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Spanish Pronto Reading PracticeWelcome to the Spanish Pronto Reading Practice!The Spanish Pronto Reading Practice is an almost daily look at interesting Spanish news, vocabulary, false friends, culture, and more, that I hope will keep you interested and coming back to keep improving your Spanish. Thank you, and enjoy! |
News article and glossary: Submarino narco en frontera con Ecuador / Drug submarine on border with Ecuador
False friend: Embarazada (not what you think it means!)
Song lyrics: Más fuerte que yo by Plácido Domingo
Spanish phrase: No tiene abuela / S/he doesn't have a grandma
Culture: Calle 13: Music videos as art
Useful vocabulary: A few words about spring: robins, compost, earthworms!
| Submarino narco en frontera con Ecuador AP | TUMACO, Colombia Unas siete toneladas de drogas fueron encontradas por equipos de la Armada colombiana en un submarino semisumergible de fabricación artesanal que estaba a kilómetro y medio de la frontera con Ecuador.... El semisumergible, de acuerdo con el oficial, podía llevar unas siete toneladas de cocaína por aguas del Pacífico hacia mercados de Centroamérica y luego a los Estados Unidos. |
Drug submarine on border with Ecuador AP | TUMACO, Colombia About seven tons of drugs were found by Colombian Army teams in a semi-submersible homemade submarine that was one-and-a-half kilometers from the border with Ecuador.... The semi-submersible, according to the officer, could cary about seven tons of cocaine through the waters of the Pacific to markets in Central America and then to the United States. |
GLOSSARY (for the other paragraphs of the article)
Article: Submarino narco en frontera con Ecuador
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"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
—Iñigo Montoya, The Princess Bride
Embarazada
Yes, it looks and sounds like the English word "embarrassed," but if you want to worry your host family to death, just take a look at their faces when you announce "Estoy embarazada," especially if you are young, female, and single.
Both "embarazar" and "embarrass" come from the same root, a Portuguese or Leonese word meaning halter, or rope that has been used to tie down [sujetar] (or tie up [amarrar]) something, so the first meaning of this verb, in English and Spanish, is "to hamper, impede (a person, movement, or action)" and the Spanish noun "embarazo" means "burden." From there, though, each language takes this meaning to a different logical conclusion. In English, "embarrass" has come to mean "Cause (a person) to feel awkward, self-conscious, or ashamed." In Spanish, "embarazar" has come to mean "to make (or become) pregnant."
Your poor host family! How are they going to explain this to your parents?!
On a similar note, because "embarazo" is the word for "burden" and the word for "pregnancy," it is perhaps not surprising that pregnant Mexican women talk about the day "cuando me alivio" ("when I relieve myself"), not in the English sense of relieving oneself (to defecate or urinate), but in the sense of relieving themselves from their burden (i.e., their pregnancy) by giving birth.
Despite all this, it is still possible to say that something is "embarazoso" ("embarrassing").
Some ways to say "embarrassed" in Spanish: Me da vergüenza (it embarrasses me [literally, "it gives me shame"]), me dio vergüenza (it made me embarrassed), me daba vergüenza (I was was finding it embarrassing). Alternatively, me da pena when it embarrasses you to do something (like sing in front of a crowd, give a speech, tell someone the hard truth, or some other thing you would rather not put yourself in the position to have to do).
| Más fuerte que yo by Plácido Domingo
¡Cómo cuesta olvidar, y tratar de arrancar
No te voy a decir lo que voy a sufrir.
Cuando tú me extrañes, te vas a dar cuenta
Morderé mis labios y no haré preguntas.
No te voy a decir lo que voy a sufrir.
Morderé mis labios y no haré preguntas |
Más fuerte que yo by Plácido Domingo
How hard it is to forget and to try to rip out
I am not going to tell you what I am going to suffer.
When you miss me you are going to realize
I will bite my lips and won't ask questions.
I am not going to tell you what I am going to suffer.
I will bite my lips and won't ask questions. |
| SPANISH PHRASE No tiene abuela Literally, this means "s/he doesn't have a grandma." Figuratively, it is what you say about someone who has to toot their own horn, or about someone who is bragging about themselves, whether or not they really have no one else to do it for them. You can even say it about yourself, but you would have to say "no tengo abuela." If you have a grandma, you presumably already have someone who will show everyone pictures of you, and go on and on about how wonderful you are, and about all the great things you can do. If you don't have a grandma, then apparently you have to do all that bragging yourself! |
Videos: http://www.youtube.com/artist?a=GxdCwVVULXdYR1-38HTtbfljR1ojBbIH&feature=artistob
| There may be no better argument for a college education than the quality, and the artistic interest, of the music videos you can produce if you are a singer-songwriter with a Master of Fine Arts degree. In this case in "animation, illustration, sequential art and film" from the Savannah College of Art and Design, SCAD, in Savannah, Georgia.
"It's art," my grandmother used to say, "if it makes you react to it." Or words to that effect. These songs and videos do that. They recognize that if you want to make the world a better place, first you have to talk about what could be improved about it. That means pointing out some things that many people would rather avoid thinking about. These videos are also satirical, so they poke fun at people who no doubt not enjoy being made fun of, and they rebel against authority in ways that many of the same people who used to rebel against authority ("Why don't you all f-fade away!" -1965, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Generation) may not like now that they are in charge. These songs and videos by Calle 13 would likely be "clasificado PG-13," which is why I can't recommend them for classroom use in the U.S., except by teachers who want to bring their careers to a crashing end. All that said, these videos are very entertaining, often humorous, and always fascinating! They will definitely inspire many of you to want to learn more Spanish!! : ) |
| autumn, fall | el otoño |
| breeze(s) | la brisa (las brisas) |
| clear skies | los cielos despejados |
| cloud(s) | la nube (las nubes) |
| compost | el compost [ehl kohm-POHST] |
| dirt | la tierra |
| downpour | el aguacero (los aguaceros) |
| drizzle | la llovizna |
| earthworm(s) | el gusano (los gusanos), la lombriz (las lombrices) |
| equinox | el equinoccio |
| fertilizer(s) | el abono (los abonos) |
| flower(s) | la flor (las flores) |
| furrow(s) | el surco (los surcos) |
| garden(s) | el jardín (los jardines) |
| gardener(s) | el jardinero (m.), la jardinera (f.) (las jardineras, los jardineros)* |
| gust(s) | la ráfaga (las ráfagas) |
| hose | la manguera (las mangueras) |
| insect(s) | el insecto (los insectos) |
| March equinox | el equinoccio de marzo |
| Northern Hemisphere | el hemisferio norte |
| nursery (for plants) | el vivero (los viveros) |
| partly cloudy skies | los cielos parcialmente nublados |
| rain | la lluvia |
| rain shower(s) | el chubasco (los chubascos) |
| rainbow | el arcoíris (los arcoíris) |
| robin(s) | el mirlo primavera (los mirlos primavera), el zorzal pechirrojo (los zorzales pechirrojos) |
| seed(s) | la semilla (las semillas) |
| seedling (to seed-leaf stage) | la plántula (las plántulas) |
| seedling (after true leaves) | la planta de semillero (las plantas de semillero) |
| seedling tray, seedbed | el semillero (los semilleros) |
| September equinox | el equinoccio de septiembre |
| sky (skies) | el cielo (los cielos) |
| Southern Hemisphere | el hemisferio sur |
| spring | la primavera |
| sun | el sol |
| tomato | el tomate (los tomates), el jitomate [Mexico] (los jitomates) |
| tomato plant | la tomatera (las tomateras) |
| tree(s) | el árbol (los árboles) |
| wind(s) | el viento (los vientos) |
*"las jardineras" if all the gardeners are female, but "los jardineros" if at least one of the gardeners is male
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