When we were in Mexico, we could buy DVDs in the street markets, and we got various American movies dubbed into Spanish that way, but I admit my favorites were the romantic telemovelas. I would always ask the vendors for ones that were not so violent, and then I would watch beautiful impoverished heroines, darkly handsome villians, scheming relatives, and all the rest of the complex cast of characters act out universal human stories.

Very corny at time, but decidedly good for training for my ear! Even if I didn’t get all of the Spanish in a long angry speech or in seductive pleadings, there were always the more mundane parts where I could follow  the Spanish more easily. It really was great practice. American soap operas bore me but the over-the-top nature of Spanish ones, combined with learning something, did interest me. (More than it did my husband, I would say.)

Where can you get telenovellas in the US? Ah, the vast Amazon has them, and that link takes you to a list of them. These mostly have English subtitles… you could watch them that way at first and then you could put some cardboard over the bottom of your television, the better to concentrate.

And don’t use some of the swear words you may hear a lot!

Soap Operas for Learning Spanish is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

This next one… well, I could imagine that children I know would like it but it is definitely in the genre of children’s programming:

Kids can pick up a lot of Spanish listening to programs like these, and the numerous others at Youtube, over and over. If your child is old enough to read, be aware that for some of the videos I was looking at (mostly not the ones for kids), the comments included a lot of coarse language and even racism. Ugh. That’s one reason I embedded the programs here instead of linking to them.

Two Children’s Videos for Learning Spanish is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

And here it is with English subtitles:

Great fun!

And Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

Rosana

One Semester of Spanish Love Song is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

I’ve been using LoMásTV (which is the Spanish part of an online company called Yabla) for a few weeks now. I don’t get there every day, but I do find it to be generally relaxing and fun. Here’s how it works:

You watch a video in the upper left hand corner of your screen, as this screenshot shows. The controls allow you to pause and move around.

Just below that, you can see the words in Spanish and in English. I’m referring to the place where in this example it shows "Y en la distancia… te puedo ver" and then "And in the distance… I can see you." What I like a lot is that you can make the words of either language appear and disappear with a click.

The way I’ve been using it is to play a video first with nothing showing below. If I miss too much, then I go back and show the Spanish. If I were still not getting enough (which hasn’t happened yet, brag!) then I would either show the English or use the integrated dictionary you can see on the right side of the screenshot.

Just below the Yabla Player logo, you can see the name of the video, what country it comes from, and its difficulty rank.

What are the LoMásTV Videos Like?

With over 300 videos there now and more being added, they fall into a variety of categories.

• Many are music videos.

• There are television programs

• Some of my favorites are the documentaries.

• Pretty travel videos can feed your desire to travel… and to improve your Spanish first!

• Interviews give you a great chance to listen to people speaking Spanish in a conversational way.

Since the videos come from all over the Spanish-speaking world, you will hear a variety of accents. You can see in the screenshot above that the video there is from Colombia.

LoMásTV isn’t free, but it is reasonably priced, and you can subscribe for a month at a time or longer. There are five free videos you can watch to get a sense of the programs… my husband really liked the archaeology one. (They may change the free ones around, I don’t know.)

Who is LoMásTV for?

In my opinion, this is great for anyone who already has a smattering of Spanish, all the way up to quite advanced students of Spanish, assuming of course that you like videos! if you are a total beginner, you still might enjoy it.

I do not think it would be your primary method of studying Spanish; better to use a program deliberately designed for that. But I am a big fan of using supplementary materials, even if you don’t understand them all. Just watching the videos without doing any work would be beneficial for training your ear.

There is also a version specifically for children. See the website for details. To go there, just click on the screenshot below:

LoMásTV: Learn Spanish via an Internet Video Magazine is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

The first one I made with a tiny portable video camera I have, called “the flip.” Recently I had a chance to visit with Victor Cueto Valencia whom I’ve known now for about three years. He lives in Tlaquepaque, on the edge of Guadalajara. Tlaquepaque is a delightful shopping area with a nice pedestrian street. Victor has turned a building he owns in the area into an intimate little hotel… you can see his site at  http://casa-armonia.com/

So the other day, I stopped by Victor’s hotel and at my request he made a short video, greeting my three-year-old goddaughter. It’s in Spanish and then English, and after I watched it, I thought it would be good for people who are beginning to speak Spanish. So I asked Victor if it would be okay to make it public, and he said sure. Watch Tio (Uncle) Victor here.

The other Spanish language video is a YouTube hit I came across almost a year ago. Don’t imitate the fellow’s accent… I found this hilarious.

Here is a version with subtitles in Spanish:

Two Very Easy Videos in Spanish is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.