When I started learning Spanish here in Spain over 10 years ago, one of the things that most motivated and inspired me was picking up and trying out the real Spanish phrases and expressions used by Spanish people in their everyday conversations. With Marina’s help I’ve been collecting these colloquial expressions for years, and at last we have finished a really exciting project that means we can share them with you.

Our Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide contains over 100 of these wonderful, typical Spanish phrases, with over 1 hour and 20 minutes of exclusive audio that won’t be released in any of the usual podcast feeds. We really think this is going to be tremendously useful and exciting for anyone learning Spanish, no matter what your level.

Check it out here for full details:

The Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide

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Mobile phone madness in the Metro, golfing in bed, and those infernal ring tones… Click the Play button above to listen now!

Did you know… You can learn so much more when you use our special worksheets with this audio… Having the full transcript and Advanced Vocab List on hand for this episode will make a huge difference to the speed with which you reach Real Spanish Fluency. Get immediate access to the whole set in The Advanced Super Pack – Click Here Now!

It’s ‘promote the forums’ time here at notesinspanish.com! Why? Because they are the best place we know to clear up any doubts you may have connected to absolutely anything to do with learning Spanish! Got a question about verb tenses, learning techniques, or language courses? Head over to our forums, register, and ask away!

There are loads of nice people in there waiting to help, and the Learning Spanish section is full of useful information! (Ever wondered how to compliment men in Spanish for example!?)

Find our forums here!

Reading Harry Potter books in Spanish is a great way to practice your reading… once you get used to the strange names of all the spells and so on. The official Spanish translation of the latest book won’t be out for months, but it looks like one inspired fan has produced his own unofficial translation already… now that’s fast!

Alexander Atallah has updated his excellent Notes in Spanish Mac widgets to include our new beginner’s Spanish podcast – you can download all the widgets from his site. Thanks again Alexander!

For those of you that love Spanish and Latino tunes, then don’t forget to check out the Ritmo Latino podcast – lots of great music there!

Echando la vista atrás a mis años en el colegio, y a los problemas que tuve para escribir sin faltas de ortografí­a, me vienen a la cabeza dos reglas muy fáciles pero muy útiles:

-m siempre antes de p – es decir delante de una p nunca escribiremos una n siempre será una m.

Ejemplos:

Ca-mp-ana

Co-mp-ás

Incluso en palabras compuestas donde originalmente usamos una n, transforman su escritura a m si van seguidos de una p

Ejemplos:

Cien+pies = Cie-mp-iés

Cien+pozuelos = Cie-mp-ozuelos

-m siempre antes de b – en este caso usaremos una m antes de una b y nunca una n. En caso de que se use una n está irá seguida de v en vez de b.

Ejemplos:

Co-mb-inar

Co-nv-ento

Listening to music is a great way to learn a language, especially with all the lyrics sites on the net these days. There is a huge discussion in the forum about great Spanish bands, but at the moment I am really enjoying the catchy tunes from Julieta Venegas, a Mexican singer who is doing well in the charts over here with hits like Me Voy.

Here’s the video for her latest song, Limon y Sal (direct youtube link, and lyrics here):

Muchos de vosotros ya habréis leí­do en el foro que Ben y yo fuimos a Radio Nacional de España a grabar una edición del programa “Un idioma sin fronteras” dedicada a Notes In Spanish. Podéis escuchar la entrevista completa aquí­.

Un idioma sin fronteras es una fuente de audio dedicada por completo a la lengua española y literatura hispánica. Me gustarí­a recomendaros alguna de sus secciones, como el cuento de la semana y poesí­a en la calle.

Foto: Ben y Marina con Isabel Cavanillas y Rubén Vidal.

As I progressed from a beginner, to an intermediate learner, and finally an advanced user of Spanish, I found that different areas of my Spanish ’skill set’ (reading, writing, listening, speaking) developed at different rates. One month I was speaking really well but having real trouble listening, three months later I suddenly felt that my listening comprehension had overtaken my speaking skills!

Once or twice a year it pays to identify where your Spanish is weakest, and concentrate hard on that area for a while, to choose a ‘Primary Focus’ for a month or two. Feel like your reading comprehension is a little behind your listening? Focus on that for a month by reading as many web pages, news articles and books in Spanish as you can get your hands on. Feel your spoken Spanish is falling behind? Get an intercambio, join a meetup.com group, talk to yourself in Spanish in the car, take some classes with Marina…

By occasionally choosing to work extra hard on one piece of the puzzle, you should make progress in giant leaps. Try focusing on one area of your Spanish for the next month, and why not let us know if you notice a big difference at the end of that time. Then you can go back to an all round approach until, a few months down the line, you notice that your grammar for example, or writing, need a month at the top of the agenda again!

Is your New Year’s Resolution to improve your Spanish this year?

Here are a few ideas to get you going:

1. Join, or create, a local Spanish enthusiasts meet up, with meetup.com – read more about this here, in the forum.

2. Make a list of three or four grammar points you feel you have never got the hang of and resolve to clear them up once and for all. Spanish.about.com has great explanations for this sort of thing. Still annoyed by saber and conocer for example? I finally managed to clear up the four ‘porques’ last week!

3. Plan a trip to Spain or South America. But steer clear of touristy areas, and you will have much more chance to use your Spanish. Just knowing you will have to test your Spanish later in the year can provide a big motivation boost.

4. This one is really random: make a video diary in Spanish and publish it on youtube! Just make sure you tell us about it afterwards!

5. Share your favourite words, ask questions, look for interesting resources in the Learning Spanish section of the Notes in Spanish Forum!

Over to you: more ideas in the comments below please!