Archive for October, 2008
Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan writer Posted by Adir on Oct 27, 2008
Mario Benedetti was born in Uruguay and is not well known in the English-speaking world, but he is considered one of Latin America’s most important living writers. He lived in Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba and Spain from 1973 to 1985, during a military dictatorship in Uruguay. Nowadays he divides his time between Montevideo and Madrid. Benedetti…
More expressions! Posted by Adir on Oct 23, 2008
Spanish has thousands of fixed expressions. I have chosen some adverbial phrases with the preposition “a” so you can see how colorful those expressions can be. A ciegas – without thinking A deshoras – at an inappropriate time A diestro y siniestro – left and right A duras penas – with difficulty A fe mía…
Months of the Year – Origin Posted by Adir on Oct 20, 2008
Do you know the origin of the months of the year? In Ancient Rome there were only ten months in the calendar initially. That created a lack of alignment with real time, and artificial adjustments had to made every year. Eventually Julius Caesar supervised a reform of the calendar that took into consideration the four…
¿Qué hora es? Posted by Adir on Oct 16, 2008
I came across these videos of a supposedly Mexican telenovela and it cracked me up! It’s called “the Mexican soap opera for people who only had three weeks of Spanish in the fourth grade”. If you know some Spanish you’re going to laugh your head off! Enjoy! Nos vemos prontito.
Road signs in Spanish Posted by Adir on Oct 13, 2008
Hello, there! A reader wrote asking whether road signs are different in Spanish speaking countries. It turns out that you probably won’t have too much difficulty with the signs because they use internationally recognized pictures or symbols. If you want to have a look at the international road signs, check this link: http://www.sitographics.com/enciclog/trafico/entrada.html. Speed…
Desperate Housewives en español Posted by Adir on Oct 9, 2008
Love the show Desperate Housewives and want to improve your Spanish? Well, the good news is that you have two ways to do that. Univision is airing its version of the show with a multinational cast: Mexican actress Lucía Méndez as Alicia Arizmendi (Mary Alice Young), Venezuelan Scarlet Ortiz as Susana Martínez (Susan Mayer), Mexican…
Idioms game Posted by Adir on Oct 6, 2008
In our idioms posts I always give you the definition, an example or two and the translation, right? Today we’re going to do something different: you guys are going to have to match the expressions to their meaning, in Spanish! After a few days I’ll give you the right answer! Shall we go for it?…