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Day 24 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.

Today’s Notes - Weather vocab… Phrases for saying it’s cold: Hace un frio que pela. Hace un frio que te mueres. Hace un frio que corta el cutis (old-fashioned). Hace un frio que te cagas (uncouth!!). Un copo de nieve - snowflake. Un temporal (de frio) - storm/perod of severe weather. Una ola de frio/de calor – cold spell/heatwave. Hay ventisca - here’s a blizzard. Agua-nieve - sleet. La sierra esta nevada - the mountains are covered in snow. ¡Que se escapa el gato! – Don’t let the warmth out!

This morning Marina called me ‘un paleto!’ Why? Because to ask directions I said ‘¿Pa’ la catedral?’ instead of ‘¿Para la catedral por favor?’ Oh well!

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Day 23 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.

Today’s Notes - What we think of Spanish TV!

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Day 22 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.

Today’s Notes - Words/phrases used today: No damos abasto. Ha sido un dia de perros. Mucho follon. Escanciar sidra. Sorry for brevity in notes, I’m exhausted! Nothing an episode of Desperate Housewives won’t fix. Thanks God for being able to watch something that isn’t Spanish TV!

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Day 21 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.

Today’s Notes - Marina talks to her friend Belen. The sound quality is not so good on this podcast so I have transcribed some notes below from the podcast, to help you as you listen. Let us know how it goes:

Belen is currently working in Toledo 3 days a week in a hospital. She also works 2 days in a health centre for outpatients (pacientes ambulatorios). One afternoon a week she has a private consultation.

What is the main mental illness in Spain? Depression is the predominant illness in Spain. What about different professions. Some professions have more problems than others. There are lots of teachers with anxiety problems. Security guards (guardias de seguridad) that have to deal with a lot of responsibility suddenly and can’t cope. Like the one who killed his two friends recently… Teachers suffer from lack of respect and are at odds with the parents… it’s not like the old days. Hard to educate the kids of today…

What’s the difference between patients in small towns and Madrid? A patient last week from a small village couldn’t read. They use different language too… rilar instead of temblar, for example.

Life in Spain is more relaxed and outgoing. Does that affect the type of mental illness in Spain? Percentages across Europe for many diseases such as schizophrenia are the same. In some small countries in South America there is much less depression, but in Europe it’s all quite similar. In colder countries, like Austria and Finland, the suicide rate is double that in Mediterranean countries.

Belen would like to work in public hospitals with patients, but also in private sessions with families – specializing in family psychology – solving communication problems with parents and children.

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Day 20 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.

Today’s Notes - Marina finds out what Ben thought of his trip back to the UK…

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Day 19 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.

Today’s Notes - Sorry this is a day late – I’m in the Uk and arrived too late to upload the podcast last night. Words of the day: Estoy agobiado – ‘This is all too much!’, Huelga – ‘strike’, Estoy agotado – I’m exhausted. Hope you enjoyed this sound seeing experience (best listened too with ear-buds for full binaural stereo effect) – let me know in the comments below!

There may be another day’s delay before the next Notes in Spanish, again because I’m in the Uk – but we’ll keep to the promise, 31 podcasts in 31 (or 32…) days!

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Day 18 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.
Today’s Notes - Marina goes shopping in a classic neighbourhood shop. Words of the day: Forrar un libro, forrarse (get rich), este chico esta forrado. Me da mucha rabia. Harina integral. Churros y porras.

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Day 17 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.

Today’s Notes - Como ligar en España, las parejas inglesas/españolas, y las palabras del dia: chispa y soso.

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Day 16 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.

Today’s Notes - A recent piece of news highlighted a big problem in the Spanish workforce – women earn on average 30 percent less than men. I ask Marina what she thinks about this, why it is, and just how much chauvanism there is in the workplace…

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Day 15 of the Spanish sponsored podcast marathon to help raise money for charities in India and the UK. Click here for more info on this charity series.

Today’s Notes - To sound really Spanish you have to listen to the natives whenever you get the chance – in buses, the metro, cafes – and soon you’ll be speaking just like the local Tio Pepe. A few favourites to slip into conversation include – vaya, anda, es que, pues nada, hombre, me piro/me abro, me rayo… all explained in today’s podcast!

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