Archive for the ‘Spanish’ Category
Mar
Mar
To be or not to be, in Spanish
Continuing along my “to be” theme, today I am going to discuss the difference in Spanish between ser and estar, both verbs with mean “to be”. After yesterday’s extended discussion of the Russian way, today will be a piece of cake! In fact, in Spanish, the difference is even easier to remember than in Italian!
Mar
Mar
10 Reasons why Spanish is the best first choice of second language!
If you want to learn a foreign language, but you don’t know which one to learn; or if you want to learn several languages and you don’t know which one to start with; or, if you think learning a foreign language is too hard, and you want something that will be easier, the Spanish is definitely the best choice.
Jun
Jun
¡Ay madre! What your mother never taught you about Spanish!
One of the most versatile words in many languages is “mother”, but there is probably no language in which it is more versatile than in Spanish. To a person who is learning Spanish but doesn’t know slang, one could easy walk away from a conversation wondering why people talk about their mothers so much. However…
Aug
Aug
Don’t think grammar is important? Think again!
I’m noticing a troubling theme in the language-learning and language-blogging community: people who are looked to as subject matter experts, time and time again, encouraging their readers and followers to forego grammar.
I’m deeply troubled by this.…
Dec
Dec
Speaking Spanish in the southwestern U.S.
For the past ten days, I’ve been exploring the southwestern U.S., with visits to six more states to which I’ve never previously been. And as a language-lover, one thing has been clear right from the start: speaking Spanish has made this a much more pleasant experience for me.
In St. Louis, after I’d seen all…
Dec
Dec
Italian and Spanish compared
When I began my year of learning Italian, I was already a speaker of Spanish. And as both Spanish and Italian are descended from Vulgar Latin, they have a lot in common.
At times, having familiarity with Spanish was somewhat of an advantage, and at other times, it’s actually a disadvantage. But a lot of…
Mar
Mar
Huevos Rancheros: learn Spanish while making a tasty egg-based meal!
This is a guest post written by Andrew. Hi, I’m Andrew and I’ve been teaching myself Spanish for about the past 3 1/2 years and am currently trying to maintain that while also learning Japanese (very slowly, I might add). I’m fascinated by new cultures and countries, and language-learning is a means to an end …
Mar
Mar
That’s a beautiful language!
Category: General, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish · Tags: pronunciation,sounds
This morning I was talking with David Mansaray about languages that sound beautiful, and about their tendency sometimes to lose their luster. This provides me a great introduction to a related topic that I’ve been thinking about lately.
How our view of a language changes
I remember when I first started learning Spanish. I was…
Apr
Apr
Guest reading: from Revista Unidiversidad
This week’s guest reading comes to us from Carlos, a native Spanish speaker in Mexico City. Carlos is a translator, among other things, and he has recently started an interesting blog called Overwhelmingly Inspired which I recommend you have a look at.
He reads a fragment taken from Revista Unidiversidad. February, 2011.
Carlos reads Revista…
Apr
Apr
Guest Reading: La Nacion
This week’s guest reading was recorded by Paulino Brener, a native Spanish-speaker from Argentina. Paulino lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where is is a school teacher, a performer, and a champion of Latin-American culture, among other things. He is also a good friend.
Paulino has chosen to read a bit of political news from La Nacion,…