Monthly Archives: October 2008

Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan writer

October 27, 2008 – 10:58 am

Mario Benedetti was born in Uruguay and is not well known in the English-speaking world, but he is considered one of Latin America’s most important living writers. He lived in Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba and Spain from 1973 to 1985, during a military dictatorship in Uruguay. Nowadays he divides his time between Montevideo and Madrid.
Benedetti has [...]

By adir ferreira | Posted in Culture, Literature | Comments (0)

More expressions!

October 23, 2008 – 11:00 am

Spanish has thousands of fixed expressions. I have chosen some adverbial phrases with the preposition “a” so you can see how colorful those expressions can be.
A ciegas - without thinking
A deshoras - at an inappropriate time
A diestro y siniestro - left and right
A duras penas - with difficulty
A fe mía - truthfully
A gatas - on [...]

By adir ferreira | Posted in Culture, Language, Vocabulary | Comments (0)

Months of the Year - Origin

October 20, 2008 – 10:55 am

Do you know the origin of the months of the year? In Ancient Rome there were only ten months in the calendar initially. That created a lack of alignment with real time, and artificial adjustments had to made every year. Eventually Julius Caesar supervised a reform of the calendar that took into consideration the four [...]

By adir ferreira | Posted in Culture, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

¿Qué hora es?

October 16, 2008 – 10:30 am

I came across these videos of a supposedly Mexican telenovela and it cracked me up! It’s called “the Mexican soap opera for people who only had three weeks of Spanish in the fourth grade”. If you know some Spanish you’re going to laugh your head off! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WckCw_-7e3M

Nos vemos prontito.

By adir ferreira | Posted in Culture, Entertainment | Comments (0)

Road signs in Spanish

October 13, 2008 – 9:42 am

Hello, there! A reader wrote asking whether road signs are different in Spanish speaking countries. It turns out that you probably won’t have too much difficulty with the signs because they use internationally recognized pictures or symbols. If you want to have a look at the international road signs, check this link:   http://www.sitographics.com/enciclog/trafico/entrada.html. Speed [...]

By adir ferreira | Posted in Culture, Holidays, Vocabulary | Comments (0)

Desperate Housewives en español

October 9, 2008 – 3:36 pm

Love the show Desperate Housewives and want to improve your Spanish? Well, the good news is that you have two ways to do that. Univision is airing its version of the show with a multinational cast: Mexican actress Lucía Méndez as Alicia Arizmendi (Mary Alice Young), Venezuelan Scarlet Ortiz as Susana Martínez (Susan Mayer), Mexican [...]

By adir ferreira | Posted in Culture, Entertainment | Comments (0)

Idioms game

October 6, 2008 – 1:47 pm

In our idioms posts I always give you the definition, an example or two and the translation, right? Today we’re going to do something different: you guys are going to have to match the expressions to their meaning, in Spanish! After a few days I’ll give you the right answer! Shall we go for it?
Sentences
1. [...]

By adir ferreira | Posted in Culture, Entertainment, Language, Vocabulary | Comments (1)

¡Atole, pues!

October 3, 2008 – 12:30 pm

Have you ever had “atole”? Atole is a traditional cornstarch-based Mexican and Central American hot drink. Chocolate atole is known as champurrado and it’s typically accompanied with tamales (in Brazil they have pamonha).
This drink includes masa (corn meal), water, piloncillo (small blocks or bricks of unrefined solid cane sugar, rapadura), cinnamon, vanilla and optional chocolate [...]

By adir ferreira | Posted in Culture, Entertainment | Comments (0)