The Complete (Sentence) Story

I must have had a really terrific elementary school teacher who taught me to read test instructions very, very carefully. I do wish that I could remember which teacher it was, in order to thank him or her. Many, many points have been saved by this practice (and many heartaches and headaches avoided).

I bring this up because I just finished grading EXAM 1. The instructions across the exam said, "answer in a complete sentence." Still, students responded with just a number (24, for example) instead of a sentence ("The number is 24). And I have to take points off...and I really don't like taking points off.

Sometimes people think, mistakenly, that a sentence needs to be wordy or lengthy.

In fact, a sentence, in Spanish, can be only ONE word in length and still "qualify" as a sentence as long as that word is a conjugated verb.

Consider:

Baila.

He dances.

Canta.

She sings.

Trabajan.

They work.

I hope to be that teacher. You might not remember my name a year from now. I want you to remember to check to see that when the instructions read "answer in a complete sentence" on a Spanish exam, that you've written at least one conjugated verb.

C'mon now, say it with me. How long, minimally, is a complete sentence in Spanish?

"At least one conjugated verb."

Blog Roll

I've assigned the following;

"find and follow a blog written by someone in a Spanish-speaking country for two to three weeks."

For Spanish 101, students may choose a blog written in English.
For Spanish 102, I recommend a blog written in both languages(or two, one in Spanish and one in English.)

I'm quite surprised to hear comments like "Help! I can't find a blog!"

I have the opposite problem. I am intrigued and inspired by several blogs that I follow regularly, using Google Reader (click on "Feed" or "RSS" to subscribe to a blog). Each time I follow a link to another blog or search around for a few minutes by way of Yahoo or Google, I find many, many more blogs that look interesting. I want to read them all.

Take today's catch, for example.
There's MotherJungle, written by an artist, single mother of a child with Down's Syndrome living in Costa Rica. Her blog features photos of the jungle, working-class people waiting in line for the bus, and
a nun walking along the sidewalk.

Travelojos has a more journalistic tone. Articles explore topics like technology and policy.

The Tranquilo Traveler is reporting about forest burning in Nicaragua.

Real people with authentic first-hand accounts of the people, places and happenings in Spanish-speaking countries.

Reflexives with Julieta

despedirse
levantarse
acostarse
irse
casarse con
morirse

The verbs above are what we refer to as reflexive. They MUST carry a pronoun in either form, infinitive or conjugated.

There are two reasons a verb might be reflexive.

The first reason is that the "action falls back upon the subject." In other words, a person is doing something on his own, such as brushing his own hair, getting up, going to bed, brushing his teeth, etc. In an "opposite" scenario, a nurse might help this same someone retire, help someone brush his hair, etc.

Many of the verbs that have to do with morning and night routines are reflexive.

The second reason a verb may be reflexive is to differentiate it from its "non-reflexive" counterpart: two verbs that have slightly different meanings.

Take dormir and dormirse. Dormir means to sleep. Dormirse means to fall asleep.

In the the song "Me Voy" , Julieta Venegas uses one of each type of reflexive verb.

Irse means "to leave," as in "I'm gone, outa here, see ya later."
Depedirse de is a concept that has to do Spanish culture. It means "to say good-bye" in the sense of "releasing yourself from another person." It's a polite thing to do when leaving for a long period of time, beyond just saying the words "Adiós."

Meanwhile, enjoy this classic song from "Los Hombres G" - who are getting themselves ready (a reflexive situation) to go out for a run time (pasarselo bien).

Valentine's Day for Little People

Casí llega el día de San Valentín. In my opinion, there has to be at least one other girl in the room in order to drum up any excitement whatsoever about this particular holiday. That's been my experience, at least. My male children, for their part, pretty much "flat line" whenever I mention making Valentine's Day cards.

The youngest boys need tarjetas for school, Pioneer Club and Sunday School. If I bother to do the math that's

(2 x 20) + (2 x 20) + (2 x 20)= (dos por veinte) más (dos por veinte) más (dos por veinte)= Son muchas!!!!

I love poetry, candy, flowers, hearts and all of the symbols associated with el día de San Valentín! Me encantan! Even globos de gas!
Two of my favorite poets who have written romantic poetry in Spanish are Pablo Neruda and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.

Below you'll find a video that I think is muy romántico, made for the Amaral song, "Resurrección" (the title does not intend to reference the Biblical use of this word).

The small dolls used in the video became so popular that the group took them on tour.

You might consider using dolls or puppets in your own oral presentations for Spanish class.

La trompeta - aprender algo nuevo, de nuevo

Estos días me dedico a estudiar el trombón.Hace 30 años que incluso toco un instrumento de viento. Estudié el trombón cuando tenía como diez años. Lo dejé y nunca volví a tocarlo.

Hasta ahora. Decidí volver a estudiarlo porque un hombre muy generoso está enseñandonos todos a tocar un instrumento. Todos los mienbros de la familia. Y la leccion es gratis. Somos todos miembros de un grupo musical y en julio habrá un concierto para el público.

Hay gran cantidad de "sonido" (mejor dicho, "ruido") en la casa Miller.

Para mi fiesta pongo la música de...

"break it down, break it down, break it down
woah woah woah
she want some reggaeton, reggaeton, reggaeton, reggaeton
woah woah woah woah"

"Mamacita" por Daddy Yankee


Mañana es mi cumpleaños. Es el día 5 de febrero. La fiesta será pequeña. Estarán mis hijos y mi esposo. (Pedí una tarta hecha por Wegmans Patisserie, cualquiera)

Pretendo poner la música que más me gusta y en la lista saldrá por lo menos una canción reggaeton.
"
Reggaetón blends West-Indian music influences of reggae and dancehall with those of Latin America, such as bomba, plena, salsa, merengue, latin pop, cumbia and bachata as well as that of hip hop, contemporary R&B, and electronica" (from Wikipedia). It's said that it began in Panama and quickly spread to other parts of Latin America and the U.S.

I prefer reggaetón songs that utilize traditional and folk instruments like the pan pipes or the accordian. I also prefer the traditional dem bow rythem.

It's difficult to recommend reggaeton music to students, however, because the videos are sometimes graphic, violent, and downright raunchy. (Take Calle 13, for example - they infuse poetry and politics into their lyrics and their music is innovative. Yet they also push the limits of lewdness) (Please don't consider this a referral but rather a warning/un aviso)

There are "clean" reggaetón videos by artists who chose not to focus on sex and violence. One can listen to songs without videos on YouTube such as Daddy Yankee's "Que Tengo Que Hacer?" (clean)



Several songs by Amaral (image) will also surely be among the songs on my birthday party playlist. I appreciate the pure, raw talent represented by this couple (and, I love her shoes! Me encantan sus zapatos!). Their songs have been at the top of the charts in Spain for ten years or more, partly because they continually stretch and grow musically.

You can check out TopLatino to hear the most popular songs across Latin America (much like "America's Top 40")

Ahora,

A celebrar! A bailar!

Is there a better way?

WAY back in 1991 I studied under Itziar Laka in the Linguistics program at the University of Rochester (we, her students, used to privately call her "the borg" because she wore black leather, head to toe, and she was tough as nails.) She was also brilliant and she had studied under Noam Chomsky at MIT.

For her syntax class she required that we write a paper about the usage of the English word "they're." Word-processed (not typed), 40 pages minimum, including sentence tree illustrations. (I hope that right now you're feeling happy that you are studying Spanish and not linguistics).

It was not so common, then, for students to use computers to write their papers. I struggled. In fact, I remember spending a lot of time in the college's computer lab during the historic ice storm of 1991.

To think I ever preferred to type a 40 page paper on a typewriter!

Now I face a decision about technology in my own classes. I would prefer to require that all students in on-line classes create and post a video for their oral presentations.

In the past, I've given students a choice. I asked for feedback, "Would you prefer to use the telephone or YouTube?"

One student, just last semester, replied, "what is YouTube?"

It will take extra time for students who don't already know how to create a video with sound, edit it, and upload it.

Students might have to travel to a campus, borrow someone's computer/microphone, or seek out technical advice.

Will they thank me? Have I become "the borg?" (That last link includes a treat for Trekkies, Star Trek wallpapers for your computer).