palabras....

If you like detective stories, and you want a fairly easy book to read, I would recommend translations of the Maigret stories.

Simenon generally tried to write simple and straightforward French... so when it is translated into Spanish, the stories tend to be pretty easy to read.

One of the Maigret stories I have in Spanish is Maigret y el caso del Ministro..... I tried the Page 99 test on it... I only needed to look up 1 word, so it is easy stuff!

This is the only picture of it I could find... and it's the film DVD cover not the book...



There's a few good features of Maigret books for us learners...

[a] They're full of dialogue.... much more useful and interesting that descriptions.

[b] They are fairly short!

[c] As mentioned above, the Spanish is usually straightforward.

[d] Like most detective stories, you want to find out what's going on... you're motivated.

[e] If you find you like Maigret books, there's plenty of them!

[e2] On the back of my copy it lists 72 Spanish Maigret stories!!

[f] It's easy and cheap to get the English-language versions ( library etc)

[g] The books are small and fit in the pocket for reading at odd moments.

Here's the blurb on the back of the book for your enjoyment..

" Un buen día,un escritor prestigioso, SIMENON, creó una figurs inconfundible: el sagaz, reservado e inteligente INSPECTOR MAIGRET. Con él, la novela policíaca, conservando totos sus incentivos de acción y misterio ganó en dignidad, en lógica, en humanidad. Pintor fiel y brillante de tipos y ambientes, observador condescendiente de los hombres y las cosas, SIMENON ha hecho del génera policíaco un género literario."

Well! You wouldn't want to miss all that would you?

While we're talking about your word power, or lack of it, how can you find out how big your Spanish vocabulary is?

Well, you can get a quick estimate by looking at the vocabulary at the back of your course book.... you could go through the whole lot, but for a quick estimate you can just pick a random column or two and see how many words you know in them.

So, if you picked two columns and knew 14 words... and there are 18 columns of words altogether, then you know roughly 14 x 9 = 126 words.

If you are more advanced, you can pick a few random pages from a dictionary and see how many words you know... if you find that looked through 5 pages of a 220 page dictionary and knew a total of 30 words... thats an average of 6 per page, so you know roughly 6 x 220 = 1320 words. Not bad!

The only problem with this is... it can be a bit disheartening! I've been trying to learn Welsh for a while, and was foolish enough to do a simple test like this, and found my Welsh vocabulary was a pathetic 250 words...but in my defence, they are very hard to remember! I was very disappointed however.

That's all been very wordy... time for some music I think.

We haven't heard from Facto Delafé y las flores azules for ages.. so here is Enero en la playa...



and here's a live version of it...



and here are the words according to letrasmania... thanks.

Letra de Enero En La Playa :
Y tu piel es blanca como esta mañana de enero demasiado hermosa como para ir a trabajar. Sin pestañear hablamos con el jefe un cuento chino y, como niños, nos volvemos a acostar. Se supone que debía ser fácil ¿Tienes frío? Pero a veces lo hago un poco difícil. Perdón. Suerte que tú ríes y no te enfadas porque eres más lista y menos egoísta que yo ¿Todavía tienes frío? Bueno, cierra los ojos un minuto que te llevo a un lugar.

Imagina una calita, yo te sirvo una clara. Es verano y luce el sol, es la costa catalana. Estamos tranquilos, como anestesiados. Después del gazpacho nos quedamos dormidos mirando el Tour de Francia en la típica etapa donde Lance gana imponiéndose al sprint con un segundo de ventaja en el último suspiro colgándose a sus hombros el maillot amarillo. De nuevo al chiringuito, un bañito, un helado de pistacho y un partido al futbolín. Lanzamos unos frisbis, jugamos a las cartas y acabamos cenando sardinas y ensalada. Bebemos, dorados. Hablamos, callados. La luna, la sal, tus labios mojados. Me entra la sed y pido una copa y España se queda en cuartos en la Eurocopa.

Pero nos da igual, hoy ganaremos el Mundial. Subimos a casa, hacemos el amor y sudamos tanto que nos deshidratamos. El tiempo se para, el aire no corre. Mosquitos volando y grillos cantando y tú a mi lado muriendo de sueño. Cansada, contenta, me pides un cuento y yo te lo cuento, más bien me lo invento. Te explico que un niño cruzó el universo montado en un burro con alas de plata buscando una estrella llamada Renata que bailaba salsa con un asteroide llamado Julián Rodríguez de Malta. Malvado, engreído, traidor y forajido. Conocido bandido en la vía láctea por vender estrellas independientes a multinacionales semiespaciales. Y te duermes…

Vivan las noches. El sol, la sal en tus labios. (x5)

Al principio, como siempre, dormimos abrazados y cuando ya suspiras me retiro a mi espacio. Me gusta dormir solo a tu lado de la cama, de esta cama ahora repleta de mantas en esta mañana fría, fría, fría, congelada, congelada.

TECHNICAL NOTE... all the stuff in the sidebar had disappeared! Why could that happen? Any help would be appreciated....

Ajedrez.....

Way way back on this blog I wrote about following your interests in Spanish... almost anything you might possibly be interested in will be out there in SpanishLand...books, videos, music, blogs, films and so on.

To show you what I mean, I am interested in ( amongst other things) chess... and there's loads of that in Spanish ( but not quite so much as there is in German!).

There's loads of Spanish-language chess books for a start... including the best chess book ever, My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fisher... yes, there is a Spanish version....MIS 60 Mejores Partidas... and lots of others.



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[ Sorry about the advert for Kindle.. it seems to be part of the image so I can't get rid of it... Kindles... I hate them, they will be the death of books]

Here's an odd little Spanish chess book...



Odd because it uses a very strange notation for the ( short) games... it took me a while to sort out how it worked.

There is also "The Flanders Panel" which I have mentioned beofre... a spanish mystery novel based on an ancient chess position.... gripping stuff if you like Peres-Reverte.

For more immediate gratification, there are lots of Spanish-language videos on the net... from Instrucional videos to reports of top-level games, to coverage of important 9 or not so important) tournaments... and even if you aren't interested in chess, the spanish is interesting to listen to ( mostly)... for example..

Here’s a short but nice clip about a simultaneous display where lots of young people get to play against a top player…


This next one is an instructional video about playing a famous chess opening with a Spanish name… the Ruy Lopez!


Here’s a video about Traps in the Opening…

This is one of a massive set of instructional videos called “ Las Pasion del Ajedrez


If you want to, you can play chess online against Spanish-language players... there are numerous sites, and you can simply choose opponents who display the flag of a spanish-speaking country.... it is quite normal to write about all sorts of things while the game progresses.

And as for the music, it's a song by Elli Noise called TuRbiNa.... probably aimed at the younger end of the audience...



here's them words..

No pienso creer en algo
q no puedo ni mirar
q esta lejos de mi comprensión,
De repente t apareces tan distinta
y diferente creo q no puedo confiarme
Llevo tanto tanto tiempo así
y es por ti terminaste con la luz
nanana nananara

He encontrado una razón en mi camino
y se va alejando como lo hago yo
Basta con tener conciencia de quien soy
y q me espera
esa es nuestra diferencia hoy
Llevo tanto tanto tiempo así
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
y es por ti terminaste con la luzz
basta ya de indiferencia

Y es por ti que emprendo este viaje hoy
falta mucho por recorrer
solo quiero alejarme de una vez
Llevo tanto tanto tiempo así
y es por ti terminaste con la luz,
basta ya de indiferencia y es por ti
es mejor dejarte a ti

Por q lejos de tanto dolor
poder ser, tener mejor
la distancia, todo cambia de color.

Hey... I've bought a ( very cheap) MP3 player! It works!

Lady Gaga turns into Zebra Live Onstage!

Another weird and wonderful way to stretch your Spanish a bit is to try to translate newspaper headlines.

And I don't mean the dead boring ones like " International Monetary Fund to charge Greece 18% interest on Bailout loans."

No... I mean the tabloid ones... short, sharp, blunt, cheeky, daft, alliterative, punning!

There are tabloid headlines to suit all ability ranges...although they can require a bit of thought and creativity as well.

In the interests of in-depth research, I went out on Monday and shelled out a whopping 30p on a copy of the Sun... I told the Librarian what I had done and she said that she understood, but it shouldn't happen again.

So here is selection of what Monday's Sun had to offer... .. in a handy easy-to-difficult-to-near-impossible format

[a] TYPE 1... short and sweet... fairly straightforward

... May Hotting Up
...Lotta Lolly
...Singer Turns Up In Coffin
...Tack Attack
...Doom Lens
...Off With Ex
...You're Fired!
... Rich Richer
... Drunk Driver, 9
... Ultimate Betrayal

[b] TYPE 2.... a bit of thought needed here...

...Plane Stupid ( about the government scrapping Spy Planes )
...Hotel for Nudes
...Dannii was Axed ( about Dannii Minogue getting kicked off X Factor)
...Kelly Rowland Lined Up ( about her potential replacement)
...Payback Time ( about getting banks to pay back some of what WE are owed!)
...Lotta Lolly ( This is actually about expensive gold-encrusted ice lollies)
...Hard-Up Fergie ( about Sarah Ferguson being poor)
...Rise of the Yobettes ( drunken young ladies in town centres)
...Betterflies ( about last year's good weather boosting butterfly numbers)
...Look Fabulass just like Pippa ( Pippa's amazing rear)
...United Front ( Fergie under attack from all sides)



[c] TYPE 3... Not easy... hard to get the right " feel" in another language...

...We Blue off Steam ( about the boy-band Blue on Eurovision)
...We're Buck ( about Buck's Fizz on Eurovision)
...Loony Toon ( about Newcastle player Nile Ranger with a gun in an advert)
... It Moss Be The Queen ( about Kate Moss arriving in a helicopter)
...James N'Pat in big Spat ( James Corden + Patrick Stewart argument)
... Freeze a jolly good Fellow ( People being statues in City Centres)
... It's the Stuff that Screams are made of... ( Man City Cup Win...) which leads us on to..
...Bulls are totally out-foxed ( Bradford Bulls Rugby League team that is)

[d] TYPE 4... Football Headlines... in a world of their own, almost untranslateable !

... Van-tastic ( Van der Vaart scores to beat Liverpool)
... Bent Over ( Darren Bent scores 2 to beat Arsenal)
...Zend of the road ( Bolo Zenden quite Sunderland)
...Hope and Gory ( Hope for Wigan, looks nasty for Birmingham)
...They're Hairoes ( Paul Scharner of West Ham dyes hair blue for finall home game)
...Fans victim of some Vowel play ( PNECRISIS appeared on Countdown... Preston North End)
...Poshing his Luck ( Peterborough ( Posh) still in with a chance)
...Mission in Action ( Fergie still wants more goals)
...Kid Owen is just Boot-iful ( Owen Farrell boots Saracens into R U play-offs)
...Oh Walter Way to Go ( Walter Smith, Rangers Manager, finally leaves )
...Gunner be hard now for Arsene ( Arsene Wenger with tricky final matches)

There's a lot of thinking and head-scratching there for a measly 30p.

I always used to wonder what they meant when "they" said that Horace ( Latin Poet) was " untranslateable". Surely, I thought to myself, languages are just codes, and we can decode them.

Now I am older and wiser I realise that if languages ARE a code, then they are subtle, flexible, interactive and constantly changing codes.

A few thoughts about some of those headlines..

* How DO you cnvey the flavour of that 'n in James N'Pat ?

* The Plane/Plain pun...can you do a similar thing in Spanish? Might you have to change the adjective to another one where the trick can work?

* The Blue/Blew pun... you can't change Blue because that's their name.. so you would probably have to find a similar-sounding spanish verb and make a pun with that.but I can't find anything suitable.... though in German you might do something with blasen... to blow ?

* Freeze/For he's ... the pun doesn't seem to work at all in Spanish... you would probably have ot search around for another popular line that you could pun with.

*Can you find a Sapnish version of the Fabul-ass pun, can you do it with a different but similar-meaning word? What is the Spanish -OUS ending?

* What exactly IS the Spanish for " out-foxed"?

These are just a few of the myriad questions translators have to deal with when changing stuff like this from one language to another, and trying to get the right "feel" to the translation as well.

The thing is, while you are looking up all the various adjectives, verbs, nouns etc plus all the alternatives you might use, you are using the dictionary like mad and learning and using new words in a fun way.Result!

I look forward to getting some feedback on possible translations for some of thse headlines.

In the meantime, here's Niños Mutantes with Sapos y Culebras ... the video is just a still but I will try to find a more interesting one...



and here's the words...

Lyrics to Sapos Y Culebras :
Llega el tiempo de cambiar,
llega silencioso y por detrás,
y no pensabas que te iba a tocar.

Llega el tiempo de pensar
que el futuro es un buen lugar.
Y es que no siempre puede durar
la sensación de empezar.

Perros, gatos, peces, cabras,
ratas, sapos y culebras,
todos tus amigos de verdad.

Habla bien desde la grada
y te esperan en tu casa,
quieren verte y escucharte.

Prometen que te acompañaran
hasta el final.

Perros, gatos, peces, cabras,
ratas, sapos y culebras,
todos tus amigos de verdad.

Habla bien desde la grada
y te esperan en tu casa,
quieren verte y escucharte.

[ These are Sapos Y Culebras Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

Keep those pesky translations coming!

Idiota...

A quick post to remind my ravenous public (?) that I am still here.... very busy recently though. That's Maria Blanco, the singer in Mabü, up there, I've just got their CD Buenos Dios... there's some lovely stuff on it.

Here is a quick bit of beautiful music... a really gentle and quirky rendering of Idiota by the truly wonderful Nena Daconte...



.....and here's the words again, from when I first posted the "usual" video of the song way way back..

Lyrics to Idiota :
Ya está ahí la Luna.
Que perra la vida y esta soledad.
No quisiera perderme tu tren
y saber lo que es malgastarte.
Podría coger cualquier autobús
con tal de un beso más
pero tengo pesado el hogar
y ya no puedo hacerlo igual.
Puede que mañana me quiera ir.
Y puede también que mañana sea
la vida
y que mañana, no exista mañana.
No soy una niña.
No soy ese duende.
No soy luchadora.
No soy tu camino.
No soy buena amante,
ni soy buena esposa.
No soy una flor,
ni un trozo de pan.
Sólo soy esa cara de idiota
Idiota por tener que recordar la última vez
que te pedí tu amor.
Idiota por colgar tus besos con un marco rojo
por si ya no vuelvo a verlos más.
Idiota por perderme por si acaso te marchabas ya,
y tirar tu confianza desde mi cama hasta esa ventana.
No ves qué fácil ha sido para mí
perderlo todo en un momento.
Por mi miedo a perder,(bis)
por mi miedo a no controlar tu vuelo.
No soy una niña.
No soy ese duende.
No soy luchadora.
No soy tu camino.
No soy buena amante,
ni soy buena esposa.
No soy una flor,
ni un trozo de pan.
solo soy
esa cara de idiota
idiota esa cara de idiota
no ves que facil a sido para mi
perderlo todo en un momento.
[ Idiota Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

I'll be back in action soon... ray

Capsule tasks.......

When you are learning a language, you can liven things up a bit by setting yourself short-term projects... I call them " Capsule Tasks."

Here's a few examples...

[a] Translate a paragraph of Spanish into English, then put the original away and translate back into Spanish again... then compare.

[b] Learn the set of words you need to describle somebody's face or their clothes, or a building or a car... then as you stroll into town use what you have learned on everyone or everything you see.

[c] Buy a cheap children's book ( Noddy stories are good) and transalte it into Spanish

[d] Learn the words of one of your favourite Spanish songs.

[e] Pick up a handfull of Scrabble tiles and try to make as many Spanish words as you can... and find out what they mean.

[f] Read a small section of an English-language book, and decide which tense all the verbs should be in.... even better, actually translate the verbs.

[g] Read a page of Spanish nito a tape-recorder, then play it back. does it sound OK ? Try reading the same passage month later... are you improving your accent?

Well, that's enough for starters... these little projects are very motivational... they're short, and different to the usual ploughing-through-the-book tasks.

The music today is a song I've featured before, but this is a lovely "unplugged" version... it's Mäbu and " Tanta Química"... I love it!



Here's the words...

A Solas :
A solas hablo contigo y te cuento que la luna es roja
Te cuento que a veces me espanta
Ahora acabo convertida en pluma
como una más entre tu almohada pero muy cerca de tu cara
No puedo no tocarte si tú no me dejas
besarte si tú no me lo pides
Instinto animal hay de sobra
Y tengo clavada aquí una condena de años
y de preferencias que dicta que a mí no me tocas
Tanta química, tanta física
tantas ganas de morderte
tanto y tanto para los demás
con ganas d volver a verte…x2
La marca que deja un beso no es tan mala
te puede dar todo por nada
y te quiere dar, te puede dar
Que puedo yo darte si no tengo historia
algunos años de poca memoria
Soy para ti lo que me digas, me da igual
Tanta química, tanta física
tantas ganas de morderte
tanto y tanto para los demás
con ganas d volver a verte…x2
Tanta química
Tanta física
Por qué es con otro y no contigo
Por qué es con otra y no conmigo


(Gracias a Pimientorojo por esta letra)

Al Respirar...

I've been away for a bit, in surprisingly sunny Norfolk... but now I am back in very surprisingly sunny Lancashire.

Just to get me in the swing of things again, I've been looking up lots of versions of Al Respirar... the truly remarkable Vetusta Morla song.... and here is a selection of them.

This isn't just for a bit of fun though... learning Spanish songs, especially good ones like this, is a terrific way to learn and practise your Spanish....

Here we go..

Here’s a video with the words…handy when learning the words and/or singing along…


Here’s a very simple idea done well…


And here’s a version which tells a story…


This one is another mini-story by Sylvia y Pepa…


Make of this one what you will…


What all this shows, is that Al Respirar is a well-loved song, despite its rather morbid mood.

There’s lots of other Al Respirar stuff… some rather uninspiring ones with just still pictures, plenty of cover versions , people showing you how to play it on the guitar etc etc… and doubtless some terrific ones I’ve missed.

Anyhow, here’s Lantana with an acoustic rendering of Imaginarte….


and here, rather belatedly, the words..

Lantana Imaginarte Lyrics:
A veces dudo de tu presencia,
de que me tengas en cuenta.
Entonces se me abre la herida
que me dejó tu partida.

A veces creo que no hay duda
que la distancia nunca dura,
que cuando yo quiera te tengo
y que anudarnos es perfecto.

Yo prefiero imaginarte
como el aire que se esconde
tras los árboles de noche.
Imaginarte como antes amándome
tras los árboles de noche.

A veces creo que te invento
para poder seguir viviendo
aunque sea una quimera,
un tesoro en la encimera.

A veces me subo a la mesa
y me parece una cordillera
alrededor el horizonte
del otro lado la tetera.

Me da vueltas imaginarte
como el aire que se esconde
tras los árboles de noche.
Imaginarte como antes amándome
tras los árboles de noche.

Soy tu cintura, tú mi cuerpo.
Mi deseo está en tu piel.
Quizá parezca una estupidez
imaginar lo que sería
besarte en este instante.

Y me peleo porque dicen que
el que algo quiere algo le cuesta
y ese fantasma no me deja
y yo me canso de luchar.

Entonces saco la mía espada
me bato en duelo en Granada
en frente de mi doncella
y gano si me da la gana.

Hello Seahorse

Right early on way back when I started this bloggy thing, I put on a couple of football commentaries in Spanish....I liked them too, and they're a great way to listen to Spanish AND watch football at the same time.... double bonus.

The other day I found this epic video with an excellent Spanish commentary and here it is for you to enjoy too if you so wish...


As for music...well... here's the remarkable Hello Seahorse, a Mexican band, with Me Has Olvidado ... a rather rough-edged live version, but featuring a stonking pulse and a remarkable voice... to me, a little reminiscent of Liz Fraser from The Cocteau Twins....



And here are the words...from musica.com

Esa sonrisa tuya
me dice una sola cosa
me has olvidado!
me has olvidado!

Lo veo en tus ojos
tu cabello brilla màs
Luces mas alto
y tu piel te viste bien
me has olvidado!
me has olvidado!
me has olviiii...

busco tus ojos
y volteas la mirada
canto tu nombre
me has olvidado!
me has olvidado!
me has ovliiiii...

me has olvidado!
me has olvidado!

Fuente: musica.com
Letra añadida por ||mekEtrefe||¬¬

And here are the band talking about their music in pretty clear ( Mexican) Spanish... very nice...



I find all this wonderful stuff so you don't have to!