Friday, August 18, 2006
Learn Spanish by Listing and Imitating
Perhaps without realizing it, you have some of the best Spanish tutors already in your own home – your TV, DVD player, and Internet-connected computer.
The TV is valuable if you have access to Spanish-language television programming, and your DVD player is useful if you have any DVD’s with a Spanish-language track (very probable, just take a look).
Your computer is the most valuable because it can change the play speed of media. Unfortunately, for some reason I have never been able to get my DVD player or my computer to slow both the audio and video of a DVD at the same time. When I slow down the play speed, the audio turns off. However, the DVD player is still great since you can turn on English captions while watching in Spanish.
Even though I’ve never succeeded in playing a DVD in slow-motion, other types of media files work great. To see how this works, go to a website that has the media geared for Windows Media Player. Other media players may also let you change the play speed (although I couldn’t see how to do with RealPlayer), but Windows Media Player definitely does. Click here to download the latest version.
To see how this works, go to the Mormon Church’s conference website to start streaming the proceedings of its general conference. You can’t slow down every type of online media, but some of the links on this page work great since they are geared for Windows Media. Another advantage is that you can follow along reading in either Spanish or English. And, since these talks were originally in English, you can hear the first few lines in English before the Spanish translation kicks in. By the way, the Mormon church has similar sites for every major (and several minor) languages you could ever want to learn. Click here for a complete listing.
If you find other sources of free Spanish that work at a slow play speed, please let me know with a comment so I can post the links to others who may not feel comfortable listing to religious broadcasting.
On the far right of this page you’ll see (under the column heading “Mirar”) a link to open streaming video for Windows Media Player. When you click on the 300k link Windows Media Player should open and start playing. Once it is playing, you can now slow down the audio.
There are at least two ways to do it:
1) Under the “Now Playing” tab there should be a little white square with lines and a down arrow. It is the Playing Options – Click on it, and then on Enhancements, and then Play Speed Settings. You should see near the bottom a place where you can change the play speed. If you move the slider slightly to the left you’ll notice that it will re-buffer and then start playing at a slower speed.
2) Maximizing Windows Media Player so that the menu bar across the top includes “File, View, Play, Tools, Help” – click on View, Enhancements to see and modify the play speed.
The TV is valuable if you have access to Spanish-language television programming, and your DVD player is useful if you have any DVD’s with a Spanish-language track (very probable, just take a look).
Your computer is the most valuable because it can change the play speed of media. Unfortunately, for some reason I have never been able to get my DVD player or my computer to slow both the audio and video of a DVD at the same time. When I slow down the play speed, the audio turns off. However, the DVD player is still great since you can turn on English captions while watching in Spanish.
Even though I’ve never succeeded in playing a DVD in slow-motion, other types of media files work great. To see how this works, go to a website that has the media geared for Windows Media Player. Other media players may also let you change the play speed (although I couldn’t see how to do with RealPlayer), but Windows Media Player definitely does. Click here to download the latest version.
To see how this works, go to the Mormon Church’s conference website to start streaming the proceedings of its general conference. You can’t slow down every type of online media, but some of the links on this page work great since they are geared for Windows Media. Another advantage is that you can follow along reading in either Spanish or English. And, since these talks were originally in English, you can hear the first few lines in English before the Spanish translation kicks in. By the way, the Mormon church has similar sites for every major (and several minor) languages you could ever want to learn. Click here for a complete listing.
If you find other sources of free Spanish that work at a slow play speed, please let me know with a comment so I can post the links to others who may not feel comfortable listing to religious broadcasting.
On the far right of this page you’ll see (under the column heading “Mirar”) a link to open streaming video for Windows Media Player. When you click on the 300k link Windows Media Player should open and start playing. Once it is playing, you can now slow down the audio.
There are at least two ways to do it:
1) Under the “Now Playing” tab there should be a little white square with lines and a down arrow. It is the Playing Options – Click on it, and then on Enhancements, and then Play Speed Settings. You should see near the bottom a place where you can change the play speed. If you move the slider slightly to the left you’ll notice that it will re-buffer and then start playing at a slower speed.
2) Maximizing Windows Media Player so that the menu bar across the top includes “File, View, Play, Tools, Help” – click on View, Enhancements to see and modify the play speed.
