Chat Pals (compañeros de charlar)

Although you may improve your ability to understand English by listening to podcasts, if you want to learn to speak it, you’ll have to practice speaking—preferably by speaking with a native English speaker, so that he or she can help you correct your errors in grammar and pronunciation. With the advent of free Internet services such as Skype and Windows Live Messenger you can speak with people throughout the world at no charge. All you need to do is to find a native English speaker who would like to chat with you. Fortunately, there are thousands of native English speakers who would like to practice their Spanish, and who would be happy to speak with someone in English in exchange for the other person speaking to them in Spanish. There are several Internet based services that bring such people together. The site that I have used is My Language Exchange http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/default_spn.asp and I’ll tell you a little about that site.

Thousands upon thousands of men and women have registered on the site, and the site claims to have speakers of 115 different languages. I didn’t take time to count them, but I assure you there are a lot of languages represented on the site! I entered information about my native language English, and said that I wanted to find a native Spanish speaker who was interested in improving his or her English. If you wish, you can specify the gender, age, and country of the type of person you want to speak to. I was hoping to get perhaps 30 names of people. I got over 23,000 names! The hardest part was selecting people from the list of 23,000. After selecting a few names, I used the site to contact the people. I finally came up with 3 people with whom I now regularly chat. One is in Spain, one in Mexico, and the third in Colombia. The site is free to register; however, if you do not pay for the “gold membership” you have to wait to be contacted by somebody. If you buy the “gold membership” for USD 24 per year, you can initiate the contact. You can also buy a one-month gold membership for USD 6, which should be adequate for contacting many people and establishing numerous “chat pals.” You must use the web site to initially contact the other members, but after that you can use your regular email address.

I have been having conversations with my “chat pals” for about two months now, and I find that my ability to speak Spanish has improved considerably. We usually use Windows Live Messenger (available for free at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d78f2ff1-79ea-4066-8ba0-ddbed94864fc&DisplayLang=es ) or Skype (available for free at http://www.skype.com/intl/es/ )

Podcast 5 - Football in the United States

For those of you who want to learn more about American football, I would recommend visiting some of the following web sites:

Brief description of the rules of the game: http://www.juegosdeportivos.com/futbolamericano/reglasfutbolamericano.html

General description of the teams and players:
http://www.footballamericano.com/indexfa.asp

Official NFL website in Spanish:
http://www.nflatino.com/inicio/index.php

Want More of a Challenge?

Have you thought that you might like to spend a semester or more at an English speaking college or university? Perhaps you think that my podcasts are not enough of a challenge, that you would like to try something a little more difficult. Well, if so, here is a link that you might find interesting http://devel2.njit.edu/serendipity/index.php?/archives/267-Public-iTunes-U-Sites-version-2.html Several American colleges and universities such as University of California, Princeton, Stanford, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and many others offer free podcasts to anybody who cares to download them. The link that I have given above lets you easily find many of these podcasts. The content of the podcasts varies, but many are the lecture portion of actual college courses. You can find lectures in chemistry, biology, music, and many other topics. Be forewarned however, these are not for beginners! Unlike my podcasts, the speakers do not stop to explain difficult words or idioms. The lectures are delivered at the same speed as you would hear them in an actual university in the United States. Give them a try. A typical private college in the United States costs between $35,000 and $45,000 per year to attend. These podcasts are free. Take advantage!

Podcast 2 - Baseball Idioms

Baseball Terms

Those of you who read the Spanish translation may wonder why I chose some of the words that I did. I have to admit, as I thought about the podcast, I was wondering how I was going to translate it into Spanish. My Spanish vocabulary relating to sports is very limited. Then I came across a web site that had two dictionaries of baseball terms in Spanish. The first was a Spanish-English dictionary and the second was an English-Spanish dictionary. They are free, and if you are interested, you can obtain them here http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/education/dictionary/

Spanish/English Language Forum

If you are reading this blog, your English is probably at the intermediate or advanced level; however, you will occasionally be confused about an idiom, about proper usage, or about how a technical term is translated from Spanish to English or from English to Spanish. In the box on the right entitled "Resources on the Web," you can click on Spanish/English Language Forum and you will be taken to a site where you can ask questions and have native Spanish and English speakers from around the world help you with your question.

Podcast 1 - Hello and Welcome

In addition to my podcast, there are many resources on the Internet for people who wish to learn English. I shall discuss four that I think are particularly good. In the box to the right entitled "Resources on the Web," you can click on the link and go directly to the site.

News in Simple English - is a news podcast by the Voice of America. The podcast uses a simple English with a limited vacabulary in order that novices can better understand it.

VOA News Podcasts - are various news podcasts by the Voice of America. While not specifically intended to teach English, the speakers do speak very clearly.

Words and Their Stories - short five-minute podcasts that discuss English idioms, slang, and common sayings.

English as a Second Language - podcasts prepared by professional educators designed to teach English to non-native speakers.

For those of you who would like a good reference book on English grammar, I would recommend the Harbrace College Handbook. The most recent edition is the 13th; however, the older editions are available for very little money, and will serve you just as well.