Let’s start with a final note on materials and a brief look at some fun ways to study spanish. Go buy yourself some flash cards, which are essentially just pieces of cardboard which you write words on in order to memorise them (more on these and ways to use them in a later entry) as well as some post-it stamps. Ok, now go and label EVERYTHING in Spanish all over the house. Don’t just go for basic things like the dog or cat; label the door handle as well. Stick them in the car and garden. Make sure you can see out of the windscreen. This is not a fix-all solution to learning new words, but it will provide a nice ‘setting’ in which to study. So that’s pretty light and straight-forward isn’t it? See, not all materials need to be based around 1001 flesh-eating verbs, giant dictionaries, and grammar books which make you despair at the task ahead of you. Well, most of the time they do, but who said you can’t just chill out along the way (a bit of foreshadowing here…there will be an upcoming and in-depth blog post on this matter)? While you’re at it, crack open a bottle of wine or beer. Who cares anyway? Are you going to be tested on this stuff? Oh, you are?
You can’t study without wine.
This is one of the most important and overlooked aspects of language acquisition – a relaxed attitude and mind-set. So have a glass or five and get down to it.
What about films and other relaxing past times? Here are a few recommendations:
Drama
Amores perros (Love’s a Bitch) – Mexico 2005
María, llena de gracia eres (María Full of Grace) – USA /Colombia /Ecuador – 2004
El secreto de sus ojos (the Secret in their Eyes) – Argentina 2009
Al otro lado del río (The Motorcycle Diaries) – Argentina/USA etc. 2004
Machuca (same in English) – Chile 2004
Innocent Voices (Voces inocentes) – El Salvador 2004
Che parts 1-2 (Actually two films from the States by Steven Soderbergh, but they’re in Spanish) – USA /Spain /France 2008
Mar adentro (the Sea Inside) – Spain 2004
Machuca (2004)
Comedy
Y tu mamá también (And your Mum as well) – Mexico 2001
La mala educación – (Bad Education) – Spain 2004
Horror and Fantasy
El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Laberinth) – Mexico /Spain /USA 2006
Rec (Same in english. Just search for a copy with subs. It’s a zombie film, by the way) – Spain 2007
Rec 2 – Spain 2009
Rey de la montaña (King of the Hill) – Spain 2007
El día de la bestia (Day of the Beast. This film rocks! It’s a horror comedy about Satan and Capitalism) – Spain 1995
Tesis (Thesis) – Spain – 1996
Juan de los muertos (Juan of the dead. This is a comedy zombie film about Cuban society! Great, hey?) – Cuba 2011
El día de la bestia – Day of the Beast
Dubbed and Subtitled Films (yes, and very funny)
Desafío total /El vengador del futuro (Total Recall)
Depredador (Predator)
“Time to let old painless out of the bag!” Watching films with Spanish subtitles is a novel way of picking up the old expression.
We will return to fun ways to study Spanish at a later date. Next up, an examination of practical methods and techniques for studying. Also keep an eye out for part two of Cuisine and the Food-Savvy Traveller in Spain and Latin America in our parallel blog series on Spanish and Latin American Culture and Language.