Category Archives: #Spanish

Spanish Resources – Recursos en Español

Here are links to several files that I hope are helpful to you … feel free to download them, and please remember to tell people that you found them on Fotopala.com — Thank you!

Aquí hay enlaces a varios archivos que espero que sean de utilidad para ti … no dudes en descargarlos, y por favor no olvides decir a la gente que has encontrado en Fotopala.com — ¡Gracias!

SPANISH WORDS

Listing of more than 3000 Spanish Words including those on Fotopala
Colors and Clothes Vocabulary
Ser and Estar Explained
Por and Para Explained
Por and Para Idiomatic Expressions
Accent Rules for Spanish Words
Keyboard Shortcuts for Spanish Accents

VERBS AND TENSES

The 15 Spanish Tenses of the Indicative and Subjunctive
Imperfect Tense Explained
Preterite Tense Explained
Present Perfect Tense Explained
Conditional Tense Explained
The 17 Most Important Spanish Verbs
Over 500 Spanish Verbs
Hundreds of Spanish Sentences in Various Tenses
Scenarios that Help Transition to the Subjunctive

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Spanish Programs and Resources on the Market
Links to Spanish Radio and TV
Languages Spoken in the USA 2010 Census

Words – Las Palabras

Be a person that says very little.

Be aware that many people say too much, and they say many things that are critical and unloving.

When other people are speaking, listen carefully.

When you do speak, say many things that are helpful and loving.

Words can manifest miracles, so by the power of the One manifest some miracles today.


Sea una persona que dice muy poco.

Tenga en cuenta que muchas personas hablan demasiado, y ellos dicen muchas cosas que son críticos y sin amor.

Cuando otras personas están hablando, escucha con atención.

Cuando hablas, diga muchas cosas que son útiles y amorosa.

Las palabras pueden manifestar los milagros, así que a través del poder del Uno manifiesta algunos milagros hoy.

La Injusta Distribución de la Riqueza

Podría ser que estamos en los últimos días de existencia y toda humanidad se está convirtiendo en personas malas, y que la humanidad irá de peor a lo peor.  Pero no lo creo. Por otra parte, creo que la humanidad se está convirtiendo en personas buenas, poco a poco, y que tenemos un futuro brillante.

Primero, la mayoria de los problemas en sociedad y en humanida en general solo son percepciones, no es la verdad.   Los medios de comunicación han hecho una histeria en el mundo, y enfocan en cosas malas. Entonces, desafortunadamente creemos en las noticias malas y creemos que la humanida siguen en el paseo más y más hacia el infierno.  Sin embargo, la verdad es que por cada cosa mala que ha hecho en el mundo hay miles de cosas buenas que se han hecho … y no reportero quiere informamos de estas cosas porque noticias buenas no venden periódicos.

Otra cosa es que sí hay problema en sociedad, y el problema es que hay pocos que tienen la gran parte del dinero y oportunidad y influencia en el mundo, y hay muchos que no tienen casi nada.

Por ejemplo, en los Estados Unidos la riqueza está concentrada en los pocos ricos. El 1% de los hogares tienen aproximadamente 35% de toda la riqueza, y el siguiente 19% de hogares tienen aproximadamente 55%, lo que significa es que sólo el 20% de las personas controlan 90%, dejando sólo el 10% de la riqueza para el resto.  Este problema es aun peor en muchos otros paises.  Por lo tanto, no es una sorpresa que la grande parte de la humanid siente como los pocos ricos no son justos y deben compartir más, y en mi opinión este problema de la injusta distribución de la riqueza es principalmente lo que hace más y más deshonestidad.

Arequipa Perú in Pocas Palabras

Our adventure in Arequipa, Perú, has ended, and so I would like to sum up our experience there in a few words (pocas palabras).

Rocoto Relleno — Possibly the most common dish in Arequipa, this spicy stuffed pepper is delicious.

San Camino Market — The largest market in the center of town is a great place to find bargains and cheap produce.

Purple Corn Juice (Chicha) — Served everywhere.

Alpaca Yarn — Perú is famous for this soft yarn.

Ceviche — Though Arequipa is two hours from the coast, this fresh fish that is marinated (or “cooked”) in lemon and/or lime juice is a staple.

Traffic — Arequipa has grown rapidly in the last 10 years, and the roads are not well equiped to handle the increase in traffic.

Papaya and Mango — My two favorite local fruits, and I will miss them.

Sun — Shines virtually every day this time of year.

Cheese Ice Cream — Yum!

Inka Terraces — Farming the Inka way is still commonly done thanks to the many terraces left behind by this native community.

Potatoes — There are seemingly dozens of varities.

Combis — Vans and buses packed with commuters that clog the streets.

Aji — The national spice of Perú, and in different varieties.

Plaza de Armas — The central square and park.

Drinkable Yogurt — Many varieties and in large containers, however low-fat and low-sugar versions are scarce.

Walking — Without exaggeration I walked well more than 100 miles a month while there.

Menu del Día — The daily lunch menu of soup, entre, and beverage, all for as little as $2.

Vicuñas — The smallest of the camel family, these beautiful animals yield the most expensive yarn in the world.

Inka Cola — It’s yellow and tastes like cream soda, but it’s the most popular soda in Arequipa.

Catholic Church Buildings — They are all over town, including monasteries, parishes, and the grand cathedral that anchors the central square.

Bottled Water — That’s all I drank for two months after my early bought with Montezuma’s Revenge.

Pigeons — All over town.

Vea — Kind of like a mini Walmart, and my favorite grocery store.

Taxis — They dominate the streets.

Cheese — Several local and tasty varieties.

Slow Internet — Enough said.

Cornbread — Deliciosa!

Narrow Sidewalks — Always an adventure, but I won’t miss them.

Maca — This root vegetable that may only be found in Perú is purported to be a wonder food.

Club International — This sporting and exercise facility close to the center of town sits on about 5 acres right next to the river and it has just about everything you can imagine.

Coca — The leaves from which cocaine is made is all over town and used in teas, snacks, etc. … I would have loved to try it, but didn’t want to risk failing a job-related drug test back home.

Misti — One of the volcanoes that tower over Arequipa, it is your constant companion while there.

Buñuelos — A Peruvian donut drizzled in honey, need I say more?

Crowd Source a Spanish English Vocab Builder

Linguists are the really smart people that study human language, and many of them believe that the 3000 most common words in a language make up 90% of the content we experience on a daily basis.

Moreover, once we understand those 3000 most common words, we can understand the general context of whatever we might read or hear on a daily basis.

Obviously, this is a pretty significant achievement for us second language learners.

There’s more! A 3000 word vocabulary enables us to express everything that we could possibly want to say in our new language, with the understanding that at only 3000 words we would often have to express ourselves in a roundabout way. (I was going to use the word circumlocution, but I’m not sure that I know what that means).

In any case, I really dig the idea of being able to say everything that I want to say in Spanish (assuming that someone would be willing to listen to me), so I am working to ensure that my Spanish vocabulary far exceeds 3000 palabras.

Unfortunately, I have looked high and low for a 3000 word vocabulary builder that is effective and easy-to-use, and I have yet to find one. Notice that I said “effective” and “easy-to-use,” and I probably should have included “inexpensive.”

So if I had a couple million dollars on hand at this moment, I would probably go ahead and build that super-duper software app right now and deliver it to the world just as soon as I could. But short of having dos millones de dolares en mi mano ahorita, I am happy to resort to “crowd sourcing.”

I have already compiled a list of the 3000 most common words (with some expressions) used by native Spanish speakers. This list was compiled from various sources, and admittedly skews toward Spanish America (since that is where the majority of Spanish speakers originated from and/or live). Obviously, a list such is this is open to debate, so please don’t think any less of me if I missed your favorite Spanish word; moreover, please email me any additions or corrections you might have).

I am imagining an application that has an image, a sound recording, and written letters associated with each of the 3000 words (which could be tricky for words such as LES, SUERTE, DIOS, TAL, IMPRESIONANTE, MEMORIA, etc.). And at this point what I need most are an image/picture for each word, and down the road I can work on getting a native Spanish speaker (or several speakers) to record the sound of each word. (I am familiar with www.forvo.com, but I don’t expect that they just give away their audio files).

This is where you come in. I will send you a link to this list of 3000 words, which include a bonus 145 words since the list is actually 3145 words, if you will agree to send me a picture (i.e. jpg file) of 5 separate words. That’s all you have to do – send me 5 jpg files. And to avoid getting several pictures of an abeja (bee), please pick 5 words that you think would not be commonly chosen (such as HUELGA).

I have spent probably at least 40 hours of my time compiling this list and I am happy to share it with you, and all that I ask is that you send me 5 jpg files in return.

And if you have a couple million dollars that you would like to put toward this project, or you can get me on the Shark Tank, please let me know.

Gracias, Keith

P.S. God willing, I will be in Peru teaching English during the months of September and October.