The latest Inspired Beginners podcasts are out at our sister site Notesinspanish.com. First up, cool conversation starters, coming soon, the definitive guide to Ser and Estar!

Find full details and start listening now over at Notes in Spanish!

For all those super sharp-shooting Spanish speakers amongst you, check out the new round of Advanced Podcasts at our sister-site Notes in Spanish.

The latest episode is about the potential hypocrisy of boycotting the Olympics: head on over and have a listen!

It’s not often I use this blog to promote our activities over at NotesinSpanish.com, but I’m so excited about the project we’ve just finished that that’s exactly what I’m going to do now!

Marina and I have just spent weeks working on what we’ve called our ‘Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide’. It includes over 100 of the phrases and expressions that real Spanish people use every day on the streets of Spain, explained in nearly an hour and a half of audio, with accompanying phrase book.

I’ve always been obsessed with picking up these sorts of phrases, things like ‘¡Dejame en paz!’, meaning ‘B+@+er Off and leave me in peace!’, ‘Esta chica esta zumbada’, that girl’s totally crazy, and one of my favourites, ‘La madre que te parió’, literally ‘the mother that bore you’, a quite exquisite expression to use when you are really really pissed off!

We’ve also put together a great bonus to go with the pack, ‘How to Sound Really Spanish in 10 Words or Less!’, again based on audio that basically does what it says on the tin: it includes the 10 words or phrases that will have Spanish people doffing their cap to you in respect in seconds!

Check it all out over at Notes in Spanish, by following this link:
The Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide

Here ends the shameless plug of something we are genuinely really really proud of. Have a great weekend!

Marina’s timetable for telephone/skype conversation classes in January has been published – Click here for more details and the calendar.

All the Notes in Spanish podcasts and worksheets can now be found at their new home, Notes in Spanish.com Come and have a look!

All the Notes in Spanish podcasts and worksheets can now be found at their new home, Notes in Spanish.com Come and have a look!

Thanks to The Big Chorizo for pointing me to an incredible article about the founder of El Mundo interviewing an old school mate who joined ETA, and was sent to assassinate him at a basketball match. There is also a snippet of video on the El Mundo blog.

And staying with my favourite on-line paper, they have a beautiful feature on the 70th anniversary of the civil war, featuring people that are still around to tell their tales – even if the Spanish is beyond you, the faces are wonderful…

“lastminute.com has tapped into the genius of coolgorilla to release the first ever free interactive iPod Spanish phrasebook. With over 750 sound files this will transform your iPod into a portable phrasebook”

Definitely worth checking out. Installation may take a few minutes but you’ll end up with a nice Spanish lady gently whispering key words from your iPod.

This lady was recently sacked from new TV channel La Sexta, for being blatantly drunk on the job…

(Direct youtube link)
See also: Spanish article in El Correo Gallego

What’s all this?

An intercambio is about meeting someone of a different nationality or mother toungue and having a chat – a great way to improve how well you speak another language. In this case we are talking about Spanish and English.

We’ve realised that the Notes from Spain forums are a great place for people to get together on-line, so come in, meet people, and decide how you want to chat… on-line with skype, right there in the forums, via private messages, you decide! (You will have to register to post messages or reply to others, but that’s just to keep the spammers away.)

Enter the Notes from Spain Intercambio Forum here!

And by the way, children are welcome too!