A language learners’ forum

Daniel Alarcón wrote:Several years ago, when we started doing audience surveys at @radioambulante, we discovered something interesting: 20% of our listeners were using our stories to learn Spanish. So we started asking ourselves what we could do to better serve them.
It's an important question. For more than a year we’ve been working on @Lupa_app, (http://lupa.app) an app that transforms the rigorous journalism of @radioambulante into a fun and efficient method of learning Spanish. Let me show you some of its features.
You can switch seamlessly between the Spanish transcript and the English translation as needed.
With @Lupa_App, you're encouraged to use your ear to do the heavy lifting -- as it should be! -- but you can always turn on extra help when you need it.
And @LupaApp helps you keep track of new vocabulary you've learned, and learn colloquial phrases as they're used in different contexts -- so you're learning Spanish as it's really spoken!
We're so excited about this app for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it will give people who aren't yet fluent a chance to hear the amazing journalism we do. To hear Spanish that's real, with innovative tools that transform great stories into effective language lessons.

SCMT wrote:Hello, Spanish group.

Thanks to those of you who have posted useful info in this thread and elsewhere; you have been more help to some of us than you know.

Anyway, gracias para la informacion.

Also, as I mentioned in my log, if anyone has suggestions for reading material that is above the level of a newspaper but not quite Hemingway, I'd love to hear it. I'm not much on chidren's lit or young adult, so I'd rather stay away from teenage vampire love stories, but if you have a favorite mystery, spy novel, or historical fiction, or anything non-fiction that isn't too opaque for an intermediate language learner, I'd love to have recommendations.

MorkTheFiddle wrote:

SCMT wrote:Hello, Spanish group.

Thanks to those of you who have posted useful info in this thread and elsewhere; you have been more help to some of us than you know.

Anyway, gracias para la informacion.

Also, as I mentioned in my log, if anyone has suggestions for reading material that is above the level of a newspaper but not quite Hemingway, I'd love to hear it. I'm not much on chidren's lit or young adult, so I'd rather stay away from teenage vampire love stories, but if you have a favorite mystery, spy novel, or historical fiction, or anything non-fiction that isn't too opaque for an intermediate language learner, I'd love to have recommendations.

Whatever became of this question? Did you receive any useful suggestions? What have you been reading?
I am going to recommend a "simple" but perhaps not intermediate novel called Los de Abajo (often translated as The Underdogs) by Mariano Azuela. It is relatively short (one edition has 160 pages) and relatively simple in vocabulary, though there are some colloquialisms to look out for. There is an audiobook available, and a movie was made from it (which is not bad, but IMHO you should read the book first). The subject is the Mexican Revolution of 1917, but this is not a Hollywood version of history and there is no gore. It is about the underlings, the underdogs, who fought in the revolution. I did not list anything from "Library Amazon" because nothing I looked at had a "Look Inside" feature. Yet you should be able to find a good copy for less than $10.00. I have personally read it and enjoyed it.

coldrainwater wrote:I found [yet another] frequency list that I believe some may like to peruse.

wordandphrase.info/span

What I like most about it has to do with ease. It is very easy to browse and shows you results in very manageable, study-friendly chunks. If you click, list from #, you can start from any point in the list. There is also a prominent download button at the top of the page if you want the entire list. This resource was brought to our attention previously but came up in another language (EN) back in 2016. I am not sure if it was made clear that it was also available in ES.

Edit: It also looks like they were careful in creating the list. Comparison vs. larger Spanish corpora. I noticed that it looked way too clean to be an ordinary list.

Ser wrote:EDIT: "After 10-15 queries, we ask that you register for continued use of WordAndPhrase. This is a one-time process that takes just a minute or two." Well then...