Spanish Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
User avatar
Jaleel10
Blue Belt
Posts: 534
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:44 am
Location: Springbok, South Africa
Languages: Afrikaans (N), English (N)
Spanish (Advanced-B2)
x 963
Contact:

Re: Spanish Group

Postby Jaleel10 » Wed Sep 12, 2018 9:58 am

Any good books for young adults that you guys can recommend me? Kinda reaching the end of my manga and need something to read on the morning bus rides. I don't feel I am ready for a proper novel but young-adult fiction should be manageable I hope feel.

I have seen Allison mention La ciudad de las bestias before but any other recommendations would be welcome. Most websites recommend books by English speaking authors (translated to Spanish of course) so if you know of any good ones, please send them my way as well. I am not picky when it comes to books (mainly because I am not an experienced reader) but I like the following genres: mystery, suspense, horror, sci-fi, humor, fantasy, and adventure.
0 x

garyb
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1572
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:35 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: Native: English
Advanced: Italian, French
Intermediate: Spanish
Beginner: German, Japanese
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1855
x 5992
Contact:

Re: Spanish Group

Postby garyb » Wed Sep 12, 2018 10:10 am

Jaleel10 wrote:Any good books for young adults that you guys can recommend me? Kinda reaching the end of my manga and need something to read on the morning bus rides. I don't feel I am ready for a proper novel but young-adult fiction should be manageable I hope feel.

I have seen Allison mention La ciudad de las bestias before but any other recommendations would be welcome. Most websites recommend books by English speaking authors (translated to Spanish of course) so if you know of any good ones, please send them my way as well. I am not picky when it comes to books (mainly because I am not an experienced reader) but I like the following genres: mystery, suspense, horror, sci-fi, humor, fantasy, and adventure.


I've been reading Laura Gallego García, a Spanish young-adult fantasy author. I'm not sure if I'd go as far as calling it "good", but I'm quite enjoying "Memorias de Idhún" for what it is. It's comparable to a Harry Potter translation in difficulty: simple Spanish overall but a reasonable amount of vocabulary for actions, magic etc. that might not be familiar. I don't know anything else I'm afraid. Mystery and humour recommendations would be nice!
2 x

User avatar
Jaleel10
Blue Belt
Posts: 534
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:44 am
Location: Springbok, South Africa
Languages: Afrikaans (N), English (N)
Spanish (Advanced-B2)
x 963
Contact:

Re: Spanish Group

Postby Jaleel10 » Wed Sep 12, 2018 10:38 am

garyb wrote:I've been reading Laura Gallego García, a Spanish young-adult fantasy author. I'm not sure if I'd go as far as calling it "good", but I'm quite enjoying "Memorias de Idhún" for what it is. It's comparable to a Harry Potter translation in difficulty: simple Spanish overall but a reasonable amount of vocabulary for actions, magic etc. that might not be familiar. I don't know anything else I'm afraid. Mystery and humour recommendations would be nice!


Thanks, gary. Oh nice, it's a trilogy as well. This is awesome! It seems the books are/were quite popular too.
0 x

User avatar
Jaleel10
Blue Belt
Posts: 534
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:44 am
Location: Springbok, South Africa
Languages: Afrikaans (N), English (N)
Spanish (Advanced-B2)
x 963
Contact:

Re: Spanish Group

Postby Jaleel10 » Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:46 pm

garyb wrote:Mystery and humour recommendations would be nice!


So guess who just wasted his entire lunch hour going through book recommendations? Yep, this guy!

Some highly rated novelas juveniles de misterio by Spanish speaking authors:

Conexo - Carlos Garcia Miranda
El Palacio de la medianoche - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
El Príncipe de la Niebla - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (I just bought it :? )
El Silencio de Lucía - Raúl Garbantes
La Guerra de los Mil Años - Jorge Redondo
Al otro lado - Enrique Gómez Medina y Miguel Ángel Movilla Lobo

highly rated novelas juveniles de humor:

¿¿Qué hace un alien como tú en un planeta como éste? - David Díez Sánchez
Báculo y espada (y otras bobadas) - Cristina Acevedo
Nina. Diario de una adolescente - Agustina Guerrero
Abuelos y nietos contra los extraterrestres - Javi Navas

I also eventually came across this link: Tienda Kindle : eBooks Kindle : Juvenil.
7 x

NoManches
Blue Belt
Posts: 654
Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:21 pm
Location: Estados Unidos (near the Mexican border)
Languages: English - (N)
Spanish - B2 +
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7942
x 1459

Re: Spanish Group

Postby NoManches » Mon Sep 17, 2018 6:50 pm

I'm hoping to start a good list of Spanish podcasts. This is the link, I posted it in the Language Programs and Resources sub-forum. I'm afraid not many people will see it because it is in a section of the forum that doesn't get a ton of traffic, which is why I posted it here:


https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =19&t=8984
4 x
DOUBLE Super Challenge
Spanish Movies
: 10795 / 18000

Spanish Books
: 4415 / 10000

Kraut
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2599
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:37 pm
Languages: German (N)
French (C)
English (C)
Spanish (A2)
Lithuanian
x 3204

Re: Spanish Group

Postby Kraut » Fri Sep 21, 2018 5:52 pm

Karo Martinez was giving a talk on learning Spanish today - of course she was plugging for her course. You can pick up some good Spanish on discussing language and methods.

https://el2.convertkit-mail.com/c/8kuo7 ... Fzcy1waGU=
1 x

User avatar
Jaleel10
Blue Belt
Posts: 534
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:44 am
Location: Springbok, South Africa
Languages: Afrikaans (N), English (N)
Spanish (Advanced-B2)
x 963
Contact:

Re: Spanish Group

Postby Jaleel10 » Mon Sep 24, 2018 11:16 am

Kraut wrote:Karo Martinez was giving a talk on learning Spanish today - of course she was plugging for her course. You can pick up some good Spanish on discussing language and methods.

https://el2.convertkit-mail.com/c/8kuo7 ... Fzcy1waGU=


I can highly recommend her podcast too and it comes with transcripts. http://www.espanolautomatico.com/
0 x

garyb
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1572
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:35 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: Native: English
Advanced: Italian, French
Intermediate: Spanish
Beginner: German, Japanese
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1855
x 5992
Contact:

Re: Spanish Group

Postby garyb » Mon Sep 24, 2018 2:51 pm

Jaleel10 wrote:I can highly recommend her podcast too and it comes with transcripts. http://www.espanolautomatico.com/


I listened to Español Automatico for a good few months, but eventually got sick of it because too many of the episodes were just becoming sales pitches for their courses, full of marketing BS and promises of miracles. Which is sad because it's a very professionally-produced podcast, and the "normal" episodes discussed some very interesting topics and were of a perfect length for multiple listens. Sure, they need to make their money somehow, but other similar series (like Français Authentique and Italiano Automatico, the ones that obviously inspired it) find a better balance and are more honest about what they're selling.
0 x

User avatar
Jaleel10
Blue Belt
Posts: 534
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:44 am
Location: Springbok, South Africa
Languages: Afrikaans (N), English (N)
Spanish (Advanced-B2)
x 963
Contact:

Re: Spanish Group

Postby Jaleel10 » Mon Sep 24, 2018 2:59 pm

garyb wrote:I listened to Español Automatico for a good few months, but eventually got sick of it because too many of the episodes were just becoming sales pitches for their courses, full of marketing BS and promises of miracles. Which is sad because it's a very professionally-produced podcast, and the "normal" episodes discussed some very interesting topics and were of a perfect length for multiple listens. Sure, they need to make their money somehow, but other similar series (like Français Authentique and Italiano Automatico, the ones that obviously inspired it) find a better balance and are more honest about what they're selling.


Oh definitely. I have noticed that as well. I usually rotate between 5 podcasts so it's never that much of an issue for me but I can definitely see someone being, as the Spaniards would say, hasta la p****.
0 x

User avatar
Jaleel10
Blue Belt
Posts: 534
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:44 am
Location: Springbok, South Africa
Languages: Afrikaans (N), English (N)
Spanish (Advanced-B2)
x 963
Contact:

Re: Active Online Spanish-speaking Communities

Postby Jaleel10 » Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:04 pm

I thought I'd post some websites with an active Spanish-speaking presence on the internet. Feel free to give your opinion on them because I have not spent a significant amount on theme, these are just websites I got from my Spanish-speaking friends.


Taringa https://www.taringa.net/ (probably the most popular and user friendly one)

ForoCoches https://www.forocoches.com/

Quora Español https://es.quora.com/

Menéame https://www.meneame.net/

Reddit: r/Mexico https://www.reddit.com/r/mexico/

Reddit: r/Argentina https://www.reddit.com/r/argentina/

Facebook and Twitter also have huge Spanish speaking communities, especially Twitter. So just search for your favourite topics/personalities and just go from there.

Also feel free to add any that you know of.
2 x


Return to “Study Groups”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests