Comments for Voices en Español

Comment on Eight languages and counting… by eleena

eleena — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:42:00 +0000

His name is Fidel Nadal and here’s the link to the lyrics of the song:

http://spanish-podcast.com/2010/03/04/emocionado-fidel-nadal/

Comment on Eight languages and counting… by Andy

Andy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:00:23 +0000

Who is the artist “singing” that song at the end?

Comment on El niño al que se le murió el amigo (Minicuento #5) by Viviana

Viviana — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:48:50 +0000

Pablo,

Mi corazón tiene la energía de más de 100 años, pero mi cuerpo me dice tener menos ; )…

Gracias por su comentario.

Een hartelijke groet uit Schiedam!

Viviana

Comment on Art of Words & the beauty of Spanish by Viviana

Viviana — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:42:49 +0000

Gracias, Fran, sus palabras son ya poesía para mis ojos.

Tiene usted todo mi consentimiento para compartir parte de mi corazón, mis palabras.

Saludos desde Holanda.

Comment on El niño al que se le murió el amigo (Minicuento #5) by Pablo

Pablo — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:39:42 +0000

¡Uff! (tranen in de ogen!) Un cuento verdaderamente emocionante (sabes, que me parece que soy más emocionado “en español que en neerlandés”?). Quizá que es por el hecho que tán me emociona México. ¿Por qué? No sé, hombre. ¿Por tener 60 años, y me acuerdo de mi años de juventud, en los años 1963-64, cuando visité, a menudo, a la ciudad de Juarez? Cosa cual, hoy al día, ya no parece posible, por varias razones…
Pero no, no es esta la razon. Sencillamente es un cuento…con raices en la vida, de eso se trata.
Con respeto,
Pablo

Comment on Art of Words & the beauty of Spanish by Fran

Fran — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:15:05 +0000

Viviana de México:
Soy Fran, de los Estados Unidos.

Que palabras tan preciosas! Eres una poeta de verdad! Soy profesora de español en un instituto en Florida, y si no te molesta, voy a compartir tus palabras como una “fuente de inspiracion.” A ellos es dificil aprender nuestro idioma, pero estan trabajando mucho. Yo solo quería darte las gracias por una pieza de tecnología/idioma maravillosa hoy.

Hasta pronto,
Fran :0)

Comment on El niño al que se le murió el amigo (Minicuento #5) by Voices en Español » Art of Words & the beauty of Spanish

Voices en Español » Art of Words & the beauty of Spanish — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:58:06 +0000

[...] reader of today’s minicuento is Viviana from Mexico. I’ll let her tell you about herself in her own [...]

Comment on A festival of micro-relatos by eleena

eleena — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:06:48 +0000

Graham,
That’s a fantastic find! Thanks very much for sharing it with us!

Comment on A festival of micro-relatos by Graham

Graham — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:00:04 +0000

I haven’t dipped into this yet, but this looks like an interesting resource:

http://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/voces_hispanicas/default.htm

Saludos, G.

Comment on La partida (Minicuento #3) by eleena

eleena — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:45:58 +0000

Hola Santiago,
Gracias por tu mensaje. Estoy loca por español y hay miles de mis “hermanos” angloparlantes que sienten lo mismo. Es un idioma tan hermoso, como tú has dicho.

No tengo ningún audio de una voz argentina para esta serie de microrelatos, así que si te gustaría participar, me envias un email privado y podemos organizar algo.

Saludos,
Eleena

Comment on Vosotros: Should you bother to learn it? by Jessica Ojeda

Jessica Ojeda — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:15:08 +0000

I’m from the United States and that’s where I learned Spanish, well there and Mexico. I actually have a B.A. in Spanish and I was never taught the vosotros form, and nor did I learn it on my own. Anyway, I now live in Spain and getting use to the vosotros form was no problem for me.

Now, I can’t produce it on my own but it’s very understandable when someone uses it with me. And I continue to use the ustedes form. You could look at this as laziness, but I don’t. I haven’t learned to vosotros form because really I don’t have to. I’d rather learn something else more useful.

Here is my whole take on the issue: http://www.theselva.com/should-i-learn-vosotros/

Comment on Vosotros: Should you bother to learn it? by Vosotros – To Learn or Not To Learn | SELVA

Vosotros – To Learn or Not To Learn | SELVA — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:48:24 +0000

[...] biased telling you not to learn the vosotros verb conjugations, here is a nice article telling you to learn the vosotros forms. Just so that you can see for yourself both sides of the story. Really, it’s up to you if you [...]

Comment on La partida (Minicuento #3) by Santiago

Santiago — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:39:05 +0000

hola. Realmente me sorprendió el interés por nuestro hermoso idioma. Soy Argentino, y nuestro acento es un poco diferente al de los españoles. Saludos.

Comment on La partida (Minicuento #3) by eleena

eleena — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:07:52 +0000

Thanks, Jessica! Several more to come!

Comment on Eight languages and counting… by Spanish Jobs

Spanish Jobs — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:02:55 +0000

Ha ha! This is funny! It is definitely inspiring to meet people like Benny who travel the world and learn different languages. I lived abroad in younger years and taught English both abroad and home–I see that anyone can learn a language–they just need some basics and a link to people or a person to practice with!

Comment on How to learn any (Spanish) accent by Dani

Dani — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:56:03 +0000

I agree with Luciano. I’m currently living in Spain, and nailing the Spanish accent is more difficult than learning the language. There’s a certain unpredictability to when the tone will rise or fall that native Spaniards and little children pick up on that just eludes me.

Comment on La partida (Minicuento #3) by Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:29:20 +0000

I’m really enjoying this series featuring language bloggers!

Comment on Diccionario del Anglicismos Actuales by Brumarias

Brumarias — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:34:19 +0000

Considero importante comprender la razón por la que usamos palabras
del idioma ingles en nuestro castellano de cada día. Cuando los anglosajones llegaron a América, trajeron su idioma, el inglés.

Pero como la lengua que se hablaba en la mayoría de los pueblos americanos era el español, usaron aquellos vocablos necesarios para hacerse entender por los habitantes de América. Es decir, el inglés contiene una enorme cantidad de palabras que fueron tomadas del español. Esta es la razón por la que el inglés que hablan los descendientes anglos de América del Norte, (Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, Canadá y varias islas del caribe) es muy diferente al que se usa en Inglaterra.

Creo que debemos iniciar una revisión de lo que consideramos que se pierde en el idioma español cuando se usa, a nivel popular, una palabra. Recordemos que lo mas importante en el hablar es comunicar, no seguir o cumplir con normas creadas para otros hechos.

Comment on La partida (Minicuento #3) by Voices en Español » Eight languages and counting…

Voices en Español » Eight languages and counting… — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:20:35 +0000

[...] Lewis, multilingual blogger, translator and globetrotter, is the reader of “La partida,” today’s microcuento. Benny es un crack con los idiomas. (Un crack is Spanish slang for saying [...]

Comment on A festival of micro-relatos by eleena

eleena — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:07:41 +0000

Thanks, Paola. I will contact you privately with the details. Un saludo.

Comment on La escuela del hambre (Minicuento #2) by Voices en Español & Ramses | Spanish Only

Voices en Español & Ramses | Spanish Only — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:23:01 +0000

[...] I hope you enjoy it! If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! Related Posts: For All Serious Learners: Barra de Español Cuentos en Español Keep it short! [...]

Comment on Instrucciones para llorar (Minicuento #1) by Chris

Chris — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:51:40 +0000

Alejeather,

From my experience it isn’t a characteristic of any given accent to trill the final R heavily. What it is is a characteristic of clear enunciation that spans all Spanish accents. So you will hear this around Spain and Latin America from people who are trying to speak very clearly to you.

Comment on A festival of micro-relatos by Paola

Paola — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:17:45 +0000

Hi, I’m a Spanish teacher from Argentina and I would be glad to collaborate with your podcasts, it is a very interesting project!

Contact me if I can be helpful.

Mucha suerte!

Comment on A festival of micro-relatos by eleena

eleena — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:41:22 +0000

Eddie,
Thank you very much for your kind email and for putting my podcasts in such good company! That made my day. Happy to hear that the audio from this blog is very useful to you and I hope it remains that way.

Tricia,
Thanks for dropping by. I’m thinking of doing a similar audio cuento series over at Cody’s Cuentos but perhaps in a slightly different format. Stay tuned…

Comment on A festival of micro-relatos by Tricia

Tricia — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:50:06 +0000

What a fun idea. I’m looking forward to it!

Comment on A festival of micro-relatos by eddie

eddie — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:55:02 +0000

Thank you for including stories. I’ve enjoyed the ones you have already podcasted. Just a few minutes ago I listened to Cine Prado by Elena Poniatowska. What a great story! I have every single one of your podcasts on my ipod and along with a few other favorites, such as Ben and Marina, and Luis Rojas, I listen to them constantly and they have helped me to keep my passion for Spanish burning. You are doing a beautiful thing.

Comment on Instrucciones para llorar (Minicuento #1) by Eleena

Eleena — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:31:02 +0000

Alejeather,
That’s a good question which I don’t have an answer to right now. I hadn’t noticed that that the final r was being heavily trilled. Cristina actually has a neutral Castilian Spanish accent. Down the road I’ll be featuring readers from the U.S. and listening to them you can’t pinpoint exactly where they are from in the U.S. because they speak with a neutral American accent. It’s kind of the same with many Spanish speakers. You can tell their nationality but not immediately pinpoint the city or region they are from.

I’m planning on doing an in-depth podcast down the road about Spanish accents and their particular characteristics, so I’m currently educating myself on the differences. The preliminary notes I have so far about the Catalan accent are about the differences in pronunciation of the vowels but I’ve got nothing about the “r” at this point.

Thanks for your message!

Comment on Instrucciones para llorar (Minicuento #1) by Alejeather

Alejeather — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:00:05 +0000

Is it typical of most accents from Spain to roll the final r heavily? (here in llorar, exterior) or is that a particular characteristic of a Catalan accent?

I love this idea, Eleena. I look forward to hearing the other accents!

Comment on Instrucciones para llorar (Minicuento #1) by Voices en Español » A festival of micro relatos

Voices en Español » A festival of micro relatos — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:37:18 +0000

[...] in the lineup is Cristina from Barcelona, Spain reading “Instrucciones para llorar” by Julio Cortázar. [...]

Comment on 5 iPhone Apps to Help You Learn Spanish by James

James — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:32:39 +0000

We have recently released a new App to study Spanish(NounStar) it also includes the ability to study English, Portuguese and French. It is more for building a bigger vocabulary then for phrases. It uses images and audio to help you learn the words and has 3 different modes to study(Image Flash Cards, Image Quiz, Text Quiz).

Soon we will be releasing independent versions for each language.

Check it out.

Website:
http://nounstar.com/

iTunes Download:
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/nounstar/id343448176?mt=8

Comment on How to learn any (Spanish) accent by Luciano

Luciano — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:26:01 +0000

El acento es muy difícil de cambiar. Yo soy español y llevo casi 15 años viviendo en Manchester. Lo que está claro es que se nota que soy español. Bueno algunos me dicen que tengo un poco de “mancunian accent” vivo en Manchester. Sin embargo mis hijos tienen un accento bueno tanto de español como de inglés.

http://www.alcole.co.uk

Comment on How to unlock the meaning of Spanish idioms and expressions by eleena

eleena — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:58:19 +0000

Claro, Renee, pero no todo el mundo tiene acceso al internet a todas horas del día. Enseño en un colegio en el que los chicos no tienen portátiles ni iPhones en la clase. Sólo tienen diccionarios de papel así que esta entrada es para ellos.

Comment on How to unlock the meaning of Spanish idioms and expressions by Renee Austin

Renee Austin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:37:49 +0000

Una manera mas facil de determinar el significado de un dicho o frase es simplement ponlo en el internet asi:

“ir al grano”

y la traduccion aparece en los primeros sitios listados

Comment on How to unlock the meaning of Spanish idioms and expressions by Renee Austin

Renee Austin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:33:11 +0000

Un excellente diccionario en el internet es de Real Academia Espanola

http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/

Comment on How to use a Spanish-English dictionary by Voices en Español » How to unlock the meaning of Spanish idioms and expressions

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:35:11 +0000

[...] This post is from my other blog ReVerb Spanish and a follow-up to “How to use a Spanish-English Dictionary.” [...]

Comment on The most annoying expression in Spanish is… by eleena

eleena — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:24:01 +0000

Afya,
A better option for your teacher would be to say ¿Queda claro? (Is that clear?) or ¿Alguna pregunta? (Any questions?)

Or he could just simply ask ¿Entiendes? (to one person) or¿ Entienden? (to a group).

Maybe you should print out this article and anonymously give it to your teacher.

Comment on The most annoying expression in Spanish is… by Afya

Afya — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:13:10 +0000

WOW this was so cool to know!!!
I always wondered if some of the things we said in English would translate with ‘hard-feelings’
My Spanish teacher is not a native speaker, but his family is from Mexico and he is always saying me entiendes throughout class…

COOL!!!

Comment on How to use a Spanish-English dictionary by ReVerb Spanish » Blog Archive » How to find the definitions of Spanish idioms and expressions

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:18:44 +0000

[...] out: “How to use a Spanish-English Dictionary” Uncategorized learn spanish, spanish dictionary, spanish expressions, spanish [...]

Comment on How to learn any (Spanish) accent by Graham

Graham — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:36:14 +0000

Fascinating!

Comment on VEE #052 – La corrección en el lenguaje by Joel

Joel — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:50:32 +0000

Graciosísimo, muchas gracias.

Comment on How to learn any (Spanish) accent by Erik R.

Erik R. — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:21:45 +0000

No Indian or Pakistani? Everyone can do a little Apu!

Comment on Chica with 21 different accents…in English by Voices en Español » How to learn any (Spanish) accent

Voices en Español » How to learn any (Spanish) accent — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:02:15 +0000

[...] may remember Amy from her very entertaining video 21 Accents made two years ago. Now she’s back with a short instructional video on how anyone can improve [...]

Comment on How to use a Spanish-English dictionary by eleena

eleena — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:24:41 +0000

Changed it. Thanks!

Comment on How to use a Spanish-English dictionary by Richardksa

Richardksa — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:54:39 +0000

How do you make “Hair / Here” as phonemes? They don’t sound the same at all.

Comment on Dar de alta, dar de baja by Tod

Tod — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:24:45 +0000

Thanks so much for this post! It clears up several issues that have confused me for many years. (The various meanings of baja in different contexts are confusing enough… but who came up with the idea that “dar de alta” means both discharge AND register!?!? Qué lío…..

Comment on Vosotros: Should you bother to learn it? by Roberto

Roberto — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:30:44 +0000

Well I guess I should of said this a while back, if you learn the vosotros forms, then learning vos is not even hard. Like whoever it was that said that. Yes, I do find it funny to hear people that are my friends refer to us as USTEDES when we would call them VOSOTROS (yes I have friends from mexico and colombia) but I got over it with them by this point I just accept it. and if I ever sounded like I think we should ignore other dialects, I appologize I like every dialect. I like to here the difference between my won and others’ pronunciations. I heard that theres parts in Chile where they use the vosotros forms with vds. just like parts of south spain, but I could be wrong. As for me I use only tú and vosotros and I comunicate just fine. by the way one of my mexican friends, he from Durango, so if its just his area or that state, i don’t know, but they refer to every one in the family as usted. Wierd.

Comment on How to use a Spanish-English dictionary by Alice

Alice — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:49:06 +0000

Thank you so much for this useful post! I’ve posted some of your tips on my school blog for my students to have a look http://spanishblog.posterous.com/how-to-use-a-spanish-english-dictionary

Comment on Vosotros: Should you bother to learn it? by Edgar

Edgar — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:38:40 +0000

Steven,

Comfort in the simplest way leads to the shrinking of the brain…

Comment on How to use a Spanish-English dictionary by Erik R.

Erik R. — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:18:08 +0000

One trick I've learned for difficult words, like plant or animal names or complex academic concepts, is to look up the word in Wikipedia and then click the link on the left to change the language. Don't know what "merluza" is? Look it up on es.wikipedia.org, and change the language: Voila! Hake!

Comment on VEE #045 – ¡Piratas! by eleena

eleena — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:30:45 +0000

Hola Juan,
No, Eugenio no es ruso. Es méxicano.