Here’s the video all about big news in Spain, and OUR big news!

Context: Marina heads down to the local kiosko to pick up and discuss 3 of the most important newspapers in Spain. We talk about the ‘politics’ of each paper, and about our own primary news sources.

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We recently got an email from Phil, who lives in Andalusia, about a bit of a problem:

“…one of the problems I have with my Spanish neighbours is just exchanging pleasantries, especially showing appreciation for things without just repeating ‘muchas gracias’ over and over again – as the British are wont to do!

They are forever giving us little gifts, inviting us to join them for meals etc, and sometimes we do , and other times we can’t. But I’d love to have a few more ways to say: That’s very kind of you; What a nice thought; What a lovely idea!; Oh, that would be lovely; Oh thank you, but we can’t today etc etc.”

Hopefully the audio above gives you a few more phrases for your arsenal Phil!

Here are the phrases we discuss in the audio above:

Que detalle mas bonito – What a lovely thought

Gracias por haberos acordado de nosotros – Thanks for thinking of us

Que buena idea – What a great idea

Que buen plan – What a great sounding plan

Nos encantaría – We’d love to

Nos encantaría, pero no podemos porque ya hemos quedado – We’d love to but we can’t as we’ve already made other plans

Estamos muy agradecidos estaba todo riquísimo – Thanks so much, it was all delicious

Es que no puedo porque tengo que ir al dentista – I can’t as I have to go to the dentist

Es que no me viene bien - It’s not convenient

Useful links:

For more on making excuses and ‘Quedar’, Listen to:
Inspired Beginners 14 – “Quedar”

For more useful Q and A sessions like this, join Notes in Spanish Gold! Sign Up Here Now!

We recently made this video to help introduce some new friends to Notes in Spanish, but really wanted to share it here too so everyone can benefit from it now. We hope you enjoy it, feel free to leave a comment!

Context: This is the story of how Marina and Ben met, over 10 years ago, here in Madrid. Look below for lots of useful vocabulary from the video! We hope you enjoy it!

Useful Vocab from the video:

Un intercambio – a language exchange

Quedar – to meet (Quedábamos – we used to meet)

Daba clases de inglés – I used to teach English

Una cita a ciegas… con excusa… – A blind date… with an excuse

Hola, ¿qué me cuentas? – What’s up, how are you?

Cuidado, porque ¡mira hasta donde puedes llegar! – Watch out, because look how far you can end up going!

Remember: Make the most of the 36 plus hours of free audio here at Notes in Spanish, and pick up the worksheets if you need a hand!

Ben and Marina are doing an ’80/20′ clean up at home, and have found a great place to get give away some old books…

Watch the video, use the vocab below for a helping hand if you need it, and see if you can answer the two questions at the bottom!

Useful vocab from the video:

No tenemos hueco en las estanterías – we haven’t got room on the shelves

Ben ha metido la pata – Ben has put his foot in it/made a big mistake!

Biblioteca pública – Public library

Me parecía un poco rollo – I found it a bit boring

Asomarse – to glance at, take a quick look at

And now, a couple of questions about the video!

¿Porqué dice Marina que Ben ha metido la pata?

¿Quién, segun las sospechas de Ben y Marina, suele llevarse los libros, y porqué?

Answers in the first comment below! And do leave a comment about the video if you like!

We want to send our warmest thanks to everyone who bought something from our store in our special ‘Ben’s Birthday/Get Back To Your Spanish’ week (Sept 1st to 7th).

We promised to send 10% of any revenue from that week to Unicef’s program to fight infant mortality:

Well, we took 10% as promised, threw in a bit extra from our own pockets to make a nice round number, and yesterday sent a fantastic total of 1,500 Euros to Unicef.

Thanks so much to everyone that was able to help. We hope this amount can make a significant difference to the lives of children in need.

Sois los mejores…

Saludos desde Madrid,

Ben y Marina

(We will continue to ensure that at least 5% of all annual profits from Notes in Spanish go to charitable causes connected to helping children and the environment).

Yes, we have a big problem in our life, maybe you can help us make a decision! Here’s the video, and if you find it tricky to understand everything, I’ve outlined a bit of context and a couple of bits of helpful vocab. below:

Context: Our house has got too small now we have baby Leo with us, plus we just aren’t sure we want to live in a big city anymore… we need to move fast!

Useful vocab:

Estoy un poco agobiado – I’m a bit stressed

Nuestra casa se nos ha quedado pequeña – Our house has got too small for us

Un sofa-cama – A sofabed

El salón es la habitación mas fresquita – The living room is the coolest room

Corre un poco de brisa – There is a bit of a breeze

Una ciudad un poco mas verde – A city which is a bit greener

A lo mejor alguien quiere alquilar este piso! – Maybe someone wants to rent our flat!

…And don’t forget that old classic (particularly loved by las chicas) to help you remember that ‘problemA’ is masculine:

“Los problemas son masculinos, ¡y las soluciones son femeninas!”

If you enjoyed the video and vocab, and like our real Spanish approach, check out more of our best Spanish learning materials in our store now!

- Ben y Marina

Update: The Birthday Sale is now over. Thanks so much to everyone that made the most of this opportunity to improve their Spanish, and help charity at the same time! We’ll be in touch very soon with details of how much we have raised for Unicef. Update 2: results here!

- Muchísimas gracias, Ben

Dejadnos un comentario: ¿Qué tal tus vacaciones? ¿Qué has hecho este verano?

Some useful vocab from the video:

¡Cuanto tiempo! – It’s been a while! / Long time no see!

Acabamos de volver de vacaciones – We’ve just got back from holiday (acabar de + verb – to have just done something)

Descanso total – Total relaxation

Ballenas (f) – Whales

Ya nos toca trabajar – It’s time to get back to work!

UPDATE: WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Thanks to all who voted! The winners are, First place: Scott 34% (322 votes); Second Place: Ana 31% (293 votes); Third Place: Pippa 16% (149 votes). Congratulations! I’ll be contacting you today! (And well done to the runners up, who also had great videos!)

Original post…

Marina and I have picked the finalists in our Notes in Spanish Video Competition! It was a very very tough job to pick 5 from all the wonderful videos we recieved. We haven’t been able to reply personally to everyone that entered (or we’d be here all week!) but we want to thank you all again for taking the time to participate – we really enjoyed your videos!

Please take a minute to watch all 5 of the short finalist videos below, and then vote for the one you like most using the special poll under the last video. The voting ends this Thursday July 9th at midnight, and we’ll award prizes (top prize 150 dollar Amazon voucher and more goodies!) to those three lucky winners with the highest number of votes on Friday 10th.

Here are the videos!

Finalist Number 1! Ana: WINNER 2ND PLACE!

Finalist Number 2! Pippa: WINNER 3RD PLACE!

Finalist Number 3! Patrick:

Finalist Number 4! Kjersti:

Finalist Number 5! Scott: WINNER 1ST PLACE!

Here’s the poll. Wathced all the videos? VOTE NOW!!

Muchas gracias! Ben y Marina

Keep boosting your Spanish with our audio!!

UPDATE! The competition is over and the winners have been chosen, please do check out the videos here!