It's amazing how often you hear Spanish being spoken on the media.. often, unfortunately, because of disasters or problems of various sorts.
This morning I was idly listening to Crossing Continents on Radio 4 when an item came up from Costa Rica... it was all about the terrible death toll on the roads and what is being done about it ( all words no action basically ).
Quite often we got local people and officials talking Spanish... as usual, however, getting faded out within seconds for the translator to kick in.
One man whose daughter had been killed by a drunk-driver was lamenting that there were words for widow [ viudo/a] and orphan [ huérfano/a] in Spanish, but no word for a father who had lost his daughter.
Later on an official was suggesting that " Los accidentes no existen"
Actually, I was quite encouraged to see that I could understand a good deal of what was said.
On the plus side, Costa Rica has successfully had a seatbelt campaign called "Por Amor" the theme being, put your seat belt on simply for love.. of yourself, your family, your life. There are loads of Spanish songs called Por Amor, and I was going to put one on here, but they are all crap!
They made special mention of the " Caldera bypass" which is beset by subsidence. Caldera = a cauldron in Spanish, and a "Caldera " in geology is a collapsed volcano.... so it finishes up like a big hollow shape... or cauldron. Here's one....
When this same official was asked if anything was being done about the problem, his "snappy answer" started off "Totalmente, cierto" before the Spanish faded away.
Anyhow... other ways to remember what words mean. There's always loads of pesky words you look up again and again because you just can't keep them in the increasingly clogged-up memory. One way is to link the word with a memorable image of some kind.. the sillier/ruder/mad the better...nk of
hallar .... well, it means " to find" So, think of hundreds of people searching a house for a valuable object, and you come in and find it straight way in the hall.
chubasco is a "heavy shower... so imagine being in a heavy shower when a chub lands on your head.Draw a picture! Here's someone with a Chub... the same thing has probably happened to him...
red = a net or network... imagine a dirty great red spider in the middle of a big web/net.... again, do a little drawing. let your mind linger on the image as you colour it in like in infant school. But... you learned a hell of a lot of language in infant school!
tenedor = a fork. Imagine each of your fingers turning into little forks at the tips... how convenient! Wave your fingers around and pretend they are little forks.
A key thing about all this is that you remember things much better the MORE SENSES YOU USE... so draw a picture,colour it in, sing a song ( 10 little forks all sitting in a row..), speak the words out loud, write them down... and make the image memorable by making it really strange\silly\outlandish\rude\funny.
OK then.. here's Nena Daconte with "No sé cómo decirle"... this is not the best version on the net but the other, better ones are not snatchable at the moment... you can find them easily enough. Lovely song though. There's a words video after it..which is a good job becasue on this video you only get 59 seconds-worth!
This one shows a very blurry Nena Daconte singing the song beautifully, but it's rather ruined by some nit in the audience singing along very very badly!!
What a title, you are all thinking. But what the hell has it got to do with learning Spanish?
Here we go then.
Moa Toe ... or Goat Poem if you prefer... is a neat way to remember Present Indicative regular verb endings...
-AR verbs have 1st person singular -o , and 3rd person singular -a [mOA] -ER/-IR have 1st person singular -o and 3rd person singular -e [tOE]
Abba's mama mía gives you the IMPERFECT regular 1st ps and 3rd ps endings
It was written by Abba and for -AR verbs both 1st and 3rd ps end -aba
mía shows that for -ER/-IR verbs the 1st ps and 3rd ps ending is -ía
Hello idiot ... or even better, hélló ídiót gives you the 1ps/3ps regular Preterite endings...
-AR verbs... 1st p.s. ends in -é 2nd p.s. ends in -ó
-AR/-IR verbs... 1st p.s. ends in -í and 3rd p.s. ends in -ió
If you don't like them... make up your own!
Right... here's some music... I feel I need to say that this band is normally referred to as DLD on the net......
This video seems to have some reverse-motion segments.
If you want to see an untterly unbelievable pop video with quite remarkable reversing ( plus an amazing song as well) look at this German song by tp German band Wir Sind Helden ... nur ein Wort.
And if you don't want to, that is fine too ...
Are there any Spanish-music videos like this... it's astonishing!
Last time I was writing about ways to remember what words mean.. and how Spanish words can often be linked to Latin/French?English words that have only changed a bit, or hardly at all.
Here's a few more examples from La Carta Esférica which I have come across..
trazar... to plot/draw .... we get the word trace from this.
muelle ( adjective) = easy, comfortable , soft.... and this comes from the latin mollis = soft and that is linked to the name Molly, and the Molly-houses which in prudish Victorian times were meeting-places for "effeminate" men. In the book, however, one of its other meanings is the true one, a quay. it can also mean a spring.
un ballenero = a whaling-ship ( this is a very nautical novel.. and you will know the baleen whale... how easy is that?
So here's another little idea. Quite a few Spanish words beginning with h have resulted from a slight change..they originally started with f ... and there are traces of this in English. Here's some examples... with a dead easy one first...
halcón was originally falcon... and it does indeed mean a hawk. Bingo!
haba is a changed version of faba = the latin for a bean.
hambre is really fambre= famished = hungry.
hondo comes from the root fond = french and latin for deep... and it means deep/ profound.
hervor comes from fervor/fervour and it means boiling.
herrero .... ferro = iron and it means a blacksmith, who works with iron.
hebra is linked to febra/fibre in English.. it means a strand.
hace /hecho has come via facio in Latin. Painters used to put "fecit" on their paintings, plus their name, to show who "did" it. It was this word that made me realise all this h/f business and got me thinking about it... I was chuffed to find out it was a proper respectable thing! Just for the record, some painters would put "pinxit" meaning painted instead. Look out for these on paintings.
horca comes from forca...a fork ( and a gallows too)
harina is linked to farina = flour and therefore dust.
Neat isn't it?
More ideas on word-remembering next time, probably, unless I am swept away by some other stuff.
I hope you all liked that music I showed you last time, by Facto Delafé y las Flores Azules.Well I did... so much so that here's another of their songs, La Fuerza.
It starts off with another bloody bicycle! It's so assured and perfectly realised, lovely clear Spanish too... marvellous in the true sense of the word.
Here's some words...
Letra
Hoy llego con la fuerza de muchas manos juntas, de un lunes en el parque de poderosas musas, como una flecha en llamas, un beso, una llamada, hoy uno lo que toco, hoy tocaré tu alma.
Yo no soy arquitecto, no eres tú perfecto, diséñame un buen templo que yo le pongo el resto, esta gente de bien está buscando techo donde invertir su tiempo, donde mover el cuerpo.
Las noches de febrero siempre fueron frías para este copiloto experto en caídas. Ahora estoy preparado, estamos aquí juntos, nosotros somos jóvenes nosotros, únicos, como el amanecer. Es todo una ilusión, es la tierra que gira, ¿te suena la canción?
Pues esto es lo que importa, es vivir cada minuto, sentir el universo, es esa tu misión, ser un don.
Atrévete mi niño, el tiempo no se para, mañana será pronto, consulta con la almohada, los sueños no se han roto, lo veo en tu mirada, tomatelo con calma.
Las obras en palacio siempre van despacio, requieren perspectiva paciencia e ilusión. A veces algo falla, a veces el motor, es cuando tú te encallas si pierdes la razón.
Está saliendo el sol, parece el paraíso, dame un abrazo, amor. Hoy tengo compromisos con Jaume y su sonrisa, Tira y su sonrisa, Elena y su sonrisa, Farda y su sonrisa, mamá y su sonrisa, Factu y su sonrisa, Kiara y su sonrisa, Jordi y su sonrisa, con mis queridos Mishima, Ramir, papá, Yenna, Mapi, Tate Tati.
Bueno, tenemos una cosa en común y es que nosotros sí amamos la sorpresa, no importará el formato, excusas por paisajes, son cómplices abstractos. Hoy prendo esta llama, resbalo por tus cascos, no sé por cuanto tiempo, si sé que soy de agrado, también yo soy devoto de esta sensación. Este mi homenaje, esta mi aportación, que chico compre discos, historias de sucesos, hoy plancho ya los míos, no muero en el intento, y lo intento porque siento que cuento con expertos capaces de cagarla y reírse en el intento.
No nos menospreciemos, no nos menospreciemos, no nos menospreciemos, no nos menospreciemos.
Y lo intento porque siento que cuento con expertos capaces de cagarla y reírse en el intento.
No nos menospreciemos, no nos menospreciemos, no nos menospreciemos, no nos menospreciemos, no nos menospreciemos.
Observemos la noche. Es casi perfecta, con la estrella Polar visible en su lugar exacto, cinco veces a la derecha de la línea formada por Merak y Dubhé.La Polar va a seguir en el mismo sitio durante los próximos veinte mil años; y cualquier navegante que la contemple sentirá consuelo al verla allá arriba, porque es bueno que algo siga inmutable en alguna parte mientras la gente precise trazar rumbos sobre una carta náutica o sobre el difuso paisaje de una vida.
That's how Pérez-Reverte kicks off LaCarta Esférica ... a novel I got some time ago but actually have only just started to read.
What an imposing way to begin.... I had to look up rumbos because it hadn't stuck in my memory from the previous times I had looked it up....
This time I twigged that it probably was linked to "rhumb" as in "rhumb line"... a line or direction marked on a map. So I looked up it in Chambers to see where rhumb line came from, and indeed it was the Spanish/Latin rumbo!! I will never forget it now ... [a] because I have spent time thinking about it and [b] because I have made a link with a word I know.
A lot of other words can be linked up with English/Spanish/Latin words to help you remember them. Try it and see!
Next time I will perhaps look at other ways to remember words etc.
But for now, here's a rather lovely song and video by the wonderfully named Facto Delafé y Las Flores Azules .. it's called Mar el Poder del Mar
Isn't that a fine thing?? Here's the words... lacking accents, I notice, and I haven't checked them properly yet...
Mar El Poder Del Mar
Lyrics to Mar El Poder Del Mar : Dices que vengo, que voy Que siento, que escucho, que pertenezco Que sirvo para mucho Que me estremezco Que mi mirada es limpia, suave brisa Que sientes el deseo de tenerme cerca Que te distancias, por miedo a perderme Que el barrio es mas hermoso desde que apareci Que soy la flor, que alumbra el jardin El viento que se lleva a la senora luna para que luzca el sol Mi amor Hoy solo quiero decir Siento lo mismo por ti El mismo sentimiento por ti
Que si Que si Que bien Que me encanta escucharte Adoro sentirte verte moverte Y sorprenderte de pronto haciendote cosquillas en las rodillas Que si Que si Que bien Que me encanta escucharte Adoro sentirte El barrio es mas hermoso desde que apareciste Que hoy luce el sol en mi corazon Mi nina mi amor mi rayo de luz El camino que lleva a tu casa es mi alegria La primavera ha llegado a la ciudad Y no sabes lo bien que me sienta, mama Los dias tranquilos, transcurren serenos Tus pasos los mios, peinando el sendero Quien dijo que los muertos no iban a resucitar? Hoy llego mas puro que el agua mineral Tu cara, tu casa tu ojos sonriendo en mi cara La brisa, la manana, el sol por la ventana La calma, caricias, tu respiracion Resuenan campanas desde el comedor Las nubes, en el cielo, y pasa un avion dibuja una linea blanca, algodon tu almohada, tus ojos, tu mirada Estoy en tu casa, ador tu casa Pas un avion, traza una linea ahora de plata De plata, la medlla de subcampeon Hoy gana, tus ganas, ganamos los dos Estonosepara [ Mar El Poder Del Mar Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
Friday, November 5, 2010
Translating "for" into Spanish can be a bit of a pain.. as no doubt you have found.
I suppose this is a lot to do with the ways we use "for" in English.... just look at this lot of " for" sentences I came up with in just a few minutes of concentrated thought ....
[a] What is this thing for ? [b] I'm all for it. [c] For 3 weeks he lived in a special hutch. [d] For once, just shut up and listen to me. [e] A dog is for life, not just for Christmas. [f] This gold-plated lawn-mower is for you. [g] I'm ready for anything with this new thermal vest. [h] Come on then, are you for or against trousers for horses? [i] What's the Spanish word for " gazumped ?" [j] I've never played chess for England, unfortunately. [k] You get 8 for £5. [l] Once they all got drunk it turned into a free-for-all in there. [m] There's flooding for 200 metres down that road. [n] For all his good intentions, he only lasted 3 days without a cigarette. [o] The shop's very quiet for a Saturday. [p] You're not going out dressed like that for a start !
I'm sure there are plenty of other troublesome possibilities.
So what can you do about all this ?
FIRST.... learn some rules that cover most of the possibilities.......here's a few to give you the idea....
PARA generally refers to some future destination or purpose, whereas POR usually harks back to a cause, reason or motive.
Think of the final A in parA standing for "advance" and the final R in poR standing for "reverse" to help you remember this.
[This overall rule doesn't always work though.]
...... Use POR if it's " for" really meaning because of" or "by means of" or "I'm for something"
.. make a list of rules like this nicked from a wide variety of sources... you will generally find that some books have different/better ways of putting things.
SECOND.... skim through dual-language books looking for por/para/for etc usage and see if you can work out why they've used what they have used.
THIRD... Collect "for" sentences in your Spanish notebook from your reading/hearing. For each one, think up a few new sentences using the same idea.
You should do this sort of thing with any grammar points you feel you are struggling with.... subjunctives, estar/ser, the 300 meanings of 'echar", past participles... anything.
Well that's enough boring old grammar... let's have some music...
This is the improbably named Satin Dolls and No Estás
and here's what I hope are the accurate words...
Ya no…quiero decir adiós, Donde ah quedado tu voz… Me ah dejado sin tu respiración… Y ya no puedo sentirte… Te fuiste sin decir adiós.. Y tu recuerdo quedo… Fuiste sin pedir permiso… Creo que sigues a mi lado… (coro)(x2)
Ya no… vere tu sonrisa De que sere sin ganas de vivir… Ya no… vere tu sonrisa Sacaron de mi vida…uhuh… Sacaron de mi vida…uhuh…
Just a quick item today... I'm working.(!?) I've just found a nice CNN Spanish news site... it's in the sidebar. It has up-to-date Spanish-language articles and videos. You can also click on Latin america on the toolbar at the top to get similar stuff from Mexico, Argentina etc.
When you think about it, there has been loads of Spanish on the news lately, especially with the mine rescue saga... but there's been lots of other news broadcasts with Spanish being spoken in the background.
Here's the sort of thing you could be watching on CNN...
Here's another.. a trifle noisy at the start...
Well, gotta go and work... here's that Joan Tena with Beth Rodergas... I'm not sure what the song is called.... I'll find out!
This is a boring meeting... which will be relevant I assure you...
Stuck in a boring meeting? Sat in a coffee shop with no book to read? Walking to work ?
Practise your Spanish skills by trying to translate what is going on around you into Spanish...what could be more fun? Translate....
overheard conversations the trite crap on the powerpoint presentation all the scenery around you the road signs and other notices.
Actually this is very hard work..... you will be amazed at all the words you don't know and all the things you don't know how to say. well, most of you anyway, and me very much included.
If you want to make life a bit simpler, watch tiny kid's TV and try to translate that into Spanish.... you can even record it and take your time! Hector's house, Tobermory, The Flumps... the possibilities are almost endless.
NEWS... in ther early hours of Sunday 7th Film 4 is showing ther spanish language film Déficit. to be honest, most reviewers say this is a bloody awful film... so bad that it is worth seeing for that alone.
But... some people liked it... here are a couple of good reviews..
Good Review 1....
Where García Bernal was still wet behind the ears when first working with some of Mexico's top directorial talent; here, he has created a strong and involving piece himself., 2 September 2010 7/10 Author: johnnyboyz (j_l_h_m@yahoo.co.uk) from Hampshire, England
In Déficit, predominant Mexican actor Gael García Bernal directs a relatively bold; rather disturbing and ultimately despairing look at youth. Here is a film set in its own closed off world of hedonism, drug use and burning antagonism ready to explode; a world we are gradually invited to believe was brought about illegitimately by the adult owners whom are away; a world we begin outside of but are eerily brought into through the main gates whilst systematically welcomed by a drawing of a huge phallus. The Eden that has been created here is being misused; the apples on the trees are ripening and various characters are ominously eyeing up the juiciness of the supposed fruit. Where once the man was at the forefront of whatever Mexican New Wave you wish to state arose at the beginning of the 2000s, the star of such films as Love's a Bitch and And Your Mother Too, is now at the forefront of his own piece as a director and lead actor. If Déficit is the result of said New Wave, a creation of a text by those either working on or inspired by the films of said period, then it can only really be a good thing.
It is indeed García Bernal's character Cristobal around whom we predominantly follow, a young man; a popular man and into all those things a young, popular man shouldn't be. He is hosting a lavish get together with his sister; her friends and his at the large house his parents own in a secluded part of Mexico up in the hills, naturally, while they're both away. On the back-burner is an impeding acceptance into a top university; the legal problems his parents are facing as they remain away from the property, communication of which is punctuated by nervous phone calls from the mother, and Cristobal's lost girlfriend whom is on her way but keeps ringing for directions at certain times. The scene is set, and very early on, after most of the friends have arrived and a degree of hostility with his sister is established, one of the guests tries to pick up a vase which belongs to the household to which Cristobal will beg the offender not to interfere. That sense of something very delicate, which will take a long time to mend, being casually smashed to pieces by way of an accident or otherwise becomes prominent; that sense of impending doom and consequent clean up operation at which Cristobal will most probably have to take responsibility, becomes prominent. The characters are on a constant knife edge in what they do and how they act; surely it's just a matter of time before tempers fray and something regretful happens.
The film makes a point to make a chief study out of a character named Adnan, a live in gardener-come-worker for Cristobal's household. Adnan is a part of a seemingly normalised, even perfect, family unit in that he is with his mother; father and little sister. Unlike those they work for, the parents of this unit work with morals and operate within the fields of good, clean and honest hard work and whom keep a stern eye on their young; something in binary opposition to Cristobal's whom are away fighting legal issues for apparent corruption and whose actions of such will lead to everything that transpires to their own young during the night of the get-together. In Adnan, the spying of a young Argentinian girl named Dolores (Cipriota) who has been invited to the party kicks off a more direct, more physical conflict with Cristobal when it transpires he has an eye for her as well; Cristobal's own dispiriting tactics seeing him seemingly providing his girlfriend Mafer with false directions so as to be able to buy time and get closer to Dolores. The proximity of these people, their actions and people like Dolores is having a dangerous, negative affect on those seemingly 'uncorrupt' in and around the area.
The manner in which Cristobal and Adnan share a gaze for Dolores links these two people of wildly differing 'sorts' in ways that was previously a far cry from happening, Adnan's arc evolving, negatively, as the attraction to Dolores and apparent allurement towards the sorts of activity playing out on the grounds grows, eventually leading to what happens during the film's climax. The film avoids being barely anything more than a mere author's fantasy, painting a crass and alienating image of both genders on screen whilst systematically demonising the actions of either gender gradually and methodically rather provide us with a false epiphany tacked on at the end. This is not an hour and a half or so of gratuity and stupefying attitudes towards the opposite sex before a little five minute 'bit' at the end telling us that "all of the above is really bad, and ought not be done."
Where, usually American based and orientated, films with similar traits paint sympathetic portraits of central males chasing women, whom the text usually renders no more than a prize, despite them being pig-headed, moronic and ultimately female hating; Déficit alienates us from most of the male characters and their actions, instead using the character of Adnan for the aforementioned purposes. The women are granted an equally negative representation and are far from the passive, flat footed, prize-angelic archetypes the film could have rendered them with García Bernal going some way to have us dislike everybody rather than take sides in a plight of either misogyinic or misandric sorts. Ultimately and most importantly, there is a tinge of regret when certain characters realise they should've spent what was essentially a 'last supper' scenario with their friends a little more constructively, given the events that transpire which have future off screen ramifications, than what they did. Déficit is a nicely constructed but quite terrifying dramatisation of this; one García Bernal pulls off. Was the above review useful to you?
Good Review 2
0 out of 1 people found the following review useful: My kind of movie :), 10 May 2009 9/10 Author: emilia_isabelle from United States
I think Gael did a great job. I was surprised by how good the story was, even though it didn't have a conventional "feel" with a defined beginning, middle, and end, it kept me interested throughout. I think since I am from Mexico I was able to get all the subtleties, too. I was expecting something very raw, like some movies he's done before, or maybe something that was shocking just for the sake of being shocking, but this was just refreshing, interesting, contemporary and thought-provoking. I'm still thinking about the whole class issue and how some things seem unavoidable depending on where you grew up... Thank you Gael!!! Was the above review useful to you?
4 out of 47 people found the following review useful: a critical view of Mexico social interactions, 7 June 2008 8/10 Author: csainz from Mexico
I found this movie stimulating. It is true that the themes that the movie touches are touched lightly but enough you make them evident, Gael made an accurate portrait of Mexican upper class. I also believe he made the decision not to make things obvious, and I found that decision to be correct, it would make the film feel artificial for Mexican viewers, and I believe the movie is targeted precisely for Mexican viewers. The movie doesn't explain things to you with apples, and that's where its beauty is. The lack of interest of the upper class towards anything other than its own lives is patent from the very start of the film, we see the main character go thru what seems to be a local group of protesters without ever wondering why are they there... they're just an obstruction on his way. The everyday interactions with the lower class is depicted with delicacy and accuracy. There are some goofs in the film, but over all, a very interesting film. Mexico needs this kind of films that are critical to the status quo, that invite to reflection, instead of the inertial film making that leads towards telenovelas kind of stories. I would love to see more filming of this kind being done in Mexico. It is unnecessary to say that many people will come to see this film because of Gael, and that is a good thing because many of those would not have seen it otherwise, even if the message is not obvious the denunciation is there. Was the above review useful to you?
Well, I'm going to record it, if I remember.
And as for music here is Alaska y Dinamara ... a rather weird little song which might be called abracadabra or maybe La Bola de Crystal... here we go then...
and the words...
Fíjate en el sol que brilla encima de la camilla sin pilas ni enchufes a la red, puedes ver como en videocassette. Esta bola adivina pone música divina y sin plato ni amplificador suena igual que en la televisión. Zoom, zoom..., culombio, culombio zoom, zoom..., y me pego un voltio, apréndete estas palabras son el nuevo abracadabra zoom, zoom..., faradio, faradio zoom, zoom..., y me importa un vatio que tiene esta bola que a todo el mundo le mola. Te sientas enfrente ves como el cine todo lo controla, es un alucine es como un ordenador personal es la Bola de Cristal. Sintoniza los canales foráneos y nacionales >>>>
con sistema Secam o Pal se ve todo como muy real. Retransmite sus inventos diferidos o en directo cine, musicales y ajedrez o parchis relevos 3 x 100. Zoom, zoom..., culombio, culombio zoom, zoom..., y me pego un voltio apréndete estas palabras son el nuevo abracadabra. Zoom, zoom..., faradio, faradio zoom, zoom..., y me importa un vatio que tiene esta bola que a todo el mundo le mola. Te sientas enfrente ves como el cine todo lo controla, es un alucine es como un ordenador personal es la Bola de Cristal. Te sientas enfrente ves como el cine todo lo controla, es un alucine es como un ordenador personal es la Bola de Cristal.
