Archive for 'Spanish Culture'
¿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?…
¡Atole, pues! Posted by Adir on Oct 3, 2008
Have you ever had “atole”? Atole is a traditional cornstarch-based Mexican and Central American hot drink. Chocolate atole is known as champurrado and it’s typically accompanied with tamales (in Brazil they have pamonha). This drink includes masa (corn meal), water, piloncillo (small blocks or bricks of unrefined solid cane sugar, rapadura), cinnamon, vanilla and optional…
Linguistic diversity in Spain Posted by Adir on Sep 25, 2008
Spanish is an official language spoken in Spain, but it’s not the only one. Spain has three other officially recognized languages, and around 25% of the country’s population use a language other than Spanish as their first language, although they are all fully proficient in Spanish as well. Here’s a brief look at those languages…
By the way… Posted by Adir on Sep 19, 2008
The expressions “by the way” and “incidentally” are called afterthoughts or offhand remarks, and in Spanish there two ways of saying them: a propósito and por cierto. Examples: – Por cierto, ¿no estás estudiando para la prueba? (By the way, aren’t you studying for the test?) – Tienen que entregarme el resumen del libro para…