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Archive for January, 2012

5 Spanish Expressions with Hay

by Jake Beus

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January 17th, 2012

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One more day until the daily program begins! We will walk you through the Visual Link Spanish Level 1 course and suggest what you should be doing each day. Be sure to check back here on the blog tomorrow and keep up with us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated. You have to deal with one more day riding along with me and my Spanish expressions. Here are 5 Spanish expressions with ‘hay‘:

no hay bronca | no problem
No hay bronca. Hablemos de otra cosa. | No problem. Let’s talk about something else.
Vamos a la casa. No hay bronca. | Let’s go home. It’s not a problem.

no hay de qué | don’t mention it, you’re welcome
No hay de qué, amigo. Estoy encantado de ayudarte. | You’re welcome, dear friend. I’m delighted to help you.
No hay de qué. Voy a compartir mis cosas. | You’re welcome. I’m going to share my things.

no hay pero que valga | there’s no buts about it
Tienes que aceptar esta oferta y no hay pero que valga. | You have to accept this offer and there’s no buts about it.
Vamos al cine y no hay pero que valga. | We’re going to the movies and no buts about it.

no hay vuelta de hoja | there’s no turning back, there’s no doubt about it
Así se va a hacer y no hay vuelta de hoja. | That’s the way it’ll be done and there’s no backing out of it.
Ya no hablemos;  no hay vuelta de hoja. | Let’s not talk anymore about it; there’s no turning back.

no hay pena | no need to be embarrassed
Mira, no hay pena. No puedes recordar el nombre de todos tus clientes. | Look, no need to be embarrassed. You can’t remember the names of all your customers.
No hay pena. No sabías. | No need to be embarrassed. You didn’t know.

Daily Challenge: Use one of these phrases in your daily Spanish practice and tell me about it in the comments or on Facebook.

5 Common Spanish Expressions With Quedar

by Jake Beus

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January 16th, 2012

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We are very excited about the launch of our new daily program on Wednesday. This daily program will guide you through the Level 1 software and show you what you should be working on each day. Be sure to check back here for the daily video.

Now that my shameless plug is over, I’d like to teach you 5 common Spanish expressions with the verb ‘quedar’. The verb ‘quedar’ means ‘to leave it’, ‘to agree’, or ‘to decide’. However, it can mean something completely different in an expression. Without further adieu, here are the 5 Spanish expressions with examples of them:

quedar bien (mal) con | to be on the good (bad) side of
Mario siempre sabía quedar bien conmigo. | Mario always knew how to get on my good side.
Elena queda mal conmigo. | Elena is on my bad side.

quedar en la calle | to be homeless, left with nothing
Quedaron en la calle después del incendio de la fábrica. | They were left with nothing after the fire at the factory.
Quedaron en la calle debido a la economía. | They were left with nothing because of the economy.

quedar flechado/a | to fall in love with, feel love at first sight, be in love
Cuando vi a María, quedé flechado. | When I saw Maria, it was love at first sight.
Mario quedó flechado con Isabel y no quiso volver a trabajar. | Mario fell in love with Isabel and didn’t want to go back to work.

quedar grande (pequeño) | to be big (small)
Le quedó grande el vestido. | The dress was too big for her.
Me quedó pequeño la camisa. | The shirt was too small for me.

quedar pintado/a | to fit like a glove, very well; to be skin tight
¡Este vestido te queda pintado! | This dress fits you like a glove!
Me quedan pintado los pantalones. | The pants are skin tight on me.

Daily Challenge: Use one of these phrases as you practice Spanish and tell me about it in the comments or on Facebook.

Our New Daily Program Will Help You Learn Spanish

by Jake Beus

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January 13th, 2012

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Two of the most difficult parts of learning a new language are knowing what to do and staying motivated. We want to help you conquer those 2 things with our new daily program. Dave is going to guide you through the software and outline what you should be doing each day. Each day we will be posting a short video and providing encouragement to you.

No longer will you wonder what you need to do that day. The Visual Link Spanish software is full of fun games that will keep you learning and motivated. We will help you become conversational. We will help you gain confidence to practice with others. Day 1 is set to begin on Wednesday, January 18th. We will post the video each day right here on the blog.

Dave and I are excited to work with you on this new daily program.

How to Learn Spanish in 2012

by Jake Beus

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January 12th, 2012

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Learn Spanish in 2012

Setting a goal to learn Spanish is a great goal. I hope that the video you just watched will help you in your journey to learn Spanish.

Last week I asked you to post what your goals are for the upcoming year. Take the next step and share how you are going to achieve those goals with others and with us on  us on Facebook.  Help us help you and encourage others to achieve their goals. We can all use some encouragement.

Here is the vocabulary from the video:

How are you going to achieve your goals in 2012?
¿Cómo vas a lograr tus metas en 2012?
I need to set goals.
Necesito fijar metas.
I am going to set specific goals.
I am going to set specific goals.
I am going to write down my goals.
Voy a escribir mis metas.
I am going to share my goals with others.
Voy a compartir mis metas con otros.
I am going to put my goals in a place where I see them everyday.
Voy a poner mis metas en un lugar donde las veo cada día.
I am going to dedicate 30 minutes each day to my goal.
Voy a dedicarme a mi meta 30 minutos al día.
I am going to work hard.
Voy a trabjar duro.
I am going to laugh about my mistakes, learn from them, and keep moving forward.
Voy a reírme de mis equivocaciones, aprender y seguir adelante.
Question of the week:
How are you going to achieve your goals in 2012?
¿Cómo vas a lograr tus metas en 2012?

This will be the end of the normal Facebook Fiesta Friday video lessons for awhile. We are going to be creating daily videos that guide you through the course and tell you what you should do and learn each day. We have received a lot of positive feedback about this idea and we believe it will help Spanish learners stay motivated and efficient in their Spanish studies. If you have the goal to be fluent in basic conversational Spanish this year, then I highly recommend that you follow along with the videos each day. You will see daily improvement.

Follow Up: Learn Spanish with a Guide/ Instructor and Personal Trainer

by Dave Clark

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January 11th, 2012

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¡Hola Amigos!

We are officially going to start the idea we presented last week of teaching you Spanish with a Guide/Instructor and Personal Trainer.

STARTING DATE: Wednesday January18th! (Be sure and let friends, relatives, barbers, beauticians and dog groomers know about it.)

There will be no cost to follow the lessons that we will lay out for you. You simply watch the daily prerecorded lesson and I will give you tips and show you what lessons in the software you should be learning to keep up (I will be your Guide/Instructor). You will need to have the Visual Link Spanish lessons to follow along with what we teach. You can order them in the online store.

After going through the recommended lessons, you’ll be able to come to our blog and leave your comments about the lesson and Jake (your personal trainer) will give you direction, answer questions and get you pumped up to learn more. So far, it looks like we will have a couple of guest bloggers who have volunteered. We will contact them and get their comments, as they go through the course, that we can put up on the blog.

We have a lot of people excited about this. Please keep in mind that this is a new thing, and we are experimenting with this type of delivery – please be patient with us. We would also love your suggestions along the way of how we can improve things.

Our goal is to help and motivate you to learn Spanish.

¡Hasta luego Amigos!

 

5 Spanish Expressions with Tirar

by Jake Beus

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January 10th, 2012

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Tirar is one of those verbs that has a lot of different meanings depending on the context. In my experience, the most common meaning of ‘tirar’ when not in an expression  is ‘to throw’. It can mean something completely different in an expression.

tirar arroz | to put down, criticize
No me gusta tirar arroz a nadie, pero ese hombre se cree mucho. | I don’t like to put anybody down, but that man has an inflated opinion of himself.
Ella no tiene confianza porque sus padres siempre le tiran arroz. | She doesn’t have confidence because her parents are always putting her down.

tirar la esponja | to throw in the towel
Tiramos la esponja después de muchos años de sacrificio sin lograr ningún resultado. | We threw in the towel after many years of sacrifice without achieving any results.
Enseño a mis hijos a nunca tirar la esponja. | I teach my kids to never throw in the towel.

tirar la piedra y esconder la mano | to hurt someone but cover it up, be a hypocrite
Es una persona de las que tira la piedra y esconde la mano. | She’s a hypocrite.
Ella suele tirar la piedra y esconder la mano. | She’s usually a hypocrite.

tirar pinta | to dress to impress
Esta noche vamos a tirar pinta. | Tonight we are going to get all dressed up.
Es bueno tirar pinta para una entrevista. | It’s good to dress to impress for an interview.

tirarse el pegote | to lie, brag,  toot one’s own horn
Siempre se tira el pegote. | He’s always tooting his own horn.
Michael Jordan es un buen ejemplo de alguien que se tira el pegote. | Michael Jordan is a good example of someone who toots his own horn.

Daily Challenge: Use one of these Spanish expressions and post your experience on Facebook.

5 Spanish Expressions with Cantar

by Jake Beus

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January 9th, 2012

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Thanks to all of you who wished me well on Facebook and Twitter over the last few days as I was ill. I feel great now and I’m ready to attack this new year. Today I’d like to share with you 5 Spanish expressions with ‘cantar’. The verb ‘cantar’ means ‘to sing’, but it can mean something completely different in an expression.

cantar como una almeja | to call attention to oneself and look ridiculous
Cantaba como una almeja con esa camisa extraña. | She stood out like a sore thumb with that strange shirt.
Lady Gaga siempre canta como una almeja. | Lady Gaga always calls attention to herself and looks ridiculous.

cantar a alguien las cuarenta | to tell it like it is, speak one’s mind clearly, tell an unpleasant truth
Le canté las cuarenta cuando lo vi. | I gave him a piece of my mind when I saw him.
Ella me cantó las cuarenta en mi juventud. | She told it like it was to me in my younger years.

cantar victoria | to brag about or rejoice in a triumph, bring out the champagne
No cantemos victoria todavía. | Let’s not bring out the champagne yet.
Vamos a cantar victoria hasta la mañana. | We are going to celebrate until the morning.

cantar la justa | to speak frankly, tell it like it is
Eduardo nos contó la justa sobre la situación. | Edward told us the truth about the situation.
El jefe les cantó la justa a sus employees. | The boss spoke frankly to his employees.

cantarle a alguien la cartilla | to set someone straight, lay down the law
Eva le cantó la cartilla a su amante. | She laid down the law to her lover.
El gerente les cantó la cartilla a sus empleados en su primer día. | The manager laid down the law to his employees on his first day.

Daily Challenge: Use one of these phrases in your normal speech today.

Want to Learn Spanish with an Instructor/Guide and a Personal Trainer?

by Dave Clark

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January 4th, 2012

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Hola Amigos!

We have something exciting for you that we’re going to start in the next week or two to help you better learn Spanish. It is designed to help provide you daily motivation and encouragement to learn.

I will be giving you daily guidance, instruction and a recommendation of how much of the Visual Link Spanish course you should be learning every day. I will provide material for 5 days a week with you studying 30-40 minutes per day.

I will recommend which lessons from the Visual Link Spanish software specifically to learn each day and show you a few minutes of each lesson.

Then, Jake will become your personal trainer to help you get pumped up to learn. He will provide training and encouragement here on our blog, on Facebook and Twitter.

Our goal is to involve as many of you and get you motivated to truly learn Spanish. If some of you are interested in being “guest bloggers/learners”, please let us know and we can get your daily feedback as you go through the Level I course with us. We’ll then post your comments on our blog. “Guest bloggers/learners” who make it through the whole course giving us daily updates, will get the price of the course refunded at the end of the course. We just ask that you give us at least 3-4 updates a week and stay caught up over the weekend. We’ll probably limit the daily “guest bloggers/learners” to 3 or 4 of you.

If you don’t want to contribute officially on the blog but just want to come along for the ride, that’s great – you are the real reason we are doing this – so you can accomplish together with all of us!

We will also answer your questions on the blog as we go through the course.

Before we get going, we would love your feedback.

Let us know what you think and if you have any ideas for us. We hope you will help us create one big Spanish-learning “virtual gym” – an environment where your “español” can blossom.

Hasta luego!

Daily Spanish Challenge in 2012

by Jake Beus

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January 3rd, 2012

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Now that you have recovered from the holidays, it’s time to get back into real life. I hope you had a great time and I’m glad you made it through it all alive and well. If you didn’t take time to set some new goals for the new year, you don’t have to wait until 2013 to set new goals. Begin right now and write down your goals for 2012.

A new year can bring new hopes, dreams, challenges, and more more things to your life. One of my goals for this year is to give you a challenge on each of my blog posts this year. If I’m not challenging you and helping you learn Spanish, then I’m not doing my job as well as I should.

I want to make sure that I’m providing you with information you’d like to know related to learning Spanish. So today’s challenge will be quite simple:

Challenge:
Answer these questions in the comment section:
What would you like to learn this year from this blog?
How can we improve?


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