A language learners’ forum

I won't be participating in the Super Challenge. I'm sure it's terribly helpful, but I don't want to feel like I'm pressured to do something. ¡Buena suerte! Allison.

¡Gracias, Hank!

Yeah, the helpfulness of these challenges are dependent on the particularities of what motivates you and what doesn't.

Actually, right now I'm trying to figure out whether signing up for the writing portion of the Output Challenge would be helpful or counterproductive to me. I know I wouldn't be able to keep up, even with a half challenge, but I do want to prompt myself to write more.

May monthly challenge
May Day, International Workers' Day, Cinco de Mayo, May the Fourth/Star Wars Day—there seem to be a bunch of holidays this week, so my challenge for May is to find out about a holiday celebrated in a Spanish speaking country and tell us about it. It could be a holiday unique to that country/countries or maybe one celebrated elsewhere too but with specific traditions or meaning in that country/countries. The holiday itself does not have to be in May.

I've always thought Spain has some wacky holiday/festival celebrations. We all know about the running of the bulls and the world's largest food fight in Spain, but what about:

Goat throwing: The tiny Spanish village of Manganeses de la Polvorosa holds its annual festival for their towns patron Saint Vincent every June. The festivity begins with a group of excited young men tossing a live goat off the top of a 50-foot church belfry to the crowd below who catch the flying goat with a canvas sheet. The goat is then paraded through the streets on the shoulders of partygoers and thus begins the annual San Vicente de Martir festival! Hundreds of people, many in traditional dress, descend upon this sleepy village to witness this unusual spectacle. (quoted from http://www.marbella-guide.com/goat-throwing-in-spain/ )

Baby jumping: Baby jumping (El Colacho) is a traditional Spanish holiday dating back to 1620 that takes place annually to celebrate the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi in Burgos. During the act, known as El Salto del Colacho (the devil's jump) or simply El Colacho, men dressed as the Devil (known as the Colacho) in red and yellow jump suits jump over babies born during the previous twelve months of the year who lie on mattresses in the street. The "devils" hold whips and oversized castanets as they jump bravely over the unaware infants. (quoted from wikipedia). Some of the baby jumping videos on youtube are pretty cool.

Wine fighting: The start of the Wine Festival finds itself in the 13th century, when the Haro had to officially mark the property lines between them and their neighbours in Miranda de Ebro. This had to be done every year at Saint Peter’s Day as well as every first Sunday of September, or else Haro would become a part of Miranda de Ebro. 400 years later, the observation broke down and people started throwing wine at eachother. That day the tradition started and and earned the name “War of Wine”, which in 1965 was changed into Battle of the Wine -or Batalla del Vino en Haro as the locals call it-. (quoted from http://www.wine-fight.com/the-history/ )

These are fantastic. Well, a goat throwing video made me sad, but videos of the other two seem like great fun.

Hola!


Lo siento if asked before but what stories do you recommend for reading- (beginner stage) and where can i find the book club?? been searching but thought might ask

many thanks

xx

jennybenny25 wrote:Hola!


Lo siento if asked before but what stories do you recommend for reading- (beginner stage) and where can i find the book club?? been searching but thought might ask

many thanks

xx

I found Cajas de cartón to be fairly readable at a beginner level. James29 suggested it to me. It's the first book in a three book series, but I didn't read the other two. It was an enjoyable book. I don't know about the book club.

If you guys are talking about the Spanish book club which Stelle created and which I ran for a short time, it technically doesn't exist anymore. Well, the threads still exist in the Spanish-only subforum but they aren't active anymore. Basically, we found that the format we were using did not really work, so we gave up on it. However, I have recently suggested that we do a communal reading of 'La casa de los espíritus' by Isabel Allende which a few people have shown interest in and which all of you would be welcome to join in on. We will be starting to read the book on 15th May so I will create a thread that day for us to discuss the book as we wish.

jennybenny25 wrote:Lo siento if asked before but what stories do you recommend for reading- (beginner stage) and where can i find the book club?? been searching but thought might ask

I read the first book of the Casa del Arbol series—Dinosaurios al Atardecer—when I started to read books and I enjoyed it. It's about 5400 words total, split into 10 chapters, so it's in manageable chunks, and the story isn't boring, which can be a concern with books with simpler language.

Elegí Carnaval Mazatlán. Una de mis bandas favoritas mexicanas, Banda Carnaval, es de Mazatlán y carnaval en el nombre refiere a Carnaval Mazatlán. Es una de las carnavales más famosas en México. Hay desfiles, mucha comida, coronaciones de varios reyes y reinas, fuegos artificiales y fiestas. La carnaval tiene actividades para los niños incluso fiestas y coronaciones. Las días de carnaval son vacaciones oficiales en Mazatlán. Este año la tema de la carnaval fue Mazatlantida la alegoría que emergió de las olas.

No soy buen escritor. Nunca tendré trabajo con el departamento de turismo.