Me gustan las palabras – Resources for your Spanish Classroom

De: F. Isabel Campoy , www.isabelcampoy.com

Hace meses, en una visita a una escuela, se me acercó una niña tímidamente y esperó a que otros delante de ella se hiciesen fotos, pidiesen un autógrafo o hicieran preguntas hasta quedarse a solas conmigo. Ella me miraba con los ojos muy abiertos, pero no decía nada. Tendría unos nueve o diez años. Al ver que tenía un papel en la mano le pregunté si quería un autógrafo y entonces ella me alargó el papel. Yo saqué una pluma, pero me di cuenta que había algo escrito. Lo leí, la miré y se lo devolví con mi dirección electrónica. –Vamos a ser muy buenas amigas–, le dije.

Su corto mensaje de “Me gustan las palabras”, me despertó una sonrisa cómplice, pero también me recordó que a su edad también yo descubrí el secreto que encerraban las palabras y que había personas con quienes podía compartirlo.  Publiqué mi primer cuento en una revista local a los once años. Era un cuento que hablaba del infortunio de un muñeco que prefirió la muerte tras unas horas de libertad, a la eternidad en la seguridad de una nevera. Era un muñeco de nieve, nacido –como yo-en Alicante, una ciudad semi-desértica del sur de España. Yo no conocería la nieve hasta que a los 16 años viajé a Michigan, en los Estados Unidos en un viaje de intercambio estudiantil, pero sí sabía desde bien pequeña, la condena  que encerraba el binomio sol-nieve, y aún más el valor de la palabra libertad.

También recuerdo que aquel cuento se escribió en un libraco enorme de tapas duras que un día trajo mi padre a casa. En sus primeras páginas con una caligrafía impecable había líneas de debe y haber y números en varios colores. Las fechas eran como de libro de historia, al menos cien años anterior a aquel 1957. Mi hermano Diego y yo hicimos un pacto. Él podría tener la parte de delante para sus anotaciones de equipos de fútbol y ganadores de la liga. Yo la de atrás…para lo que quisiera. Afortunadamente Diego solo requería “su parte” los domingos por la tarde, así que el universo de enormes páginas en blanco era todo mío el resto del tiempo.

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Web publishers look to draw in Spanish speaking audience – Resources for your Spanish Classroom

Web Content Creators Focus on Spanish Speakers

By 

Published: May 1, 2013

For several years, networks and channels with programming aimed at Hispanic viewers have been increasing their presence during the annual television industry ritual known as upfront week, when advertisers and agencies are wooed before the coming fall season. Now, as creators of online video content are seeking the same money from Madison Avenue, they, too, are talking about their efforts to reach Spanish-speaking consumers.

Among the participants during theDigital Content NewFronts in New York this week — 17 presentations, from Monday through Friday, under the aegis of the Interactive Advertising Bureau — was Univision Communications, which took part in the NewFronts for the first time.

Univision executives on Wednesday discussed initiatives like Uvideos, a digital video network that offers original Web series as well as clips about the popular telenovelas that are the mainstays of the Univision broadcast network. (The clips are said to be spoiler-free; telenovelas are all about the cliffhangers.)

Some general-market media companies devoted bits of their presentations to the original digital content being created for Hispanics. For instance, on Tuesday, Hulutouched on Hulu Latino and CBS Interactive, part of the CBS Corporation, previewed plans to introduce in the fall a version of CNET for Spanish-speaking consumers.

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Abuela Francisca – Resources for your Spanish Classroom

Abuela Francisca

By F. Isabel Campoy

I praise humor. And wit. They are more than shades of character. In my balance they are virtues, cornerstones of a personality. I sometime boast that I inherited both from my grandmother, just to see if she would drop for me a few grains from Heaven. The salt and pepper of her soul.

One of the most frequent questions I have to answer from children when I visit their schools is precisely about her. “What does the F. mean in your name?”, they ask me. And I say “Abuela”. The tradition in Spain to name the second baby girl with the mother’s mother name, produced a vibrant generation of Franciscas in my family. There were all kinds of nick names to distinguish all seven cousins named Francisca. Paqui, Quica, Panchita, Paca, Fran. Because my middle name is Isabel, all throughout my childhood people called me Paquibel, and when I decided I was a grown up lady, I left my grandmother’s initial in front of Isabel as a lighthouse , to watch for me, to alert me of the new horizons. And I became F. Isabel.

She was convinced that I could love to embroider. Those were the times in which a girl started to prepare her treasure chest when she was still a child. To keep me sat by her side, she would tell me stories from the folklore changing the landscapes, the characters, and the words as she saw fit to prove her point. Red Ridding Hood was lured by the wolf because at siesta time, when she was supposed to be embroidering her initials in the white sheets for her wedding bed, she instead insisted on going to visit her abuela.

My grandmother Francisca gave me the F. of a fabulous treasure of stories to retell to children. The F. of a fantastic vision of what’s important in life. She gave me the F. of family to honor, friends to love, and fascination to foster freedom in the mind of children.

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“Meetups” help spark foreign language conversations – Resources for your Spanish Classrom

Travel Wise / Language-learning made fun, and cheap, for Seattle travelers

Casual and fun ways to learn a bit of a language before traveling.

By Carol Pucci

Special to The Seattle Times

Just about the time the Queen Anne bars and restaurants are filling up for Friday afternoon happy hour, eight of us are gathered around a table at Starbucks, sipping lattes and chatting in Italian.

Full disclosure: I’m speaking mostly in English as I gather bits of information about the Seattle Italian Connection, a “meetup” group that brings strangers together over coffee, wine or lunch to practice their language skills. Like many, it’s organized through meetup.com, a networking website for community groups (including dozens in the Seattle area).

Everyone has a different reason for being here: Allison Cordrey, the assistant organizer of the Seattle Italian Connection, returned from a trip to Italy a few years ago determined to learn Italian but unable to afford formal classes. Others, such as a Seattle glass artist who lived in Venice, are fluent and want to keep practicing. I need to brush up on the basics of ordering pizza and haggling with cabdrivers before a trip to Naples.

Whether it’s memorizing a few words and phrases in Thai or Japanese or striving to become semi-conversational in Italian or Spanish, making the effort to learn a bit of the local language before traveling always pays off, either in the spirit of general friendliness or outright necessity.

We’re lucky in the Seattle area to have community colleges and private language schools that offer excellent classes. But for those looking for less of a commitment in time or money, there are other ways for travelers to practice and learn.

Local meetups

Go online to meetup.com, type “languages’’ in the search box and find local conversation and cultural groups meeting regularly (and for free) to practice French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, even Hindi or Korean.

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