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Showing posts from January, 2022

Spanish News Round Up: Pop Culture Addition

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It’s time to practice your Spanish reading and increase your vocabulary by practicing reading Spanish news articles. This week’s article round up is all about pop culture.  1.  OnlyFans: ¿quién responde por tu dinero y tu imagen? By Vice Labs Vice is known for covering edgy topics. This time they’re covering the many problems that OnlyFan’s creators face with the financial system. Follow two young male creators on their site, and learn about the many hurdles they have faced getting paid on the site. By reading this Spanish news article you’ll practice vocabulary in the following topics: sex work, side hustle culture, financial systems, modern social media apps, and marketing terminology. Bet those are some subjects that your high school Spanish class left you underprepared in. 2. Chiquis hace fuertes declaraciones: "Se ha vuelto un circo lo de mi familia, me da vergüenza" Janney Marín Rivera, or Chiquis Rivera, is quoted comparing her family to a circus.   Chiquita is no stra

How to Learn Spanish Quickly

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Johan Mouchet via Unsplash.   Learning a new language is tough. Learning a new language with a time constraint can feel near impossible. Whatever your reason for needing to learn Spanish quickly, don’t worry. It can be done. You’ll just need to cut a few corners. There are many reasons why you may want to learn Spanish quickly, perhaps you have an impending trip to a Spanish speaking country, a Spanish wedding , or maybe you have a job opportunity that requires a degree of competence in the Spanish Language.    Whatever the reason these tips may well help you learn Spanish a little bit quicker.   1. Learn the basics  It goes without saying that every language has a basic level and Spanish is no different, if you concentrate of the simple things and get them off to perfection everything else you learn will build on top of it. You'll need to get a strong understanding of: Pronunciation Gendered nouns Basic verb conjugation  2. Concentrate on conversational Spanish Forget about learni

Learn the Spanish Wedding Phrases that You Need to Know for Any Spanish Speaking Wedding

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  Do you have a wedding coming up, and you need to cram some useful Spanish wedding phrases before hand? Maybe you're marrying into a Spanish speaking family, and DuoLingo isn't cutting it anymore? Great. This is the article for you. The wedding industry thrives in the Hispanic word, particularly in Central and South America. Religion still plays an important role there, as do close societal ties. Weddings are a place for the community to gather and celebrate, and can be much larger affairs than American weddings. General Spanish Wedding Phrases and Vocabulary   Una boda is the Spanish word for a wedding   el casamiento/matrimonio are the phrases for marriage el novio refers to the groom la novia is the bride  l os novios refers to the bride and groom together la pareja perfecta - the perfect couple  los anillos de la boda - wedding rings los votos - the vows   los trece monedas de oro - thirteen gold coins (a wedding tradition that you can read more about below)   la

What Are the Different Skills Needed to Be Fluent in a New Languange

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  ​“How do I become fluent in Spanish?” It’s a good question, but if you’ve never learned a new language you may not understand the different skills that you’ll need to practice. Memorizing hundreds of vocabulary words is a start, but if you can’t recognize those words in a spoken conversation or in a book or article, they don’t help much.  When it comes to learning a new language, there are four main skills to keep in mind: Listening skills Oral (speaking) skills Writing skills Reading skills These skills are the difference between knowing a word for a vocabulary test, and flirting with a stranger on the streets of Madrid. By practicing all of these skills, you train your brain to understand the new language in a usable way. Instead of simply knowing the translation to vocabulary words. This is one of the reasons that I suggest learning phrases for new languages, instead of words. It really doesn't matter what a word means, usually, but instead what's meant by the phrase. For

5 Spanish Language Podcasts to Practice Spanish Language Listening

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  If you're looking for a new way to practice your Spanish language skills, then look no further. In this blog post, we will be discussing 5 podcasts that are all in Spanish and can help you improve the listening comprehension side of things. So grab some headphones and prepare to learn! Let’s practice those Spanish listening skills with these 5 podcasts. These aren’t “learn Spanish” podcasts, where the speaker says a phrase and you repeat it. Instead, these are real podcasts that Spanish speakers listen to. This will give you a chance to practice listening and recognizing Spanish at a more realistic pace, much like watching tv shows. Listening to Spanish podcasts is a great way to increase your vocabulary in topics that interest you. If you’re a crypto fanatic or a true crime binger, then by listening to these podcasts, you’ll learn the vocabulary and grammar patterns to discuss them. This should be an enjoyable part of your language learning experience, so pick a subject that in

Cheap (and FREE) ways for students to learn Spanish or any new language

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Learning a new language does not need to be an expensive experience, as long as the student is willing to put in the time and effort there are almost always affordable, if not free, ways to learn a new language. Local Library Libraries have not just books and reference materials for free, (so long as you bring them back on time), but a lot of libraries are beginning to offer free online language learning resources. They also offer community classes, for free or low cost. Ask your librarian if they offer any services like this. Free Websites There are many free websites and blogs available now to learn languages, busuu.com and livemocha.com are two of my favorites. They are free to join and offer many free lessons , vocabulary flash cards, and the ability to contact pen pals from around the world. A downside to these websites is that although they offer most major languages completely (Spanish, Russian, French, German, Portuguese, etc.), lesser known languages or ones that