Related Recs

🗣

busuu (app) and talking!

Hay muchas aplicaciones que tienen mejores sistemas que Duolingo (Rosetta Stone, Babbel), pero personalmente puedo recomendar Busuu porque he tenido bastante experiencia usándola en el pasado. Tiene ejercicios de escucha y de habla bastantes buenos. Pero ya que solías ser capaz de hablar conversacionalmente, nomás tienes que intentar hablar con alguien, aunque sea solo muy sencillo al principio. Intenta pedir comida en un sitio donde se habla español y cosas así. También hay otras aps de intercambio de conversación con hablantes nativos a las que puedes apuntarte (HelloTalk, Tandem). Sigue cuentas de memes en español! Y por fin siempre estoy buscando compañeros/as para practicar – mi nivel de conversación es aceptable, pero aún necesita mejorar mucho 😶💭🙃 🗣️

@solomonki

Feb 25, 2024

🫦

On learning: spanish-watching telenovelas

- I know it seems funny but they are always over emphasizing what they want to say in a very dramatic way, so it's useful for your pronunciation at first. My recommendation is Betty la Fea, from Colombia. - Stick to a single accent. The slang is all different in Spanish according to countries, regions and even from city to city. It's better sticking to a single accent/country. It's gonna be easier in terms of technique. I recommend accents from Latin America, as they currently have a big cultural impact. A lot of people decide to go with the Spanish accent under the justification that "it's traditional" (traditional as in, they think everybody will understand them because they also think that everybody speaks in that dialect to an extent, which is untrue). The advantage of a latin American accent, depending on which one you pick, is that it could come off as more neutral, which in my pinion facilitates your learning process. - Look up songs. Hispanics loooove storytelling and they do it mostly through music. I would listen to Shakira's old songs, Juanes, Carlos Vives. Some specific songs you can look up are: Hijo de la Luna by Mecano: it tells the legend of the personification of motherhood through the moon (Spain); Mis Ojos Lloran Por Ti by Big Boy (Latin America): this is a song that fluctuates between a ballad and rap. The rap goes pretty fast, but the idea is for you to look up the lyrics. Talks about a guy being very sad because he is heartbroken; Ella y Yo by Aventura feat. Don Omar: this song is about two guys breaking off their friendship because of a woman. It's very emotional and intense. It reads like a conversation, like a dialogue between these two men. One talks, the other responds, so it's pretty simple to follow. - If you're looking for content creators, my last rec has the type of people you should follow in order to learn. It's a generic guide. - I've talked about this previously, but you should activate your accessibility tools on your phone. These are tools for blind people. The phone reads the content aloud to them. With the tools, you have the possibility to select a specific paragraph/word and have the phone read it aloud to you. Obviously, your keyboard needs to be in Spanish for this. Like I said before, I recommend you choosing the Latin American Spanish. in this way, if you don't have anyone to practice with, but you have doubts about your pronunciation, you could just select the word you want and the phone will read it for you. You have the chance of repeating it as much as you want and you could also say it out loud by yourself until you get it right, which is really cool. On iPhone you can adjust the speed. I'm assuming this is similar for other phones.

@mariamaria

Nov 19, 2024

🎧

Tv shows

Narcos on Netflix is really great if you’re interested in the historical (slightlyyyy fiction) of Pablo Escobar and like violent gritty shows. Great Colombian accents. A Perfect Story on Netflix is a great rom com series, but it’s Spain spanish which is verrryyy fast. I’ve been watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine with a Spanish dub and that’s honestly been super fun. —- I find that TV/Music only helps if you’re really studying and pursuing the language outside of just it’s content. Otherwise you’re trying to drink from a firehose. The BEST method I’ve found for actually translating auditory listening into cognitive understanding is this: Find a YouTube video of a Spanish speaker (dreaming Spanish has tons of great content), open a word doc and transcribe what you hear. Don’t worry about translation. Just transcribe, maybe 10-15 seconds a time. Then watch back with Spanish subtitles to see what you got right. Correct it, and then translate to the best of your ability. Then check your translation, correct, and move on. It takes a lot of energy, but it truly is the most thorough learning process I’ve found. (Coming from someone who is living in Colombia rn learning Spanish)

@heydiego

Jul 24, 2024

Top Recs from @relaxing

🐱

When your cat becomes suspiciously nice before feeding time

When your cat comes to cuddle you and you’re like “wow, this bud really loves me…” then you look at the clock and notice that it’s almost feeding time.

@relaxing

Mar 5, 2024

🧂

Finishing salts

The other night I fell asleep on the couch around 10:00 pm watching Joseph Campbell’s Mythos I. I woke up around 4:30 am, washed my face and brushed my teeth. This invigorated me to the point that I basically wasn’t falling back asleep, so I ended up looking up different brands of finishing salts for two hours in bed. Fleur De Sel and Maldon Sea Salts are not salts that you want to cook with, but that you want to sprinkle atop things as “finishing salts”. In my research I discovered that Guérande or Camargue fleur de sels are top brands to use. And with Maldon, the brand just called Maldon. I have Maldon sea salts and also Sal de Ibiza fleur de sel which is really good. It comes in a ceramic pot with a little spoon. I recommend both and you don’t need a lot, a little goes a long way. From Wikipedia: “Fleur de sel ("flower of salt" in French; French pronunciation: [flœʁ də sɛl]) or flor de sal (also "flower of salt" in Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan) is a salt that forms as a thin, delicate crust on the surface of seawater as it evaporates. Fleur de sel has been collected since ancient times (it was mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his book Natural History), and was traditionally used as a purgative and salve. It is now used as a finishing salt to flavor and garnish food.” From Maldon Salt website: “What is special about Maldon Salt? Maldon Salt’s irregular and distinctive pyramid shape is what makes it so special. In addition to the unique tactile texture, our pyramid salt flakes release saltiness with sweet precision, bringing a clean and delicate flavour.” Some uses: Vegetables. Pastas. Meats if you do that. Watermelon or mango. A chocolate chip cookie, fresh from the oven, topped with Maldon sea salt. I linked Alison Roman‘s recipe above for Salted Butter and Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies above. Warning: these cookies may horn you for life, and cause you to eat many. If you give them to people they’ll keep asking you to make them over and over again. Perfect trifecta of sweet but not too sweet, savory, and salty. A little toast with mashed avocado, sliced tomate, Maldon sea salt or fleur de sel on top. Can also serve with scrambled egg on the side with some Green Pepper Cholula on top (green flame emoji). A warm blueberry muffin, or toasted croissant (I pronounce this with an audible ‘r’) cut in half, some vegan (Miyoko’s, Earth Balance Soy Free) or whatever other (Kerrygold) butter melted in the middle, and a little fleur de sel or Maldon sea salt. Do you use finishing salts? What do you use them on? How do you love them? I try to watch my sodium but I’m a little bit of a salt guy in moderation. Don’t call me ”salt bae”. I’m only bae to one woman and one woman only, and that’s my wife, the most beautiful woman in the world.

@relaxing

May 5, 2024

🛀

Taking a bath in the day

It’s nice to let the afternoon sun come in while you relax in a soothing salt bath, maybe some essential oils, a lil masque. A little diffuse sunlight makes it nice.

@relaxing

Apr 24, 2024