Spanish Videos

There are quite a few good video sites on the web. YouTube and Google are probably the best known but there are others with lots of Spanish videos in them.

One interesting collection is at SumoTV. (This site is worth checking out in and of itself. ) Many of the Spanish videos on the site look like they were made by high-school students as a project for Spanish class. Some are quite entertaining and fairly easy to understand.

This video is from Sumo.TV is about testing a new car entitled Prueba De Audi A4 2.0T Del 2007 En Espanol Por Camillo Alfaro.

There is a bit of wind noise in the background but it is visually easy to follow and you can imagine what he might be saying even without the sound track. See how much you can catch.


Sorry this Video was removed.

Self Assessment Tool for Learning Spanish

Learning Spanish with the BBC

For a bit of fun try the wonderful BBC Spanish section. In their placement test you answer a series of multiple choice questions. You keep going until you choose a wrong one. Then you'll get your final score plus a guide to those parts of the BBC site that might be most useful for you at your level. They have a lot of stuff. There is a course based on using video clips of typical situations and news-style listening exercises with scripts and comprehension exercises. There is a lot of help and you're bound to find lots to choose from. BBC Spanish Placement Test

What Level is Your Spanish

What do I need to learn?
Are you a beginner, quite fluent or somewhere in between? Here is a technique you can use to determine your current level of Spanish and use that information to to help yourself improve.

Rate Your Spanish
One important standard is the ILR scale developed by the US Foreign Service. It has five levels:

* Level 1 - Elementary proficiency
* Level 2 - Limited working proficiency
* Level 3 - Professional working proficiency
* Level 4 - Full professional proficiency
* Level 5 - Native or bilingual proficiency

To see details of the five classifications, you can check out the Wikipedia article on the ILR scale.
While you read them make a note of what you can and cannot do.

Tip.1. Speak Spanish while Talking on the Telephone to Invisible People

Our last series of four tips on learning Spanish...
concentrated on finding opportunities to speak out loud to yourselves while doing various activities. Those activities do not require the input of another live human and are thus less stressful for you.

The next series of tips...
eases you into the wonderful world of trying out your Spanish on real people. However, to keep the stress level down you can start by talking to invisible people.

Tip 1. Use Local Spanish Resources.

Locally: larger cities have Spanish community centres. Call them on the phone and
ask about events, facilities, activities or classes.

You don't have to go to the events, facilities or classes, your goal is just talk to somebody over the phone in Spanish about something. You might prep a few questions so you don't stumble out of the gate and make them switch into English. People in these positions are delighted to talk to you.

Tip 4. Singing In Spanish

4 Tips on Learning Spanish Every Day.

Today's Tip:

Tip 4. Huevos Rancheros lV: Sing About Eggs

Even if you aren't creating a masterpiece with eggs you can still sing to help you in learning Spanish.


Sing in Spanish while making a meal.

• Start by singing along with a Spanish tune or two.
  


• Try making up Spanish lyrics to a familiar tune.


• Try a little Spanish rap.

Your lyrics don't have to make sense, just play around with the language.

Learning Spanish Talking to Your TV

Amerigo's Mexican Treasure

Here's a technique I learned from a friend in Mexico city. Her English was excellent, perhaps at an advanced-intermediate to lower-advanced level. She had never taken an English course, never been abroad and didn't have any family or friends who spoke English.

How did she do it?

She watched American soap operas every day. She watched them actively. While the show played she repeated every word out loud as quickly as the characters spoke. At first she could only chime in and repeat the occasional word and just hummed the rest, but after awhile she could repeat almost everything that was said a fraction of a second after it was said.

Of course she understood almost nothing at the beginning, but that's not the point; she kept repeating what she heard. Her aural discrimination, her ability to hear subtle differences among sounds, got better and better. The key to this technique is that in order to repeat what you hear you first have to focus like a laser on the speaker. Your mind cannot drift. When your ear is well-trained your comprehension will improve as will your speaking ability.

How Should I Do it?

First the technique part:
To practice the technique, first try it on an English news broadcast, a movie or even a willing friend who will keep up a stream of speech for you to repeat. When you are comfortable with the technique, use it in learning Spanish.

Now add the Spanish part:
I suggest beginning with a Spanish-language news broadcast. Learning Spanish with news broadcasts offers four major benefits: there is only one speaker; we can see the speaker's mouth and facial expressions; we hear broadcast-quality Spanish which is clearly-articulated and less colloquial; and we are familiar with the characters and stories in the news.

After a few weeks you'll notice a significant difference in what you are able to hear.