Archive by Author
5 Current Events Spanish Speakers Need to Follow, from Argentina to Zika Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Jun 29, 2016
With uprisings, people’s movements, peace processes, and game-changing political shifts, there’s no better way to practice your Spanish this summer than by turning on the news or reading the paper. Real life in the Spanish-speaking world is more dramatic than a telenovela right now. If you thought the US was the only country in political turmoil right now…
7 Spectacular Spanish-Speaking Cities for On-the-Job Immersion Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Jun 13, 2016
If you’re learning Spanish in the age of the global economy and the shrinking world, it’s time to think about immersing both your personal and professional lives by looking for work abroad. Immersion is of course one of the best ways to learn a language, but who wants to shovel out thousands of dollars for an “immersion…
The Sweet Sounds of Caribbean Spanish Posted by Jakob Gibbons on May 30, 2016
Last week we shared a post on some of the quirks of Colombian Spanish, but even within this one country there’s as much variety of language as of geography and people, with sometimes mind-blowingly different pronunciation and word choice to be found just over the next mountain range. One of the many varieties of Spanish you’ll hear in Colombia is…
6 Spanish Phrases You’ll Only Hear in Colombia Posted by Jakob Gibbons on May 23, 2016
One of the best things about the Spanish language is its diversity: the many dialects of Spanish spoken across Europe, the Americas, and Africa each have their own unique slang. Mexican slang is among the most famous, but most Latinos have ironically addressed someone as tío before in gentle mockery of their cousins in Spain, and…
The Spanish Voseo: When, Where, and How to Use It Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Apr 25, 2016
If you studied Spanish in a high school classroom, you probably learned on day one about the two different forms of addressing someone in the second person: tú and usted. Not so hard–one for familiar folks like friends and family, the other for the people you’d give a “Mr.” or “Mrs.” to in English, and ya…
Spanish Orthography 101: 5 Tricky Spanish Letters and How to Pronounce Them Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Mar 21, 2016
On a recent post about the things that are making you sound super gringo in Spanish, someone asked in the comments about the letter x in Spanish. This is just one of the many tricky little symbol with a few different pronunciations, and using the wrong one in the wrong place can sound a bit ridiculous at times…
Mochileando para Aprender: Essential Spanish Travel Vocabulary Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Mar 7, 2016
It’s common sense: one of the easiest and most effective ways to learn a language is to travel to a country where it’s spoken. With a huge world language like Spanish, your opportunities are wide open. While Japanese learners are largely limited to a single island, aspiring Spanish speakers can backpack all the way from the Southwestern…