guest bloggers to pitch in over on the Spanish side of this blog. When I first launched this blog back in November, I initially double posted everything in Spanish. Boy, was that time consuming. It got [...]

VEE #028 - Yerba mate

eleena — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:43:34 +0000

La yerba mate (An Argentine legend) De noche Yací, la luna, alumbra desde el cielo misionero las copas de los árboles y platea el agua de las cataratas. Eso es todo lo que conocía de la selva: los enormes torrentes y el colchón verde e ininterrumpido del follaje, que casi no deja pasar la luz. Muy [...]

When an intercambio gets too close for comfort

eleena — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:38:23 +0000

Kelsey, a reader of this blog, left a detailed account of an experience she had recently dealing with a language intercambio she found via the Mixxer. You can read her full account here, (it’s the last comment in the comments section). Long story short…a seemingly normal beginning morphed into something very creepy when her Chilean intercambio [...]

Dr. Jekyll and la Señora Hyde

eleena — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:00:28 +0000

There’s a news story getting wide exposure this week about a U.S. study that claims to have proven that people change personalities when they speak a second language. Like really change personalities at an incredible Hulkian level. Researchers in the U.S. say that they’ve found evidence of personality switching among bicultural Hispanic [...]

A common language for Spain

eleena — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:00:11 +0000

Spain is home to as many as nine languages, three of which (català, euskera, galego) have co-official status with castellano, i.e. Spanish. As a result, these three languages have tremendous political and social clout inside the country. It’s a messy and complicated issue but in recent years language has been used as a political weapon to [...]

Is Spanish inherently sexist and machista?

eleena — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:37:11 +0000

Consider the evidence: perro: Man’s best friend perra: a bitch zorro: an extremely astute and crafty man zorra: a whore, a prostitute golfo: a gulf (like the Gulf of Mexico), or a human male rascal, jerk or lazybones golfa: a slut, a prostitute And the list goes on. The Plataforma Andaluza de Apoyo al Lobby Europeo de Mujeres believes that sexist language [...]

The letter “W”

eleena — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:55:37 +0000

The letter “W” in Spanish is the red-headed stepchild of the Spanish alphabet. In technical, linguistic terms, the letter “W” isn’t patrimonial to Spanish, meaning that it’s not a letter that is naturally part of the language. It is a letter that exists in the Spanish alphabet to cover words imported from other languages. [...]

Ménage a blah: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

eleena — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:27:16 +0000

The trailer for this eagerly-anticipated Woody Allen movie came out this week. For a flick that centers on a love triangle, -o mejor dicho a love rectangle-, the trailer makes the film seem rather flaccid. Starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall, the movie is about two American girls (Johansson and Hall) who [...]

Miembro vs miembra??

eleena — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:00:49 +0000

Bibiana Aido, Spain’s minister of equality, has caused an itty-bitty international brouhaha by using the word miembra in public during the course of her official duties. Perhaps taking her position as the minister of equality a bit too literally, she addressed a group as “miembros y miembras de esta comisión...” What’s the big deal? Well, the [...]

Buenos días, buenas tardes, buenas noches

eleena — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:00:12 +0000

When I first moved to Spain, I would go home frequently at mid-day to eat lunch, usually arriving around 1:30 or 2 p.m. I would greet Matias, the portero of my building, with a friendly “Buenas tardes.” After a few days of this, he started correcting me which I really appreciated. He told me that [...]

The American Dream vs Spanish Reality

eleena — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:18:59 +0000

A lot of stuff has been swirling around in my head of late, most of it job-related, that I’ve had a hard time getting a handle on it. Earlier this week the European Union announced that it had reached an agreement to raise the work week to 65 hours, to the consternation of Spain’s employment officials. [...]

What do…

eleena — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:34:05 +0000

…Barrio Sésamo, corn dogs, Vasily Kandinsky and a scavenger hunt for naked sculptures have in common? Corn dogs by Booknero View of Empire State building from the Top of the Rockefeller Center

VEE #027 - Big Apple visit

eleena — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:01:24 +0000

[See post to watch QuickTime movie] Part 2 of Going 2 America Above, video of Grand Central Station in Manhattan. Below, view of Central Park from Top of the Rockefeller Center. David calls a scavenger hunt a ginkana. He also uses the expression dejar a la altura del betún when comparing Whole Foods, a U.S. grocery store, to El [...]

101 Falsos Amigos

eleena — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:20:52 +0000

It’s natural to look for words that sound or look like words in your native tongue when you are learning a foreign language. It’s like swimming in an ocean of inscrutable words when suddenly, on the horizon, appears a (verbal) life jacket. You grab ahold of it, quickly put it on, thinking you’ve bought yourself [...]