Perífrasis: dejar de Posted by Adir on Aug 22, 2011
The periphrasis dejar de has several uses in Spanish. The first use shows the end of an action or habit. Dejé de fumar el año pasado. I stopped smoking last year. He dejado de asistir a clase por falta de tiempo. I stopped going to class for lack of time / because I didn’t have…
Breaking the ice in Spanish Posted by Adir on Aug 19, 2011
Hey, there! How have you all been? There will come a time when you’re going to be in a social event and you will need to break the ice, romper el hielo, when talking to someone. Check out this dialog between Pablo and Ana, at a party: A: Qué calor, ¿no? (It sure is hot…
La voz, y el instrumento: Carlos Gardel y el bandoneón. (El tango argentino II) Posted by Magda on Aug 18, 2011
“Mi país es el tango y su capital las calles de Corrientes.” Puede parecer que me olvidé de dos elementos fundamentales al hablar del tango, pero no es así: el bandoneón, y Carlos Gardel. El bandoneón es un instrumento de viento similar a la concertina o el acordeón, que obtuvo su nombre del músico y…
Spanish Lesson Advanced 20 Palabras que comienzan con ‘a’ tónica Posted by Laura & Adam on Aug 17, 2011
In this advanced level Spanish lesson we will look at sustantivos starting with “a” tónica, for example: el agua, el hacha, el águila, el aula, el alma, el arma, el área, el hambre… You might think that these words are masculine, but curiously this is not the case. They are feminine words. This video lesson…
Vídeo: Interview with Enrique Iglesias Posted by Adir on Aug 16, 2011
Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish singer, whose father is world famous crooner Julio Iglesias. Let’s watch a little interview with Enrique where he talks about sucess and failure. Below you will see the translated script. If you’re reading this post in your e-mail, click here to watch the video. Entrevistador: ¿Cuáles son tus mayores éxitos…
Learning tip: Revisiting! Posted by Adir on Aug 15, 2011
Hey, how’s it going? There’s a saying in Portuguese: a river doesn’t go through the same place twice, meaning if you go to the same place more than once the water won’t be the same, obviously. The same happens with learning. You may have enrolled in language courses once or twice and then when the…
Canción: Imagíname sin ti, de Luis Fonsi Posted by Adir on Aug 12, 2011
Born in Puerto Rico, Fonsi and his family later moved to Orlando, Florida, during Fonsi’s early childhood. Around the time he was ten years old, Fonsi began to dream about becoming a member of Menudo, a Latin American boy band. While not being able to pursue that dream, he did, however, join many local boy…