Speaking Spanish -Playing the Ukulele

We met Peter Løvstrøm only a short while ago. He contacted us after having purchased some of our help sheets and talked about his passion for the Spanish language and that he loved speaking Spanish in his town of Brighton where there are reportedly, 50, 000 Spanish ex-pats living at the moment.

In his message, Peter mentioned his acting career and the fact that his acting training had helped him a lot with his language skills. I suppose it goes without saying that after having spent your entire career focussing on the nuances of language as well as playing with accent, then learning to pronounce a new language would sit fairly comfortably with you.

Con mucha cara. (Brazen faced)

Always on the look out for new people to interview and armed with a new program to record Skype sessions, I barefacedly asked Peter if he would be willing to give us an interview that we could upload to Youtube and to our page.

Not giving it a second thought, Peter agreed and after having talked with him for virtually two hours (which flew by in a trice) I understood why he so readily agreed to talk.

What came across to me within seconds was that  when it comes to speaking Spanish and learning the language, Peter Løvstrøm  is probably the most demonstrably enthusiastic person I have ever met!  In fact, in all aspects of his life he demonstrates an unbridled passion for what he does. He lists his hobbies like he was reading from an a la carte menu, and talks animatedly about his acting career, learning Spanish, exercise, reflexology, the Ukulele, cooking, travel, coaching young actors and so much more.

30 year acting career

Despite having acted in many films such as “The Meaning of Life” with Monty Python and having appeared in most of the important theatres in the UK, he really doesn’t talk too much about that side of his life. Although he still acts, his focus seems to be set on self improvement and helping others.

Peter is completely self taught when it comes to his Spanish and has done an excellent job with it. Of course, like us all, he still has many doubts and confusions and quite literally bombarded me with question after question during our session on all of the areas of his Spanish that were less clear.

The ideal student

For me, having this kind of student is paradise. In those sessions, time quite literally flies.  An hour can pass in what seems like a minute or two.

As you listen in to Peter’s interview, pay special attention to when, toward the end, he begins to talk about his Reflexology. Notice how, because of his enthusiasm for his work, he goes into flow and starts talking at another level. It’s very interesting to watch and hear!

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Spanish Speaker. Being a male model in Spain.

Guillermo is a young man and Spanish speaker who I have known since he was 10 years old. Suddenly, about four years ago, he started to shoot up, (not overly common in Spain) and became the guy you now see in the video and in the picture here.

His job is mainly working in promotional activities in the role of  “un azafato”. Originally, the word AZAFATA was used to describe what was, in the eighties, a primarily female role on the airlines, which was the  job of an air hostess. Now, we have air stewards of both genders and so we call them azafatos, or azafatas.

Gulliermo, however, does not work on the airlines but rather in Madrid centre where he models clothing, or works on the launches of new brands of perfume or clothing.

His job is to be the one of the  pretty people that we expect to see in these events. It seems to work for him and he enjoys what he does as well having the opportunity to meet many famous people.

The issue is, as Guillermo explains, that the work isn’t steady and can swing wildly from him having many hours to having nothing at all.

Whilst he is single and living with his parents, this kind of erratic income isn’t a problem, however, as he goes on to say, his plans for the future don’t include being a model.

Partying in Spain.

Just like many other young people, Guillermo enjoys to party and often goes out with his friends to nightclubs, (still called discotecas in Spain). However, given that few of the young people of Spain have large incomes, they prefer to have a drink before they go out to save money. Often, they get together in the street and drink there. That is, however, until the police started to crack down on the “no drinking in public places” law that exists in Spain.

Beber en la calle….prohibido

In the interview he tells of how, if you are caught with alcohol in the street in Madrid centre, they can fine you 500 euros! Imagine, how difficult would it be for them to pay that kind of fine!

Guillermo also talks about where he enjoys taking his holidays. He mentions Benidorm, Alicante,and Torrevieja, all of the places that many British holiday makers enjoy, too. (Personally, I would run screaming from them, something which may have to do with my age hehe.)

It seems that whether you are a Spanish speaker or an English speaker, the coast is the place to be to have fun.(Or not;))

Listen in to this interesting Spanish speaker and see how much you can understand.

Saludos,

Gordon 🙂

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Spanish as a second language. A fantastic example.

In this interview, recorded in a small café in Toledo, we talk to Michael Smith (also known as Michael Smithingtonsworthly on Facebook) about his experiences here in Spain during his two week stay with us in the region of Guadalajara in the outskirts of Madrid.

Ten con ten. (Give and take.)

Michael has been instrumental in helping us grow our Internet presence over the last 18 months and has worked tirelessly to get us on the first page of Google searches for Spanish language resources. We can’t thank him enough.

So, as a way of showing our appreciation and to finally be able to meet him face to face we invited him and his fiancée to Spain to spend the summer with us this year.

Michael’s Secret Learning System

Once you have seen the video, you will no doubt be wondering what Michael did to get such a strong and competent Spanish. You may be surprised to know that at the time of the interview he has only been learning Spanish for three years.

However, by no means have they been three casual years of learning. Rather, Michael has used a tremendous amount of effort and money to get his Spanish to where it is now.

Piggy back Learning

We’ve talked about this method of learning before. Piggy back learning is using time you already have to learn. One of the greatest challenges for anyone is finding extra time to learn and study.  With this system, you don’t need to find extra time in your week but rather, you use dead time that already exists.

For example, Michael works quite a distance from his home and drives for two hours a day, five days a week. Rather than wasting this time listening to the radio, or lost in his own thoughts, he has converted his car into a classroom and listens to Spanish Podcasts or Spanish music whilst he drives.  This has given him 10 hours a week of learning, five times more than the average student!

Reading Out Loud

Now on his fourth or fifth book in the series, Michael has read all of the Harry Potter books out loud, a slower process than reading silently, yet massively beneficial for improving your spoken Spanish. You only need to listen to how clearly Michael pronounces to see that this system has been un éxito total for him.

Imersión Total

Michael has worked on the principal of immersing himself completely in the learning process of speaking Spanish as a second language (and becoming a little obsessed with it) . We suggest that if you, too, want to really move your Spanish forward at LightSpeed, then you should take a leaf out of Michael’s book (and then read it out loud jeje).

Ya se han ido

Today Michael and Emilie, his fiancée left for los Estados Unidos after two weeks with us.  We wish them a safe journey and want to say a big thank you to Michael for all he has done for us.

Gordon y Cynthia. 🙂

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Spain vs Mexico.

No matter how you look at it, just as English has as many regional and country specific variations as there are languages in the world, so Spanish could never be grouped into one stereotypical language.

Jeff de México

So, we were really “entusiasmados” when Jeff from Youtube ZMG4U contacted us and suggested a collaboration video called Spain vs Mexico.

Jeff is a Mexican teacher who has a great channel on Youtube and helps students of Spanish who travel to Mexico to learn the specifics of the language of that country.

Vocabulary and Verbs

What I find interesting about what we cover in these two videos is that when it comes to the key differences in the Spain vs Mexico analysis , there seems to be more variation in the nouns or names of things than there is in the verbs or doing words.

What happens, however, is that many times the same verbs have different meanings in each country.

I recall the story of Alejandro Sanz, a famous Spanish singer who had to change some of the words to his songs  whilst he was on tour in Mexico. One song called “Pisando Fuerte” Stepping Heavily/Strongly had to have the verb changed because although PISAR exists in that country, it is used to mean to have sex. So, as you can imagine, that would change the whole feel to the song. jeje.

 Accents

What is also interesting to note in this collaboration is the difference between Cynthia’s strong peninsular Spanish accent and Jeff’s more gentle and melodic Mexican accent.

As you listen, pay special attention to the way the two pronounce the LL and Y as well as the J and the CE, CI and Z.

The Spanish tend to make the sounds more guttural, more akin to the Arabic pronunciation which had a tremendous influence on peninsular Spanish during its development.

The Mexican pronunciation is much softer and rarely has that harshness that is so typical of Spanish from Spain.

Gordon’s Culture Shock

I recall when I left Mexico after living and working there for two years and started to talk to Spanish speakers from Spain. I couldn’t take my eyes off their tongues which seemed to spend more time out of their mouths than in them.

At first, I found their accent far too harsh, to exaggerated and, if I’m honest, a little frightening.

Now, however, I really do love it! I find that Peninsular Spanish is very expressive and when I speak it, my whole tonality and expression changes. This seems to happen by itself rather than on purpose and before I know it, I’m swearing like the best of them and finishing a quarter of my sentences with the word “coño”. (This is an exaggeration btw. It only happens two or three times a day.)

So, enjoy the video. There will be more. And take some time to listen to Alejandro’s music. Es muy buena.

Gordon 🙂

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