This last weekend I went to a wrestling tournament in Michigan! It was super fun. While I was there I we had to stay in a hotel. The first night we were there we were watching TV and flipping through the channels and a spanish one came on... I told them to keep it there so I could see if I could understand it. I got some of it but they were talking pretty fast so it was hard. Thats my story for the month.

Bring It On: Fight to the Finish

There is a lot of Spanish in this movie! I caught a lot of things that they were talking about. Her stepdad said Mi casa es su casa, which means my house is your house. Also, Lina was talking about her family. (mi familia) This movie is one of my fav's, and it is just that much cooler since it has a little bit of spanish in it. Even though the main language is English in this movie, I think it does a good job of showing how regular people use their Spanish in every day life.

Law and Order

I was watching Law and Order: SVU and they were trying to get one guy and and they finally got up to him and started to talk to him and said that he didn't speak english.   So then one of the detectives just started talking in spanish like she was Mexican.  They had on the bottom of the TV what they were saying but I tried not to look and just understand what they were saying.

Spanish!

I was getting ready for work the other day and I was watching tv.  When all of a sudden the Progressive comericial came on.  It was the one where the guy said.." No mas pantalones."  and my sister kept asking me what he was saying and I could actually tanslate what he was saying.  Then when I got to work there was a mexican family that came in and they where looking for the rice but they didn't know englisha nd when they asked me where it was I was able to help them out.  I was a little proud off my self.

A couple weekends ago I was working on my homework on the computer and was listening to music on Youtube. I would type in different artists and then more of their songs would come up so I was just clicking on the songs. When I was listening to Justin Bieber he had a song called Mi Amor.  I knew that Mi Amor was spanish for my love because I have heard it in a couple of the songs that Senorita plays in class.  He also said a few words like bonita and chica and other words like that in the song and one of the phrases was something like "bonita numero uno chica" and from what I have learned in Spanish 1, I put it together that he was saying "number one pretty girl."  Without being in Spanish 1 for this first year I would probably have never put that together.

Spanish

         I went to Walmart an amount of days ago and there were some guys speaking Spanish.  They were talking real fast and I could not understand them.  They went over to the the pastry aisle and grabbed a loaf of bread.   They then jabbered a litttle more and they finally went and checked out.

Spanish saying

The other day I was watching t.v. and a commercial came on for Carlos O Kelly's and how you have to live mas.  I was excited because I knew what they were saying.  Then this morning on the way to school I heard about cinco de mayo and how Carlos O Kelly's has a seven pound taco they are making for it.  Sweet.

Spanish in the Mall

So a couple of weeks ago I was shopping at the mall in Dubuque and I overheard some Hispanic people talking. I couldn't help myself but to eavesdrop on what they were talking about. I heard a few words that I understood and I could pretty much put together what they were talking about. We were in a store and they were looking at a shirt. I heard them say camisa and bonita which are shirt and pretty which would make sense since they were obviously looking to decide if they wanted to buy it or not. I was actually really impressed that I could understand what they were saying just by a couple of words. It's nice that the little bit of Spanish we have learned can help you understand a conversation in the real world. Spanish is everywhere.

American Diggers

The other night I was watching tv and turned on a new show called American Diggers.  These guys go around and ask people if they can dig for artifacts on their property and if they find some and sell them they split the money.  The head guy went up to a house and when the owner came to the door she only spoke Spanish.  They both spoke fast and I only really picked up on a few words like hola, mucho, tengo, and adios.  I thought it was cool because I could partly understand what they were saying to each other while my dad sat in the chair next to me and had a dumb look on his face.

Padres Magazine

One day when I was at the University of Iowa's Childrens hospital I saw a Spanish magazine called Ser Padres in a waiting room. I thought it was neat to see a magazine in Spanish at a hospital, because I have never seen one. It seemed like it was the same exact thing as the Parents magazine, but just a Spanish version. I could recognize some words on the front like familia, and el, la, and los. I did flip through a few pages, and saw some other words that I knew like divertido. I just thought it was really neat to see a magazine in Spanish, and be able to see how many words I could translate.

Xavier's Blog

My dad and I were standing outside, when these people showed up.  They just came driving into our place like they knew us but I had never seen them before.  Then these 3 Mexicans and an American guy got out.  They were from Chicago and just wanted to ask a few questions for a survey.  The one guy said he worked with the Board of Trade.  So we went into our office.  They were speaking some spanish but I had no idea what they were asking because they were taking to the guy that spoke English and then he asked us those questions.  It was a pretty interesting experience.

Text Messages

There has been many times where my friend Mario will text me in spanish. Sometimes there will be words that I don't know but most of the time I know what he is talking about. Most of the time it is as simple as donde esta. But sometiemes he sends long messages about going to his house or his mom going to get his hat for prom. Sometimes I will answer back to him and spanish and he will be surprised that I actually understood what he was saying but it wasn't that hard. There was also this time that I was on facebook and my cousin posted a status about how she lost her luggage at the airport but then something good happened to her. At the end of her post she out muy bien. My mom read it to me and asked what it meant and I was able to tell her what it meant right away. Thanks to spanish I am able to now a lot more things then I would have.

Rio on Hbo Latin

The new movie Rio has become a big hit in my family household.  We found it very funny and cute.  Rio was on Hbo about two weeks ago which puts it on Hbo Latin also.  I turned it onto the Spanish version and listened in for words or phrases  might understand and picked up a couple.  It was cool to listen to the movie in a Spanish speaking country in Spanish.

Anaelisa's bog

While sitting at my dads house we were all trying to find something to do, so I said hey! lets watch a movie.  So my dad said that I even got to go and pick it out, so I chose the movie Bug's life.  It is a movie about these little bugs and they are so cute and it is such an old movie that it was a VCR tape!  In the middle of the movie the ant decided to go on a trip.  While this ant was on this trip he walked into a restaurant in time to find a little fly singing on stage and  written on the stage was muy caliente.  I yelled out hey dad that is Spanish! and dad said is it really what does it mean and Manny and I said at the same time very hot! It was funny and my dad was glad that Manny and I actually listen in school because he says that we do not listen at home.  

Spanish in the store

A couple of weekends ago, my parents and I went to a store in Dubuque to look for new shoes for me. While I was trying on some shoes, I could hear some people on the other side of the shelf talking Spanish. It felt like I knew a lot more of what they were saying then I would if I wasn't in Spanish.

Espanol on TV

While I was baby sitting the other night a commercial came on for "Got Milk." In this commercial the mother is always yelling up to her daughter saying breakfast is ready and at one point the girl is practicing in the mirror to tryout for a play and shes saying porque porque. And towards the end she calls her ninos to the table.

Family Night

On Saturday night my family and I were flipping through movies on the T.V. when all of the sudden there was a show that was speaking Spanish. Of course my parents wanted to turn it right away because they don't know Spanish. Stephanie and I told them to keep it on. There were subtitles on the bottom of the screen so my parents could read those but my parents were very surprised when they saw Stephanie and I translating what the people were saying. Stephanie could translate more words than I could but I still translated words. My parents were very proud and shocked that I could translate Spanish, but I was also very proud of myself for using the knowledge that I already had to translate the words. I have learned a lot in Spanish 1.

Estamos hablando a almuerzo. (We Are Talking At Lunch))

All year (after I started working the Echo during 1st quarter) after lunch, I go up to talk to Mrs. Temple assuming she isn't busy. I also go up right before and sometimes after school. We often speak Spanish. A lot out first anyway...until I start not knowing how to say what I want to. =) It is a great chance for me to get practice and learn a couple new things while I'm at it! (Like Mrs. Temple taught me that divertirse was the verb for "to have fun" =D) It's a great time!!!!

Talking to a Telemarketer

Once upon a time I answered the phone at my casa. I said hello and they responded Senor Salow? I responded No Senor Salow. They went on to talking about how they need to speak to the owner of the house as soon as possible. I said never call back again please and then said no hablo espanol.

SO I was watching "Grown Ups" and I had about 30 minutes left when all of a sudden i hit the remote and changed the language to spanish!! So instead of stopping it and then restarting it i just kept watching and It was amazing how much i could actually understand about the movie and how and what they were talking about.  Then my parents came in and were like what the heck are you listening to it in spanish. So i told them and then they understood and wanted me to translate it for them. So I did and they were amazed that i understood so much!!

Spanish!

When I was watching a movie, they had little bits of Spanish here and there.  I understood most of it without looking at the subtitles that were there.  I was really cool how I could understand a whole other language.

Spanish Music

I was looking up the song, "Dancing Away with my Heart" on iTunes and didn't realize it was in Spanish until after I had bought it and it started playing on my ipod! It was confusing at first, my first instinct was to skip the song, but then I actually listened to it picked up on a few things.  I heard forms of estar, and of course the verb bailar.  It was even in the present progressive!  It was cool to see the things we learn really tie in with things we see in our everyday life. 

In The Lindale Mall

Margie and I were sitting in the food court eating delicous Pretzel Maker, and this Spanish speaking family sat at the end of our table. The mother was talking in Spanish, and Margie and I were dicussing what she was saying. I heard verbs that were congigated. I heard her saw sacamos, and some other words and we were trying to figure out what she was saying. Margie did better than me since she knows more Spanish, but I did just fine. I love hearing people speak in Spanish and knowing that I can pick out some of what they're saying, when before Spanish 1, I would have had no idea what they were saying. It has already made a big impact on my life, and I still have 3 more years to go. Can't wait!

Spanish in Pizza Hut!

A couple weeks ago I was eating at Pizza Hut and there were mexicans there too and I could over hear what they were talking about. I could catch a lot of the words that I didn't know before. It was weird because last year at this time if I would see spanish people I wouldn't know like anything they would be saying but now I can understand most words and then put them together to kind of understand them. It's fun to try and listen to them because they don't know that you can kind of understand them.

Spanish on t.v.

We were in health class watching a video of a girl giving birth. I didn't watch it because I was grossed out. I was listening to it though. The woman was having the baby and when it came out the husband looked at it and said he was pequeno. I knew what he meant by this since I'm taking Spanish. He obviously said that the baby was small.

I was at church one day and we were watching a comedian. He was a ventriliquist and had a bunch of puppets that he was using. Most of the time he would speak in English but every now and then he said some Spanish words. The words he would say in Spanish were small and easy words like muy, poco, and tambien. He was a very funny comedian.

Future Thinking

So the other day I was thinking about college and classes and all of that. So I was thinking about what I should take for college. And of course Spanish came to mind. So then I wondered about all of the people in college who didn't take Spanish in high school. What if they had a Spanish speaking professor? Or their roomate was Spanish? They probably wish that they knew Spanish. I'm sure no matter at what stage in your life Spanish would be something nice to know whether you're in college with a Spanish roomate or in your 70's when you're retired and you take a trip to Mexico, you go to the grocery store and don't know what anything is. Just taking a little less than two semesters of Spanish 1 I know more than I'm sure a lot of adults do, and I know that will help me in the future.

Over the past week I have been down to Des Moines for sports events. While I was down there for wrestling I was warming up and all of these Mexicans started pouring in. There was probably one hundred of them. They were speaking spanish and I could understand some of the stuff they were saying, I know I probably shouldn't of been paying attenion but I was. They were there to clean up the arena after the wrestling got done. That is my spanish experience this quauter.

Spanish girl at the mall

I was walking in the mall and I heard these two mexican girls speaking, so I walked up to them and introduced myself to them. I told them my name, and asked the how they were doing?

Then they started talking really fast, and using words I didn't know of. I said "Mas despacio por favor". When we were done, we said our goodbyes, and walked away. I realized that I have a lot more Spanish to learn.

Spanish Tv

The other day I was watching some television and I found a show that was in all Spanish. I couldn't understand anything because they talked to fast. The only word I knew that they said was hola. I was getting bored and confused so I decided to switch the channel. The graphics were poor to, and that was a downer.

Meeting a Mexican girl at Luther

February 26th and 27th, I had the privilege of going to Luther College for Dorian Honor Band. My friend, Micaela, organized that Betsy, Jenna, and I could stay at their house. I took advantage of going to FOCUS Sunday night, and I was really super inspired by the service that night. I almost bawled three times from the power and energy of the message. That’s beside the point though.
Whenever I am super inspired, I have a known tendency to write. Almost always poetry (You can read it if you want, I usually have it at school with me. Just ask if you’re interested.).
This night was no different. I wrote two poems. I then went upstairs very quietly, as Jenna and Betsy were already asleep.
When I got up to Micaela’s room, I noticed she had a new roommate than the last time I had been at Luther. Her name was Illeta (I don’t know how to spell it...). She’s from Mexico! She was good at English, however, when she started to speak Spanish, I was like “iDespacio porfavor!” That made Micaela and her both laugh.. But I was doing my Spanish assignment, and they were both tremendous help if I drew a blank. (Don’t worry. They only helped me with maybe 2 words...) It was great!! I reallly hope I get to go back again. Maybe I’ll know a little more Spanish by then... =)

Reading Spanish to Fulfill Boredom

SO, a couple of weekends ago I was at a gymnastics meet in Marshalltown. I was on my ipod and was waiting to perform and I was on some app. like a game, and I was so bored with it that I switched my settings to everything Spanish and sat there and tried to pick out all the Spanish words that I could figure out or that I have seen before. Some of the words I got were: music-musica, fruta ninja- fruit ninja, fotos-photos, weather- tiempo! There were many more but these ones were mostly cognates and stood out more than others!

Spanish with my cousin

My cousin recently retired from the air force special operations. He was in a lot of country's during his tour, including spain. In Spain he didn't understand much language and wished he took spanish in high school. He told me to take it and I told him I was taking it. He thought that was pretty neat and would get me far in life.

Spanish talking in Walmart..

About to weeks ago, I was in walmart, and there was a Spanish speaking family in the shoe isle and they were talking about buying new shoes. I heard the little boy say por favor, and I heard the mother say the word compro, which means I buy. I also heard her say halbo and abuela.. So she was talking about talking to their grandma about something. I feel so special when I know what they are saying, and even if I don't know exactly what they are saying, I can pick out some little things. Spanish is definitely paying off for me((:
P.S. Sorry for making my blog late...
--Mimi(:

HBO going Spanish!

When we or I watch movies on HBO I see what movies are on that I like and decide from the movies to watch. Well if the movie I like to watch is on the HBO channel 300 then it will be on the HBO Spanish channel on channel 309. So when my little brothers were watching Megamind on 300, I decided to listen to a little in Spanish and to tease my brothers a little. So when I changed it, it was hard to figure out what they were saying because it was hard to focus when your brothers are complaining to change it back to regular HBO channel. The person or character was talking so good and fast I could hardly pick up anything, but since I knew that scene by heart I knew what the characters were saying. Listening to movies that you know in English in Spanish is fun and some amusing because if you don't know Spanish you just sit there and look dumbfounded and have to say, "huh".

Paco's experience at burger knig

This weekend I was at Burger king and their was a spanish guy in their trying to order and they didn't understand him at all. So they brought out their highschool worker that has 4 years of spanish under her belt and she was then able to take the order. Funny thing was I knew her and I understood what he ordered. A burger and fries with a little coke. I was so proud of myself and I was shocked on how well I understood him. Yeah me!!!!

Target

I was in target shopping with my mom and I was looking at a rack of clothes. I saw a little girl beside me and her mom was talking to her in Spanish and she talked back to her. It was very fast spanish, so I didn't pick up much, but there were maybe a couple that I caught. I heard a lot that I've heard you say before or what we've learned I just couldn't remember quite all of it, or put any of it together because it was so fast. They speak it very well, so it sounds different to us. It was like watching one of those vidoes you tell us to watch and see how much we know, but she was talking even faster than that, so it was difficult, but I do know that if I wasn't in Spanish now that I wouldn't have known any of what she was saying! It proved to me that I really have been learning a lot, and I hope to really understand people who talk like that when I get done with my four years of taking Spanish.

Food.. numbers

I went the Mexican restraunt in Dubuque the other day. And it was gross. I am not a fan of Mexican. Me and my sister where sitting at the table talking in spanish and my dad like flipped out. Not only was he in a bad mood, but he had no clue what we where saying. He didn't like the fact that we could speak a foregin language and he couldn't. So what did we do, we contuined to speak spanish. When we where done eating and we payed our bill the guys working were saying Gracias. and my sister started having a full out conversation. It was quite funny. I think one of them asked her for her number.

Fast and Furious

I was watching the 4th fast and furious and they were trying to steel a semi and there was a couple of mexicans that were helping them. They started yelling in spanish to each other but I wasn't really paying that close of attention so I didn't pick any of it up.

State Wrestling

Down at state when i was and I met a hispanic kid about my age and I asked him in spanish what his name was and he answered me. I asked him if he lived in Des Moines and he said yes. We tlked a little more about lots of things then I had to go watch Wrestling.

When I was watching the movie Fast Five there was a lot of spanish in it. She was a pretty tall blonde girl, they said she was a lindo alta flaca chicka. It had alot of our verbs in there too, including ser estar venderthey had streat calle and about garaje

Progressive

I was watching t.v the other day and a progressive commercial came on and the other insurance guys pants lit on fire, burned up, and then he one said No mas pantalones. So i felt good knowing that I knew that.

Spanish in the Mall

I was in Kennedy Mall a couple of weeks ago, and there was two Spanish women in front of me in line. They were talking very quickly. One word that I had heard them say was invierno, so I knew that they must be talking about the weather. I heard a lot of basic stuff like: cuando and que but that was all I was able to get from the conversation. It's always interesting to hear them speak now that I can always catch a few words.

Spanish in St. Louis

Last summer me and my family went down to St. Louis to visit my cousins. One day we went shopping for my cousins birthday present. After we got it we went to check out and there were spanish speaking people already there in line. I think they were talking about something like having a fiesta for their kid but i couldn't quite catch on they were talking so fast. When they finally checked out i was so confused but its a lot better than I would have been at the beginning of the year.

Spanish At Home

So one day I was sitting at home doing my homework and Kayla asked me if I would help her study. So of course, the good sister that I am, I told her I would. Little did I know it was Spanish she was studying for. There were a bunch of sentences and phrases, I guess they were questions. I had to ask her these questions, and I was a little freaked out at first. I messed up a lot of words, but then I started to get it. I even understood what the questions were asking like: What are you wearing? and things like that. What did you like to do when you were little? I understood these, although the verbs were in a different tense I think. So, I guess I got a little practice with Spanish at home, with my sister's homework.

Disney Channel Show

One day I was watching t.v. and I was watching the Disney Channel. The show I was watching was called Shake It Up and the guy named Deuce who like a girl and was meeting her parents. Her dad was very strict and he spoke spanish and english but you could tell he had an accent. He had Deuce take care of pig so show that he had responsibility. When the girls dad was talking he was telling the name of his body guards. Their names were Izquierdo and Derecho which means left and right. He told us that but I knew before he explained what it meant. I felt kind of smart for a minute because I actually knew what they were talking about and it wasn't over my head like some things are.

Spanish Channel

So I was sitting in my kitchen about a month ago eating a bowl of chocolate chip ice cream and my little brother Andy, who is 12, was sitting in there with me at the kitchen table. We were watching TV when I felt like doing some channel surfing so I just kept flipping through the channels, and that is when I came across the Spanish channel! I don't remember what it was called, but I was trying to pick out little words or phrases even that I knew and it was very, VERY difficult because the people were talking really really REALLY fast. I could pick out words like "para" or "es". I think I may have even heard the word "gustan" or something like that. All I know is that it was difficult to understand everything because they were speed demons talking! Being in Spanish 1 helped me understand tiny words though.

Las Flores

My whole Salow Family went to Las Flores in Manchester to celebrate my Grandpa Salow's Birthday. When we first arrived they said Hola and I knew that was hello and then they asked como estas so I said estoy bien and I think they were amazed that I knew some Spanish. Then the rest of the Salow Clan arrived and they gave us menus and I picked out that pollo was chicken and carne was meat. I really don't like Mexican food so Derek, Dylan, Zach and I went to Burger King and ate down there. When we went back to the restaurant we tried to speak Spanish with our uncles, but it didn't end up well because they didn't understand a word we were saying. I had a great time with my family and ended up using my Spanish skills when we went out to eat. We all had a great time!

The Cowboy Way

My sister and I felt like watching a movie this weekend to wait for dad to get home from a sale. We chose the movie "The Cowboy Way." Its about two guys who go to help their friend find his daughter whom he payed someone to smuggle in from Cuba. While in New York they run into some trouble with some spanish speaking people but luckily they learned a little growing up in New Mexico. A few phrases they use are, "como esta", and "hasta lavista."

Mexican Restaurant

One very fine evening the Salow family went to Las Flores in Manchester to celebrate my Grandpa's birthday. It was funny when the waiters came over because my uncles and my father couldn't understand what they were saying. The only words I recognized that they were saying were the foods. I looked at the menu to see what they had but everything sounded gross. I was hoping that they would have American food there but they didn't. So Dylan, Zach, Savannah, and I went down the road and ate at Burger King. I liked that place much better than the Mexican Restaurant.

Spanish Comment

I was just messing around looking at dresses on the interent when I saw a comment in spanish! It said, "Me encanta me lo pusiera para un sweet sixteen o para prom!! Esta bellisismo!" I saw it used a form of estar and encanta which we used to answer some of our questions. I was able to comprehend this comment because of the basic things we have learned like pronouns. I would say this girl celebrates American customs because she said she is having a sweet sixteen instead of a quinceanera.

T.V. with Spanish

I was watching t.v. one night and noticed that we had two stations that showed the exactly save thing, except one of them was in English and the other was in Spanish. So I turned that station on for a little bit to see if I could reconize any of the words. They were talking so fast that I wasn't even able to understand what they were saying. I also wasn't able to pick out any of the words that I had learned, so everything was all new to me.

Eating at a Mexican restaurant

Once upon a time my whole Salow family ate at a mexican restaurant for my Grandpa's Birthday. It was very confusing and funny to listen to them because my uncles had no idea what they were saying, but I had an idea. They would ask questions like chicken or beef I knew that but once they started talking for real I had no idea, good thing I'm in Spanish 1.

Funny night at home, Anaelisa

I was sitting at home and asked my mother if she would give me a back rub because I had just got home from ski practice and was in a lot of pain, so her being the nice mother that she is gave me one. After a while she said ok my turn for you to rub my feet. At this time I was trying to study my Spanish and I said ok I will of you say it in Spanish and she said ok I will. She said " I would like for you to rub dos of them, you no like both of them.?" haha that is about as much as my mother knows about Spanish.

Spanish people...in the mall!

Last time we went shopping I was with my mom and my sisters and we saw a couple Mexicans. They were talking really fast but i decided to listen and try to figure out what they were saying. I couldn't really understand it because they were talking way to fast for me. It was weird to actually hear people talk so fast and for the other person to understand what they are saying but I guess it's easy for them because they talk like that all the time. Whenever I would try and listen they just kept on talking way to fast. I understood some little words but not much.

3rdQrBlog-Allyce

A couple days ago my little brother was watching Dora. I was surprised when I could actually understand some of the phrases the two of them said. Usually you just think that they don't know what they are actually saying, but they are saying legit stuff! Dora would sing, "Subimos, subimos, subimos!" And I knew, subir is to go up and the -imos is from the nosotrous form. It's easy now knowing more verbs, and knowing the possessive terms so it's easier knowing who the person is talking about. It's crazy how much Dora could teach someone.....

Spanish!

So I was watching tv and a commercial came on. It was the one where two guys get into a car and are going to go on a trip and instead of listening to music, they listen to a spanish disk. It was going to teach them Spanish and one guy was mad that he had to listen to it but when they got out of the car at a gas station they were talking in complete Spanish and complaining about not listening to music and that one guy wanted a Coke. I understood their conversation without looking at the subtitles!

Walmart

Over Christmas break after Christmas was all over I went to Waterloo with my mom to spend some Christmas money. We stopped at Walmart and went in to look at a cd my dad wanted. When we got to the cd section there were a few mexican guys looking at cd's also. I stood beside them looking for the one my dad wanted when I heard them talking in Spanish to each other. The only thing I picked up was numbers. Otherwise they talked way to fast for me! I picked up on a few other words but it was hard to understand.