Keep your Spanish going over the summer!
This summer, don’t leave Spanish behind in the classroom. If you’re interested in improving, there are plenty of ways you can keep enriching your understanding of the language during the holidays, without it feeling too much like schoolwork.
Watching
We’ve looked at reading, writing, listening to and speaking Spanish. So now, to finish off this series, it’s time for some fun: watching videos, programmes and films in Spanish. A combination of listening and reading, the advantage of watching is that you can often work out what’s going on from the actors’ performances, so it isn’t a problem if you don’t understand every word.
YouTube
The world’s largest video-sharing website is teeming with Spanish materials — from music videos for popular Spanish songs and videos of useful vocabulary, to clips from TV series and films and Spanish-speaking vloggers. With 400 hours of footage uploaded to YouTube every day, it won’t be long before you discover the best channel for you to learn Spanish with.
Television
We’ve all heard of telenovelas — Latin American soap opera, usually told over a single year. But there are also many other TV programmes made in Spanish, just waiting to be discovered: dramas, comedies, documentaries and more. Most of these are available online or to buy on DVD — and if you’re on holiday in Spain itself, you can simply turn on the nearest television!
Films
Finally, if you’ve got a long evening ahead of you, why not curl up with a good Spanish film? Famous Spanish directors include Pedro Almodóvor, Alejandro Amenábar and José Luis Garcia, all of whom have won Oscars for their work. By watching their films in the original Spanish, you’ll pick up loads of conversational Spanish; although feel free to turn on the subtitles if it’ll help you follow the dialogue better.
So download a movie, or buy it on DVD, and immerse yourself in the world the filmmakers have created. Enjoy a great night in while discovering more about a foreign culture and improving your understanding of Spanish. What could be better?
Thanks for reading and we hope you had a fantastic summer!
