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!
February 18th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
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.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
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!