Go to the Olympics with the Angry Family, and learn about comparatives and superlatives in Spanish.

Go to the Olympics with the Angry Family, and learn about the modal verb “might” in Spanish (podría).

A nice song to help you learn Spanish, with Spanish and English subtitles.

Go to the Olympics with the Angry Family, and learn about directions in Spanish.

Ah, this song is a bit sad. Nice and slow though.

Ah, romance – what better way to learn Spanish but with a love song?

Go to the Olympics with the Angry Family, and learn about how to speak about the future in Spanish.

Learn a few Spanish phrases with this funny song.

Learn Spanish with another excellent video from Bueno Entonces. This one is nice and slow with a Spanish accent.

The Garden of Eden waterhole at King's Canyon

On the last day of our six-day tour, I was feeling a little Spanish-deprived – not having internet access meant I couldn’t even speak with my Latin American friends online, or keep up with listening to BBC Mundo; it was a hard time for me. The last activity of the tour was an early-morning walk at King’s Canyon. Quite a few tour companies include the walk in their itinerary, and it’s always done in the morning to avoid the scorching heat that arrives later in the day, so there were quite a few other tourists on the path with us.

At one of our stops, I overheard a family speaking Spanish…I really wanted to speak with them but I couldn’t work out how to do it politely, and anyway their guide wanted them to move on. I saw them a couple of times along the way, and then, finally, I had my chance. Three or four groups were stopped at the Garden of Eden waterhole for a snack, and some people went swimming. The two kids had hopped in the water, leaving the mother sitting alone, so I went over and asked her (in Spanish) if I could speak with her. She was very agreeable, and very kind about my Spanish ability; her husband came over and we all had a pleasant conversation about Chile, Australia and New Zealand. We probably only spoke for about ten minutes, and as always I’m slow to get into the flow of speaking, but I was happy that I’d once again got over my fear of rejection and asked.

Go to the Olympics with the Angry Family, and learn about making decisions in Spanish.

This is not the case with Spanish. The number of native speakers of Spanish is roughly equivalent to that of native English speakers (depending on whose list you look at) but the amount of non-native speakers is radically lower (between 30 and 100 million). This means that students are more likely to be able to speak with people whose first language is Spanish, than with other students. Or at least, this has been the case for me. I almost always speak Spanish with native speakers, and haven’t had a problem meeting new people (mostly online) who are happy to help me out. This is contrasted with what I’ve heard from a lot of English learners, who have a lot of trouble finding native English speakers to practice with.

However, occasionally I do speak Spanish with non-native speakers, usually with other English speakers, and it’s an interesting experience. I try to match my speed and vocabulary to their level, which means if their Spanish is good, it’s similar to speaking with a native speaker. But if their level is lower than mine, it’s a great opportunity to slow down and focus on grammar. When speaking with a guy from the USA the other day, I realised that slowing down is wonderful – I can be more aware of what I’m saying, and think about whether it’s grammatically correct – which I don’t usually think about when chatting with my native-speaker friends. It’s awesome.

Learn Spanish with Madonna and Bueno Entonces.

Recently, I’ve been trying to take the chance to speak with native Spanish speakers whenever the opportunity arises. It’s strange, I’ve always been extroverted; my parents say I used to go up to people as a toddler and say: “hi! I’m Linda, what’s your name?” much to my sister’s shame. But when it comes to asking people if I can speak Spanish with them, I’m oddly shy. I suppose I’m scared of rejection, that they’ll say no, or that we’ll start speaking and they’ll not be able to understand me. But Benny the super-polyglot says it’s important, so I’m trying…

When we were in Australia recently, we went on a two-day tour to Kangaroo Island. The bus was full of people from Switzerland and Germany (or at least it seemed like it), very nice people but not Spanish-speakers. But then, the last person to board was a girl from Spain, called Sarah. Craig and I chatted with her in English on the ferry across to the island, and after a few conversations and various scheduled stops of the bus, I finally dredged up the courage to ask her if she’d speak with me in Spanish. I’d already told her I was learning, and she was willing to help me practice. We walked back from the beach to the sitting area where everyone else was gathered and continued talking – and although I was pretty tongue-tied to begin with, the conversation flowed well.

Over the next two days, we spoke several times in Spanish, and Sarah was really happy to do it – in fact, she told me that it was great to be able to speak her native language after three months of almost always speaking English. Plus she was really interesting to talk to, and it was easy for us to find things to talk about.

It was interesting to see how my fluency changed across a conversation, for the first ten minutes or so, it’s difficult for me to find the words, and I feel like my speech is quite stilted. But as the chat progresses, I get more comfortable and feel confident in my ability.

Pues, la verdad es que he practicado bastante, en las últimos semanas de mi visita en Adelaida hablé por Skype con amigos de Chile y Colombia y con algunos nuevos amigos de lenguajero.com. Pero además estuve muy ocupada, Craig y yo hicimos muchas actividades en Australia del Sur antes de salir. Montamos bicicletas en la montaña, hicimos un tour de las cosas aborígenes de la ciudad de Adelaida, hicimos kayak con delfines y hicimos un tour hasta las bodegas en la valle de Barossa para catar vinos. Además, hicimos dos tours más largos, uno de dos días en Kangaroo Island (la isla de los canguros) y uno de seis días entre Adelaida y Alice Springs en el territorio del norte de Australia.

En el tour en la isla de los canguros conocí a una chica de España y le pregunté si pude hablar con ella en español. Ella dijo que sí y hablamos durante todo el día … ella dijo que estuvo contenta de hablar conmigo porque había estado viajando durante tres meses y casi no había hablado español. Para mí fue difícil pedirla de hablar en español porque tiento miedo de ser rechazada. Pero pedí a tres personas en las últimas semanas: Sarah de España, Edward de El Salvador quien conocí en el tour de los bodegas y una mujer de Chile que conocí cuando estábamos caminando en Kings Canyon. Todos eran muy amables conmigo y con mi español malo.

Ahora estoy en Nueva Zelanda de nuevo, en Christchurch donde viven mis suegros. Compramos un coche ayer y mañana vamos a manejar hasta Queenstown y Dunedin para visitar amigos. Voy a tratar de escribir este diario con más frecuencia, además necesito hacer más unidades de mi libro de gramática. Creo que lo importante es escuchar y hablar, voy a continuar haciendo esas dos cosas.

Another great Spanish song to help you learn Spanish, from Bueno Entonces.

Another nice slow sad song to help you learn Spanish.

I’m not saying that study can always be scintillating — some of the study I do for Spanish certainly isn’t. But when I need a bit of a boost, I sometimes listen to a podcast called Los Resident, which makes me laugh without fail. It’s a recording of a Chilean radio program, and all the presenters are really young and have awesome Chilean accents. They also speak INCREDIBLY FAST, like most Chileans. I love listening to it because the presenters always seem to be having a lot of fun, there’s a lot of laughter and they constantly talk over the top of each other. I don’t know any of their names, there are too many to keep track of anyway (actually, I think one of the girls is called Salome, but don’t quote me on it).

I don’t always understand everything and sometimes I’m not even really listening, I just put it on in the background. When I do understand I count it as a personal victory. Topics are pretty varied – they like to talk about anime, video games and movies: there was recently a discussion about how Twilight has affected baby naming in Chile, which I found interesting.

I’m definitely not suggesting you go and listen to Los Resident, you might hate it! I am suggesting that you find something in the language that you’re learning that makes you laugh, something that you’d come back to regardless of its language – something that keeps you inspired to keep studying. It could be a podcast, some music (like reggaetón for me), a TV show, a movie or even a person. Find it and stick to it, and you’ll learn faster while having more fun – and who doesn’t want that?

Go to the Olympics with the Angry Family, and learn to use the verb “poder”.

But recently, I came across the BBC Mundo podcast. It’s a 15-minute show that’s recorded and published every weekday, and covers world news with a focus on the Americas. It’s in Spanish, and each segment is spoken by a different reporter, many of whom are based in different places around the world — recently I heard people from Buenos Aires, Caracas, Bogotá, Miami and Paris. It’s perfect! I can get a daily dose of news, as well as improving my Spanish listening skills, and be exposed to different Spanish accents as well.

I like to listen to the podcast at night, just before I go to sleep, since the presenters speak quite fast and I find it easier to understand if I lie still and don’t have any distractions. Often in the morning, I’ll listen again with a cup of coffee and a notebook, and make note of any words I didn’t understand, or listen again to a difficult segment. It’s great for learning political and business vocabulary too. I also particularly like the fact that it’s only 15 minutes long – there are other news shows out there that are longer, but it’s a lot harder to find a long-enough segment of time in my day to listen to them. 15 minutes is usually just right.

So if you’re looking for a way to get your fix of the news and have an opportunity to learn Spanish at the same time, BBC Mundo is a good place to start.

In English we only have one verb “to be” but in Spanish there are two. Learn the difference between “ser” and “estar” with Bueno Entonces.

There are different theories about the best way to go about reading when you don’t know all the words — should you stop every time you don’t know a word? Underline words you don’t know? Personally I think it’s really important to enjoy what you’re doing — learning a new language is an amazing experience and should be fun, not a constant struggle. So the first time I read a book, I ignore all the words I don’t know, and plough on regardless of not understanding everything. If a new word comes up over and over, I might write it down and look it up at the end of the chapter, but generally I just try to understand the story and not each individual word.

Later, I’ll re-read the story and look up new words. I find it helpful to read one page at a time, writing down each new word in a notebook. I look at the context and try to guess what the word might mean, and write that down too. Next, I look up all of the new words from that page and take note of the definition. And finally, I read the page again, so I can see each new word in context, and this time understand them.

Short stories are a really good place to start, because after completing this process, you can go back and read the whole story again.

Remember, it’s important to read things you’re interested in. Don’t read a book you find really boring just because it’s in Spanish, try to find one that interests you for other reasons. I love reading kids’ books in English, (I find them relaxing) so I also read them in Spanish – in fact the first book I read in Spanish was “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Of course, kids’ books are also usually written in simpler language, so that helps too.

Todavía estoy en Adelaida, pero mi hermana, su marido y su hijo no están aquí, están en Nueva Zelanda (de donde somos) mostrando el bebé a la familia (como: mira mamá, mira lo que tengo!). No he podido encontrar trabajo, pero no me importa, la verdad es que no quiero trabajar mientras estoy aquí. Prefiero estar en casa, con vista al mar, estudiando español. Y claro que tengo que trabajar en mi sitio web también (que tiene una nueva comunidad, estamos muy entusiasmados) pero en realidad pienso más en español que en eso.

Estoy muy contenta con mi progreso esta semana. Aunque no hice ningún ejercicio de mi libro de gramática, leí un libro entero y he leído la mitad de otro. Hablé casi todos los días con amigos de Latino America y siento que estoy comunicando bien. Y he conocido más amigos en lenguajero.com, me encanta este sitio. Y un amigo de Chile me dijo que debía mirar la teletón de su país y miré un poco a través de un sitio web. Y estaba muuuuy contenta porque pude entender casi todo. Y ahora espero que en lo que he escrito no haya demasiado errores!

The beginning is a little boring, but it gets better. Apparently it’s one of the artist’s first songs, and I don’t really like the style, but the lyrics are really nice, and it’s easy to hear each word.

So fitting reading in Spanish into my day wasn’t a problem, and it doesn’t have to be a problem for you either. Read while eating breakfast, while waiting for the bus, or just before going to sleep — just find fifteen minutes a day to start with and lengthen the time if it’s working for you. Try to make a routine of it.

Then, of course, you have to find some books to read. Many local libraries have a foreign-language section, or one of their sister branches might stock a few books in the language you’re studying. I was in Auckland when I started studying Spanish seriously, and the Central Library has a great selection of books in Spanish. I used to go every Friday after work and browse through the books on offer, sometimes reading a kids’ picture book cover-to-cover before choosing a more serious book, like Tintin. Actually, comics are a great place to start, since the pictures give you context and the dialogue is all, well, dialogue — spoken language, the kind you need to know to communicate.

We’ve just arrived here in Adelaide, and yesterday I joined the local library. Sadly, their offering of Spanish books was limited to a Spanish-English dictionary or two and a couple of kids’ picture dictionaries. Apparently another branch stocks 12 (12!) novels in Spanish, so I’m off there today to check out as many as I can.

A local library can be a great resource when learning Spanish. At least see if they have any books in Spanish for you to borrow, and if not, they might be able to help you find somewhere that does.

Ayer hablé por Skype con un amigo de la República Checa y esta mañana hablé con un amigo chileno y me di cuenta que mi español ha empeorado. Creo que pude entender casi lo mismo que antes (no he dejado de escuchar los podcasts) pero mi boca no pude formar las palabras y no pude encontrar en mi mente las palabras que quise decir. Es interesante ver con que rapidez puedo perder lo que sé!

Pero bueno, en estas semanas voy a recuperar lo que he perdido y avanzar también.

Ayer estuve haciendo cambios en mi curriculum para postular trabajo, tuve que añadir mi trabajo anterior y dos o tres otras cosas y me di cuenta que pude escribir que hablo español, aunque no hablo muy bien al menos puedo decir que hablo algo como “español conversacional”. Y estoy contenta por eso.

Okay, so the sentences are completely useless, but hilarious! And the vocabulary and sentence structure is sound. And actually, I have said some of those sentences, now that I think about it….

The podcast itself is free, but you can pay to have access to transcripts and other goodies on-site. You can see the transcripts for the first part of each lesson for free, which I found really useful for getting my ear in, getting used to the sound of the language. It also helped me identify individual words that I wasn’t familiar with, which I could then look up in a dictionary.

I still listen to News in Slow Spanish, although I find it too slow now and listen to it at double-speed – which is about normal speed I think. Sometimes it’s even where I hear news for the first time, which is quite cool.

Bueno Entonces does it again, with another great Spanish song to help you learn Spanish.

On the homepage it says you can: Get help from a personal tutor, make friends in the community, join live conversations, have your writing corrected, learn your new vocabulary, and download and listen on your ipod.

I definitely haven’t tried out all of these aspects – I use italki and lenguajero to find people to talk to and make friends with, then talk to them on Skype. And you have to pay for a lot of the features on Lingq, such as talking to a tutor and having your writing corrected, and I just don’t want to pay – especially because I can have my writing corrected for free on busuu.com. But that’s okay, the part of Lingq that I like is something that I can’t find on other websites.

Lingq has a large library of lessons for a selection of languages (including Spanish of course) at all levels. Each lesson consists of an audio file and a transcript. You can download the audio (which I’ve had some problems with, working on my iPod, I imagine it’s a lot easier on a computer), then you listen to it a couple of times before looking at the transcript. In the transcript, new words are highlighted in blue – of course, to begin all of the words are blue! You click the words you don’t know and can either enter a definition or choose one that another user has created (if someone has). This creates a lingq, which is like a super-flash flashcard, and means that every time you come across that word again, it’ll be highlighted in yellow. When you’ve finished reading through the transcript, you can click the “I know all” button and all the blue words will lose their highlighting.

As you study more lessons, fewer words are highlighted and I got a real sense of progress. There’s also a little indicator in the corner of the screen which tells you how many words you know, which also gives a nice feeling of progression. Of course it’s completely meaningless, since it counts all different forms of a word as separate words, and only measure what you can identify in context, not what you can actually produce, but it’s still nice.

Then, you get a daily email with your new lingqs, and you can also study them using an onsite flashcard programme. Sadly, on the free version you can only create 100 lingqs, and if you want to create more you have to delete them individually – I haven’t worked out how to delete them in batches.

But apart from that, I think Lingq is a great idea. I love being able to listen to something then see exactly what was said. And being able to click a word to see a definition is really useful too. It’s a pity that the other features are quite expensive, but for now I’ll enjoy the free parts!

Learn Spanish with this Spanish music video subtitled in English and Spanish. It’s a bit sad though!

One awesome thing about the iPod is that you can have an option of keyboards. I’ve chosen a standard English one and a Spanish one, and I can flick between them by just tapping a button next to the space bar. This changes the language of the dictionary, and the dictionary is really important when you’re typing on such a small keyboard – I mistype words all the time and it automatically corrects me, if for example I type “yiu” instead of “you”. This saves a lot of deleting. Of course, I keep forgetting to hit the magic button and start typing in the other language, with occasionally hilarious results. I was chatting to someone the other day who asked me a question, so I wanted to answer using the word “porque” (because), but the dictionary corrected it to “pirate”.

I’ve also recently changed the operating language for the iPod, so all of my titles and announcements are in Spanish. It’s great just to have more of my mind in the language, and I understand most of it.

Mañana vamos a viajar en tren a una ciudad entre aquí y Chiang Mai (no recuerdo el nombre) y el próximo día vamos a ir a Chiang Mai, también en tren. Y luego, vamos a ir a Lao … estoy muy entusiasmada, no ibamos a ir allí en este viaje pero ahora si.

Sobre mis estudios … Bueno, hoy escuché muchos podcasts, estoy disfrutando uno de Radio Euskadi, se llama “la casa de la palabra”. Hay entrevistas con gente muy interesante, con temas diversas. Y ayer hablé por Skype con un chico de Mexico que dijo que tengo acento de España! Leí unos capítulos de un libro romántico, pero no hice ninguna unidad de mi libro de gramática. Oh, y cuando estuve en los templos de Angkor, hablé con un grupo de españoles, pero no estuve contenta con mi misma. Cometí muchos errores tontos, quizás porque no había dicho ni una palabra en español hacia dos semanas.

It’s a little slow, but definitely an amusing way to learn the days of the week in Spanish.

So, I was wondering why people say this to language learners, and why they insert the “very” in the middle. I mean, as an English teacher, I often tell people that their English is good, but I try to only say “very good” if it’s actually true. And I’m very sensitive about my Spanish, I’m very aware of how much more I have to learn.

So, why all the compliments? My first theory was that Spanish-speakers are just very nice, and there’s a culture of encouragement. There definitely was a great vibe amongst the students in Perth who helped me at the beginning of my language journey, I always felt so good about myself.

Second, Craig suggested when we were in South America that while maybe our Spanish wasn’t awesome, it was better than that of most tourists. Plus we’d made an effort with our accents so we could probably be understood better. I remember once a Buenos Aires taxi driver told us our Spanish was good after only a minute of conversation, most of which was giving him the address. Craig said this was probably more than most English-speakers could do, and maybe he’s right.

Or maybe it’s the communication thing again – if you can communicate, you’re winning. It doesn’t matter if the grammar is a little off or the accent isn’t perfect – if you can express what you want to say, hablas muy bien español.

Bueno, sobre que he hecho con mi español … La verdad es que no mucho. No hablé con voz con nadie y casi no platiqué con texto porque no había wifi en la casa donde nos quedamos en Phnom Penh. No escribí mucho, no leí mucho, solo hice una unidad de mi libro de gramática… Pero al menos escuché muchos podcasts durante mis viajes en bus.

Estaba platicando con un amigo ayer, y me di cuenta que estaba cometiendo muchos errores tontos, probablemente porque he estado una mala estudiante esta semana. Bueno, la semana que viene, voy a hacer más… quizá.

No hay una foto porque no puedo añadir una, la conexión de internet aquí es terrible!

I quite like this song, it’s nice and slow and you can understand all the words as she’s singing. Another gem from Bueno Entonces.

And in the spirit of laughing at myself, I thought I’d share some of the funnier mistakes I and my friends have made.

First, breakfast. As you know, I really like italki.com because it really kicked off my Spanish journey. So I talk about it a fair bit. When we were in Chile, I was explaining what it was to a group of people, and I wanted to say that you can talk with people who speak the language you want to learn and who want to learn your language. People with the opposite desires (deseos) to you. Except that instead of saying “deseos” I said “desayunos,” which means “breakfasts.” I don’t think I’ll ever live that one down.

Another time, I asked if a guy’s girlfriend was open (abierta) instead of awake (despierta). At least I never said I was pregnant (embarazada) instead of embarrassed (avergonzada) – I’d been warned about that one. And my favorite mistake of all time wasn’t mine – my friend wanted to ask our host’s husband for glasses (vasos) but accidentally asked for kisses (besos). That’s one I don’t think she will live down!

And of course, I’ve made my fair share of sexually-charged errors, always fun when you’re talking to guys. Girls: “estoy caliente” means “I’m horny” not “I’m hot” (try “tengo calor”), and “estoy mojada” (“I’m wet” – for example if you’d been out in the rain like me) has the same sexual connotation as in English. But “traviesa” (naughty) doesn’t have a sexual side to it. And also be aware that “me gustas” (I like you) means that you have a crush, not that you’re happy that you’re friends with someone. I learned that one quite late… Very embarrassing, since I’m married!

But I lived through all of these mistakes while learning Spanish and they didn’t kill me. Some of them are really quite funny to look back on, and at least I’m not likely to make the same mistakes again.

Vamos a viajar bastante rápido, así que no sé si voy a poder estudiar mucho en la semana que viene. Lo bueno es que cuando estamos viajando por bus o tren, puedo escuchar podcasts y música en español. Disfruto mucho escuchar podcasts, especialmente lo de las noticias de la BBC. Hay cinco episodios cada semana, uno por cada día de trabajo … estoy triste que no hay episodios en sábado ni domingo, pero claro que puedo escuchar otras cosas en los fines de semana. Este finde escuché un podcast de Chile, una grabación de un programa de radio … hablan muy rápido pero estoy empezando a entender más.

Pero si, creo que he estudiado bastante la semana pasada. No he hablado mucho, creo que hablé español solo tres veces y una vez fue una conversación muy corta. Escribí un poco y hice dos unidades de mi libro de gramática. Descargué un libro romántica en español y leí el libro entero … no entendí todas las palabras, pero entendí la historia (fue muy dramática) y por eso estoy contenta

This song is subtitled in English and Spanish to help you learn Spanish.

I like the chorus, but not the rappy parts as much. When I hear this song, I remember hearing it in the bathroom of a Mexican restaurant in Berlin, and I couldn’t get it out of my head all day.

We bought a whole bunch of movies in Spanish when we were in South America, but sadly some of them don’t work, and none of them have subtitles in Spanish. We usually watch them with English subtitles, but I’d prefer to have Spanish ones. Well, actually I’d prefer to not need subtitles at all, but I’ll get there.

The most recent movie we watched was called “El otro lado de la cama”, and it’s about two couples who keep sleeping with each other’s partners. They keep breaking into song in the middle of things as well, so it was good value – sometimes I get one of the songs stuck in my head and can’t get it out … “dime que me quieres….” (“tell me that you love me”).

A friend of mine said he learned a lot of English through watching movies. First he’d watch them in with subtitles in his language, then again with subtitles in English, and finally with no subtitles at all. I think this is a great technique and I’d love to steal it … if only I had the technology.

He estudiado bastante, pero como siempre no siento que haya hecho suficiente! Esta semana, hablé con Julian y Moroni y también con otros amigos – de España, Chile, Colombia y Perú. Y con uno de República Checa también. Siento que estoy hablando con amigos, no que esté estudiando – bueno, eso es mucho mejor! Quiero que el español sea parte de mi vida, no solo algo que estoy estudiando.

No he hecho ninguna unidad de mi libro de gramática – soy una mala estudiante! Si, tengo explicaciones – no tengo una mesa donde pueda estudiar y hace calor y y y… Pero sí he hecho otras cosas. He descubierto un podcast con las noticias de la BBC, se llama BBC Mundo, y cada día de la semana graban las noticias mas importantes en una grabación de 15 minutos. Me gusta porque puedo escuchar las noticias y practicar español al mismo tiempo y está bien que no habla sólo una persona, sino que hablan reporteros de muchos países. Así que puedo escuchar a acentos diferentes. No escribí mucho y solo leí un poquito pero he escuchado a muchas cosas en mi iPod – ¡cómo me gusta mi iPod! Claro que no entiendo todo pero estoy muy contenta de lo que puedo entender. Y en el caso de las noticias normalmente si las escucho dos veces, entiendo casi todo.

Mmm qué más? Ah, sí – grabé una grabación en la que leo un libro con voz alta, y me pedí a un amigo que me corrigiera. Él dijo que tengo que hablar más lento y practicar mis erres. Así que sí, cuando pienso bien en lo que he hecho, creo que ha sido suficiente!

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Esta es la versión corregida, gracias a mis amigos de italki por su ayuda. Pero si hay otros problemas, dime por favor!

Learn the months of the year in Spanish with this video.

However, the other day I had the chance to speak with a couple of Chilean girls when we were at the Cu Chi tunnels. I’m always so embarrassed to start a conversation with people in Spanish, maybe because I’m not too confident with it, or maybe because I think they’ll discover my dirty secret – that I’m addicted to Spanish!

Anyway, I offered to take a photo for them, because they seemed to be having trouble getting the framing right for their selfie. They said no but at least I’d made some contact, it’s always the hardest for me. Then Craig asked where they were from and, after they told us, they asked if we were from Spain! So our first sentences weren’t too terrible, just with a strange accent. I’m stoked that they didn’t pick us as English speakers immediately.

We chatted with them on and off for the rest of the tour, and even translated some of what the guide was saying into Spanish. They were lovely to talk to, and it’s always nice to meet people from one of my favourite countries.

He descubierto unos otros sitios web donde puedo aprender mas español, incluyendo lingq.com y lenguajero.com. Desafortunadamente, mi computadora no está funcionando, así que tengo que usar la de Craig, y el quiere usarla todo el tiempo! Pero me despierto temprano para hablar con mis amigos en Sudamerica (principalmente Julian y Moroni) y la uso por una o dos horas antes de que el se levanta.

Tengo dos amigos nuevos de lenguajero y otros de italki con quienes he hablado, estoy muy entusiasmada! Y hablé español en persona también, con un grupo de españoles que nos encontramos en un restaurante. Solo hablamos por un rato, pero fue genial.

This song is so energetic, how can you not love it? Plus you can understand the lyrics with Bueno Entonces and their magic whiteboard.

I asked a few people about this, to find out what they thought. Some people said you can say that you speak a language when you can communicate, but I think you can communicate using a phrase book. Others said when you can have a conversation … I think that’s a better measure.

Personally, I think if you’re at about intermediate level you can say you speak the language – you can deal with any situation, even if the grammar is shocking. I know that if I moved to South America tomorrow, I could get by only in Spanish. Recently I was chatting with some people about the languages they speak, and they were quite happy to say they spoke a language if they were at intermediate level. They then asked me if I spoke any other languages, and I said “yes, Spanish” without a modifier – a big deal for me! Of course, I’ve got lots of other Spanish goals to reach, but I’m really happy to have acheived this one.

Pero, tuve la oportunidad de hablar un poquito con dos chicas de Chile cuando estuvimos en las túneles de Cu Chi. En internet, tengo unos nuevos amigos – platiqué con un chico de Colombia y otro de Mexico, y con dos chicas también! Eso es extraño por mi, parece que casi todos de mis “amigos imaginarios” son varones, pero ahora tengo dos amigas con quienes puedo hablar, una de España, otra de Mexico.

Además, he escuchado a varias podcasts, incluyendo el de Javi Portoles. No lo sabia, pero el también estuvo una de las finalistas del concurso de blogs de Lonely Planet el año pasado.   Luego, no hablé español, así que no escuché a su podcast. Pero esta semana lo descubro en iTunes y me encanta. Es perfecto – dos de mis cosas favoritas del mundo juntas – español y viajar, claro. Le escribí a Javi un email pero no he escrito mucho mas esta semana, no he hablado mucho, y no he leído mucho tampoco. Espero que esta semana podré tener tiempo cada mañana para estudiar.

Apparently the artist of this song had to change his name from “Nigga” to “Flex”. I just like how he keeps talking about niñas lindas.