tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5196 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean
| Message 17 of 23 04 March 2012 at 8:50am | IP Logged |
The video section of the Mexican web site of El Universal
http://www.eluniversaltv.com.mx/
has a bunch of 1-5 minute videos covering loads of topics. They're just your typical short news segments, but I have found it very interesting to listen to people being interviewed on the street using everyday speech at normal conversation speeds. I tend to gravitate towards the more local stories as opposed to the national or international ones.
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tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5196 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean
| Message 18 of 23 14 March 2012 at 7:48am | IP Logged |
I just stumbled upon "Once TV México" on my satellite tv service (DirecTv, channel 447). It is an educational tv network with a wide variety of programs and is managed by the Instituto Politecnico Nacional. I will definitely watch shows from there to fill in the gaps on some of my slower days.
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Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5571 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish
| Message 19 of 23 14 March 2012 at 10:38pm | IP Logged |
¡Enhorabuena con todo tu progreso con el magnífico idioma que es el español! Perdóname si eso suena un poco
desmesurado, es que de momento estoy escuchando Jorge Cafrune y es bastante difícil contenerse cuando estás
escuchando tal destreza y belleza todas de una vez, siempre me emociona. Voy a echar un vistazo a El Universal ya
que no creo que me iría mal acostumbrarme un poco al español de México y seguro que me iría bien aprender más
sobre el país y su gente. ¿Es parecido a El País de España en cuanto a su posición política, o sea, no es de la derecha
ni de la izquierda sino más bien mantiene una vista y un enfoque sin sesgo? Bueno, tan poco parcial como un
periódico puede ser. Supongo que sólo quiero saber ¿si es una buen fuente de la cual recibir la mayoría de tu
información acerca de lo que está pasando en el país?
¡Que tengas un buen día y que sigas mejorando!
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tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5196 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean
| Message 20 of 23 19 April 2012 at 8:44pm | IP Logged |
Vos wrote:
¡Enhorabuena con todo tu progreso |
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Vos, ¡gracias por los comentarios! Hasta este momento, eras un héroe secreto mío porque cuando empecé estudiar el castellano, ya escribías en estos foros con mucha capacidad y sofisticacíon. Todavía no domino el castellano, y la conversación me cuesta mucho. Pero bueno, he desfrutado y sigo disfrutando del proceso de aprenderlo.
Sobre tu pregunta del punto de vista del periódico _El Universal_, no estoy seguro. Creo que es neutral, pero no leo muchos articúlos sobre la política. Pero, como otros periódicos, hay unos foros en el sitio de El Universal, y por sopuesto los usuarios hacen muchas discusiones en plan pelea, problema, conflicto, etc. :) Prefiero leer los sobre la cultura, entrevistas con la gente en la calle, y otros que enseñan aspectos de la vida cotidiana, etc.
Un saludo a ti.
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tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5196 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean
| Message 21 of 23 13 June 2012 at 2:47am | IP Logged |
Okay, the latest news is that I am just back from a 10-day trip to Chile. I had no problems speaking or understanding the language there. Actually, the only problem were the many people there who wanted to practice their English with me. But eventually, they would have to ask me in Spanish how to translate some word. Ha ha.
Also, while there by some very lucky coincidence a Chilean contacted me via lenguajero.com about starting up skype conversations, so of course we took advantage of this rare opportunity to meet face-to-face over a drink in Santiago and practice a bit of speaking that way. Too bad that this site lenguajero will be closing next week. That seriously sucks. I think that it and the people I met through it were a critical component of my Spanish learning process.
Strategy wise, I don't really study Spanish any more. I read news articles in Spanish every day, as well as read a bit of this or that book prior to sleeping at night. I listen to podcasts, particularly: (1) the Voice of America "Buenos días América" daily 30 minute news summary, (2) PuroMac weekly podcast on all things Apple/iphone/mac etc, and (3) various Frecuencia Zero podcasts on a wide variety of subjects. (And much thanks to the htlal user who had suggested Frecuencia Zero.) Most importantly I try to keep in regular contact with my skype language partners and put in several hours per week of conversation that way. Finally, I still do write in Spanish from time to time, particularly emails. However, writing in Spanish is my strong suit, so I emphasize it a bit less than the other areas.
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tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5196 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean
| Message 22 of 23 03 July 2012 at 7:11am | IP Logged |
So today I was at the climbing gym, having done NOTHING related to Spanish after today's skype conversation had to be canceled. But then by luck I met another person in the gym who happens to be from Puerto Rico. He's on vacation to the mainland and swung through my city (DC) for a couple of days and had decided to come in for a climbing session. Anyways, I couldn't pass up this opportunity, and we spent 30 minutes talking about rock climbing nearly 100% in Spanish. Now I've been invited to go mountaineering in Puerto Rico. It's this horizon widening aspect of language learning that makes the whole process worthwhile.
Edited by tibbles on 03 July 2012 at 7:12am
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iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5267 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)
| Message 23 of 23 03 July 2012 at 1:48pm | IP Logged |
tibbles wrote:
...Now I've been invited to go mountaineering in Puerto Rico. It's this horizon widening aspect of language learning that makes the whole process worthwhile. |
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Exactly! You embody what I believe. A language is not a "thing" to be studied. It is a means of communication between people. A large part of the Americas is now your oyster. You should definitely hang out in PR. You'll love it. Doors will open for you from the Rio Bravo south to Tierra del Fuego. ¡Siga avanzando adelante, mano!
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