Episodio 181: Enfermedades comunes y síntomas

Today we talk about common diseases and symptoms. Health is something very important for everyone, so we talked about this on today's episode. Transcript available: " Hola y bienvenido o bienvenida a un nuevo episodio de SpanishPodcast.net Hoy vamos a hablaros sobre un tema del que no se habla demasiado en cursos de español, pero puede ser importante. Todos hemos estado enfermos alguna vez, no es algo agradable, pero es parte de la vida. Como se suele decir: “para ponerse malo lo único que hace falta es estar vivo”. “Ponerse malo” es una forma coloquial de decir “ponerse enfermo”. “Me he puesto enfermo” y “me he puesto malo” significa lo mismo, pero la segunda opción es más informal, algo para utilizar con amigos y conocidos ... "

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Spanish Vocab Builder #27 - Sport

Learn Mexican Spanish with SpanishPod101.com ! Our Mexican Spanish vocabulary lists are listener favorites, and now we’ve made it even better! In each lesson, you’ll hear the Mexican Spanish words and phrases from the Mexican Spanish vocabulary lists. Join us for Mexican Spanish Vocab Builder! In this lesson, you’ll learn words and phrases for Sport. Click [...]

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The Language Secrets of Prolific Language Learners

Did you know that some of the most famous figures throughout history were also accomplished polyglots? Audrey Hepburn remains an iconic goddess of the silver screen and is regularly touted as being the most beautiful woman to have ever existed. She also spoke six languages. J.R.R. Tolkein, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was not only fluent in numerous languages (some of which he taught himself)… he invented them. Why were these particular people encouraged to learn multiple languages? Was it due to a necessity to survive or a need to communicate? Most importantly, what can we as lovers of languages ourselves, learn from their words, lives and experiences? Read on to find out!

Thomas Jefferson: The Language Lover Who Struggled to Learn Languages

The United States’ third president was a member of Virginia’s elite and spoke four languages. He learned to read Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish and French while being privately tutored – which was the norm for boys of his social class. He too had dictionaries from a number of languages in his library – including Arabic, Gaelic and Welsh, but no evidence exists that he ever gained any sort of fluency in these languages. [caption id="attachment_17579" align="aligncenter" width="700"] The United States’ third president Thomas Jefferson spoke four languages and learned to read Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish and French.[/caption] Although Jefferson could read the languages he had studied in his youth, he struggled with spoken fluency.

”I understand the French so imperfectly as to be incertain whether those to whom I speak and myself mean the same thing.” – Jefferson to William Temple Franklin, 1784.

It wasn’t until he had spent some time living in France as the American ambassador, that he was able to achieve fluency in the French language, falling hard for it along the way.

“The French language is unquestionably an important object of education. The habit of speaking it can only be acquired by conversation.” – Jefferson to Dugald Stewart, 1789.

Jefferson acknowledged quite early on the important relationship that the American people would share with the Spanish language and allegedly learned it while reading from a borrowed copy of Don Quixote and a book on Spanish grammar. We are allowed to be a teeny bit sceptical in taking this as fact, as former US President John Adams noted in his journal:

”As to Spanish, it was so easy that he had learned it, with the help of a Don Quixote lent him by Mr. Cabot, and a grammar, in the course of a passage to Europe, on which he was but nineteen days at sea. But Mr. Jefferson tells large stories…” –John Adams, 1804.

Whether or not Jefferson was blowing his own trumpet remains irrelevant to our cause. What we can learn from the ex-President is one very important detail - one that is regularly touted here on Fluent in 3 Months (Fi3M). If you want to learn a language and achieve fluency in it, you need to start speaking it. People often struggle with language in an academic setting. It’s not until after they leave the classroom and start living the language that true progress begins to be made.

Audrey Hepburn: “Nothing is Impossible”

Screen goddess Audrey Hepburn was a master of many tongues. The actress spoke six languages, reportedly fluent in English, Dutch, French, Spanish, German and Italian. [caption id="attachment_17580" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Audrey Hepburn, star of Breakfast at Tiffany's, spoke six languages.[/caption] Hepburn was the child of a Dutch Baroness and British businessman. Born in Belgium, she spent part of her youth attending private schools in the Netherlands and England, where she would have achieved fluency in her native Dutch, English and probably French. In 1939, her mother moved the family back to Arnhem, Netherlands, believing they would be safe from World War II. Unfortunately she was proved horribly wrong when the Germans invaded Holland in 1940. Hepburn, a young teenager at the time, began helping the Dutch resistance. She danced to raise money in secret productions and ran messages. She later spoke of how she was forced to quickly learn Dutch upon the family’s move to Arnhem during WWII:

"My mother was worried about [my] speaking English in the streets with Germans all around." – Audrey Hepburn

Malnutrition during the war dashed Hepburn’s aspirations of becoming a ballerina – so she turned to acting. She and her mother left Amsterdam, travelling to both England and finally the US, where Hepburn became the Hollywood icon she is remembered as today. Her career took her all around the world. She shot films in France, Spain and Mexico, lived in Rome and travelled extensively during her time working as an Ambassador with the charity UNICEF. Looking back on her life and career, you can see that she had multiple chances to learn languages – opportunities that she obviously made the most of.

”Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.” - Audrey Hepburn

Hepburn was the type of person who didn’t let setbacks stop her from achieving her goals, actively pursuing what she wanted and believed in. What can we in turn learn from her?

”Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” - Audrey Hepburn

It’s never too late to start learning. To roll with the punches that life throws at you. Most importantly, beyond all else – it’s your attitude that counts above all else, in regards to anything that you wish to achieve in this life. There are many difficult aspects to learning a language. My opinion has always been that it’s best to ignore them. The road to fluency can seem long when you first look at it, but if you approach it with the right attitude, you will be able to take that first step and continue confidently along your way.

J.R.R. Tolkein: The Polyglot Who Invented New Languages

John Ronald Reuel Tolkein, author of many novels including the Lord of the Rings trilogy was not only fluent in many languages – he invented them. A scholar at heart, it was Tolkein’s mother who introduced him to languages, teaching him Latin, French and German in his youth. Over the course of his education, he learned many other languages such as Middle English, Finnish (which he reportedly taught himself), Old Norse, Spanish and Welsh. Languages he was familiar with included Danish, Dutch, Norwegian and Russian. [caption id="attachment_17581" align="aligncenter" width="650"] The One Ring from Lord of the Rings is engraved in Elvish, a language invented by J. R. R. Tolkien.[/caption] As if that wasn’t impressive enough, this early knowledge gave him the grounding he needed to create his own languages, such as Quenya and Sindarin (the Elvish languages, his most developed), Dwarvish, Entish and Black speech. Quenya, the High Elvish tongue is reported to have be inspired by Finnish.

“Elen sill ûmenn’ omentielvo” – “A star shines on the hour of our meeting.” - Lord of the Rings

Tolkein learned languages, simply because he loved and respected them.

”No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.” - J. R. R. Tolkein, ‘English and Welsh’, The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays

From Tolkein, we can learn that the biggest level of success in learning languages, comes quite simply, from a desire to learn. That being, that when you approach language learning, you are doing it for the right reasons. Language learning should never be about bragging rights. Instead, you should have a solid motivation for wanting to learn either another, or multiple languages. Why is this important? Simply, because language learning takes time and commitment. You are going to have days when you feel lazy and unmotivated. Sometimes it may seem like an impossible task. Often, you’ll feel like you’re too busy to dedicate the time needed to achieve the level of fluency that you’ve set yourself. As Tolkein suggests, if you can look back to that one core reason for learning a language – whether that be an interest in the culture of a particular country, or a love for languages themselves – then that motivation that you need on those odd days where you’d rather procrastinate will never be that far out of reach.

Eddie Izzard: “I don’t find languages easy, but I have a hunger to learn”

Eddie Izzard is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He has long been an advocate for the importance of language learning. [caption id="attachment_17582" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Eddie Izzard was the first stand-up comedian to perform in multiple languages.[/caption] To highlight this point, in 2013 he performed his show Force Majeure in four different languages – Arabic, German, Spanish and French. He also spoke in Russian and Italian during the international tour. He is interestingly, the first stand-up comedian to perform in multiple languages. And for good reason, as he noted the difficulty in touring foreign countries, performing in English and expecting his jokes to transcend language and cultural barriers.

“ You could do certain big cities but you wouldn't really get through. I want to be there, getting through.” – Eddie Izzard

Izzard doesn’t claim fluency in each of these languages. He measures himself on percentages and would only claim to be “65% fluent in French and 30% fluent in German”. However, it is his attitude towards learning languages that has led to his inclusion on this list.

“If I get stuck with a word or a phrase during a show I ask the audience, "How do you say such and such", and they help out. I don't find languages easy but I have a hunger to learn.” - Eddie Izzard

Izzard hits the nail on the head. You don’t have to be some kind of genius to learn languages. You just have to be willing to get in there, make mistakes, have a laugh and above all, be doing it for the right reasons.

History Never Repeats - Or Does It?!

Although each of these people throughout history took about learning languages for very different reasons, they all have one thing in common. They recognised the need and value in learning to communicate, no matter what the circumstances of their language acquisition. Is there a polyglot from history that you find inspiring? Who was it and for what reasons? Let me know in the comments! Image credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

The post The Language Secrets of Prolific Language Learners appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

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Episodio 180: Platos típicos españoles

Today we talk about Spanish cuisine. Learn what are the most typical dishes in our country with this episode and learn some Spanish at the same time. A very tasty episode! Transcript available: "Hola y bienvenido de nuevo a un episodio de SpanishPodcast.net En este episodio vamos a hablar de cocina y comida, concretamente de los platos típicos que pueden encontrarse en nuestro país. La cocina española es muy variada, hay mucha diversidad de platos y puedes encontrar comida para todos los gustos ... "

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Newbie Lesson S4 #24 - Tell Me What to Do in Spanish!

Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com! Since you’re visiting Latin America for the first time, you’ve been relying on the helpfulness of Spanish-speaking strangers to help you get around. You know enough Spanish to get by, but sometimes there are some nuances that are lost on you. Despite your Spanish shortcomings, you decide that today is the [...]

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Radio Lingua Update January 2016

Feliz año nuevo, buon anno,  bonne année und ein frohes neues Jahr to the entire Coffee Break learning community around the world. We hope that 2016 is a happy, healthy and successful year for you, and that you have many opportunities to put your language skills to use over the coming months.

We’re delighted to bring you this update from Radio Lingua at the beginning of 2016. We’ve had a very busy holiday period with the launch of our new Coffee Break Academy website and the Coffee Break French and Spanish Masterclass programmes, but more about that a bit later.

Looking back at 2015

Let’s begin by taking a look back at 2015 and what it meant for Coffee Break language learners. We completed our fourth season of Coffee Break French and we launched our fourth season of Coffee Break Spanish last year. We also introduced a brand new language with Coffee Break Italian, along with our children’s show High Five French.

Over the year we delivered over 21 million free language lessons and this means that on average over 59,000 lessons were downloaded every day. In other words, language learners around the world downloaded 41 of our lessons every minute of 2015.

What’s coming in 2016

We spent much of last year producing new content for this coming year: we’ve been filming and recording in Spain, France and Germany for new and existing projects. We can’t say too much about some of these projects just yet, but you can look forward to exciting, new content and we’re sure you’ll enjoy continuing your learning journey with us.

• Coffee Break Spanish Season 4 continues with episode 21 released on 27th January.
• We’ll be launching the second of our Coffee Break French Season 4 Companion ebooks in the next few weeks.
• We’re excited to be releasing our brand new video course High Five Spanish for younger learners in the summer.
• We had planned to record the final section of Coffee Break Italian Season 1 in Italy earlier this month but unfortunately this visit had to be postponed. We’ll be publishing some top-up episodes to help our Italian learners keep up their skills until we can rearrange the visit to Francesca’s homeland.
• And finally, we can confirm that there will be new Coffee Break German content in 2016!

The Masterclass

Our biggest news is the launch of our special 12-month course for intermediate learners of Spanish and French, the Coffee Break Masterclass. We’ve built a brand new website, the Coffee Break Academy, where you can join the Masterclass and become a master of the language. We’ve been listening very carefully to your feedback and have put together this innovative course which combines our regular, structured audio lessons with challenges, tasks and a discussion area. There are already many members interacting every day in the Masterclass forums, practising what they’re learning in the audio lessons and completing our challenges and exercises.

Each month there’s a new module, and you’ll receive lessons every 3 or 4 days. We’ll deliver everything straight to your inbox and the best thing about the Masterclass is that it starts when you’re ready for it. So if you join today you will receive your orientation module and lesson 1, then lesson 2 will follow in a few days’ time. The feedback so far on the Masterclass has been fantastic and we’re very excited to be supporting our intermediate learners in this way.

We firmly believe that learning a language can be done effectively in your 20-minute coffee break, or indeed on a run, on your commute to work, or while you’re doing the household chores. The secret is in making your downtime your “do” time, so if you’d like to take your French or Spanish to the next level, head over to the coffeebreakacademy.com.

Los geht’s – c’est parti – empecemos ya – cominciamo!

We hope you’re as excited as we are as we begin a new year of language learning!

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Level Up! Turn Your Language Learning Into a Video Game

“I wish I was motivated to learn a language! I’ll get started when I’m ready.”

Like most kids, I took a language class throughout high school as a requirement. I picked Spanish because it seemed like a better option than French or Latin, and I dutifully did my work because I had to. Like most adults, as soon as I could stop taking languages classes, I stopped studying and practising and forgot nearly everything I learned. It wasn’t until I set out on a trip around the world that I stumbled across a quirky Irishman named Benny who taught me WHY learning a language is so freaking awesome. Inspired by Fluent in 3 Months, I immersed myself in Spanish, living with a family in Spanish for a month where I only spoke the native language. Thanks to being fully committed and motivated to the cause, my Spanish quickly came back to me, and I loved being able to interact with a family in their language. It was game-changing for me, and taught me just how enriched your life can become when you can speak multiple languages. You’re reading Fluent in 3 Months, which means you’ve probably had a similar realisation: speaking a second language is a goal of yours, but you might struggle with consistently practicing it. We all say things like “I’ll work on the language when I’m motivated to learn it,” but the reality is that we know we can’t rely on motivation and willpower to get us to do something that we KNOW will enrich our lives. It’s not just learning languages either, but the same is true with exercise, learning a musical instrument, or writing a book. Motivation gets us started often, but after a few weeks we’re stuck wondering “what the heck happened?” So what do we normally do? We wait. We sit around waiting for that magical motivation to kick in, or wait for us to get REALLY inspired to learn a language. And year after year, we realize we’re stuck at the beginning and haven’t made any progress! If you’re somebody that loves the idea of learning a new language but can’t seem to get yourself to make progress, I’m going to teach you today how your favorite old school video games and heroes will help you finally learn a language, and in record time!

How to Turn Your Language Learning into a Video Game

Video games are amazingly addictive. And I should know - I’ve spent far too much of my existence getting lost in one game after another ever since I was a little kid with a Nintendo. I imagined I was Link from The Legend of Zelda, couldn’t wait to slay more bad guys as James Bond in Goldeneye, and loved slaying dragons as a powerful wizard in the online RPG, EverQuest. Games are great because when you’re playing them, you’re trying to reach a goal. You’re trying to level up and - ultimately - complete the game. It’s a challenge, and yet you keep coming back for more. What is it about games that keeps us motivated to return to them again and again, even (or especially) when they’re difficult? Games can teach us how to accomplish goals in our lives that we’ve struggled with. Taking a “gamified” approach is ideal when it comes to learning a language. Even if you’ve never played a videogame in your life, don’t worry! This will still make sense. So, what’s so powerful about games? 1. Games show us how to make progress: Are you aware that we are happiest when we are making progress? We love making progress so much, in fact, that we actually enjoy it more than getting the thing we wanted in the first place! It doesn’t need to be big progress, just enough that we realize we are moving forward, improving, and getting better. Incremental improvement can actually be addictive...which is why video games that exploit this mental mechanism can be so addicting... from World of Warcraft to Candy Crush. We get to see instant progress and immediate feedback and gratification. These short-term wins release dopamine— the happiness chemical—in our brains, and thus we crave more. This is referred to as the “Progress Principle” in psychology. We too can find a way to make small improvements and recognize this progress in our lives. So instead of just “practicing a language,” prove to yourself that you’re improving. Give yourself somef way to show you’re making progress! I suggest creating mini checklists with learning tasks that you complete each week. 2. Games show us rewards: Games are fantastic at getting us to go “just one more level,” or “try just one more” or think “after I finish this quest.” Every time we complete something, there’s a reward that triggers our brains again (yay dopamine!), and that reward encourages us to keep playing. How can you add a reward system to your language learning? What if you complete a quest of 15 minutes of language learning every day for the next month, you unlock a reward of buying your favorite book or comic in your target language? Or a pass to the next language learning conference in your town? Reward yourself with things that reward you back by helping you further advance your learning. 3. Games teach us accountability: “Game Over” screen is an ever-present reality in games. The threat of “dying” adds a challenge that keeps us fully engaged and excited. Life is no different! Where’s the accountability if you don’t practice your language? Right now if you skip your language learning, you get to just watch more shows on Netflix. However, what if every time you skipped your language practice you had to give your friend $20? And they have donate that money to a political cause you hate? Welcome to the real world of accountability! 4. Games have boss battles: In games you slowly advance and level up, earning better weapons so you can take on the big boss at the end. Your skills are tested. What better way to hold yourself accountable when it comes to learning a new language than by adding a boss battle to keep you focused on the target: actually conversing in the language? What if you booked a plane ticket to the country where your target language is spoken for 6 months from now, and a boss battle of speaking with a native speaker for 15 minutes while there? Suddenly this shit just got REAL! Now you can reverse engineer your task/quest each week to build yourself up to that goal. This has really helped me stay on target with goal setting and completion. I like to say that I also speak and study the language of music, so I’ve used the above tactics and techniques to become a busker on the streets of New York City, and even started learning to play the violin about 18 months ago. I know how powerful this system can be when applied properly, so I’ve actually created an entire system that allows you to create a character, add missions, and level up as you complete them! I’ll tell you about it at the end of the post.

The Batcave Guide to Language Learning

Okay so now you’re ready to gamify your life. Solid work. However, if you really want to supercharge your language learning, you need to adjust how your environment subtly influences you. I like to think of it like the Force in Star Wars: you’re being subtly pulled in a direction by everything around you, so why not structure your environment to win! If I only played the violin or exercised when I was motivated to do so, I would never practice and I would rarely exercise! If you only practiced a language when you felt like it, you’re never going to make progress. That’s why we need to restructure our environment to And to do that, I’m going to recruit two close friends, Batman and Superman.

Be like Batman

Bruce Wayne needed to build a batcave, an immersive environment that helped him prepare for the bad guys. You need to build a batcave that makes your default behavior “I’m going to practice a new language every day.” Here are two big strategies to create your own immersive environment:

1. Add steps between you and a bad habit that’s keeping you from practicing your language more often. If you spend four hours a day on Facebook, what if you installed Facebook NewsFeed Eradicator to make sure you’re not checking it 120 times a day? What if you cancelled your Netflix (GASP!), or got rid of your cable?
2. Remove steps between you and a good habit relating to learning a language. Put stacks of flashcards all over your house that you can quickly pick up and go through when you enter a room. Turn certain electronic devices (like tablets, phones, TVs, or even sites like Facebook) to your target language.

Be like Superman

Superman has a Fortress of Solitude that he retreats to when he needs to get away from day to day life. What if you created a Fortress of Language Learning in your home? It doesn’t need to be a whole room, but it needs to be a deliberate location. Benny actually makes a part of his home (even a single chair or particular corner) the "target language only" zone, where he knows that he's reading, listening, or Skyping in that language.

Remember: Language Learning is a Multiplayer Activity

Language learning is a multiplayer game. Why do you study flashcards and read language books?It’s so you can connect with other people from different places and cultures.! So far, you’ve learned how to structure your life around mini goals and quests, and how to create a “target language only” zone. Now you need to recruit a group of allies to help you on your missions. I heard once from somebody that you are the average of the people you associate most with. Just like we are influenced by our environment, we too are influenced by our allies. Might as well recruit a damn good group, right? Think about who belongs in your party:

• A Mentor: This is somebody who is actively teaching you on a site like italki. These people are not afraid to correct you on your mistakes and help you get a little bit better each time you interact.
• Group language speakers: Attending language meet-ups in your city to practice your language with other speakers. The app HelloTalk can help with this.
• A partner in crime: This can be a fellow learner who you keep accountable and vice versa. You can do this on the Add1 Challenge.

The more you practise your language out loud, the more people you speak with consistently, the faster you’ll get to conversational fluency (and a boss battle victory). So give yourself all the chances you can!

Power Through the Suck, Speak from Day One!

The first time you ever do anything, you’re most likely going to be terrible at it. Whether playing an instrument, playing a new video game, or speaking a new language: you have to “learn the ropes” and get started. This isn’t a reflection on who you are as a person, the “suck” comes with the territory! This is why you need to embrace the suck. Be okay with being not good at your target language. It’s why Benny recommends “speaking from day 1.” The sooner you start talking, the sooner you start making mistakes, the faster you start learning, and the sooner you get to your boss battle! As you are getting started with your language, fake it 'til you make it. It’s okay if you think you sound foolish or you mispronounce things; how else are you supposed to learn? Make this year the year you learn a language and become a multilingual superhero! To recap on how to make serious progress on your language learning:

• Add mini quests and missions to your language learning: gamify your language learning.
• Add rewards and accountability to stay on target
• Create a boss battle that you work towards, and commit!
• Structure your habitat with a “target learning zone”
• Surround yourself with allies that help you succeed.
• Speak today; get through the “I suck” part.

I’d love to hear from you how you’re planning on implementing the above with SPECIFIC examples. Leave a comment, and Benny will pick five comments send them a copy of my new book, Level Up Your Life, in bookstores and on Amazon now! Level Up Your Life will help you make progress on your big goals (including language learning, adventure, travel, and fitness) and have fun along the way. We’ve even built a character system where you can gamify your language learning goals and level up your life, literally! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to practicing my Spanish for an upcoming trip to Costa Rica!

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