Spanish Group

[jmar257]

I read through the podcast recommendations on the first page, and I got some excellent suggestions. But seeing that the post is 4 years old, have any of you got any new tips?

It's in that post, but I second the recommendation of Radio Ambulante. They have free transcriptions on their site and the podcast itself generally has interesting episodes. Notes in Spanish has transcripts as well, but I think you have to pay? Encuentro de Mentes and Tertulia are two others (available on Stitcher for sure, probably elsewhere) that I listen to occasionally, but I've been slacking with podcasts recently. Not sure if those two have transcripts.

But they haven't got transcripts, of course. Do you think a transcript is important for training listening comprehension, or is a kind of extended listening where you don't understand everything just as beneficial?

I think the transcript is super beneficial in early to intermediate stages, I can't really talk beyond that because I don't incorporate that into my studying anymore really. Not that I shouldn't, but I don't, unless you count reading subtitles while watching Spanish TV.

[Kraut]

By what kind of subordinate clause can you replace the "teniendo .." structure`?

" Las habitaciones, es verdad que estan mas decentes, teniendo en cuenta que tienes que esperar 30 minutos o mas a que llegue el agua caliente para ducharte, si es que llega."

[tungemål]

I understand the Spanish sentence, but I don't understand your question.

[Kraut]

I understand the Spanish sentence, but I don't understand your question.

What I mean is how do you translate it, by what subordinate clause?

[El Forastero]

Teniendo en cuenta means "Considering", "Taking into account", "with that in mind", so you can replace for this expresions also with gerunds:

- Sabiendo que (Knowing that)
- Considerando
- viendo que

You can also change this gerund form for a "impersonal you" form, or the impersonal "se" form:

- Si sabes que / si se sabe que
- Si consideras que / Si se considera que
- Si tienes en cuenta que / si se tiene en cuenta que


But also, with other clauses with the same sense than a "Because" one:

- Debido a
- Ya que
- Visto que
- Puesto que
- En razón de
- En virtud de (Only if you describe positive reasons)
- Gracias a (Only if you describe positive reasons)
- En vista de

And remember, for the latter four, you need to follow them by an infinitive. Or you can add a "que" and a subjonctive clause

[tungemål]

I thought I'd give you a tip:
The RNE programme "Un idioma sin fronteras" that de vez en cuando has some interesting episodes, this week has one on El judeoespañol - that is, Ladino. I just listened to it and understood most of it.

[Kraut]

I don't quite understand "pero que minimo" (is there a verb missing?) and "no pasa nada" (does it mean "They don't bother to keep the customers satisfied"?

Estabamos super cansados y ni siquiera pregunté, pero qué mínimo una breve indicación de los servicios del hotel, ni siquiera me dijeron donde era el desayuno, ni el horario y tampoco me indican la clave wifi ni donde está escrita. En definitiva, el personal es poco amable, no pasa nada...

[jmar257]

I don't quite understand "pero que minimo" (is there a verb missing?) and "no pasa nada" (does it mean "They don't bother to keep the customers satisfied"?

Estabamos super cansados y ni siquiera pregunté, pero qué mínimo una breve indicación de los servicios del hotel, ni siquiera me dijeron donde era el desayuno, ni el horario y tampoco me indican la clave wifi ni donde está escrita. En definitiva, el personal es poco amable, no pasa nada...

I'll leave the first part to someone more experienced, it makes sense to me but I'm not sure I could give a good translation. Basically saying how minimal the hotel customer service was.

el personal es poco amable, no pasa nada...

The staff was not very friendly (lit. was little friendly), nothing happens (i.e. they don't do much) is how I understand it.

[Brian84]

Just stopping in to say hi and join the Spanish group. I joined LLORG a few days ago after long lurking, and I've officially started my learning log. Spanish is the first language that I'm attempting any serious self-study of, and the advice on here has been extremely helpful so far. It's nice to see an active community supporting each other's efforts like this.

I'm new enough that I don't have buckets of wisdom to share yet, so take my advice with a very large piece of rock salt – but here's my initial attempt to give back:

If you're a beginner and looking for some fun comprehensible input, I started reading "Calvin and Hobbes en Español" today. It's free online, and I'm finding it comprehensible enough to be educational after ~25 lessons of Assimil. I wouldn't be surprised if you can start with it earlier than that. A search shows me that it's been mentioned on LLORG before (not just for Spanish), but in case you haven't come across it yet, I recommend it.

[iguanamon]

Welcome/bienvenido, Brian84. Good to see you here and looking forward to following your log. If you have the online link, legal of course, please edit your last post and include it.