¡Algo divertido!

Class has ended and we probably won't have another intro class until the fall. However, I cannot resist sharing this immensely amusing SNL clip, just for fun:

La Policia Mexicana - de "Saturday Night Live"

VERBS!

What verb is the most useful to you?

Are there any other verbs you would like to learn that aren't on your list?

What phrases are the most useful to you? Did you come up with any new or favorite phrases?

- Favor de ___
- Favor de no ___
- Se permite ___
- No se permite ___

Another cool resource!

This useful website was suggested to me by one of our former Spanish students. It's called Word Champ, and had a wide array of helpful content! For some of it, you'll need to start an account with them. However, some of it is available to access even without an account. Click around and explore! I personally found the items in the "Flashcard" tab really useful.

Keep this in mind when you finish the course, as well. As I'm sure you can imagine, we can only cover so much in eight classes. After completing our course, you'll want to continue learning more Spanish on your own. This will be a wonderful resource for you to learn new vocabulary and to practice!

¡Vocabulario de la comida! Food vocab!

¡Hola clase!

Since our next class will be held at a restaurant (TBD - I'll e-mail you by the end of the week), some of you requested some basic food vocabulary so you know what you're ordering. :-) I've listed some that I think are common and useful words. But please post comments about any other food words that you would like to learn! Also, I tried to put a pronunciation guide in parenthesis, but I am terrible at writing out how to pronounce things, so forgive me if it's confusing.

Foods:

*Comida (coh MEE thah) - Food

*Pollo (POH yoh) - Chicken

*Carne de res (KAHR neh theh REHS) - General word for beef

*Puerco (PWEHR koh) - Pork

*Chorizo (choh REE soh) - Sausage

*Arroz (ah ROHS) - Rice

*Queso (KEH so) - Cheese

*Tomate (toh MAH teh) - Tomato

*Ensalada (ehn sahl LAH thah) - Salad

*Maís (mah EES) - Corn

*Frijol (free HOHL) - Bean (more commonly, you'll see the plural of "Frijoles")

*Habichuela (ah bee choo EH lah) - Another word for bean

*Huevo (hoo EH voh) - Egg

*Bocadillo (bo kah DEE yoh) - sandwich

*Sandwiche (sahnd WEE cheh) - another word for sandwich

*Guisado (gwee SAH thoh) - Stew
*Salsa (SAHL sah) - Sauce - although we know "Salsa" to be that delicious tomato based yumminess, the word literally means just any kind of sauce, and then more words are added to say what kind of sauce it is (i.e. "salsa verde" is "green sauce," "salsa de tomate" is tomato sauce, etc.)

Beverages:

*Agua (AH gwah) - Water

*Té (Teh) - Tea

*Café (cah FEH) - Coffee

*Gaseoso (gah see OH soh) - One way to say pop

*Soda (SOH thah) - Another way to say pop - Just like in English, some people say pop, some people say soda, down south everything is Coke - you can also say "Coca Cola" or "Pepsi" and people know these brand names because they're all over the world. :-)

*Limonada (lee moh NAH thah) - Lemonade

*Jugo (HOO goh) - Juice - then describe your juice with the following:

*... de naranja (theh nah RAHN hah) - orange (put together "jugo de naranja" for orange juice)

*... de manzana (theh mahn SAH nah) - apple ("jugo de manzana" is apple juice)

*... de uva (theh OOH vah) - grape ("jugo de uva" is grape juice)

Words to describe foods:

*Asada (ah SAH thah) - Grilled (may also be "asado" if it's describing a masculine food, as it's an adjective and so must be masculine or feminine)

*Frito (FREE toh) - Fried (may also be "frita" if it's describing a feminine food)

*Milanesa (mee lahn EH sah) - A way of cooking meat where you bread then fry thin strips of it

*Barbacoa (bahr bah KOH ah) - Barbecued

*Picadillo (pee kah THEE yoh) - Chopped up really small or ground

*Deshebrada (dehs eh BRAH thah) - A way to cut meat - kind of shredded - i.e. "bocadillo de puerco deshebrada" would be a pulled pork sandwich

*De trizas (theh TREE sahs) - Shreds - i.e. "queso de trizas" is shredded cheese

Okay, that's all I can think of for now. There are also a lot of food words that are originally Spanish that we have adopted into the English language that you'll already know (i.e. taco, burrito, fajita, tostada, avocado, etc), so those are one's you'll already understand on the menu.

And remember, please post a comment with any other words you would like to learn!

Additional Family Vocabulary!

¡Hola clase!

This past class, we went over some very basic family vocabulary. The last group to do these classes was interested in more family words, so I created a post for them last year. If you are interested in learning more words for family, scroll down and check it out. Post a comment on this post and let me know if there are any other family words that you would like to learn about.

Thanks! ¡Gracias!

¡Bienvenidos a la clase nueva! Welcome, new class!

¡Hola!  ¡Bienvenidos a la "blog" de la clase de español de KDL!

Congratulations, you've found the KDL Spanish Class Blog!  Feel free to take a look below at what we did in the last class!  I'm sure we'll come up with all sorts of new uses for the blog for this session!

Periodically throughout the class I'll post things up here that I think might be useful to you.  I may also ask you all to post comments with questions for me or new ideas to share with each other.

For now, just take a quick look around and bookmark this page if you'd like (or you could use Delicious - remember the 23 Things?).

Thanks!  ¡Hasta luego!

Other verbs you'd like to know?

For class on January 9th, please look over the list of verbs in Lesson 11. Choose 6-10 that would be most useful to you, and focus on those in your pre-class studying. Also, think about what verbs that would be helpful in your specific role at KDL - what verbs do you find yourself saying all the time in English while at work? If any of those verbs are not on the lists in Lesson 11, please hit comment and list them here. I'll respond with how to say it in Spanish, and we'll discuss it in class on the 9th to see if those verbs would be helpful to anyone else as well!

More Family Words - Más palabras de la familia

When we were looking at the Family vocabulary, we noticed that a lot of family members were missing. This is because the list was already really long, and there was a TON of vocab to learn in that lesson. However, some of you may be curious about how to say some other family members. So here's a list - probably not complete by any means, but a good reference for you. If you are curous about others that are not listed below or on our vocabulary list, or you know of others that I left out, please post a comment. :-)

parientes - relatives
abuelo - grandfather
abuela - grandmother
nieto - grandson
nieta - granddaughter
tío - uncle
tía - aunt
sobrino - nephew
sobrina - niece
primo - male cousin
prima - female cousin
suegro - father-in-law
suegra - mother-in-law
cuñado - brother-in-law
cuñada - sister-in-law
padrastro - stepfather
madrastra - stepmother
hermanastro - stepbrother
hermanastra - stepsister
hijastro - stepson
hijastra - stepdaughter
bisabuelo - great-grandfather
bisabuela - great-grandmother
bisnieto - great-grandson
bisnieta - great-granddaughter
padrino - godfather
madrina - godmother
ahijado - godson
ahijada - goddaughter

Some of my favorite Spanish-language movies!

One way to practice listening to Spanish (and understanding what you're listening to - eventually :-P) is to watch and listen to Spanish-language media.

You could find a Spanish-language television station to watch. These opportunities depend on your cable plan. I personally get very basic cable and haven't been able to find any channels in Spanish. But when I used to use just the antennae without cable, I somehow picked up on a station broadcasting from Mexico... weird, I know...

You could listen to Spanish-language music! I know off the top of my head that artists like Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez, Luis Miguel, Gloria Estefan, and others have songs in Spanish along with the songs in English on their CD's. I'm sure you can find plenty of these artists in our catalogue. It's also helpful to read the words as you're listening to them. If you google a song title, you will most likely be able to find the lyrics fairly easily. Or you could try sites like this one which provide the lyrics to many Spanish-language songs all in one place.

And finally, Spanish-language movies! Look through our LakeNet catalog for more, or check out the "International Film" areas of movie rental places. If they don't have an "International" section, you might check the "Independent Films" section, or just ask where they might be located. Keep in mind that in most Spanish-speaking cultures (I know this was definitely true when I lived in Spain), movies are often much more sexually explicit than they are here. Many hispanic cultures, as well as most of Europe, have the opposite viewpoint of American media - that violence is inappropriate to show in movies, while sex is beautiful and celebrated.

So here are a few of my favorites:

Spanglish starring Paz Vega, Téa Leoni, and Adam Sandler. Flor (Vega) is hired as the maid in the Clasky family, and cultural differences (including language barriers) cause all sorts of emotional action! A good one to start with, as most of the movie is actually in English. However, there's plenty of Spanish for you to listen to! Also an interesting fact: Paz Vega is super famous in Spain, but this was her first movie in America. She actually learned English while filming this movie - as the character is learning English, so is the actress!

Volver starring Penelope Cruz and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Raimunda, her sister Sole, and her daughter Paula cover up all sorts of secrets until the ghost of Raimunda & Sole's mother returns.

Mar Adentro/The Sea Inside starring Javier Bardem and directed by Alejandro Amenábar (also super famous in Spain). An absolutely beautiful film with some of the most gorgeous cinematography I've ever seen. Based on the true story of Ramón Sampedro, a quadriplegic who wanted to end his life on his own terms and die with what remained of his dignity - but who also gave much to the world through his writing and his relationships. Watch this one with a box of kleenex handy!

There are many more, but these three are my top favorites.

What are your favorite Spanish-language TV shows/channels, music, and/or movies? Please comment with any other suggestions!! :-D

Helpful multi-lingual resources from Secretary of State

Most of you probably saw the e-mail that just went around about Spanish-language resources for a patron taking his driving test. The Secretary of State website actually has information about obtaining both driver licenses and state ID's in Spanish (and some ID information is also available in Arabic!). If you visit the Driver License and State ID part of the SOS website, there will be links to various resources along the right side of the site. These are free to print off, or you can direct patrons right to the website if they are comfortable with computers.

Here are a couple of direct links to some useful information in Spanish:

Michigan ID requirements - what documents are necessary to obtain a state ID.

What Every Driver Must Know - information brochure about driving laws to study before taking the driving test.

Spanish Word of the Day

Patrice just passed along another wonderful resource! You can have a Spanish word e-mailed to you everyday!
Visit this website and enter your e-mail where it says "Subscribe to our Popular Word of the Day E-mail" and click the "Subscribe" button. Then you should receive a new word daily!
Enjoy!

Translation resources

When you're coming up with all those things you want to know how to say, here are some resources you can check out:

Babel Fish: An online translator. Just type in what you want translated, and then select from the scroll-down box what language you want it translated from and to. (Please keep in mind that this won't be a perfectly accurate translation. Instant, computer-run translators merely translate word-for-word and, as we've already begun to learn, word orders usually change between languages. However, this site seems to do a better job than most at using the correct word order.)

Yahoo Dictionary: If you just want to translate a specific word, try this site. It does a really good job of giving you a variety of meanings so you can pick the best word for the specific context you're looking for.

Keep checking back - I may as more as I find wonderful resources! Enjoy!

What would you like to learn?

In our second class (Wed, Nov. 7), I mentioned that I'd like you to post on this blog with any words or phrases that you think would be especially useful to your specific position! Then I can respond (or we can discuss in class, if there's time), with how to say that word or phrase in Spanish!

For example, someone in our class today discussed children running wild at her branch and wanted to know how to ask "Where is your mother?." In Spanish, you would ask: "¿Dónde está tu madre?" (Please note: we will always be learning "usted" as you and "su" as your in our class, because it's the form that demonstrates respect. With young children, however, it is appropriate to use the informal "tu").

What would you like to know how to say?!

You've found it! The KDL Spanish Class Blog!

¡Bienvenidos! Welcome!

Here it is, our Spanish Class blog! Check back here as often as you'd like for practice ideas, fun stuff, and more!

Sometimes, during class, I'll give you activities to do on your own, and then I'll post the answers here for you to check your work. Sometimes, the activity I give you will actually be posting something to this blog. While I'm not super knowledgable yet about blogging, I think the easiest way for you to post here is to respond with a comment. We'll explore the best ways to utilize this blog together as we go along.

And remember, the only way you'll get any better at speaking and understanding Spanish is to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

So happy practicing, and happy blogging!