Baseball may be America’s pastime, but it’s a pretty big deal in many Spanish-speaking countries, too, especially in Mexico, and Caribbean countries like Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, to just name a few.

A couple of years ago I came across this great glossary on mlb.com with baseball words in Spanish.  It’s not surprising that there are a lot of cognates here considering where the sport originated. When I was teaching it came in handy for the chapter on sports, but it’s also fun to just play around with during a game if you’re a fan of baseball who’s learning Spanish!

Download the vocab sheet here!

{If you read this in a feed reader, make sure to click over, to view the video.}

I’ll say little phrases to her here and there and it still amazes me that she responds, understands and attempts to reply in Spanish for certain words/phrases– mainly the words that she signs–but I’ve been slacking on giving her solid hours of hearing me speak only Spanish like I had hoped to do every morning. I’m sure this phase will pass and I will start back up again soon, but this is where we’re at right now. I still hope to get her registered in a toddler language class and I feel like this will motivate me more. Any other recommendations on getting and staying motivated?

A few recent language links…

• Spanish Lesson Plans for Children pointed out some resources for Christian worship music in Spanish
• Foreign Language Fun is having a sale on their holiday-related Spanish & French resources until 12/18
• Think Spanish‘s blog has an article available about the Christmas traditions in South America
• Eleena @ Voices en Español has a great review about a new online video resource called Bablingua

I decided I’m going to do some holiday-themed translations over the next couple of weeks. So for those of you who’ve been wondering what these words from the popular song by Jose Feliciano mean, here you go!

Feliz Navidad,

Prospero Año y Felicidad

[fay-LEES nah-vee-DAWD,
pros-PEAR-oh AH-nyo ee fay-lee-cee-DAWD]

Most people probably know that the first phrase of this song’s chorus means Merry Christmas, and the rest of it translates in English to wishing someone a Prosperous New Year and Happiness.

I’ve heard over and over that living in a Spanish-speaking country is one of the best ways to learn the language. Well, that’s all fine and good, except perhaps like some of you, I lack the funds right now to travel however much I would LOVE to go. So, how to immerse yourself in the language? Let’s go on a little trip.

First stop will be music/educational CDs and podcasts. I use these in two ways – active and inactive. Sometimes I sit with my children as we listen and talk about what’s going on and other times I just have it on in the background as we’re doing quiet things such as putting together puzzles or working on a craft. We also listen to them in the car which is great because your kids are pretty much a captive audience.

Some of our favorite CDs & Podcasts:

For the kids:

• Professor Pocket
• Play & Learn Spanish
• We Are Little Amigos
• Teach Me Spanish series
• José-Luis Orozco
• Cody’s Cuentos

For the adults:

• SpanishPod
• ShowTime Spanish
• Coffee Break Spanish
• SSL4YOU Spanish Segunda Lengua

Our second stop will be DVDs, TV shows and online videos. Some of you probably have quite a few DVDs already and most likely many of them have a Spanish-language track. Then there is the SAP (second audio program) option on your television. Usually you can access this option on your remote. For ours it’s the MTS button. I have found that several children shows on PBS have a Spanish-language track. Another alternative are online videos. I have some listed here: http://delicious.com/Karen427/Spanish+online_video.

Using the language interactively will be our final stop. Join a Spanish conversation group in town. A good place to start is meetup.com. There truly isn’t anything that will improve your language skills more than conversing with someone. You could also try to find a Spanish-language playgroup for your child. If there isn’t one, you could start one yourself.

If joining a group isn’t for you, then perhaps setting up an intercambio either in person or online suits you better. For half the time you and your partner could practice English and then Spanish for the other half. There are numerous web sites for this such as SharedTalk.com, Palabea.net, iTalki.com and more. Skype, which is available free, is the most common tool for these exchanges.
So, even though you may not have the funds to travel abroad, you can still immerse yourself in the language right at home. ¡Suerte!

Karen has lots more tips and resources for learners and teachers of Spanish, on her blog, Teaching and Learning Spanish!

Since I’ve been a little sporadic lately, I’m going to slide back into the swing of things gently, so a simple word for today to express my happiness at being back in California:

playa

[PLY-yah]

which in English, means beach

aaaah, it’s good to be home.

P.S. Later this week I have a great guest post for you, and then next week I’ll write up a long-overdue Bilingual Chiquita Update! Chao!

• Head over to Boca Beth‘s blog for a chance to win her Gigante Bag of goodies! It’s open until Monday, 11/17. These are great resources for teaching your little one Spanish!
• Teaching and Learning Spanish had a great post letting us know about ShowTime Spanish a podcast you download for free (or listen to via the web)

And now for the update…

As of yesterday I had written 24, 217 words, which is just about 800 words over the targeted word count. I had a bit of a slow week, but thankfully my early word count cushion allowed me to stay in the game and on track. A couple of plot developments have grown out of nothing which has been fun, and so far, I’m still enjoying the process. My local WriMo buddy and I went out to Caribou Coffee to do a little writing the other night, which was great, and made me feel like I was single and in college again, since my husband and i used to go study at coffee shops a lot before we were married.

Karen!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

In other language news, there was a funny translation mishap in Wales, Foreign Language Fun has some Spanish Thanksgiving activities, and Biligual Fun is giving away a CD along with some great tips on teaching your kids Spanish.

NaNoWriMo Update

Well, last weekend I started strongly, very strongly, and then, let’s just say it’s been good that I had such a large cushion because the last few days I’ve slacked a little. I’m still ahead of the game, but I need to press on if I want to stay that way for much longer. I’ve been really enjoying the process though. I experienced one scene where the words just seemed to flow out freely, almost supernaturally, and even just today, a new character and small subplot crept in out of nowhere.

I’m pressing on!

In honor of the grand project I started this weekend, today’s word is:

Escribir

[es-kri-BEER]

which in English means to write.

Here’s how it’s conjugated in the present:

Yo escribo [es-KRI-bo] (I write)
Tú escribes (you write)
Él/ella/usted escribe (he/she/you write)
Nosotros escribimos (we write)
Ellos/ellas/ustedes escriben (they write)

Here’s a fun idiomatic expression related to the word escribir:

Estaba escrito.

[es-TAH-bah es-KRI-to]

which literally means It was written, but figuratively means It was fate, It was meant to be, or It was written in the stars.

I was privileged to have been contacted by Oxford University Press to review the children’s picture book, First Spanish Words, illustrated by David Melling and compiled by Neil Morris. For those of you who are teaching your children other languages, there is also a French and a German edition in the series. According to the press release,

each volume takes the reader on a picture-book journey through a child’s typical day. There is a bird’s eye view of an early morning at home, the journey to school, inside the classroom, at a birthday party and even a trip to the museum and the beach. Aside from the useful everyday items, these books also incorporate many children’s favorite things: airplanes, dinosaurs, and even fairy tale characters. Over 400 foreign words and their English translations are given on the side of each ilustrated page. These books also include supplementary material– a picture/word matching game, a learning to count page, indentifying shapes, opposites, the weather, time, and a comprehensive index.

I love the Where’s Waldo?-esque feeling to this book; on each page spread there are vocabulary words with small pictures of the items going down the sides, and then the items can be found in the large illustration that spans both pages. The book is colorful and the illustrations are full of life and energy. {I will insert here the only thing I found odd which is a strange dinosaur-like animal that appears randomly in the scenes throughout the book. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was or why it was in there, but hey, I’m sure little kids will like it just fine. }

From a language learning stance, I love that the vocabulary words are taught in context, within the child’s daily activities, and found within a picture of a somewhat familiar scene. Probably my favorite part about the book is the supplementary material in the back; that is what sets apart this book from your average children’s Spanish vocabulary book, in my opinion.

As the press release states, you’ll find a wide range and large amount of words to be learned in this book, which makes it pack a lot of punch for a fun picture book. I highly recommend First Spanish Words!

Now comes the fun part! Oxford University Press was generous enough to give me a second copy of the book to give away to one of you lucky readers!! I think this is the perfect first giveaway for Gidget Loves Language!

Here’s how to win:

Winner will be chosen randomly; you get 1 entry for each of these things you do with a total of 4 possible entries per person. Make sure you leave a comment for each of your entries (i.e. 1 telling me you subscribed, 1 with the link to your blog, etc.). Giveaway will end midnight, mountain time on Thursday, November 6, 2008.

1. Leave a comment telling me why you’d like to win this book.
2. Leave a comment telling me you subscribed to my blog via RSS or via email (if you already subscribe you can post a comment telling me that).
3. Leave a comment with a link to your blog, where you mention this giveaway.
4. Leave a comment saying you Stumbled or gave a thumbs up to any page at language.gidgetgoeshome.com via StumbleUpon (post a link to your SU profile in the comment to verify your thumbs up).

¡Buena suerte!