Nov
17
Chatting with Mercedes León
Today’s podcast is an interview I did with the lovely Mercedes León of SpanishPodcast.org. I guess you could consider us sister podcasts since we have almost the same domain names. 
Mercedes and her podcasting partner José Luis Rodriguez are true ambassadors of the Spanish language. Each week they put out a roughly half-hour podcast, in Spanish, filled to the brim with cultural insights and excellent detailed explanations of various aspects of the Spanish language. Their passion for teaching and helping us non-Spanish speakers improve our Spanish is truly inspiring.
Mercedes is an extremely gracious and dedicated person. When I asked her for an interview, she immediately said yes, and then went above and beyond the call of duty preparing for our chat. She even did a complete transcript of the entire conversation for us! Click here to get details on how to get it.
There is so much good stuff in our chat, I’ve decided to split it into two episodes.
In Part 1, Mercedes and I talk about the tough economic times that Spain is currently experiencing. Later in the conversation, she takes us on a delightful audio tour of her favorite sections of Barcelona, her hometown. On her web site, she also has tons of photos of Barcelona that are accompanied by detailed captions.
Next week I will post Part 2 of the conversation. That’s when Mercedes will talk in depth about her podcast and give us some pointers on how to become more effective language learners.
Enjoy!
Photo: Plaça Catalunya, by MorBCN
November 17th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
That picture of Plaça Catalunya is very beautiful! It is a wonderful sunset!
November 19th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Hi Anto,
Thanks for dropping by. Yeah, that photo is very striking. That HDR technique does produce truly spectacular photos. I see from your web site that you’re a photog as well, so you’re probably an expert!
November 19th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Hi Eleena,
Thank you for visiting my site
I am not really an expert… I would say that I’m a learning amateur who loves photography and the beautiful places in the World to take pictures of.
Do you do photography as well? Did you take that picture yourself of Plaça Catalunya?
November 19th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Anto,
¡Ojalá pudiera tomar fotos tan preciosas! No, I’m a great admirer of photography, particularly b&w, but not much of a photog myself.
The picture of Plaça Catalunya is from Flickr. The photographer’s Flickr name is MorBCN. If you click on this link, he talks about how he achieved that beautiful image: http://tinyurl.com/67q4jd
Here’s the link to his photo page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcnbits/ There are some breathtaking shots.
MorBCN’s Flickr profile: http://www.flickr.com/people/bcnbits/
November 24th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
What a wonderful picture!
January 2nd, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Hi, Have just discovered your website. I have been a fan of Mercedes Leon for some time and was keen to listen to your conversation with her. Unfortunately I couldn’t download it and can only listen to it on my comuter and the link to the transcript doesn’t work. Can you repair the link to the transcript for me?
Many thanks
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:21 am
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for the heads up. I fixed the link. Please check your email for audio and transcript. If it’s not in your regular inbox, please check your junk mail folder.
Saludos,
Eleena