Spanish Language Podcast: "A mi aire"

First of all, I apologize for the long break. My paying job is working at a summer camp so summer is one of my busiest times of the year. Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I can start writing blog posts on a semi-regular basis. (By the way, we have had three campers from Spain and one from Mexico, so I have been able to use my Spanish a little.)

I started listening to a new podcast (new to me at least) about a month ago and I must say I have really enjoyed it. It’s called Alicia: A mi aire and can be found at www.podclub.ch. You can find past episodes here with links to entire transcripts and vocabulary used.

An overview from the site:

A mi aire es un podcast de Alicia para estudiantes de español a partir del nivel A2/B1. Alicia es el seudónimo utilizado por Paloma Bétrisey. Paloma tanto como Alicia es de Madrid y llegó a Zürich cuando las tiendas cerraban a las seis y media y los bares a las doce de la noche. ¡Qué tiempos aquellos! Alicia se acuerda de lo extraño que era para ella pasear por el centro de la ciudad a las siete con las tiendas cerradas y sin ver a nadie. Se preguntaba: "¿Dónde estará la gente?". Acababa de llegar de Madrid, una ciudad enorme, donde hay ruido y personas por todas partes. Su hermana Lucía se lo había dicho: "Alicia, te vas a Europa, allí no puedes comprar todo a última hora y tendrás que cenar a las siete, ¿eh?". "Ya lo sé, ya lo sé", le contestó ella entonces convencida, pero no fue tan fácil como ella pensaba al principio.

What makes this podcast different? Well, I find them engaging and truly interesting. She speaks clearly and a bit slower than normal, but not too much. And they’re free which is always a good thing.

The podcasts come out every two weeks. She is on a summer break, but it appears the podcasts will start up again in mid-August. Also, they offer podcasts in other languages such as English, German, French and Italian.

Happy Hour Spanish

As usual, I ran across this resource as I was spending a bit of time this morning on Twitter. Happy Hour Spanish is a fairly new site (2011) that features videocasts, podcasts and exercises to help you learn Spanish and about the Spanish culture.

Hayley, a California native, was a student of Maider who was teaching classes in Bilbao (her native city) when they decided to start the Happy Hour Spanish program. More information from the About Us page:

After becoming fast friends, we decided to embark on creating the ultimate language learning program based on our unique experience in both teaching and learning foreign languages. We have designed Happy Hour Spanish as a program that teaches Spanish grammar while also giving you an immersion-style experience of Spanish culture and the Spanish lifestyle.  We like to say you can consider our program a cross between “Rick Steve’s Europe” and “Rosetta Stone”.  Follow along with us on our video tours throughout Spain and enjoy all the sights and sounds the Iberian Peninsula has to offer while feeling what it is like to be immersed in a foreign language…

With the podcasts, you’ll find transcripts and translations. Accompanying the videocasts are transcripts, translations and printable exercises (beginner and intermediate).

Here is look at one of their videos about La Boqueria in Barcelona:

Art Resources for Children from El Prado

You will find a wealth of information about the works of art on the Museo del Prado website, but I wanted to highlight a resource for children – a series of videos with La Infanta Margarita from the painting Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez. The animated version of Margarita along with her friend, Francisco de Paula act as guides as they share “secrets” of some of the works of art via interactive videos. There are several games available as well.

About.com en español

Okay, where have I been and why haven’t I noticed this before? As I was scrolling through the Teaching & Learning Spanish Facebook page, (yes, shameless plug, but turning out to be a great resource) I ran across a post on mamalatina.about.com. I paused and thought, wait a minute, about.com in SPANISH! So, I clicked on the About.com en español link at the top of the page, sat back in my chair and thought how cool is this!

The menu at the top lists the following topics: Autos, Casa, Cocina y recetas, Cultura, Deportes y actividades, Educación, Familia y more. (Hmm… shouldn’t that say más?) Either hover over the menu at the top or scroll down to view the subcategories.

Needless to say, this is a great resource for learning everyday Spanish. I can’t wait to dive in!

El día de los muertos

I subscribe to the Annenberg Learner newsletter which is always full of information for teaching a wide variety of subjects. In this particular issue, there is a section about El día de los muertos (Day of the Dead). Here is the link to the activities including slideshows in English and Spanish, a teacher guide and more: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/DiaMuertosTG.html 

If you don’t have time to use this lesson this year, then perhaps you can bookmark it for next year.