Chiswick Spanish Meetup

Hi there! Welcome to my spanish blog if you are a first-time visitor!

Here are some hints & tips for making our Spanish evening as enjoyable as possible. Look forward to seeing you all there!

You can also browse round the rest of the blog, I have been adding things about Spanish intermittently over the last year or so. Oh and in January's blog you'll see a picture of me at the top of the Sagrada Familia.

Firstly and most importantly - don't panic - just enjoy yourself! It's not a class nor a test. Please just relax and enjoy. Everyone is usually nervous at first - ME in particular...

Two exceedingly useful questions:

1) Cómo se dice "i'm"? - how do you say "I'm going on holiday"?

2) Qué significa "tulipán"? - What does tuplipán mean?

The best 2 questions I learnt - why they don't teach that in the very first lesson of Spanish I don't know - I spent years trying to work them out.

Things you might like to look at:

Introductions - meeting people
Hola! Qué tal?
Estoy bien/cansada/muy ocupada en mi trabajo...
Me llamo Liz, cómo te llamas? (or se llama)
Mucho gusto - nice to meet you
Encantado/a de conocerte/le - nice to meet you
Estoy aquí por el Meetup español

Social questions - in particular review the tú verb conjugations - I still get in a muddle when asking questions.

e.g.
Dónde trabajas
Dónde trabajaste cuando estabas en el norte de Inglaterra

Useful phrases

Tener que + verb - to have to xxx
e.g. Tengo que ir ahora - I have to go now
Tengo que practicar más - I have to practise more

Poder + verb - to be able to (I can, you can etc)
e.g. puedes ver la película en el viernes - You can see the film on Friday
puedo dormir en la classe español porque... - I can sleep in the Spanish class because...

Querer + - I want/would like to
e.g. Quiero vivir en España en futuro

or if you are a bit posh

Quisiera vivir en España en futuro.

Gustar, encantar
me gusta jugar al badminton - I like playing badminton
me encantan los operas de Wagner

REALLY useful verbs

Poder
Decir
Hablar
Tener
Hacer
Llevar
Vivir
Estar
Ser
Saber
Conocer

As for conjugations - you can usually get by (but better to learn all of them of course!) with just the first three i.e. I, you (familiar) and he, she, it. If you use the preterite make sure you put the accent in the right place otherwise it will be confusing - i.e. hablo - I speak, habló - he spoke

Haber if you will use Past Perfect

Dare you use subjunctive???? arrrrgghhh...

Useful things in a bar or restaurant

Quieres beber algo?
Quieres comer algo?
Dónde están los servicios?

I'll add some more stuff when I get the chance.

p.s. if you find mistakes please let me know...thanks!

My del.icio.us Links

http://del.icio.us/lollykins/language?page=1

I've started social bookmarking with del.icio.us - this link will take you to all the language links I've collected so far...

Enjoy!

Really Learn Spanish website and podcast

Go and check this out - it's really good

www.spanishpodcasting.com

I have been listening to Number 5 (April 2005)

It has a transcript of a portion of Hugo Chavez's interview and you can see a tiny speaker near the calendar which is the link to the podcast.

Here is the video on Google video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144

Enjoy!

Another great link that's growing and growing

Notes in Spanish is superb

http://www.notesinspanish.com/

It has loads of hints and tips, a forum, and you can print the transcript off as a worksheet at a £1 a go.

It's an offspin from Notes From Spain.

Hola - finalmente!

Hola

He volvido.

Aquí hay unos enlaces utilizandos.

http://spanishconversation.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Spanishconversationworldwide/links

Espero que continuar esta blog, pero estoy ocupada y olvido siempre!

Sigh...

Nos vemos

The formatting argh!

do justice - hacer justicia
do justice to - honrar
do like - hacer como
do no harm - no hacer daño
do no wrong - no hacer mal
do nothing - hacerlo todo mal
do nothing - no hacer nada
do on your own - hacer por uno mismo
do one's best - hacerlo lo mejor posible
do one's best to do sth - hacer todo lo posible por
do one's duty - cumplir con su deber
do one's gardening - cuidar el jardín
do one's shopping - hacer las compras
do one's utmost to do sth - esforzarse al máximo por algo
do one's utmost to do sth - hacer hasta lo imposible por
do oneself a disservice - hacerse un flaco servicio
do or die - de vida o muerte
do out - limpiar y ordenar
do out - decorar
do out of - privar de
do over (US) - volver a hacer otra vez
do over again - volver a hacer desde el principio
do penance - hacer penitencia
do right - obrar bien
do right by - portarse bien con
do service - ser útil
do service - servir
do silly things - hacer tonterías
do somebody out of something - estafar algo a alguien
do someone to death - matar a alguien
do something - hacer algo
do something on purpose - hacer algo a propósito
do sth eagerly - hacer algo con ilusión
do sth in an amateurish way (Pejorative) - hacer algo de forma chapucera


more after sleep....

Escucho, escucho

Listening like a mad woman to Spanish dialogue to brush for the AS aural... in particular...

http://www.notesfromspain.com/category/notes-in-spanish/


fantastico!

umm could you, may be, possibly?

Phrase of the day...

A ver si estudias más.

The previous phrase:

Vámonos que nos vamos a mojar

Let's quit while the going's good.

Hasta luego...

Mmmm

Today's phrase is

Vámonos que nos vamos a mojar.

And on that note...I'm off!

¡Viva Barcelona!

Just spent a great weekend in Barcelona, here's a picture of me ....at the top of one of the spires in the Holy Family Temple (La Sagrada Familia).

And a few more...

Oops I've been slacking...

discovered

www.pandora.com

Join it, it's very good - nothing to do with Spanish but great.