Feb
15
Cervantes TV
Cervantes TV, an online television channel created by the Instituto Cervantes debuted this week. The site has a clear, easy to navigate design and already has a decent amount of programming available, from video interviews with famous authors like Mario Vargas Llosa and Francisco Ayala to short video documentaries on a variety of historical, political and artistic topics. One documentary that caught my attention is about a group of New Yorkers who fought against fascism in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
As one would expect, the programming is at a high level, both language wise and intellectually. But if you’re someone who loves hearing that wonderful Castilian accent and need to get a daily fix, this site is for you! Also, the site will be offering online (or what is sometimes called “distance learning”) Spanish classes,
Overall, it’s a promising site that hopefully will do a lot to extend the reach of the Spanish language on the web. It’s also a welcome change from watching YouTube in Spanish!
How about making their website the #1 for learning Spanish? I haven’t looked at it much, but how many learning resources are there?
Maybe they could contribute to the Spanish wikibook or create free online courses.
Andrew,
You’re right. It would seem like a no-brainer for Instituto Cervantes to already be Número Uno as THE online Spanish-learning resource. I’ve visited the site a few times and there’s some good info there but their web site is extremely dense. By that I mean it’s loaded with so much info that it can be overwhelming at a glance and not much fun to navigate.
They do have a “virtual learning” portal that you can enter through this link:
http://ave.cervantes.es/
Thanks again for commenting because you’ve put a bug in my ear to take a closer look at their offerings and see if there’s any steak behind all that sizzle!
I’ll report back at a later date with what I find.
¡Hasta entonces!