Vamos a hablar Español....

Yes, I know, I haven't written anything for ages.

Well, I have, but not on here.

My semi-joking post last time went down like a bucket of sick, maybe I was sulking!

So, a quick post to let you all know I am still here...

It's about an odd old-fashioned Spanish book for beginners...



Yes, it's Vamos a hablar Español.[1963]

Rather an old-fashioned and incredibly stereotypical cover too.

However, for a beginner, it has its attractions. It's all done in double-page spreads, the Spanish is very simple and progresses very slowly... which is good for certain types of learners.

Each page has a weird woodcut ( ?)(see above)(click to enlarge) going back to the Spanish middle ages I would imagine, mostly street scenes... no mobile phones, bullet trains or laptops here.

Each picture has a dialogue to go with it, simple stuff, useful conversation, a handy vocabulary, lists of phrases.

You could make a good lesson with each double page, a good target for beginners.

The learners who worked with this book must have had a bit of a shock when they went to resorts in Spain though... here's couple more pics to show you what I mean.....






You will be dissapointed to hear that Amazon hasn't got any copies, though I bet there are 1000s in dusty cupboards in schools all over the UK.


I've just noticed, by the way, that this is my 64th post on here, without a single reply.

Not one, even nasty ones.

Nobody has answered any of my questions (!).... even a bit of criticism would be nice. Come on folks, I keep playing you (mostly) lovely music... do you agree? Any requests?

So, throwing another stone in the pond, here's Mabu and A Solas plus a quirky little video.

PLUS... she sings it really slowly for us learners out here in the tyrosphere!



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)

Yep, thanks.

A simple task...

Today I thought I would take a break from all this serious heavy stuff and give you a little "Use Your Spanish" -type task.. but have no fears, I will give you loads of help.

Here we go then...



It's the usual thing... you've got to use this picture as a starting point for a little story.... keep it in the present tense if you like... but to help you, here is a list of useful words and phrases.... try to get most of them in..

agüero mal ..... a bad omen
aceite ..........olive oil
aparejador ...... quantity surveyor
airar ........... to get angry
acrillar a balazos ... to riddle with bullets
alardear .......... to boast
avicola ........... poultry
avios.............. gear, kit
azafata ............ air hostess
ni un ápice ....... not a whit
agredir............. to attack
aserradero........... a sawmill
aguarrás ............. turpentine
arroparse..............to wrap up warm
aplastar ................ to squash flat, to crush
apabullar................ to crush
achatar...................to flatten
altivez................... haughtiness, arrogance
caballero andante......... a knight errant
añoranza...................nostalgia
ambiente ..................atmosphere, surroundings
estar aviado .............. to be in a mess
amilanar ...................to scare
aplacarse .................to calm down
alunizar .................. to land on the moon.

I hope that all helped, and that you will send me your lovely stories. Perhaps, next time we could try some words beginning with b as a more advanced task.

Anyhow..

To round things off, here's Vetusta Morla woth Nuevo Año...



Isn't that good folks.

and the beautiful poetic words.....


No podré contar
qué ocurrió ayer,
fue hace tanto tiempo
que el sol se ha vuelto a poner.

Embobado, insomne,
acaricio la piedra que encontré.
Todos duermen pero ella,
con el ruido, no la pudo ver.

Con vivos, muertos, brindando juntos
por un año más, un año menos
que dolerse de esta herida y de esta luz.

Ella llegó tarde, no vio a nadie,
fue directa a dormir.
En vez de su piedra
encontró una fiesta en su salón.

Con vivos, muertos, brindando juntos
por un año más, un año menos
que dolerse de esta herida y de esta luz.

Con vivos, con muertos ...
Con vivos, con muertos ...
Con vivos, con muertos ...
Con vivos, con muertos ...
Con vivos, con muertos ...
Con vivos, con muertos ...
Con vivos, con muertos ...
Con vivos, con muertos ...

Con vivos, muertos, brindando juntos
por un año más, un año menos
que dolerse de esta herida y de esta luz.

Con vivos, muertos, brindando juntos,
un año menos que dolerse de esta herida y de esta luz.

Interview time...

Here's Nelly Furtado getting in a bit of Semaphore practice in her ( limited) spare time.



This is H actually... I wonder how they do alll those accents in semaphore ....

Of course. you need to learn to listen to and understand spoken, genuine Spanish as well... and of course there's loads of ways to do this...watching cartoons, soaps, news items, listening to songs, interviews etc...

The big plus with listening this way is that you can play the talk over and over... picking up more and more each time, getting the hang of all the word-merging that goes on, programming rapid unravelment of standard phrases...

Let's pick the last option for now, and watch a few interviews...

Here's one of Vetusta Morla talking to the camera...



Here's La Mala Rodriguez talking nineteen to the dozen...



Here she is talking more slowly, plus the English translation, which you can easily cover up if you want...



Here's Nelly Furtado chatting away...




Next up is Kim Fanlo and Nena Daconte.. this one is pretty hard I think..



My regular music spot is another, pleasurable, chance to listen to Spanish...

Here's the excellent Pol 3.14 and " lo que no ves"...



Here's the words from fuente:musica.com

Antes de que amaneciera,
salí huyendo de tu cama.
En tu espejo un testamento:
“No nos queda nada”.

Deje tu barra de labios,
y con ella un par de años.
De quererte por las tardes,
de mañanas sin llamarte.

Tú me enseñas que,
se puede querer,
lo que no ves.

Tropezamos de repente,
como en un nuevo 11S.
Sonreíste a quema ropa,
contra el filo de mi boca.

Y susurraste que el pasado,
solo es como un día malo.
Y la lluvia abrió las puertas,
de mi vida en tu Ford Fiesta.

Tú me enseñas que,
se puede querer,
lo que no ves.

No consigo recordar,
porque motivo me fui,
pero en tu cuarto de baño,
sigue tu rojo de labios.

No consigo recordar,
como he llegado hasta aquí,
solo sé que estoy borrando,
lo que un día te hizo daño.

Tú me enseñas que,
se puede querer,
lo que no ves.

Siempre fui poniendo parches,
negando segundas partes.
Hasta que me demostraste,
que no quiero olvidarte.

Tú me enseñas que,
se puede querer,
lo que no ves.

No consigo recordar,
porque motivo me fui,
pero en tu cuarto de baño.
sigue tu rojo de labios.

No consigo recordar,
como he llegado hasta aquí,
solo sé que estoy borrando,
lo que un día te hizo daño.

Tú me enseñas que,
se puede querer,
lo que no ves.

No consigo recordar,
porque motivo me fui,
pero en tu cuarto de baño.
sigue tu rojo de labios.

No consigo recordar,
como he llegado hasta aquí,
solo sé que estoy borrando,
lo que un día te hizo daño.

Tú me enseñas que,
se puede querer,
lo que no ves.

Tú me enseñas que,
se puede querer,
lo que no ves.

Tú me enseñas que,
Se puede querer.

Fuente: musica.com

Talking the talk...

To be honest, I never really get a chance to talk any Spanish... except to myself, or when I'm ( quietly) singing the odd Spanish song, or answering Mr. Thomas' questions .

And being even more honest, I'm probably never going to go to Spain either.

SO... how do you get to speak more Spanish?

[a] Well, as above, you can sing along to Spanish songs....this is really good because it's enjoyable, you can copy the exact pronunciation of the singer, and you can get confident at saying all those words and sentence patterns.

Here's a song specially designed for you to sing along to...



[b] You can read Spanish out loud from a book... this is a good way to start when you haven't the confidence to think up any Spanish... it's quite a challenge to actually get your gob around those lovely pure vowels, the tricky consonants and so on...
So, you can just read out loud, or even better you can read into a tape and play it back.

Over time you should hear yourself improve.Excellent.

[c] You can read plays.. you can even take the different parts. Plays are good, as I might have mentioned before, becasue they are ALL SPEAKING... so you are using real sentences which you can use.Again, you can tape your efforts.

[d] There are books with ready-made speech/dialogues in them, such as Spanish Among Amigos... dreadful title, rubbish cover.. but it is pretty good, with 21 little playlets/chats between the two characters, Pepa and Pili.



The book is really a guide to colloquial usage, but the dialogues are very good, pretty short.. plus there are translations at the end of the book.

[e] When you get more confident you can try to think up your own Spanish by talking about what you can see around you, what you are thinking about, your plans for the day, what you did yesterday etc. you can argue with the TV news in spanish, you can translate little bits of Corry while you watch it ....

[f] I do sometimes hear people talking Spanish when I am out and about. I haven't actually spoken to any of them yet, but I will do.I do know that some Russians have a little badge they can wear to show they speak Russian... and they get into a lot of conversations that way. Is there a Spanish signal as well? I've tried to find it on the net with no luck.

[g] To help you with speaking there is a book designed for people doing their GCSE oral exam called Bravo... it has loads of ideas, vocabulary, sentence frames and grammar help for students needing to speak simple Spanish and answer simple questions... it's cheap as well....





[h] Some places have informal Spanish-speaking sessions... for example, in Kendal , at the Brewery cafe, one evening there is an informal Spanish session where people just turn up and they speak Spanish for an hour or so in the cafe. Every evening a different language. You could find out if there is anything like that round your way.

Here's some people speaking Spanish in a simple way....



That's enough for now... here's some music...

This lovely song is Zahara with Funeral.... again, lots of smashing performancesof this song on the net.... this is one of the best.



These words are from Que de letras.com....

Trato de alcanzarlos,
pero corren mucho más deprisa.
Tiemblan mis cimientos rotos tras el terremoto,
y está todo echo trizas.
Con la sensación de haber echo demasiado
y sin embargo, sentir que todo en vano.

Me pilló de imprevisto no supe decir lo que quería hablar.
Ahora que sé como hacerlo tú no quieres escuchar.
De haberlo sabido habría sido distinto, lo dudo.
Quizás esto no tiene remedio,
ha empezado el funeral.

Trato de arrancarlos,
pero siguen mucho más adentro.
Con la sensación de estar haciendo lo incorrecto,
y sin embargo, no poder dejar de hacerlo.

Me pilló de imprevisto no supe decir lo que quería hablar.
Ahora que sé como hacerlo tú no quieres escuchar.
De haberlo sabido habría sido distinto, lo dudo.
Quizás esto no tiene remedio,
ha empezado el funeral.

Sólo me arrepiento de haberme dormido.
Sólo me arrepiento de haberme perdido.

Me pilló de imprevisto no supe decir lo que quería hablar.
Ahora que sé como hacerlo tú no quieres escuchar.
De haberlo sabido habría sido distinto, lo dudo.
Quizás esto no tiene remedio...

Ha empezado el funeral (x2).
Funeral (x3).

en la habitación...

It's got to the stage where I need to get to grips with gender....



Because it matters! And there are quite a few Spanish nouns which are exceptions to the -o male and -a female rules, plus there are still more which don't end -a or -o and which don't fit all the other arbitrary and very forgettable other rules which all the grammar books list.

So what do you do ?

As a neat sort of coincidence, there was a fascinating program on R4 this morning about word games, and one of the games was to try putting "Mr." or "Mrs" in front of all your nouns.

It proved remarkably tricky for an English speaker... because it's not at all obvious which it should be for most nouns.

However, as Mr. Fry ( for it was he) pointed out, to speakers of gender-nouned languages this thought is absolutely natural, and gives each noun an extra quality, or shade of meaning, almost in the same way that some people assign colours to nouns.

They went on to discuss how this might/does affect, for example, poetry where ( for example) Baudelaire is known to have used the gender-properties of the nouns he used to emphasise the meaning/symbolism in his poetry.

I have often wondered how native speakers of such languages manage to learn and remember the gender of obscure nouns that they rarely use. Some books tell us that native speakers develop a "feel" for the correct gender.

Personally I doubt this....but in another bizarre coincidence , in that same programme they played another game which touched on this idea of innate "feel."

They called it " Cheese or Font." Players were given a word and had to decide whether it was a cheese or a font! It was not a test of their knowledge... they were meant to do this by "feeling" which was right for a cheese-name, and which was right for a "font-name."

For example, one of the words was "dauphin". After a fair bit of thinking, one decided it was a cheese, the other decided it was a font... in fact this one was both.

[I've just found out that you can play this game online.. just type Cheese or Font into google! ]

It would be interesting to try this on native speakers where they had to decide on the gender of the obscure noun to see how well they did.


There were plenty of other interesting ideas in that program which I will bring up sooner or later.

Anyway, one way of remembering the gender for any noun is to make a mental picture of the noun with either a man or a woman.

An example would be thimble,,,, el dedal in Spanish...but inconvenently masculine so the the obvious woman-thimble link is no good.

You could simply remember that it comes from el dedo = finger.

Or, for example, you could picture Wayne Rooney running round the pitch almost totally covered with a giant thimble.
Or Jeremy Clarkson having trouble changing gear because all ten fingers have thimbles on them...

Let's try another... how about the mink... el visón.. again masculine.
Imagine something really incongruous like Vin Diesel strolling down the road wearing a mink coat.

How about el afán ... ambition/effort... this type is trickier because this is not an actual object... it's again masculine so you can picture thet survivalist Ray Mears making an immense effort to build a fan to keep cool in the desert!

You desperately need to remember that a Partridge... la perdiz... is feminine!
Well, you could simply think of a woman seaching for her lost Partridge( to lose = perder) all over the place...

Or think of all the women in the Partridge Family ( remember them). That'll do!

You get the general idea I'm sure. Remember to make your images strange, weird, rude,scary or whatever so they sink in.

Well, it's music time, and I thought we could have a look at more by that nice Zahara who was with Santi Balmas

....this is she playing live... a lovely, intimate version of En la Habitación... a feminine noun there, obeying the -iôn usually feminine rule!

There's lots of versions of this lovely quiet song to watch...



That is just beautiful! Great audience too.

Thanks to the musicstar site for these words..

Video y Letra de la Cancion En La Habitación – Zahara

Fumo sola en la terraza del hotel
recuerdo el humo
y la cerveza en tus manos.

Anoche las niñas paseaban sus zapatos
y no teníamos nada que perder.
No teníamos nada…

En este cuarto hay demasiado por hacer
y no tengo a nadie con quien echar un rato.
Todos queríamos ser extraordinarios
Podrías hacer algo por volver
podrías hacer algo…

El tiempo en esta habitación me sabe a vino
dedico demasiado a imaginar que estas conmigo
apuro la copa de un trago
dejo el cuerpo en el pasillo
Hoy todo lo demás es lo de menos
Hoy todo lo demás…

Yo confiaba que subieras a mi habitación
y no que te marcharas como hiciste
Las escaleras son interminables
si no hay quien te espere después
si no hay quien te espere…

No hay manera de que vuelve ese miércoles
tengo la sal entre los ojos mojados
Quiero que sepas que eres el culpable
de que hoy me sienta extrañamente bien
de que hoy me sienta extraña…

El tiempo en esta habitación me sabe a vino
dedico demasiado a imaginar que estas conmigo
apuro la copa de un trago
dejo el cuerpo en el pasillo
Hoy todo lo demás es lo de menos
Hoy todo lo demás…
--------------
Fuente: MusicstarX.Net

I can't forget that ridiculous image of Wayne bloody Rooney covered with a giant thimble! Good!

Querida Senora LaRue

I thoroughly recommend childrens' books as a way into learning any language. Unfortunately this is the ONLY one I've got in Spanish. It's quite a good story though.

They have loads of advantages to the beginner... they are great fun, they are full of drawings to help you, they are bright and interesting and full of incident, and much of the language is useful stuff in simple sentences.

The trouble is, I got quite a way into Spanish before I got any stuff like this... I jumped straight in after a few months into further-on things like Winny de Puh and suchlike. Also, you don't tend to come across little children's books like this in English charity shops! French... yes, I've got quite a few... Latin, yes... Beatricus Potter etc... Welsh... got plenty in Wales!!... but not Spanish.

PLUS... they're v. expensive, on a pence-per-page basis... on Amazon.

What I would recommend to any real beginners out there, is... if you are going to Spain or Latin America, get some while you are out there..... OR if you know anyone who is going there, get them to get you some.

Anyway, there's another one in this series...



Time for music I think... this is Niños Mutantes with an outdoor acoustic version of Las Noches de Insomnio





and here's the official video for it...



and here are the words from the alternativevolume site... thanks.

Las noches de insomnio
Las tardes de hastío
No estoy para bromas

Y no tengo prisa
Estoy tan vacío
Solo necesito aire
Para respirar

Recuerdo aquel día
Recuerdo aquel sitio
Las cosas que dije
Todo

No se si eran ciertas
Lo cierto es que al frío
Nos hizo apretarnos
Tanto

Tú siempre decías
Que no era bastante
Porque lo querías todo

Yo era más débil
Y no lo entendía
Y puso distancia
Entre tú y yo

Que parecía que nuestra carne se fundiría
en una materia de células vivas
y células muertas
en un solo cuerpo

Ray's Christmas Crackers...

All my regular readers will know how important music is to me... in every post I try to put in some interesting Spanish music. It's a lovely way to reinforce your language skills, pronunciation, vocabulary...everything, including your confidence.... more especially if you make an effort to learn the words and even to sing along. Great in the car!

When I started this blog it spurred me on to find some decent Spanish music... all I knew up to then was Shakira... and though it took a while and a lot of youtubing etc, I actually have found some brilliant stuff. I'm really pleased!

So, in this Christmas edition I want to pick out the outstanding music I have unearthed in a kind of festive fifty sort of way, but not actually 50 if you see what I mean.

But first, a special award for the weirdest video I found.... another chance now to watch Cola Jet Set in action... there's loads of fun to be had here, notably the drummer, the constatn clips of 'phones in case you weren't quite sure... the list goes on. it's just bloody ODD...



Before I go on to the main Top Ten,two more awards... I have a special award for BEST NEWCOMER... and you can probably guess it is going to be that Estrella Morente... here's a different thing of hers...tangos... she's back in that little family gathering (??) where they all just happen to be shit-hot flamenco guitarists and singers...



and this next one gets the award for the HAPPIEST VIDEO... even though the wprds are not entirely happy!... it's Nena Daconte and Ay! Amor...



RIGHT... now on to the main TOP TEN.. I suppose I should do them in reverse order to increase the tension, so at No. 10 it's Facto Delafe and El Indio.



How did he do that??

Right... No 9 goes to a left-field contender, Mala Rodriguez, and I could have chosen any of a number of great performances, but I picked Por la Noche...



At No. 8 I've picked one of the early discoveries I made, Como Yo Te Amo by Niños Mutantes... great video, great song...



Coming in at No 7 is a fine ,live, Vetusta Morla song, A Tientas. They were one of the first bands I found and liked... more from them later...



Just perfect!

Slipping into No 6 is a beautiful Nena Daconte song for which, up to now, I have not been able to show the full proper video.But, I think I have got it now... El Aleph...



A pretty perfect pop song there... gorgeous.

Into the top 5 now, and at No. 5 itself we have Santi Balmas and the wonderful Kim Fanlo with a touching acoustic performance of Domingo Astromantico...



and here's a sneaky extra, the same song done beautifully by Alize and zigoreto, apparently in a little office somewhere.



A song is anything that can walk by itself..

OK then, No. 4 is Love of Lesbian with the quiet, beautiful Universos Infinitos..



And at the all-important No. 3 spot, I have picked the clever, witty, acrobatic and moving Facto Delafe with Mar el poder del mar..



Smart cycling Facto me old mate. At No. 2 it will be the lovely Nena Daconte, the accomplished Joan Tena and the brilliant Cuando Mueren las malditas golondrinas... how I love this...



BUT at the coveted No. 1 spot I have chosen the song that made me realise that there was some incredible Spanish music out there if only I could find it. From Vetusta Morla, the remarkable Al Respirar....



Amazing song, beautiful video, passionate singing... what more can you ask for.

So, there is my Top Ten for the year ...what will next year bring? More brilliant ideas for learning Spanish, more odd sidelines about all things Spanish, more Spanish music.... keep tuning in.