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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“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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Ariz. elementary school students spend half the day learning in Spanish – Resources for your Spanish Classroom

S. Ariz. grade school offers Spanish immersion

By KITTY BOTTEMILLER

The Associated Press

GREEN VALLEY, Ariz. —

Continental School first-grader Makenzie Vernon comes from a bilingual household; her mother is Hispanic and her father, American. It wasn’t long before she began favoring English over her first language, Spanish.

“I want to speak like my dad,” she told her mother, Marisol, one day, somewhat to her dismay.

“I was shocked at how fast she was forgetting Spanish,” her mother said.

When a letter arrived from school while her daughter was still in kindergarten asking about Spanish immersion, she knew what to do. The school was thinking of offering the half-day program to first-graders, for students whose primary language was, or in Makenzie’s case was becoming, English.

“I thought it would be nice for her to pick Spanish up again, communicate with my side of the family,” Marisol said. “Being bilingual, I’ve found is very beneficial in the workplace and in school. I would like Makenzie to take advantage of the opportunities.”

She signed her up.

Nearing the end of her first year in formal Spanish training, Makenzie can read a book and carry on a conversation in her native tongue.

“I like that,” her mother said. “I like that she knows the language I know.”

In just a school year of daily afternoon immersion class, Makenzie and her 17 classmates in teacher Lina Szabo’s room greet their teacher, classmates, visitors, listen to stories, assignments and play learning games all in what was a foreign language mere months ago.

They’re going beyond learning colors, numbers, phrases and vocabulary words to lessons in math, social studies and science, all en español. They study in English all morning with their homeroom teachers, who work as a team with Szabo to make sure there are no curriculum gaps.

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