U3A Basic Spanish

This week, we were looking at the work of Argentinian poet, composer and singer Carlos Gardel.   Gardel was born in France. His parents were not married and his father denied the child was his. Mother and child moved to South America, to Buenos Aires, when he was two years old, possibly to escape the stigma of being an unmarried mother. Gardel was good looking, a talented song-writer and had a great baritone voice. He made films, had many lovers and was famous for the tango. It is a sexy dance and he was the right man to sell it. Like many famous singers, he died in a plane crash. In 1935, the plane he was travelling in crashed in Colombia. Millions of Gardel's fans throughout Latin America went into mourning. Hordes came to pay their respects as his body was taken from Colombia through New York City and Rio de Janeiro. Thousands paid homage during the two days he lay in state in Montevideo, the city in which his mother lived at the time. Gardel's body w...

Grupo Básico Español – lección diez Buenos días señores y señoras. Bienvenidos a la lección diez de la clase de español. ¡Hace frio! Está lloviendo. Si no, va a llover mas tarde. Do you remember? In last week’s Spanish and Go video, they used the term “kitty corner”. I had no idea what it meant so I looked it up in Urban Dictionary and it means “diagonally opposite”. What would that be in Spanish? Remember words that end in ‘ally’ are the same but end in ‘mente’ Diagonalmente enfrente Hoy, vamos a practicar las direcciones. ¿Se podéis recordar estos? ¿Se pueden recordar estos? Está aquí nada más – it's just here You could also point and say: por ahí (that way). a la derecha – to the right siga derecho – straight on, or todo recto gire a la izquierda – turn to the left Está ahí nada más - just over there (a stone’s throw) Tome la primera calle a la izquierda – first road on the left No está muy lejos ...

Grupo Básico Español – lección nueve Buenos días señores y señoras. Bienvenidos a la lección nueve de la clase de español básico. Hoy tenemos un video de la serie Why Not Spanish y también un video de Spanish and Go. Ahora, estamos en la Unidad Cuatro de nuestro libro Sueños. Trabajaremos durante dos semanas en esta unidad, aprenderemos cómo decir dónde está un lugar, hablaremos sobre distancias, también pediremos y daremos instrucciones. Finding our way around: Opción uno: mapas de Google Opción dos: pides (pedir) un mapa Opción tres: preguntas (preguntar) a una persona española Pedir is to ask for (something) or to order (something). Preguntar is to ask (a question). We all know Option one … Opción dos: ¿Me puede dar un mapa de Barcelona por favor? o ¿Tiene usted un mapa de Barcelona por favor? o ¿Tiene un folleto sobre Barcelona por favor? A folleto is a folded sheet. It's like asking for a pamphlet. If they don’t have one ...