Students use Spanish language skills to help needy

I love this! Two groups of high school Spanish language students in northern Kentucky are using their growing language skills to help the needy in their community. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Aside from helping local families, the students are also improving their Spanish, according to Cobb.

"They're learning so much, not just about the language but also about the culture," said Cobb. "It's a huge benefit for them to be able to speak Spanish with native speakers.

"They're excited to help and the group is really getting into the project."

This is how to learn a language! I wish I had had a similar opportunity when I was in high school or college.

By the way, I ran across this article via the CASLS newsletter which I would highly recommend. I look forward to it every Monday morning.

Starting off slow…

I’m the first to admit that my listening comprehension is somewhat lacking. I find myself catching some words here and there and pretty much understanding what’s being said, but there is certainly room for improvement.

For the past several months, I’ve been listening to News in Slow Spanish which I wrote about last year. It’s slow, that’s for sure. In fact, I thought perhaps it would slow me down, but I have discovered that it’s helped my comprehension when listening to Spanish at a “normal” speed.

I compare it to reading a book. When listening to the News in Slow Spanish podcast, I can savor each word, think about its meaning and still pretty much keep up with the podcast. I have found that my vocabulary has increased quite a bit as well as my comprehension when listening to other Spanish language podcasts.

Give it a try! I think you’ll understand after a few episodes.

Where to go:
http://www.newsinslowspanish.com/
Subscribe via iTunes

Website: Practica Español

I’m again amazed at the amount and quality of free learning materials that are available to the Spanish language student. In my weekly CASLS (Center for Applied Second Language Studies) email newsletter, I ran across this wonderful resource – Practica Español. From the site:

Dispones de una variedad de contenidos con diferentes temáticas: ESPAÑA, MUNDO, DEPORTES, ENTRETENIMIENTO, VIAJES, SALUD, NEGOCIOS, CULTURA, CIENCIA y GASTRONOMÍA.

Todos los contenidos tienen soporte en TEXTO, SONIDO E IMÁGENES (Video y/o Fotografía). Lo que te permite LEER, ESCUCHAR, PRACTICAR, APRENDER Y PARTICIPAR a través de los ejercicios que te proponemos.

And here’s their video:

Where to go:
Practica Español
Center for Applied Second Language Studies

News in Slow Spanish

While wading through my Twitter stream, I saw an interesting tweet by @SECottrell. Her link led me to News in Slow Spanish which is basically what is says. From the site:

News in Slow Spanish is a podcast for those who already possess a basic vocabulary and some knowledge of Spanish grammar. Your host is a native Spanish speaker from Spain. Our section Explorando Latinoamérica is hosted by a native speaker from Latin America. In our program we discuss the Weekly News, grammar, and expressions, and much more in simplified Spanish at a slow pace so that you can understand almost every word and sentence.

There is both free and paid content. The free content includes the audio with a transcription of the introduction (not the entire audio). Several words are highlighted in the transcription which you can hover your mouse over to see a translation in English. The paid content includes grammar lessons, expressions review, pronunciation practice, flashcards, grammar exercises and more depending on the subscription level. You can find a demo episode on the homepage.

Where to go:
News in Slow Spanish
Mis Musicuentos – SECottrell’s blog. (She’s a Spanish teacher.)

The Olympics – Madrid still in the race…

Just a quick post for those who want to follow the news about who will host the Olympics in 2016. You can learn background information about Madrid’s journey and watch live: http://www.rtve.es/deportes/madrid-2016/

Edited to add: Well, the 2016 Olympics will be in Rio de Janeiro which is still pretty neat – the first time in South America. In any case, the rtve.es site is still a great place to watch Spanish-language television.
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Free iPod Touch/iPhone Apps for Learning Spanish

After writing about the iRAE app, I thought it would be good to write more about iPhone/iPod Touch Apps that might be helpful for the Spanish language learner. All of these are free.

El Universal (Mexico) and El País (Spain) both have news articles, videos and other “authentic” materials for the Spanish language learner. Radio Nacional de España has five channels with which you can listen to music, news, weather, traffic, sports and more. (internet connection required)

WordReference is definitely a handy little app. You can access English-Spanish dictionaries, Spanish monolingual dictionary, Spanish synonyms dictionary, plus several others. You can also link to the WordReference’s forums via the app which comes in handy. (internet connection required)

SpanishPod has an app where you can look up words in their glossary with sample sentences. The sentences are accompanied by audio. Also, if you’re a premium member, which I’m not, you can also access their flashcard feature. (internet connection required for audio)

Stanza is one of my FAVORITE apps. I love to read and I really love the ability to load many books on my iPod Touch and take them wherever I go. Well, with this app, you can also download many books in Spanish. Right now I’m reading Drácula by Bram Stoker. Other authors represented include: Miguel Cervantes, Pio Baroja, Francisco de Quevedo, Benito Pérez Galdós and many, many others.

To find them within the app go to Online Catalog –> Feedbooks –> Public Domain Books –> Languages –> Español. You can also access Project Gutenberg books using the app as well. (internet connection required to download books)

TuneWiki is a rather unique app which I’m still trying to figure out myself, but still thought it was worth mentioning here. So far, I’ve been able to listen to some of my Spanish language music (from my iPod) and read the lyrics at the same time. Sometimes the lyrics aren’t very accurate, but others are… it’s hit or miss. You can also listen to radio stations from around the world and with some of them you can read the lyrics as the song is playing. Give it a try and let me know what you find. (internet connection required)

Where to go (iTunes links):
Radio Nacional de España
El Universal
El País
WordReference
SpanishPod
Stanza
TuneWiki

What are your favorite apps for learning Spanish?

VOA Podcasts - video and audio

 
Since we do not have access to Spanish-language television, I'm always on the lookout for ways to improve my listening comprehension. In particular I have been looking for newscasts in Spanish and the ones from Voice of America (VOA) fit the bill.

On this page you'll find three video podcasts:

• El Mundo Al Día Capsulas
• ArteKultura
• Foro Inter-Americano
  

and two audio podcasts:

• Deportivo Internacional
• Buenos Días América
  

To subscribe using iTunes: from the top menu, choose Advanced, Subscribe and then paste the podcast url into the box. Click OK. Of course, you can also watch or listen to them online.

To supplement the news podcasts, I have also subscribed to their news summaries. I like to look over these before listening to familiarize myself with any new vocabulary.
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