In the Now

Want to increase your vocabulary? Read more native material.  The articles in your text books are contrived out of vocabulary you pretty much already know; however, authentic material will have varied conjugations and vocabulary. You'll be surprised how quickly you can pick up what the words mean simply out of context.

Here are a few informative and light hearted articles from the last week.

La "app" Instagram anuncia su llegada a la web, ya no solo es para móviles -Instagram is making its way from just a mobile app to the online sphere by opening a site that can be accessed on personal computers and laptops.  This is a good article to pick up some Spanish technology terminology.

Los Huracanes del Norte If your interest way of connecting to Spanish is through music, the famous Mexican band "Los Huracanes del Norte" (The Hurricanes of the North) have released a new CD.  This is a fairly popular band and apparently they've picked up some new styles to add to their old school flair. This is a good piece to pick up a few colloquial music terms.

Sacerdote "pop" inaugura gigantesca iglesia en Brasil  This is an interesting article just barely touching on some of the friction between the Catholic and Pentecostal faiths in Sao Paulo. It involves a pop star, a big church, and buckets of holy water.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Free Online Places to Learn Spanish

Image
Learning a new language doesn't have to be an expensive activity. There are plenty of free options to learn Spanish that you can use so long as you have a device that can reach the internet. Free online interactive websites There are a ton of free online websites that can help you learn Spanish (or any language). Don't believe me? Google "learn Spanish online free". Go ahead, I'll wait. See? There's a ton. Thankfully, I've already used...well way too many of them. Joining a new website is sometimes my way of procrastinating. The downside to a lot of free websites, is that a lot of the content is free, but there's also a lot that is only for "premium" users.  That being said, here my favorites include: DuoLingo  - Completely free-no content locked behind a pay wall. Busuu LiveMocha (I use to like LiveMocha more. It's recently been bought out by Rosetta Stone) Ask a librarian! Seriously, most libraries have a ton o...
Read more

5 Spanish Language Podcasts to Practice Spanish Language Listening

Image
  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...
Read more

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

Image
  ​“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...
Read more