Good Spanish Audio Resources

[schuur451]

Hello Everyone,
I'm a student at Iowa State University studying spanish. My professor of Phonetics and Phonology and I are working on collecting resources that can aid in the improving of american students' accents. We try to teach them common pitfalls that many english speakers fall into, as well as the main differences in mouth shape and tongue placement for the the spanish vs. english alphabet. I came to this forum at the suggestion of Ben to see if any of you had any resources (websites, etc.) that would be useful in teaching the spanish accent. This podcast is definitely on the list, but we are always looking for other ways for students to hear authentic spanish accents. Does anyone have any other resources they use? Also, I should mention that we are interested in all regional dialects in spanish (castillian, argentinian, andalucian), so if you have or know of anything, please let me know.

Thank you so much, y que Dios te bendigan,
Dustin Schuur

[greytop]

Direct TV/radio from Spain on the RTVE (http://www.rtve.es/)site. They use Octoshape technology that gives excellent quality video and sound.
Also the BBC Spanish services have been recommended by several people in this forum.

[rob]

Is there any chance you could share some of the resources and pronunciation tips you already have?

I for one would love to improve my Spanish accent and learn how to pronounce those nasty rolling r sounds.

[Edith]

I for one would love to improve my Spanish accent and learn how to pronounce those nasty rolling r sounds.

You could try these trabalenguas (tongue twisters):



Erre con erre cigarro
erre con erre barril
Rápido ruedan los carros cargados de azúcar al ferrocarril.

and

Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal.




Have fun! ;)

P.s.: sorry about the horrible layout, something went wrong while I was cutting and pasting from Word.

[schuur451]

Unfortunately, almost all of the resources we have are from the university's video collection. Right now we're trying to get a good database of weblinks up. I really wish that I could share most of it with you, but I'm not legally able. One great link that really helps me a lot is at the University of Iowa:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

You can choose one of the lanuages, and the site provides you with an animation of what your tongue/jaw should do, as well as showing video of what your lips should do to accurately reproduce the sound.

Hope that helps. Thanks for the link as well!

[Edith]

Hi Dustin,

That's an interesting website. There are some sounds I'd like to practice more, like 'eu' in 'deuda' and 'Europa'.

One thing I don't understand is: what sort of 'crime' would you commit by sharing a couple of weblinks with us? :o

[schuur451]

Sorry, what I meant by that was that I couldn't share the videos specifically. Right now we're still looking for websites, that's one of the reasons I came here. The U of I website I shared was the best we have so far. The videos are all obviously under copyright, so I'm unable to share those. Spanish and teaching spanish are some of my biggest passions though, so any websites I find I will be sure to share. Sorry for the confusion.

Right now I'm unaware of other high quality/free websites for spanish pronunciation. I'll be sure to post whatever I find as I search though.

Thanks for the trabalenguas, I'll be sure to pass those on.

[Fred]

Dustin

Maybe your professor of Phonetics and Phonology would not agree but I wouldn't worry too much about the tongue positions, children certainly don't.
I believe that language is like music, keep listening and try to imitate the tune that it makes. The spanish radio stations are a good resource, I particularly like listening to canal sur - the andalucian accent is very warm but always a challenge. If people speak English well with a Spanish, French, American accent, does it matter at the end of the day?

[schuur451]

Yeah, honestly the animation can be kind of creepy. I think it's good though. I've learned a great deal about the difference between english and spanish vowels through it. It hasn't revolutionized the way I speak spanish, but I think the tongue positions can help people fine tune some english to spanish problems.

I agree about the musicality of the language too. It's one of my favorite things about speaking spanish. It always makes me cringe when I read english translations of spanish poetry.

Also, I'm just kind of realizing that I tried too hard to sound all professional on my posts. I appreciate everyones' posts. I'm just a student, sorry if I came of a little bit uppity. I really do need help with this project, I would love to be able to give my professor a great list of resources for future years.

Thanks everyone

[Edith]

If people speak English well with a Spanish, French, American accent, does it matter at the end of the day?

People who speak English with an American accent are native speakers of English... ;)

[Fred]

Edith

I'm an English (with a lot of Irish thrown in)native speaker of English. I too have an accent.
I do think that a lot of time can be spent on perfecting an accent but there is often a loss of fluency. I can do a pretty good Castellano when I concentrate but if I get carried away in a conversation God only knows what I sound like! I'm just happy that I'm understood.:)

[Edith]

I'm just happy that I'm understood.:)

Me too! :) I'm Dutch and I can't always roll my r's in Spanish the way I want. The vowels are very similar to ours though, so they don't pose many problems.

[Edith]

Dustin, you could also check the Directorio de podcasts en español:

http://www.podcast-es.org/index.php/Directorio

[Fred]

I would love to be able to give my professor a great list of resources for future years.

Dustin

Have you looked at this www.radioes.net/cadenas.asp if you haven't, it should prove useful:)

[schuur451]

Wow, thank you very much. I wish there was more time in the day so I could listen to all this stuff :).

Edith, yo soy holandés también. Es decir, nací en los EE.UU. pero soy cien por ciento holandés. Hay dos regiones en Iowa donde casi toda la gente tienen antepasados de Holanda y yo crecí en una de ellas. En el pueblo vecino todas los edificios tenían fachadas tradicionales de Holanda. Solo quería mencionarlo. Desafortunadamente, no hablo neerlandés, pero tal vez lo aprenda algun día.

[landlady]

I've been told by Spanish people that our daughter speaks Spanish as a Spanish child would. She came to Spain at the age of 8 and is now 12. I wonder at what age the ability to mimic the sounds exactly diminishes. I would think that a few adults would be able to still do this, such as those that can easily mimic others, but for most adult English speakers, I doubt they would ever lose their accents completely, especially if they had strong regional accents to start with. In my opinion, I think accents can be charming and interesting, so I'm not too bothered about mine, as long as I can be understood clearly.

[Edith]

Wow, thank you very much. I wish there was more time in the day so I could listen to all this stuff :).

Edith, yo soy holandés también. Es decir, nací en los EE.UU. pero soy cien por ciento holandés. Hay dos regiones en Iowa donde casi toda la gente tienen antepasados de Holanda y yo crecí en una de ellas. En el pueblo vecino todas los edificios tenían fachadas tradicionales de Holanda. Solo quería mencionarlo. Desafortunadamente, no hablo neerlandés, pero tal vez lo aprenda algun día.

Sí, ¡lo ví en tu perfil! :) ¿Has visitado Holanda alguna vez? ¿Fueron tus padres que emigraron a los EEUU, o tus abuelos? Yo soy una mezcla pero tengo la nacionalidad holandesa y nací en Holanda. Hace veinte años, estuve en el estado de Wisconsin y allí visitabamos la aldea de Barneveld. La gente nos contaba de las comunidades holandesas que hay en esta región, y de las tiendas especiales donde se puede comprar cosas holandesas como el queso de Edam, regaliz, etc. Lo curioso es que a mí, la comida holandesa y del resto de Europa del norte no me gusta tanto, pues prefiero los platos mediterráneos y los de Asia y México. Por otro lado, lo que me gusta de verdad son el queso y el pan integral de Holanda. ¡El pan integral (con un exterior crujiente) siempre me echa de menos en el extranjero!

[Edith]

Mexican Spanish audio archives from Radio Bilingüe:

http://www.radiobilingue.org/esnl/esnl_060915.htm

Radio Bilingüe:

www.radiobilingue.org

[schuur451]

Oh man, I know what you mean about dutch pastries. My mom makes the absolute best pies and apple dumplings in the world (of course I'm biased). I pretty much grew up on sugar and pastry dough :).

[Catica]

Edith

I'm an English (with a lot of Irish thrown in)native speaker of English. I too have an accent.
I do think that a lot of time can be spent on perfecting an accent but there is often a loss of fluency. I can do a pretty good Castellano when I concentrate but if I get carried away in a conversation God only knows what I sound like! I'm just happy that I'm understood.:)

Actually, I think if you work with a real pro on this, you can perfect the accent without having to think about it. I got to work with such a teacher when I was learning Russian. It was merely a matter of retraining the muscles of the mouth. Actually, what you're doing is reprogramming your brain. It took outside practice. I mean, I didn't suddenly try to change my accent - that would be distracting! - but I would do a couple of specific drills each day, and then go back to my teacher the next week to get some more. I have to say, this made a huge difference in my Russian and was well worth it. As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery... :)

[cubix]

One thing we used in Spanish Language class was a set of audio tapes that went along with worksheets, If I am not mistaken it was called puerto del sol. The best thing was the variety of accents(it seemed like they chose the hardest to understand) and it felt very natural they wern;t trying to slow down to make it easy or pronounce some words overly clearly for us-non spanish natives...

[Edith]

Europocket TV

These short videos are ideal for advanced listeners who want to practice their listening skills by listening to rapid-fire (yet clearly pronounced) Spanish.


http://www.hispanocast.com/channel/view/244

[omeyas]

Puerta del Sol is an excellent resource, but it is not cheap. Here in UK, it´s about £80 plus for a years subscription. (6 issues) The last year or so they have had huge problems, with issues coming out months late, but they have had a big shake up and things now seem to be getting better. My subscription has recently expired, and I have not renewed it yet, but in my humble opinion, it's one of the best products out there for language learning.

[greytop]

Europocket TV

These short videos are ideal for advanced listeners who want to practice their listening skills by listening to rapid-fire (yet clearly pronounced) Spanish.


http://www.hispanocast.com/channel/view/244

That's fast!

There are also some interesting recipes (http://www.hispanocast.com/channel/view/238)(in Spanish) so you can practice talking, cooking and eating! Even one for make your own turrón.

[Edith]

That's fast!

There are also some interesting recipes (http://www.hispanocast.com/channel/view/238)(in Spanish) so you can practice talking, cooking and eating! Even one for make your own turrón.

Great! Recipes are always welcome. :D

[Edith]

That's fast!

Very fast indeed. These 'news bulletins' are meant for young people, so the speed is rapidísimo. Sometimes I wonder why many young people like to ingest information at a very fast pace - is it because of all the computer games they play? It looks as if these particular podcasts are designed for people with a very short attention span.

Anyway, the content of the Europocket podcasts is almost nil, but they are great for your listening skills. Thank goodness I've got a good headset! I replay certain parts from these particular podcasts four to five times until I get it.

[schuur451]

This is all great, thank you so much for your help!

[Isabella]

¡Hola! BBC Estudio 834 is brilliant with a new podcast every week - it takes the form of an interview with a famous person and the transcript is available. Downloads in mp3 format or one can just listen to it. Here is the URL - hope you find it both useful and interesting.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/programmes/newsid_4272000/4272486.stm
Un saludo Isabella