Spanish on the Internet

http://spanish.about.com/cs/onlinenews/a/online_news.htm


Spanish news is becoming very popular on the World Wide Web (www).  CNN and Google have spanish language sites now. Es fácil de encontrar español en línea.

Thanksgiving and Mexican-American's

In today's Mexican-American culture they celebrate Thanksgiving the same way Americans do. They don't always have the typical food that we Americans have. Their meals include tamales and menundo. But they still give thanks the way American's do. Feliz Acción de Gracias.

Diego Rivera, a Famous Mexican Artist

http://www.diego-rivera.org/biography.html

Diego Rivera was a very famous Mexican artist. By the age of two, before he could even read, his father set up a studio for him to do his art. He and his family moved to Mexico City where he began taking art classes at a college there at age 10, where he attended for six years. He later then received a scholarship to study art in Europe where he learned  a lot of his techniques. After 14 years abroad he returned home to Mexico and participated in what was called the Mexican Renaissance. Diego Rivera has many beautiful and famous pieces of artwork. El es muy famosa mundial por sus pinturas.

De Compras

Today we learned about shopping. It is one of my favorite things to do so I had fun learning about all the different types of shops and the names of things to buy. I found it interesting that people in South America do most of their shopping in open-air markets. Yo creo que sería muy divertido hacer mis compras como el de la negociación y obtener alimentos frescos y productos hechos en casa.

Drug Smuggling in Spain

http://www.spanishnews.es/20100817-woman-arrested-at-barcelona-airport-with-3-7-kilos-of-cocaine/id=3217/

A 42-year-old woman was arrested for trying to smuggle 3.7 kilos of cocaine through a Barcelona airport. The cocaine was hidden in the seams of 10 pairs of jeans she had in her suitcase. Eso es un monton de cocaína!

Mexican American Population

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_American

The city with the largest Mexican-Americans is Los Angeles with over one million. Mexican-American's account for 16% of the United State's population, or 30 million people. The United States is the second largest  in population for Mexican heritage people next only to Mexico itself. Hay muchos Mexicano-Americanos en los Estados Unidos.

Spain's many languagues

Spain has many languages spoken througout it's country. For example: Basque, Catalan, Galician, and of course Spanish. Most of these languages are spoken in different regions throught the country. Hay muchos diferentes lenguas que se hablan en España.

Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is a holiday celebrated by the Mexican culture. This holiday celebrates the lives of dead family members. Many participants build shrines to the dead which include things they liked from the past such as flowers, rosaries, etc. Vaya con Dios.

Plural words

This week in class we learned how to make something plural. On most cases, by simply adding "s" or "es" to the end of a word makes it plural. Por ejemplo: el muchacho alto --> los muchachos altos.

Cain Velasquez

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_Velasquez


Cain Velasquez is a Mexican-American UFC fighter.  He fights for the heavyweight division. He is proud to be a true Mexican-American fighter and is proud of his Arizona heritage. He has been a guest star on Telemundo and Univision. His next fight is against Brock Lesner. Cain es muy fuerte.

Spanish Speaking

Nationwide, in 2007, there were 23.4 Million more Spanish speakers than in 1980 which is a 211% increase. 
According to the U.S. Census, people 5 and older who spoke a language other than English at home has more than doubled in the last three decades. Creo que se habla español con fluidez por casi todos los estadounidenses en unas pocas décadas

Chihuahua dogs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chihuahua_%28dog%29#History
 The Chihuahua is the national dog of Mexico. It gets its name from the Mexican State Chihuahua. It was originally used for sacrifices and as an upper class pet. One theory suggests that they were brought from China to Mexico over 200 years ago. Chihuahua's can have long or short hair. They can be skiddish but also very protective. Son muy populares en la cultura española-americana.

Spanish Heritage Month

This month is Spanish Heritage month. Comienza el 15 de septiembre. The 15th commemorates the independence of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In the 2000 census, over 35 million poeple claimed to be Hispanic or Latino in the United States. Lots of Amicans and South Americans celebrate Spanish Heritage month.

-ar Verbs

This week we learned how to conjugate -ar verbs. Son mucho más fácil que los verbos irregular. I also have been working on memorizing all the -ar verb meanings like trabajar, explicar, buscar, etc. There are a bunch listed in the book.

Spain's Energy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Spain

Spain is the third largest producer of wind power following the United States and Germany. They are second after Israel to require solar hot water systems in new buildings. España es líder mundial en energía renovable. 

First Test!

I learned how we are going to take the tests in class this week. It made me nervous to go into the classroom and have to have a conversation. Yo creo que lo hice bien. At least I hope so! Veremos.

Post 3

I found it interesting what everyone said when asked "Que eres tu?"  Un hombre dice es alto y dos mujeres es tias. Kenna es de Abernathy. Monica es hermana. It was funny to hear all the different adjectives I guess they were, that people used about themselves. I said, "Soy Caitlin, un estudiante, una mujer, uno Americano, y soy de Amarillo."

Post 2

This week I learned about indefinite and definite articles. El, La, Los, y Las son definito articulos. Un, Una, Unos, y Unas son indefinito articulos. An example is: Los or Unos pasajeros.

My first post

This is my first blog post. I have never blogged before. I have never even followed or read a blog before and don't know anything really about doing it at all. I believe it is just a place for you to write your thoughts down and have other people follow/read them. This will mostly be for my Spanish class but I guess I'll occasionally blog for the fun of it maybe. We'll just have to see...