Funny Spanish Subtitled Video: Bush’s “Message” to Castro

Well, it seems that Spanish subtitled videos are very welcome (thanks for your comments!), so I think I should make them more frequently.

So, here you are a new one. Short but funny. It is a gag from the Andreu Buenafuente’s Spanish TV show. Here I propose you an exercise: First, turn off the sound and try to read aloud the subtitles. Then turn it on and check if your pronunciation is correct. You may want to bear in mind that Buenafuente has Spaniard accent (more precisely, Catalan accent).

Cervantes Institute launches CervantesTV.es

Last week, the Cervantes Institute launched Cervantes TV, a new Internet TV Channel devoted to the spreading of Spanish language and the Spanish and Hispanic American Culture.

Oh, in case you didn’t know, the Cervantes Institute (Instituto Cervantes) is a non-profit organization, created by the Spanish government, responsible for promoting the study and the teaching of Spanish language and culture. It has centers all over the world, in cities like New York, Chicago, Seattle (U. of Washington), Albuquerque, London, Manchester, Leeds, Dublin…

Spanish Christmas Words

Christmas are just around the corner, and I thought that perhaps you are wondering which is the Spanish word for, say, “carol”, “gingerbread” or “Santa Claus”.

So, in this article we will go through the different Spanish Christmas traditions. That way, you will learn the most important Spanish words related to Christmas in Spain, and at the same time you will enrich your culture. Two birds with one stone!

11 Spanish Phrases and Idioms About Ways of Doing Things

Barely, forcibly, frequently, very seldom, the hard way… Sometimes you need a short and simple way of expressing a certain way of doing things. Spanish language has lots of phrases and idioms of this kind, some of which may not be easily understood by a foreigner. Here are some of the most commonly used:

  1. A ciegas. Blindly. Él creyó a ciegas todo lo que ella dijo, he blindly believed all she said. Tengo una cita a ciegas este fin de semana, I have a blind date this weekend.
  2. A duras penas. Hardly, barely, with great difficulty. Estoy tan cansado que a duras penas puedo moverme, I’m so tired I can hardly move.

All the Spanish Alphabet Pronunciation in a Single Sentence


You might be surprised, but I know it from experience: for a Spanish speaker, learning to correctly pronounce English can be a real pain. Just an example: How can the “ough” in “tough”, “though”, “thought”, “through” and “thorough” have so many different pronunciations? It just doesn’t make sense at all!

Fortunately for you, Spanish pronunciation is a lot easier: most of the letters of the Spanish alphabet have only one possible pronunciationeach. Exceptions are: c, g, r and y, which can have different pronunciations depending on their position in a word.

A Spanish phonemic pangram

But it can be even easier: What if I tell you that in a single sentence you can find every possible pronunciation of each letter of the alphabet? Well, I proudly present what could be called the first Spanish phonemic pangram ever (hmm, well, as far as I know):

La cigüeña gigante bebió ocho copas de whisky, más quince jarras llenas de fría cerveza rubia, y enseguida huyó en un taxi.

Which means:

The giant stork drank eight glasses of whiskey, plus fifteen full mugs of cold pale ale, and escaped in a taxi right away.

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