Spanish Language Podcast: "A mi aire"

First of all, I apologize for the long break. My paying job is working at a summer camp so summer is one of my busiest times of the year. Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I can start writing blog posts on a semi-regular basis. (By the way, we have had three campers from Spain and one from Mexico, so I have been able to use my Spanish a little.)

I started listening to a new podcast (new to me at least) about a month ago and I must say I have really enjoyed it. It’s called Alicia: A mi aire and can be found at www.podclub.ch. You can find past episodes here with links to entire transcripts and vocabulary used.

An overview from the site:

A mi aire es un podcast de Alicia para estudiantes de español a partir del nivel A2/B1. Alicia es el seudónimo utilizado por Paloma Bétrisey. Paloma tanto como Alicia es de Madrid y llegó a Zürich cuando las tiendas cerraban a las seis y media y los bares a las doce de la noche. ¡Qué tiempos aquellos! Alicia se acuerda de lo extraño que era para ella pasear por el centro de la ciudad a las siete con las tiendas cerradas y sin ver a nadie. Se preguntaba: "¿Dónde estará la gente?". Acababa de llegar de Madrid, una ciudad enorme, donde hay ruido y personas por todas partes. Su hermana Lucía se lo había dicho: "Alicia, te vas a Europa, allí no puedes comprar todo a última hora y tendrás que cenar a las siete, ¿eh?". "Ya lo sé, ya lo sé", le contestó ella entonces convencida, pero no fue tan fácil como ella pensaba al principio.

What makes this podcast different? Well, I find them engaging and truly interesting. She speaks clearly and a bit slower than normal, but not too much. And they’re free which is always a good thing.

The podcasts come out every two weeks. She is on a summer break, but it appears the podcasts will start up again in mid-August. Also, they offer podcasts in other languages such as English, German, French and Italian.

Happy Hour Spanish

As usual, I ran across this resource as I was spending a bit of time this morning on Twitter. Happy Hour Spanish is a fairly new site (2011) that features videocasts, podcasts and exercises to help you learn Spanish and about the Spanish culture.

Hayley, a California native, was a student of Maider who was teaching classes in Bilbao (her native city) when they decided to start the Happy Hour Spanish program. More information from the About Us page:

After becoming fast friends, we decided to embark on creating the ultimate language learning program based on our unique experience in both teaching and learning foreign languages. We have designed Happy Hour Spanish as a program that teaches Spanish grammar while also giving you an immersion-style experience of Spanish culture and the Spanish lifestyle.  We like to say you can consider our program a cross between “Rick Steve’s Europe” and “Rosetta Stone”.  Follow along with us on our video tours throughout Spain and enjoy all the sights and sounds the Iberian Peninsula has to offer while feeling what it is like to be immersed in a foreign language…

With the podcasts, you’ll find transcripts and translations. Accompanying the videocasts are transcripts, translations and printable exercises (beginner and intermediate).

Here is look at one of their videos about La Boqueria in Barcelona:

Art Resources for Children from El Prado

You will find a wealth of information about the works of art on the Museo del Prado website, but I wanted to highlight a resource for children – a series of videos with La Infanta Margarita from the painting Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez. The animated version of Margarita along with her friend, Francisco de Paula act as guides as they share “secrets” of some of the works of art via interactive videos. There are several games available as well.

About.com en español

Okay, where have I been and why haven’t I noticed this before? As I was scrolling through the Teaching & Learning Spanish Facebook page, (yes, shameless plug, but turning out to be a great resource) I ran across a post on mamalatina.about.com. I paused and thought, wait a minute, about.com in SPANISH! So, I clicked on the About.com en español link at the top of the page, sat back in my chair and thought how cool is this!

The menu at the top lists the following topics: Autos, Casa, Cocina y recetas, Cultura, Deportes y actividades, Educación, Familia y more. (Hmm… shouldn’t that say más?) Either hover over the menu at the top or scroll down to view the subcategories.

Needless to say, this is a great resource for learning everyday Spanish. I can’t wait to dive in!

El día de los muertos

I subscribe to the Annenberg Learner newsletter which is always full of information for teaching a wide variety of subjects. In this particular issue, there is a section about El día de los muertos (Day of the Dead). Here is the link to the activities including slideshows in English and Spanish, a teacher guide and more: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/DiaMuertosTG.html 

If you don’t have time to use this lesson this year, then perhaps you can bookmark it for next year.

Ser naco es chido

In Mexico you might see someone wearing a playera (t-shirt) with this image on it.

So what is "naco"?  Urban Dictionary defines naco as:

Naco (fmn. naca) is a pejorative word often used in Mexican Spanish to describe bad-mannered and poorly educated people. A naco is usually associated with lower socio-economic classes, but could also sometimes include the nouveau riche.

 In English you can relate this to being "ghetto", or "poor white trash". More generically, it means you come from the wrong side of the tracks.  The term isn't always used in a negative manner, but you really gotta know when, where, how, and more importantly who you can use it with it.  If you're familiar with the usage of ghetto and poor white trash, you've got a leg up on how the word naco is used and what it represents.  For women, it changes to naca. 

Several definitions for Naco have been posted at Urban Dictionary, it's worthwhile to take the time to read them all.

Now that we've gotten definitions out of the way, what sort of things are considered "naco"?  The video below is going to help us out with that.   Pay close attention, you'll see lots poorly written (mal escrito) signs (letreros) and the classic bathroom graffiti that's really pretty rude but usually makes us laugh anyway.  This footage in this video is from somewhere in Mexico.

I found this video to be pretty entertaining, and is a good test of your Spanish.  Some of the errores (mistakes) in the signs can be a bit tricky to figure out.  It took me a minute on some of them.  But then again, I also had help from my maestra.

Enough talk, here's the video.

Why don't you leave a comment about your favorite letrero in the video?  If there was something you didn't understand, leave a comment and maybe I can help you out.

I almost forgot.  We still need to translate our phrase.

Ser naco es chido
It's cool to be ghetto

You can't talk about being naco without talking about being a fresa, but in this entrada (post), I'm only going to cover naco.  In another post we'll find out what "fresa" is and step a little deeper into the culture of  "naco vs fresa".

Amar Te Duele is a decent movie that place in Mexico and is the classic love story between  two teenagers from different worlds, naco and fresa. Sort of a modern day Romeo and Juilet story.

I hope you enjoyed the video, I got qute a few laughs myself.

Hasta la próxima.

El Día de los Muertos - Calaveras, Pedir Calaverita

Halloween has come and gone, and so has El Día de los Muertos.

I'm not going to attempt to explain this celebration to you, but instead point you to several great sites that explain the tradition quite well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html

Also, here are some great photos that will really give you some insight into how the holiday is celebrated in México .

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Dia+de+Muertos+mexico

So what am I going to talk about, you ask? Read on...

While we know the tradition of Halloween is celebrated in México, I realized I had no idea how to talk about the actual act of trick or treating. The phrase is pedir calaverita.

Some examples...

Tus hijos van a pedir calavarita?
Are your kids going to go trick or treating?

Fuiste a pedir calavarita con tus hijos?
Did you go trick or treating with your kids?

I made another post last year about Halloween in México, Dulce or Traversura, which you may want to read about. There's also a great post in WordReference that discusses Halloween, you can read it here. It's a mix of English and Spanish, so you can get in some great reading practice as well.

Another thing I learned about is calaveras. The word calavera actually has several meanings - skull, and colloquially also means skeleton. The official word for skeleton is esqueleto.

And since we're on the subject of calaveras, I will point out that as a part of El Día de los Muertos, they sell calaveras de dulce - candy skulls. Here's a few photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucynieto/4066189487/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatopicaro/3024836333/in/photostream/

The chocolate ones really look delicious, if you ask me.

I said calaveras has multiple meanings. Well, here's another one: a funny or sarcastic phrase or poem about the dead (muertos) .

Here are a few examples:

Yo decia que ese medico no era de fiar.
I knew this doctor wasn't trustworthy.

El marido sobre el tumbo de su mujer: Aqui yace mi mujer, fria...como siempre.
The husband wrote on his wife's tumb: Here lies my wife, cold, like always.

Here's a link to a photo that will give these calaveritas a little more life:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23023280@N05/2995845235/sizes/l/in/photostream/

I was actually in Mexico one year for El Día de los Muertos, but I was pretty much ignorant to the celebration and missed an opportunity for a great cultural experience. Oh well, maybe next year.

I hope you've enjoyed this, as personally I love learning about the culture of México as much as I do the Spanish language.

¡Hasta Luego!

¿Me explico? vs ¿Me entiendes?

Today I'm going to ir al grano, or as we say in English, get to the point.

¿Me entiendes?

A really simple Spanish sentence, that means notthing more than "Do you understand (me)? So what's the big deal you ask?

Well, in Spanish this seemingly innocent phrase potentially carries a very negative connotation. As one person put it...

Es como llamarte bruta en tu cara, (Its like calling you ignorant to your face)

Ouch! I know I've used this in the past, and I certainly had no intention of conveying that message!

So then what should we say?

That's where ¿Me explico? comes in. It translates to "Am I explaining myself?", which is considered more polite, or at least by some.

Needless to say, as I was trying to process all of this, I decided I needed a little more expertise, and decided to ask my maestra about this.

Here's what she told me....

Definitivamente te recomiendo que digas "Me explico?" estoy de acuerdo!

"Comprende?" es lo peor que puedes decir! Ademas muchos gringos lo usan de manera racista y para hacerte sentir como un idiota e idiota.

Here's the translation, in case you need it:

I definitely recommend that you say "Me explico?".

"Comprende" is the worst thing you can say. A lot of gringos use this as a racist way of making you feel like an idiot.

Although I never use comprende, I certainly had no idea it might carry a negative connotation. Incredibly this is something textbooks leave out.

So, how did I hear about this? From another very useful blog (Voices en Español), and here's the link:

http://spanish-podcast.com/2009/10/19/the-most-annoying-expression-in-spanish-is/

I also found several other interesting links:

This article is in Spanish, and discusses this topic as well as other annoying phrases
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/participe/2009/10/091012_1053_expresiones.shtml

Another discussion (in English) of this topic
http://www.mexperience.com/blogs/foreignnative/?p=111

An interesting discussion in Yahoo Respuestas (In Spanish)
http://espanol.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070125175531AAIPkNK

Me imagino (I imagine) that some of what is considered annoying or offensive is subjuctive, but it's certainly something to keep in mind, especially as you become more and more proficient in the Spanish language, because when people see that you have a good command of the language, it's very difficult for them to determine whether or not you made a mistake due to language or cultural misunderstandings vs you potentially just being a jerk.

Espero que te sirva (I hope this helps),

Hasta Luego!

Dulce o travesura

Trick or treat - I'm pretty sure you know this phrase quite well. But what you may not know is our Mexican friends are pretty familiar with it to. Or at least the Spanish version: Dulce o travesura.

I was really surprised when my amigos told me that Halloween is celebrated in Mexico too. It's called Día de los brujas, but it's very common to hear it called Halloween also. It's celebrated on Oct 31, followed by Día de Todos los Santos on Nov 1, and Día de los Muertos on Nov 2.

Of course, Halloween is no fun without a scary disfraz (costume) to espantar (scare) all the little kids. And don't forget to visit a haunted house, casa embrujada or casa de espantos.

Maldosos are those mischievous folks who like to play travesuras (pranks) on people who don't like to hand out candy, but this term isn't just limited to Halloween pranksters.

This post is by no means a comprehensive list of Halloween terms and customs in Mexcio and around the world , but now you at least have a few terms you can use to chew the fat with your Spanish speaking amigos.