Voices en Español

Consulting a Spanish-English dictionary, whether it’s a conventional hardcover volume or a digital app on an iPhone, is usually the easiest way to check spelling and meanings of new words.

It may seem so basic that it’s not even worth mentioning. But last week I discovered that my some of my students were hazy on how to use a bilingual dictionary. That realization made me decide that perhaps there are plenty of other language learners out there who could use a few pointers on how to use a Spanish-English dictionary effectively.

Step 1: Use a reliable dictionary.

For an online dictionary, I recommend Word Reference.com. For an iPhone app, plenty of people have raved to me about the SpanishDict app.

For conventional hardcover/paperback book versions of dictionaries, take a look at Spanish-English dictionaries published by Merriam-Webster or Larousse. I’ve used these in the past and they’re decent. In “What Spanish Dictionary to Use?,” Spanish instructor Ramses Oudt gives a few suggestions.

Step 2: Know what you’re looking for

By this I mean, know what part of speech you need. Are you looking for a noun? An adjective? An adverb? An interjection? The English language has many words that are spelled exactly the same but represent different parts of speech. For example, the English word “well” can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb or an interjection. If you consult a Spanish-English dictionary not knowing which version of “well” you need, it’s likely that you’re going to wind up using the wrong word in Spanish.

3. Use correct spelling of the English word

This is related to Step 2. Once you know which part of speech you are looking for, be sure to spell the word correctly in English. There are numerous words in English which sound the same but are spelled differently and they have different meanings. Words like be/bee; bow/beau; hair/hear; hole/whole; see/sea, etc.  Look up the word “bow” in a Spanish-English dictionary when what you really have in mind is the word “beau,” is going to lead you to use the wrong word in Spanish.

4. Do a reverse look-up

This means that once you find the Spanish word on the English side of the dictionary, flip back over to the Spanish side and check which English word is given for the same word. At times you may be surprised by how the words differ.

Doing this reverse lookup is extremely important. Some Spanish-English dictionaries seem like they were produced by two separate teams of translators who didn’t consult one another when putting the complete dictionary together.

For example, one Spanish-English dictionary I checked for the word guapo told me that its English equivalent was the word “attractive.” What I expected to find was “beautiful/handsome.”

Then I checked the English side of the dictionary for the word “beautiful.” This particular dictionary gave me the Spanish words hermoso, bonito. But when I then checked the Spanish side of the dictionary for bonito to see what English word would appear, it gave me the English word “pretty.”

This is an extended example of what can happen when you’re using an inadequate bilingual dictionary. It may steer you away from the Spanish word that you need. That’s why it’s so important to check and then double check the meaning of the words given for both languages to verify that you’re on the right track.

5. Pay attention to the fine print

A good bilingual dictionary will tell you if a word or phrase is a regionalism used in a particular part of the Spanish-speaking world. The classic example is the verb COGER, which means “to get” or “to catch” in Spain but means “to fuck” in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Big difference.

Obviously, if your native language isn’t English and you would use a bilingual dictionary paired with your own native language (Spanish-German, Spanish-French, Spanish-Japanese, etc.) these same general steps still apply.

In a future blog post, I will tell you how to use a dictionary to find the meanings of Spanish idioms. I’ll probably post that entry in the next couple of days.

Which Spanish-English dictionaries would you recommend? Leave your suggestions in the comments below or tell me about them via Twitter @SpanishWordz.

Here’s a Q&A I recently did with August Flanagan, co-founder of Lenguajero, an online Spanish-English exchange site.

Tell us a little about Lenguajero. What prompted you to create the site?

Lenguajero is a website that connects Spanish and English speakers for online language practice and cultural exchange. Natalie Gordon, (my fiancée and business partner) and I provide our members with three effective learning tools: Online Conversation Exchanges using a voice, video and text chat app., a Writing Club to practice writing in the language they are learning (native speakers leave feedback on submissions), and a Smart Flashcard program to help them memorize and retain new vocabulary.

While Natalie and I were living in Medellin, Colombia our Spanish really started to take off, and we started feeling comfortable speaking the language. It was around this point in time that Natalie pointed that, despite the thousands of language learning websites out there, few of them were focusing specifically on connecting Spanish and English learners with one another for conversation exchanges.

Given how much spending time everyday interacting with native speakers had helped in our own learning process, we thought that there was real potential for this type of site. We had our laptops with us, and just decided to start building something.

Currently there are several different social networking language learning sites such as Busuu, Live Mocha and iTalki. How is Lenguajero different from those other sites?

As I mentioned above, it was the observation that none of these learning communities were focusing on just Spanish and English learners prompted us to start working on Lenguajero. We had both tried Busuu and Live Mocha before we left the U.S., but we always felt like the wide open “any language you want” approach made the community more of a social site than a learning tool.

Our focus on just Spanish and English means that every user has something in common with every other user.  This makes it easy for users to connect with one another and help each other out.

How and where did you learn Spanish?

I’m originally from Washington state in the U.S. and Natalie is from Canada. Neither one of us are native Spanish speakers.  In fact, it wasn’t until about two years ago that I really developed an interest in learning Spanish.  I was traveling through Central America, and not being able to have normal conversations with people I would meet was pretty frustrating.  It gave me the motivation I needed to buckle down and start learning.

I took a few Spanish lessons in Central America, and studied on my own when I got back to the U.S.  Then, Natalie and I decided to move to Latin America and immerse ourselves in the language.

We took classes for six months while living in Cuba and Colombia.  We also spent a lot of time reading, watching movies, studying flashcards, spending time chatting with friends and acquaintances, and in general just living day-to-day life in a Spanish-speaking country.

What were some of the difficulties you faced when learning Spanish?

Getting past the initial “This is really hard, and I’ll never understand the Subjunctive” phase.  I remember that for the first couple of months, no matter how much progress I was making, I always felt like I would never be able to speak clearly. Once I just relaxed, and accepted that it was going to take time, I started feeling a lot more comfortable and started to notice big improvements.

What’s the size of your language learning community and when is it most active?

Lenguajero has roughly 5000 members, and it is a pretty even mix between English and Spanish speakers. The site is most active during the week, especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I always wonder why mid-week is more popular than the weekends. Anyone have any ideas?

What is the profile of your native Spanish-speaking members?

About 50-60% of our Spanish-speaking members are in their 20s, and are either university students or young professionals. There is a high number of engineers, software developers, doctors and lawyers because it is really important in these fields to learn English.

With that said, the other 40-50% is a complete mixed bag (this goes for both English and Spanish speakers).  Our community is really diverse.  Almost anyone who is learning Spanish or English can come on and find people with similar interests to talk to. We have a 79-year-old Venezuelan and a 78-year-old American who are very active in the community.

Any new features or tools under development that Lenguajero fans can look forward to seeing later this year?

Yes! We just launched Lenguajero – Classroom which helps teachers integrate Lenguajero into their course curriculum, by allowing them to monitor what their students are doing on the site.  The feature is in beta testing right now, and we currently have about 25 classes signed up to try it out.  We will be working closely with the teachers of these classes to improve and expand the tool over the next six months.

We also are planning on adding a few more community features to the site to make it easier for members to interact and share with one another.

We are always looking for ideas on how we can improve the site, and offer things that other sites do not.  If anyone has any suggestions we would love to hear them.  You can reach us through our contact us page.

Follow Lenguajero on Twitter @Lenguajero

Language-learning humor many of us can relate to.  Thanks to Erik Rasmussen, An American in Spain, for sending this graph my way.

see more Funny Graphs

This is a guest post by polyglot blogger Ramses Oudt. Although he speaks multiple languages, he has a passion for Spanish and writes about learning Spanish through immersion at Spanish Only.

If you didn’t listen to a lot of Spanish before starting to speak the language, it’s likely you have an accent. It might be a slight accent, but an accent nonetheless. Even if you’ve listened to hundreds of hours of native Spanish speakers on TV, in movies, in your neighborhood, etc. it’s possible to have an accent. Some people don’t mind, but many do.

Luckily not all is lost. I am a native Dutch speaker and Spanish is my third language. I used to have a terrible accent when speaking Spanish but it has improved tremendously in the last year or so to the point where now most native Spanish speakers don’t even notice it.

How did I polish my Spanish accent? I had to put in a lot of work to get a better accent. And no, it wasn’t something that just clicked, I really had to work hard to get better. But it was definitely worth it because now my Spanish is at a level where I can relax a bit.

Here are 5 steps I made to improve my accent. I believe they can help anyone who has the same goal of speaking more fluent Spanish.

Step 1: Find your weak spots
You can say, “Yeah, I have a foreign accent“, but if you don’t know which part of your speech is bogged down with your gringo accent, you’re going nowhere. So analyze your speech. Record yourself reading the letters of the Spanish alphabet out loud and then choose a short text, like three paragraphs or less, and read that out loud as well.

Once you have this recording of your voice, ask one or two native Spanish speakers, whose accent you like, for feedback. This step is very important. Don’t ask: “How do I sound?” because often they’ll just say you sound great. Ask them to critique specific sounds like the vowels, the letters t and r, etc.

Also, you may find that many native Spanish speakers won’t be able to fully articulate what exactly you’re doing wrong. They know that it doesn’t sound native but they can’t necessarily guide you on how to correct it.

If that’s the case, get a recording of them using the correct sounds plus reading a basic text and use that as your baseline of pronunciation. Then you should imitate, imitate and imitate some more, and keep asking for feedback to see if you’re getting closer.

Step 2: Open your mouth
A common problem for English (and Dutch) speakers is that we don’t open our mouths enough. It’s almost possible to insert something between your lips and not have it fall out and still speak English, that’s how closed we keep our mouths. So open wide in the beginning. When you pratice, pretend like you are speaking to a person who is hard of hearing so that you pronounce words in an exaggeratedly slow manner.

Step 3: Stick to the vowel sounds
The rolled R can be a pain in the butt, but mispronouncing vowels can also contribute to you not sounding Spanish. Spanish only has five vowel sounds, so stick to them. I know English has many more sounds, but Spanish doesn’t. Even diphthongs in Spanish are just combinations of those vowel sounds, so they don’t create new sounds. Focus on learning the five vowel sounds by heart (a, e, i, o, u, el burro sabe más que tú).

Step 4: Practise
Now you know where your pronunciation weak points are and more or less know how to sound, you can start practising. First listen to the correct sound repeatedly to get the precise idea on how to sound. Next copy the sound and produce it yourself. For some sounds (like the trilled r) you may need additional training and guidance, but don’t give up. Keep at it.

Step 5: Use the correct intonation
Intonation is essentially the melody of speech. It’s the way a language rises and falls when spoken and for many of us learning Spanish, it’s the reason why we’re so drawn to the Spanish language. Spanish intonation differs from region to region (just like in English), so it can be quite difficult adopting one that is right for you.

My advice is to pick up intonation little by little. Often this comes naturally if you listen to a lot of Spanish, but sometimes you need to concentrate on one aspect of a region’s intonation. Find a Spanish-speaking region’s accent that you like and have that be your guide.

Enjoyed this post? Follow Ramses on Twitter @spanishonly or visit his blog Spanish Only.

Photo: Gringo by Pragmagrapher

“Te llamo para atrás.”

“Ese chico está high.”

“Hay muchos suplidores en San Juan.”

If the Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española gets its way, mangled Spanglish phrases like the ones listed above will eventually become a thing of the past in Puerto Rico. The Academia has published the first edition of the “Diccionaro del Anglicismos Actuales,” which it hopes will cut down on the amount of anglicismos (English words or phrases) that currently circulate in Puerto Rican Spanish.

This new 800-page dictionary containing approximately 3,500 anglicismos wants to show Puerto Ricans that there are perfectly viable Spanish words and phrases that exist that they should be using instead of the English ones.  The Academia hopes to get school teachers in Puerto Rico to take the lead on policing the island’s Spanish since they are in the best position to catch and correct these types of linguistic mistakes.

Will this mean the end of Spanglish expressions like “Te llamo para atrás”?  ¡Ni hablar! Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States and although the majority of Puerto Ricans living on the island do not speak English fluently, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the pull and influence of English is just too strong at this point for the tide to be pushed back. The only way for the English presence in Puerto Rican Spanish to get stamped out at this point would be if it became cool among young Puerto Ricans to use the Spanish equivalents.

To read a news article in Spanish about the new dictionary, click here.

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“Te llamo para atrás.” Should be: “Te devuelvo la llamada.”

“Ese chico está high.” The correct/formal way: “Ese chico está drogado.” Slang (at least in Spain): “El chico está colocado.”

“Hay muchos suplidores….” “Suplidor” is pure Spanglish [supplier + proveedor = suplidor]. The correct word in Spanish is proveedor.

It’s that time of year when we’re bombarded with stories about holiday gift ideas. It’s a perennial favorite of the news media to do these kinds of stories. I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon this year and put together a list of Xmas gift ideas for Hispanophiles.

1). Spain – On the Road Again

This video culinary road trip with chef Mario Batali and actress Gwyneth Paltrow is really quite good. If you’ve never been to Spain, this TV series will give you a great introduction to the foodie culture of Spain. The 13-episodes of this TV show are available on a DVD and there’s also an accompanying book. (Book + DVD combo: $49.95)

2). La Tienda

Speaking of food….the online catalog of La Tienda has plenty of mouthwatering treats. Try the morcilla with onions ($13.95) or the Tetilla queso, a soft cheese made from cow’s milk, from Galicia ($22.50).

La Tienda also has a web site for Europe and the U.K. but the selection of items is different from the U.S. site.

3). 90 Clásicos de la literatura para gente con prisas

This would be a gag gift since it’s a comic book that boils down 90 classic works of literature to the bare essentials. Epics such as Don Quijote, Lord of the Rings and Ulysses all get the same treatment: a “synopsis” presented in a panel of four illustrated squares.

If you don’t find this kind of Cliff Notes approach amusing, then stay away. But if you like the idea of refreshing your memory about some of the greatest literary works and doing that in an unconventional way, ¡adelante!

4). El Baile del Sombrero

If you have little kids or you want to encourage a young niece, nephew or grandchild to learn Spanish, here’s an ideal gift – a CD of kid’s songs in Spanish. The songs revolve around basic everyday activities (taking a bath, going to school, a trip to the zoo, etc.).  It’s a nice way to expose very young children to the sound of the Spanish language.

5. Spanish lessons via Skype

Maybe this will be a gift that you’ll want to give yourself in the new year – online Spanish lessons. There are many Spanish-language instructors currently giving classes online via Skype and their hourly teaching rates are generally quite affordable. Just do a Google search. I’ve seen some instructors charging as little as $10 per hour.  Some won’t charge you for the first class as a way of enticing you to sign up for multiple sessions.

Whether you decide to give something like this as a gift (or just keep it for yourself), make sure you get references from past or current students. Also, if you have to pay for a block of classes, don’t pay for more than three lessons initially. That should be more than enough time to figure out whether the teaching arrangement will work or not.

6. Spanish podcasts & transcripts

Download a series of episodes of your favorite Spanish podcasts, burn them onto a CD and then print out or purchase the accompanying episode transcripts. These days there are so many instructional Spanish-language podcasts to choose from, you could put together an eclectic mix of voices and topics.

It’s an idea that didn’t occur to me until recently, when a reader of my other blog, Cody’s Cuentos, purchased the entire collection of story transcripts. He told me that he was putting together a unique Spanish-learning gift pack for his wife. What a great husband!

7. Book a vacation in Spain

If a trip to Spain in 2010 is in the cards, check out this travel and leisure web site called Smart Box. It has affordable listings for several lovely rustic Spanish casa rurales (country inns and Bed & Breakfasts) like Mas Torrent in Cataluña and Casa Manadero in Extremadura. One-night stays start at 79.90 euros for two people. (On the Smart Box site check under the categories “Estancia Pintoresca” and “Estancia Sabor Rural”.)

OK, this one might be a little hard to completely arrange on such short notice with Christmas only a week away, but it’s always nice to dream, isn’t it?

Photo of Benia de Onis, a village with 230 inhabitants, located in Asturias, Spain.

The Real Academia Española has finally published the definitive manual of Spanish grammar – “Nueva gramática de la lengua española: El español de todo el mundo”

This volume examines, for the first time under one roof, so to speak, the similarites and differences that exist between the varieties of the Spanish language as it is spoken in Spain and Latin America. The series of books, more than a decade in the making, are a massive collaboration between the 22 Academias de la Lengua Española. As a result special attention will be paid, for the first time by the RAE, to specific terms and usages of the Spanish language in the Americas.

If you’re a die-hard lover of Spanish and linguistics, you may be tempted to buy these books now. I’d caution you to wait and see because there are other versions of the books coming out next year.

The initial two-volume set is HUGE (almost 4,000 pages) and the price tag is 120 euros.  A third volume will be released in the coming months. After browsing through the first two volumes it was clear to me that this initial set of books is a scholarly work suited to language/linguistics professors and other academics. It’s not geared to people learning Spanish.

The good news is that the RAE is releasing its nueva gramática in three distinct versions.

The first, the only one currently available, is the complete, unabridged version. The target market for this would be university libraries or Spanish professors and doctoral language students.

Called simply Manual, Version 2.0 of la nueva gramática will be a 750-page tome. It will contain more concise descriptions and succinct explanations than Version 1.0, according to the RAE. It will be published in March 2010.

Target market:  Spanish professors and students of Spanish at the university level.

Version 3.0 is entitled “Gramática básica.” This book won’t be released until a year from now, at the end of 2010. It will be a 250-page paperback designed for the general public.

Target market: Spanish teachers at the primary and secondary school level, as well as non-university-level students of Spanish.

If you’d like to get a taste of what Version 1.0, (the unabridged version pictured below), is like, click here for a PDF that contains a sample of the text, as well as other details about the book series.

When you learn a foreign language you are frequently told by teachers not to translate phrases and expressions word-for-word. Such translations often are imprecise or potentially embarrassing.

Fortunately, there are a few idiomatic Spanish phrases and expressions that are very close to their English equivalents.  Below is a random list I put together for my ReVerb Spanish Twitter feed. These are phrases that if you didn’t know the Spanish idiomatic expression and happened to translate the English phrase exactly to Spanish, you wouldn’t be too far off the mark.  (You can get more details about the origin of some of these phrases as well as and some example sentences here.)

Al pie de la letra: to the letter (to do something exactly as it is said or written)

Apretarse el cinturón: to tighten one’s belt (to cut costs, to reduce one’s expenses)

Armarse hasta los dientes: Armed to the teeth (fully prepared for anything)

Con las manos en la masa: With the hands in the dough (American English: Hands in the cookie jar, i.e. to get caught doing something you shouldn’t be doing.)

Cuando el gato no está, los ratones bailan: When the cat’s away, the mice will play

Estar en el séptimo cielo: to be in 7th heaven (to be extremely happy)

Matar dos pájaros de un tiro: to kill 2 birds with 1 stone

Más vale pájaro en mano que ciento volando: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Meterse (a alguien) en el bosillo: to have someone in your back pocket, to have someone wrapped around your little finger. (To have someone under your control or influence.)

Ser la gallina de los huevos de oro: to be the goose that laid the golden eggs (to be a source of infinite wealth)

Ser la oveja negra: to be the black sheep

Ser el brazo derecho: to be someone’s right hand (to be an essential assistant to someone)

Tener corazón: to have a heart (to be kind)

Tener estómago: to have a stomach (to be strong)

Tener sangre azul: to have blue blood (to be descended from royalty)

Tirar la toalla: to throw in the towel (to give up)

Tomar algo con un grano de sal: to take something with a grain of salt (to be skeptical)

Want more details and example sentences using these phrases in Spanish? Get a more in-depth explanation for all of the above phrases by reading what I posted on Twitter on Dec. 6 and Dec. 7 over here.

This is a guest post written by Alan Malarkey

Unless you are particularly driven and or talented, progressing to the next level and sustaining  interest in learning a foreign language can be a struggle. Finding an ‘intercambio’ or a language exchange partner, is a relatively well-worn path that offers valuable practise.

The basic premise is to find a native Spanish speaker who is willing to converse with you in Spanish in exchange for helping him or her with their English (or whatever your native language is.) Once you find a willing conversation partner, you can agree to meet regularly for a set time.

It only costs the price of a cup of coffee and, depending on the compatibility of the partners, it can work very well. For some it is a route to lasting friendship and in some cases marriage, but even if you’re not in the market for a spouse, doing an intercambio can be a very worthwhile experience.

I’ve done all types of intercambios – from meeting in a café to meeting online and conversing via Skype. Whether you meet in person or online, connections can go astray and patience is often required. Frequently, a one-to-one intercambio can fizzle out because of scheduling conflicts or simply because of the lack of common interests. For that reason, I am a big believer in a group intercambio arrangement.

In Croydon, U.K., we have been running Croydon-Spanish over the last two years. English and Spanish speakers meet for two to three hours in a pub on a Monday evening and we chat informally in the the two languages. It is not very structured and members of the group are simply encouraged to be mindful of each other’s needs and interests and to be patient and positive.

Usually we have a well-balanced group in terms of age, gender and, of course, Spanish and English speakers. Our native Spanish speaking participants are roughly divided between Latin Americans and Spaniards. Often they are young people trying to improve their English as part of a university degree or they are in the U.K. to enhance their CV. Levels of language mastery vary, from the relative beginner to bilingual.

Although this form of learning and practice is probably not suitable for the complete novice and is not a replacement for formal study, the group intercambio provides speaking practice in a social setting. There is quite a high turnover of attendees and the ratio of enrolled members to those attending is quite low, but this is not a bad thing. Apart from myself and a few other loyal and regular members, the group regularly replenishes itself with new participants. Most of all it is just a fun and enjoyable evening.

Here is some advice If you would like to start a group intercambio in your area:

Advertise, advertise, advertise

The key to finding members is advertising but don’t worry, you can do it for free. In London, we use Gumtree.com but in the U.S. you have Craigslist. Don’t forget to put up fliers in local places such as the public library, bookstores and, of course, local community colleges and universities.

Obviously, one of the most effective ways to advertise is thorugh word-of-mouth. Thanks to today’s social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, it has become easier than before to find and connect with other people who share similar interests.

One way in which I am promoting the group is through a web site [ http://croydon-spanish.ning.com/ ] where members of the group can post photos, videos and also provide links to online Spanish and English learning resources.

Reach out to native Spanish speakers

If you are enrolled in a Spanish class, ask your Spanish teacher to participate in the conversation group and to help you spread the word. If there is a sizable Spanish-speaking population in your community, find out which local publications they read, what groups they participate in and where they hang out. Post your fliers there. (For example, a community group that helps Hispanic immigrants or a church or restaurant.)

Keep it simple

Choose a specific day and time and stick to it. It will be easier to attract people on an ongoing basis if they know that the group meets on the dame day at the same time each month. You will have a harder time building a following if the day and time changes from week to week or from month to month.

Also, with regards to the actual conversations, don’t put any pressure on yourself to come up with topics unless, of course, the group wants that. With my group, discussions take us in different directions. Sometimes we engage in comparing cultural and linguistic differences or surgically dissecting grammar constructions. Other times, we simply chat about life, tell jokes, swap expressions and reveal our hopes and dreams. We rarely feel the need to construct artificial conversation.

If you’d like to get more information or advice about starting your own group intecambio, connect with me via Twitter or drop by my web site and send me a message. Sustain your interest through human contact – what could be better?

Connect with Alan Malarkey on Twitter (twitter.com/croydonspanish) or at http://croydon-spanish.ning.com/

Other articles about this topic:

How to get the most out of group intercambios

Intercambio Etiquette

5 Questions to Ask Your Intercambio

4 Ways to Correct Your Intercambio

Dealing with a conversational hijacker

Photo: “Friends in a coffee house” used under license from iStockPhoto.com

One of the basic things about learning Spanish that drives many native English speakers nuts is the gender of nouns in Spanish. For many people, especially those of us at the beginner level, it can be frustrating trying to remember whether or not a Spanish noun is masculine or feminine.

This week’s podcast is a very amusing take about this particular aspect of the Spanish language. Written by Juan José Millás, the story is part of “Cuerpo y prótesis,” a wonderful collection of essays and short stories about the superficiality and banality of modern life.  The witty, humorous tone of many of Millás’ essays reminds me a lot of the writing style of American writer David Sedaris.  Millás has a writing style that is  sophisticated yet totally accessible.

Unfortunately, this particular book of Millás is not sold outside of Spain. I looked for it on Amazon with no luck. In any case, here’s a link to it to purchase it from Spain.