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!

Hola a todos!

We’ve been working away on something big we’re going to be announcing at the end of the week, plus we have 3 cool new videos to share with you.

We’ll be releasing them all this week, if you want to make sure you don’t miss them, watch the first here and follow the instructions on how to see the rest!

Don’t miss the first video!

Ben y Marina

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The Notes in Spanish Intro: More Cool Stuff

Already checked out our listening suggestions? Here are some of the other things we think you’ll enjoy at Notes in Spanish:

More Great Study Tips in Our ‘Kick-Start Your Spanish’ Report

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In particular, you can get just about any question answered in the Spanish Basics – Vocab and Grammar Q & A section. Come over, register, and say hi!

Inpsired Beginners – Not Just for Beginners

A lot of higher level students also love these shows, as they offer a great way of reviewing key grammar points.
Ser and Estar anyone?

Our Video Blogs

We occasionally make video blogs in Spanish, and we’ve been as far afield as Thailand! These are most suited to intermediate and advanced learners, though we list useful vocab with many of the videos so everyone benefits from them. We’ve posted videos by some of you guys too – Start viewing here!

The Real Spanish Phrase Book

As well as our main Spanish podcasts, we also produce other Spanish audio packs to broaden your knowledge of Real Spanish. Want ten cool ways to sound pissed off in Spanish? Want to know how to talk about the weather, food, and crazy people just like the locals do?

Then check out the Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide.

We’d love to hear your feedback!

These “Intro” pages are new here at Notes in Spanish. Once you’ve had a chance to check out our materials, we’d love it if you had a minute to let us know if they have been useful via the contact page later on. Thanks! – Ben

In our latest video we chat about the Feria del Libro (Book Fair) here in the center of Madrid. ¿Lees mucho hoy en dí­a?

Some vocab from today’s video:

Un monzón – Monsoon

He vuelto constipado – I’ve come back with a bad cold

Estreñido – Constipated

Casetas – In this case they are stands in the book fair, but this word can also be used for bars at the beach

Editoriales – Publishers

Me aburro – I get bored

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Like the Real Spanish we use in all our videos? Check out the Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide!

¡Hola! It’s time for another one of our L!VE video blogs, ideal for Intermediate to Advanced Spanish lovers, though the phrases taken from the video and listed below are great at every level.

(Subscribe to our videos in iTunes)

Cool ‘pelo’ phrases from today’s video.

Se me ha caí­do el pelo – I’m in trouble! I’ve done something bad!

Me he rapado – I’ve had a really short hair cut.

No me tomes el pelo – stop pulling my leg!

More ‘pelo’ phrases…

Por los pelos… – In the nick of time

For example: Justo ha empezado a llover. Hemos llegado a casa por los pelos – It’s just started to rain – we’ve got back home just in time!

Enjoy these phrases? Want more?

If you enjoy using real Spanish phrases to sound really Spanish, then you can find over 100 more just like these in our Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide: Check it out here!

We’ve decided that our main aim with our new Notes in Spanish L!VE videos is just to have a lot of fun! So here is the latest entry, ‘Truenos’, in which…. Ben es un exagerado, los ingleses saben más, y ¡la gente esta loca!

The top words from today’s video blog are:

Apart from the good old storm vocab (Rayos = Lightening, Trueno = Thunder), the top phrase pick has to be Marina’s comment to Ben:

‘Eres un exagerado!

… a cool Spanish phrase meaning, ‘you are completely over the top!’

If you enjoy these short videos, please sign up to get them automatically, just like our podcasts, via iTunes: Direct iTunes link.

Find more cool Spanish Phrases in our Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide!

A random start to our new ‘Notes in Spanish L!VE’ video blogging adventure, in which Ben, the Guiri Total, had to get a bit Spanish in mega department store Fnac to get his Euros back.

This is the start of a new videoblogging season here at Notes in Spanish: there will be lots of videos from lots of places coming your way! We hope to see yours too! Details of a new feed for those that want to subscribe in iTunes etc will follow shortly.

The top words from today’s video blog are:

Guiri – Foreign bloke, more info here.

Meterle caña – To give someone a hard time

Ponerse Chulo – To get tough about something, take no crap!

More Real Phrases in our Real Spanish Phrase Book and Audio Guide!

From Madrid’s Retiro park

Entonces, la pregunta es… ¿Qué es lo que más miedo te da?

(Extra points for anyone who answers with a video blog and posts in our forum!)

Subscribe to our video blogs – iTunes link

We think this is going to be a really fun month for Notes in Spanish!

October has been dubbed the ‘International Video Blogging Month’ and we really hope that as many of you as possible will send in a Spanish video blog from where ever you are in the world. We’ve already had our first video posted, from Costa Rica!

Send us a video blog too! It’s a great way to improve your spoken Spanish confidence, and to introduce yourself to the super-friendly Notes in Spanish community.

All you have to do is make a short video and upload it to the special video-blogging section of our forum, where you’ll find details of how to post your videos, and be able to see everyone else’s work.

We look forward to seeing your videos!