I was reading about Mexico on a BBC English language page when I saw a link to BBC news in Spanish. I followed the link and read some of the headlines and the opening lines of the stories. I was amazed how much I could understand from words which were similar to English.
Flag of Mexico
The flag of Mexico is similar at first glance to the flag of Peru, another country where Spanish is spoken. But flags have three stripes, red and white stripes and a symbol in the middle.
Look closer or keep them side by side and you will see that Mexico's flag is green white red. But, Peru's flag is red white red.
Look at the symbols.
Mexico's flat has an eagle eating a snake. The story goes that seeing that told the founder of Mexico city where to found the city. A handy reminder to me to watch out for snakes. I remember seeing snakes on the ground ahead on the steps of an archaeological site which was a trip when a cruise ship from the USA landed at the Mexican city and popular port of Cancun.
Going back to Wikipedia to check on Cancun, I was intrigued to read the its name Cancun is based on the word for snake:
There are two possible translations of Cancún, based on the Mayan pronunciation kaan kun. The first translation is "nest of snakes". The second version and less accepted is "place of the golden snake".[
Returning to the BBC website I read:
Lo encontraron con 15 puñaladas en su celda, donde cumplía una condena de 13 años por tráfico de drogas. El exmilitar era considerado por las autoridades el nexo del Cartel de Sinaloa en el país.
I could easily see 13 years for trafficking of drugs, ex military (person) considered (by) authorities and Cartel.
Reading the news in Spanish was no effort. My automatic response was to check up on just one or two words in the three sentences which I did not know by using Google translate.
Finding Google Translate
Typing into google translate might bring up translation services which charge a lot of money to translate just one word.
Using the newspaper as your source of whole sentences has the advantage that you have a context.
Pinning Google Translate
I have pinned the symbol for google translate to the top of my screen, second left of my menu. That way I can find it fast.
How To Pin The Google Translate Symbol
To pin you right click on your mouse and when you do this up pops the multiple choice box f more actions.
Remembering How To Pin Google Translate
Click on pin and your favourite website is pinned or made semi-permanent on the left of all the sites currently opened or opened in the recent past. You could unpin it the same way. Right click. When the symbol is pinned, the choice offered is now unpin. If you change your mind, pin it again. If you want to remember how to pin, pin and unpin several times until the action is embedded in your memory and you can do it fast.
One of the words I checked on looked like peace but turned out to be country. Words which sound the same or look the same but are not are sometimes called 'false friends'.
You can then pin the Spanish news from the BBC, or any other new site, to have up to the minute news of your favourite country, or to follow a news story. A quick way to refresh your knowledge os Spanish, including technical and slang words.
Spanish - English
años - years
celda - cell
con - with
de - of
donde -where
drogas - drugs
ellos - they (like the French elle for she and elles for they)
en - in
lo/Los/las - the (singular and plural, as in Los Angeles meaning the angels)
el país - the country (like the French, le pays)
paz - peace
English - Spanish
cell (in a prison) - celda
(the) country - el país
drugs - drogas
in - en
of - in
peace - paz
the (plural) - los (as in Los Angeles meaning the angels)
they - ellos
where - donde
with - con
years - años
Flag of Spain
You could also learn Spanish as spoken in Spain from a Spanish newspaper online.
Where You Can Use The Spanish Language
Countries where Spanish is spoken: Argentina, Bolivia, Balearic Islands (Majorca/Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Formentera): Canary Islands: , Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Tenerife, Uruguay, Venezuela,
Learn Portuguese, which is similar to Spanish, as spoken in Brazil from a Brazilian newspaper. My family and others on a holiday in Madeira could recognize words on signposts from holidays in Europe in Spain and Portugal. Spanish is also a help when learning Italian.
BBC news in Spanish
https://www.bbc.com/mundo/topics/
USA
Notice the Spanish names of the cities Los Angeles (The angels), San Francisco (Saint Francis) and El Paso (The pass).
Duolingo
duolingo.com
Memrise
Memrise.com
About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, blogger, author of 20 books including an ebook on Improve Your English, from Amazon, and teacher of English and Business English and other languages to individuals, colleges and companies. For more information on learning languages see the previous posts. For information on sites to see in Spain and Portugal see the next post. Please bookmark your favourite posts and share the links with your family, friends and colleagues.
Flag of Mexico
The flag of Mexico is similar at first glance to the flag of Peru, another country where Spanish is spoken. But flags have three stripes, red and white stripes and a symbol in the middle.
Look closer or keep them side by side and you will see that Mexico's flag is green white red. But, Peru's flag is red white red.
Flag of Peru
Look at the symbols.
Mexico's flat has an eagle eating a snake. The story goes that seeing that told the founder of Mexico city where to found the city. A handy reminder to me to watch out for snakes. I remember seeing snakes on the ground ahead on the steps of an archaeological site which was a trip when a cruise ship from the USA landed at the Mexican city and popular port of Cancun.
Going back to Wikipedia to check on Cancun, I was intrigued to read the its name Cancun is based on the word for snake:
There are two possible translations of Cancún, based on the Mayan pronunciation kaan kun. The first translation is "nest of snakes". The second version and less accepted is "place of the golden snake".[
Returning to the BBC website I read:
Lo encontraron con 15 puñaladas en su celda, donde cumplía una condena de 13 años por tráfico de drogas. El exmilitar era considerado por las autoridades el nexo del Cartel de Sinaloa en el país.
I could easily see 13 years for trafficking of drugs, ex military (person) considered (by) authorities and Cartel.
Reading the news in Spanish was no effort. My automatic response was to check up on just one or two words in the three sentences which I did not know by using Google translate.
Finding Google Translate
Typing into google translate might bring up translation services which charge a lot of money to translate just one word.
Using the newspaper as your source of whole sentences has the advantage that you have a context.
Pinning Google Translate
I have pinned the symbol for google translate to the top of my screen, second left of my menu. That way I can find it fast.
How To Pin The Google Translate Symbol
To pin you right click on your mouse and when you do this up pops the multiple choice box f more actions.
Remembering How To Pin Google Translate
Click on pin and your favourite website is pinned or made semi-permanent on the left of all the sites currently opened or opened in the recent past. You could unpin it the same way. Right click. When the symbol is pinned, the choice offered is now unpin. If you change your mind, pin it again. If you want to remember how to pin, pin and unpin several times until the action is embedded in your memory and you can do it fast.
One of the words I checked on looked like peace but turned out to be country. Words which sound the same or look the same but are not are sometimes called 'false friends'.
You can then pin the Spanish news from the BBC, or any other new site, to have up to the minute news of your favourite country, or to follow a news story. A quick way to refresh your knowledge os Spanish, including technical and slang words.
Spanish - English
años - years
celda - cell
con - with
de - of
donde -where
drogas - drugs
ellos - they (like the French elle for she and elles for they)
en - in
lo/Los/las - the (singular and plural, as in Los Angeles meaning the angels)
el país - the country (like the French, le pays)
paz - peace
English - Spanish
cell (in a prison) - celda
(the) country - el país
drugs - drogas
in - en
of - in
peace - paz
the (plural) - los (as in Los Angeles meaning the angels)
they - ellos
where - donde
with - con
years - años
Flag of Spain
You could also learn Spanish as spoken in Spain from a Spanish newspaper online.
Where You Can Use The Spanish Language
Countries where Spanish is spoken: Argentina, Bolivia, Balearic Islands (Majorca/Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Formentera): Canary Islands: , Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Tenerife, Uruguay, Venezuela,
Learn Portuguese, which is similar to Spanish, as spoken in Brazil from a Brazilian newspaper. My family and others on a holiday in Madeira could recognize words on signposts from holidays in Europe in Spain and Portugal. Spanish is also a help when learning Italian.
BBC news in Spanish
https://www.bbc.com/mundo/topics/
USA
Notice the Spanish names of the cities Los Angeles (The angels), San Francisco (Saint Francis) and El Paso (The pass).
Duolingo
duolingo.com
Memrise
Memrise.com
About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, blogger, author of 20 books including an ebook on Improve Your English, from Amazon, and teacher of English and Business English and other languages to individuals, colleges and companies. For more information on learning languages see the previous posts. For information on sites to see in Spain and Portugal see the next post. Please bookmark your favourite posts and share the links with your family, friends and colleagues.
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