La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir un párrafo con la trama de una serie o de un programa que estás viendo estos días, con un mínimo de cinco frases.
Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: Terminen el capítulo 13 “The preterite tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 131 a 134 y hagan los ejercicios 13.16 a 13.18.
¡Hola, chicos y chicas!
Have you learnt a lot of Spanish this week? Are you perhaps thinking that you would like to give a boost to your Spanish and take it to the next level? If that’s the case, I recommend you try out a Spanish immersion program abroad. In fact, today’s blog is going to help students interested in this kind of program pick a destination that suits their needs, and explain how to make the most of the trip. Let’s get started!
The first thing you want to consider if you want to study in a Spanish immersion program abroad, is how long would you would like the immersion to be. Most of us have busy lives and can’t afford to study abroad for six months, let alone a year. That’s why many people take part in immersion programs abroad for one or two weeks.
In my opinion, one week is great as an experience, specially if it is the first time you go abroad alone to study Spanish. You might end up with culture shock or find out that the place you chose doesn’t cater to your needs. Nevertheless, although one week is probably not enough to make a big difference in your Spanish, it can be a good first experience. I encourage everyone to try it at least once.
Now, if you want to see some progress, the minimum you should stay in an immersion program is two weeks. For students who want to go up a level, I recommend doing one month. However, students who are in the B2 level or a higher level would need more than a month to go up a level.
Once the period of time you’d be staying has been decided, the next step is choosing the right place for your Spanish immersion program. When I say “the right place” I don’t mean to say that there are right or wrong places, but places in where you’ll learn better than others.
For example, I recommend going to a medium or small city instead of going to a big city. The reason for that is that in bigger and more cosmopolitan cities people usually speak English. Another factor to take into consideration is whether there’s a second official language where you want to go. This situation is not ideal because the environment where you would be wouldn’t be a 100% Spanish. I am from Barcelona, and I love my city, but Catalan is an official language there. It’s very present in the city and everyday’s life, so I always recommend that my students go to other cities in Spain where Spanish is the only official language.
There’s a third and very important thing that you need to remember before you pick a destination for your study abroad program: the kind of Spanish you want to learn. Maybe you’d like to go to Spain because it’s in Europe, or maybe you want to go to Guatemala because it’s cheaper to study there. Keep in mind that the kind of Spanish you will learn in every country has distinct characteristics, like the vocabulary and the pronunciation. In conclusion, if you want to learn, let’s say, Mexican Spanish; Mexico is the place to go, or perhaps you prefer a more neutral Spanish and may want to go to Bogota, Colombia.
I have more tips for you on what to do once you’ve made up your mind on a language school, but I will leave that for next week :). I hope you have a fabulous weekend!
¡Hasta la próxima semana!
Octavi
PS If you have attended a Spanish study abroad program, please fill out our form, which will help others find the right program for them. Thank you! Language Immersion Program Survey.
¡Hola a todos!
I hope you’ve had a great week :)
Today PBO teachers Lorena and Daniela recommend resources to learn Spanish! Remember that many of the resources we tell you about target different Spanish student levels, so make sure you pick one that’s appropriate for you.
These are the recommendations for this week:
For all levels. Señor Jordan is a Spanish teacher who makes videos to help teach his students. He always puts a practice segment at the end where you can test out what you’ve learned.
https://www.youtube.com/user/tontitofrito/about
ADN 40 is a television station in Mexico City, owned by Televisora del Valle de México and operated by TV Azteca. It is available over the air in much of Mexico on TV Azteca’s transmitters. Programming generally consists of news and informational shows. I recommend it for advanced levels.
For all levels I recommend “The Spanish dude” (YouTube) because it’s funny, entertaining and really helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/user/gringoespanol
This week’s blog is the last one of the group of entries we dedicated to resources in Spanish, as reocmmended by our teachers. Again, we would like to see what resources you recommend to learn Spanish too, so don’t forget to leave a comment on our PBO’s Facebook page :).
¡Qué tengan un buen fin de semana!
Octavi
La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir un párrafo de un mínimo de 8 frases, con la trama de tu película favorita. Vamos a usar la tarea en la lección de la semana que viene.
Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: Continúen el capítulo 13 “The preterite tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 125 a 130 y hagan los ejercicios 13.12 a 13.15.
La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir un diario en español. Cada día van a escribir 3 cosas que pasaron el día anterior; por ejemplo:
Ayer fui al gimnasio, hice ejercicio por una hora y después cené espagueti a la boloñesa.
También pueden hablar de cosas que hicieron otras personas.
También:
Chicos y chicas, ha llegado el momento de hacer sus primeras grabaciones de 2019. Por favor, escojan un tema que sea consistente en su vida y del que puedan hablar a lo largo del tiempo (un buen tema es la familia o el trabajo, un mal tema es una película que vieron recientemente). Van a hablar de ese tema por entre 3 y 5 minutos, y se van a grabar.
¡Atención!
No preparen ni practiquen lo que van a decir, simplemente elijan el tema y hablen. Luego, conserven las grabaciones porque las van a usar en unos meses. Estas grabaciones son personales, no las vamos a compartir en clase :).
Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: Continúen el capítulo 13 “The preterite tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 120 a 124 y hagan los ejercicios 13.8 a 13.11.
Hola de nuevo a todos:
Today more PBO teachers share Spanish learning resources. Last week, teachers Adri, Gracia, Susanna and Vanessa shared some of their favorite resources to learn and practice Spanish with us. This week, Sara & Caro tell us what resources they like to recommend to Spanish students who want some extra help. Stay tuned next week to hear from Lorena, Daniela, and myself, Octavi.
SpanishDict is the leading Spanish translator, dictionary, conjugator and learning website, trusted by more than 10 million people each month.
With BBC, learn Spanish in your own time with interactive courses, videos and audio clips: essential facts, holiday phrases, games and worksheets.
I recommend these two websites to students in need of grammar practice and reading comprehension.
For listening skills improvement I sometimes recommend (depending on the level) an educational show called “Spanish Extra” that can be found on YouTube.
In each lesson, Coffee Break Spanish focuses on the language you need to know, and before long you’ll be making yourself understood with native Spanish speakers. Season 1 lessons are for absolute beginners, and the courses increase in difficulty as the seasons progress.
Busuu offers bite-sized lessons to improve language skills. It’s similar to Duolingo, but more relevant.
I recommend these two resources for beginners:
I recommend News in Slow Spanish for intermediate levels. Listen to the news in Spanish, and follow the conversation with the interactive transcripts.
Radio Ambulante is a Spanish-language radio program that tells Latin American stories from anywhere Spanish is spoken, including the United States. For advanced levels.
For all levels, I recommend our Facebook page and our Twitter account.
On Facebook you can find La conversación del día, which is a random question or topic from different teachers on different days of the week. It’s an excellent way to improve your vocabulary, your comprehension, and your writing skills, in 5 minutes a day.
Our Twitter page s currently reserved for idioms and expressions, which are what makes a Spanish learner sound like a Spanish speaker.
Did you already try some of these resources? If you did, tell us what you think of them in the comments sections, or share your favorite Spanish learning resource.
Stay tuned next week when more PBO teachers share their favorite Spanish learning resources!
Hasta pronto!
Octavi
Esta semana, la tarea opcional es preparar 3 preguntas para sus compañeros de clase con el pretérito que empiecen con ¿Cuántas veces…? y que se traten de un momento específico. Por ejemplo:
¿Cuántas veces hablaste con tu mejor amigo/a el mes pasado?
¿Cuántas veces fuiste a la playa la semana pasada?
¿Cuántas veces te duchaste ayer?
Para los que les interese hacer más tarea: Continúen con el capítulo 13 “The preterite tense” en Spanish Verb Tenses de la serie Practice Makes Perfect de McGraw-Hill. Por favor, lean las páginas 114 a 120 y hagan los ejercicios 13.4 a 13.7.
Bienvenidos al blog una semana más,
Have you learned a lot of Spanish during the last week? I hope you did. As you know, coming to one or more of our conversational classes @ PBO is probably the best way to learn the language. However, there’s plenty of things you can do when you’re not in class to keep learning and improving your skills, even when you are not at PBO.
Out there, the amount of resources to learn Spanish is so big that it can be hard to find the best ones. In fact, it’s hard to determine what are the best resources, because every student is different and something that works for someone might not be ideal for someone else.
This week, we asked the PBO teachers to share their favorite resources to learn or to practice Spanish with us. Today we’re going to see half of them, and next week the other half. Here we go!
This is the official magazine of the National Geographic Society. It primarily contains articles about science, geography, history, and world culture. It has excellent and very assorted articles.
“Muy interesante” is a monthly popular science magazine which deals with fun facts and current events, such as the development of nanotechnology, physics, biology, astronomy, genetics, neurosciences, new investigations and inventions, and world affairs. As the name says in Spanish, its articles are very interesting.
A public radio station licensed to Tijuana, Baja California, owned by IMER (Instituto Mexicano de la Radio), Mexico‘s public radio network. Like the Public Radio stations in the United States, IMER presents a variety of discussion and music programs. It’s a good choice to listen to while driving.
BBC Mundo is the BBC’s service for the Spanish-speaking world. It is part of BBC World Service. The website offers news, information and analysis in text, audio and video.
Cody and María want to help you improve your Spanish and get over the fear of actually using it in real life. They bring you tips, fun facts, listening activities, and lessons.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIdFcLCIJQ_YMrormG_nU8w/featured
Their videos are subtitled in both Spanish and English, show local language and culture in natural, everyday situations, and mostly consist of street conversations with native speakers from Spanish speaking countries.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL4AMMMXKxHDu3FqZV6CbQ/featured
Short and entertaining videos about grammar explanations for Spanish learners of all levels.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUKlJas17MPjEkmt-94rSsap3Ntedy3sc
These are all the resources for this week. Perhaps you know some of them, but don’t worry if you didn’t find anything new, next week we’ll introduce more resources. Oh! And thank you PBO teachers for sharing them with us :).
¡Nos vemos la próxima semana!
Octavi
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