Posts in February 2009

¡Átame!

Posted by adir ferreira
Feb
26
2009

Antonio Banderas. You may not know this but this Málaga-born Spaniard heartthrob has more than 60 movies under his belt and is highly respected in the movie industry. Banderas started acting at the age of 19 with a series of movies by highly acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. His first American movie was The Mambo Kings and he also had a supporting role in the Oscar-winning 1993 film, Philadelphia. One of his first movies in Spanish, ¡Átame! (Tie me up, Tie me Down!), Banderas plays Ricky, a character who, after being discharged from a mental hospital, wishes to meet again a drug-addicted porn star, played by Victoria Abril, with whom he had an affair in the past. Smitten by the girl, he kidnaps her and ties her down to her bed, and will only let her go when she learns how to love him. It is one of Pedro Almodóvar’s most controversial movies. Has anybody watched this movie? Post a comment with your impressions.

Here’s the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOOWhvoGHcU

 
Posted under Culture, Entertainment
Tagged with , 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

Homophones II

Posted by adir ferreira
Feb
23
2009

In English we have words called homophones (homo = same, phone = sound) like bear and bare, idle and idol, among many others. Spanish also has homophones and, for the untrained ear, it can be somewhat difficult at first. We give you now some examples of words that have the same sound but are written differently.

baca (luggage-rack) – vaca (cow)

bacilo (bacillus) – vacilo (I hesitate, I waver)

barón (baron) – varón (male)

bello (beautiful) – vello (body hair)

grabar (to record) – gravar (to tax)

rebelarse (to rebel) – revelarse (to reveal oneself)

tubo (tube) – tuvo (he/she had)

calló (he was silent) – cayó (he fell down)

halla (he finds) – haya (have – haber in subjunctive)

rallar (to grate food) – rayar (to scratch)

hola (hi, hello) – ola (wave)

hecho (past participle of hacer; deed, act) – echo (I throw)

hasta (until, up to) – asta (flagpole, bull horn)

In this article from Argentinean newspaper El Clarín you can find many of these words used in context.

See you next time!

 
Posted under Language, Pronunciation, Vocabulary
Tagged with 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

Lexical influences in Spanish

Posted by adir ferreira
Feb
20
2009

Remember that story that John loved Mary, who loved Charles, who loved…? Well, learning languages is not different, because each language ends up influencing others. You must know already that you can express things differently in Spanish depending on which country you are in, right? Let’s take for example the word “bus”: if you’re in Spain, you say autobús, in Cuba guagua (which in Chile means baby), in Chile micro and in Argentina, colectivo. This amazing vocabulary diversity goes over not only borders but also centuries of history, because Spanish comes from Latin, which branched out into many dialectal varieties that turned into the Romance languages. Check out some interesting lexical borrowings in Spanish and where they came from.

- From Arabic: foods like acelga (chard), alubia (bean), zanahoria (carrot), aceite (oil), arroz (rice), naranja (orange), café (coffee). Also words like barrio (neighborhood), alfombra (rug/carpet), asesino (assassin), guitarra (guitar), alcohol (alcohol), or cero (zero).
- From French: we have hostal (motel, guesthouse), mensaje (message), faisán (pheasant), batalla (battle), monje (monk), moda (fashion), parque (park), fresa (strawberry), crema (cream), camión (truck), marrón (brown), chaqueta (jacket), or rifle (rifle).
- When it comes to art, Italian plays a major role, with words like novela (novel), partitura (music score), diseño (design), ópera (opera), serenata (serenade), cúpula (dome), piano (piano), etc.
- From the time when Spaniards were settling in America we have indigenous words such as: cacao (cocoa), chocolate, cacahuete (peanuts), tomate (tomato), patata (potato), batata (sweet potato, yam), barbacoa (barbeque), caucho (rubber), chicle (chewing gum), tabaco (tobacco), and many others.

Nos vemos prontito.

 
Posted under Culture, Language, Vocabulary
Tagged with 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

Un poco de arte

Posted by adir ferreira
Feb
17
2009

¡Hola, mi gente! Today we’re going to learn a bit about art, en español, through an activity. I’m going to give you 5 styles:

  • cubista
  • expresionista
  • dadaísta
  • surrealista
  • futurista

you’ll have to match these styles to their description, ok? Below each description there’s a link to a painting from each style. Shall we go for it?

Style 1 – Tendencia artística iniciada en Europa como reacción contra el impresionismo que busca expresar las emociones humanas e interpretar las angustias que caracterizaron psicológicamente el hombre del comienzo del siglo XX.
El grito, de Edvard Munch

Style 2 – Teoría estética aplicable a las artes plásticas que se caracteriza por el empleo o predominancia de formas geométricas. Se desarrolló especialmente en Francia entre 1907 y 1914. Su teórico fue Apollinaire y sus figuras más representativaas fueron Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger y Delaunay.
Mujer Llorando, de Pablo Picasso.

Style 3 – Movimiento ideológico y artístico cuyas orientaciones fueron formuladas en 1909 por el poeta italiano Marinetti. Proclamaba la guerra al pasado, la destrucción de todos los museos, bibliotecas y monumentos clásicos; sustituyéndolos por un dinamismo orientado hacia el futuro. En la pintura, se exaltaba principalmente el movimiento veloz de las máquinas.
Los ruidos de la calle invaden la casa, de Umberto Boccioni

Style 4 – Fase previa del surrealismo, constituyó, a la larga, la más importante renovación del arte moderno. Este movimiento, en que se promovía el culto a lo irracional, creció y se desarrolló entre 1915 y 1922. En la pintura se utilizan restos de materiales: madera, cuerda, trozos de tela, periódicos, billetes de autobús, etc.
Construcción para damas nobles, de Kurt Schwitters

Style 5 – Movimiento artístico que intenta sobrepasar lo real impulsando con automatismo psíquico lo imaginario o irracional. André Breton, en 1924, fue el autor de su primer manifiesto. Los principales temas de la pintura surrealista son el sexo, la memoria y el sueño.
La metamorfosis de Narciso, de Salvador Dalí.

Espero que les guste, nos vemos muy pronto.

 
Posted under Culture
Tagged with 		5 Comments | Post a Comment

Tongue twisters

Posted by adir ferreira
Feb
12
2009

Los trabalenguas, tongue twisters, are present in every language, and Spanish is no different. Wanna try saying these?

1. Cansadas cargadas rapadas
marchaban las chavas,
calladas, calmadas bandadas de gatas
las ratas cazaban,
las ranas cantaban llamaban saltaban
y al saltar sanaban de su mal astral.

2.
Pepe Peña
pela papa,
pica piña,
pita un pito,
pica piña,
pela papa,
Pepe Peña.

3.
Pablito clavó un clavito
en la calva de un calvito.
En la calva de un calvito,
un clavito clavó Pablito.

4.
Me han dicho
que has dicho un dicho,
un dicho que he dicho yo,
ese dicho que te han dicho
que yo he dicho no lo he dicho;
y, si yo lo hubiera dicho,
estaría muy bien dicho
por haberlo dicho yo.

5.
El cielo está enladrillado.
¿Quién lo desenladrillará?
El desenladrillador que lo desenladrille
buen desenladrillador será.

6.
Tres tristes tigres comen trigo en un trigal.
Un tigre, dos tigres, tres tigres.

¡Nos vemos prontito!

 
Posted under Culture, Entertainment, Language, Pronunciation
Tagged with , , 		0 Comments | Post a Comment