English/Spanish Exchange

“Cool Spanish” (BBC Languages)

The BBC Languages web site has a section on slang expressions in Spanish:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/cool/

This is divided into 16 thematic sections on topics such as Food, Friends, Money, Swearwords, etc.

You can listen on the site to the phrases one at a time and read an accompanying explanation. You can also download the phrases in each section as an MP3 file.

Free Spanish units from the Open University – OpenLearn

The Open University has available in the OpenLearn LearningSpace site a few units from some of its Spanish courses.

The units available are:

• Espacios públicos (Introductory / 20 hours)
  http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2439

• La historia piedra a piedra (Intermediate / 12 hours)
  http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2951

• Con mis propias manos (Intermediate / 12 hours)
  http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2610

• Perspectivas porteñas (Advanced / 4 hours)
  http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2952

Spanish phonetics – visualisation

The University of Iowa provides a really excellent online phonetics tool:
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/spanish/frameset.html

All the sounds of the Spanish language are illustrated with animations showing the mechanics of the production of the sound, together with step-by-step descriptions.

There are also video clips of a Spanish speaker saying each sound (in isolation and also in various example words).

Teachers TV

Teachers TV has available several series of Channel 4 schools’ programmes for learning Spanish.

You can browse their list of available videos for Modern Foreign Languages and then watch the streaming videos online without having to log in (UK only).

The following Spanish series are available:

• La tienda de Luis
  Set in the old town of Oviedo in the Spanish region of Asturias / aimed at learners aged 9-12 / 5 episodes
  http://www.teachers.tv/video/2417

• Extra
  Flat sharing sitcom / aimed at learners aged 14-16 / 4 episodes
  http://www.teachers.tv/video/1887

• Aventuras Vascas
  Spanish series tracking the progress of two students in Bilbao / aimed at learners aged 14-17 / 5 episodes
  http://www.teachers.tv/video/1892