soyioblog

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Hello Kitty has branched out into kanji instructional videos now! Cleverly titled “Kanji tte iikanji,” a play on words that’s carried over into the English subtitles as…

“Characters have character!!”

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Now that Jane the Virgin is over, I want to redo this with moments from every season and make it better in general.

Jane the Code Switcher

https://www.soyioblogging.com/blog/jane-the-code-switcher-code-switching-in-jane-the-virgin

When you’re caught between cultures, you learn how to adapt to separate sets of custom, even in speech. When a speaker alternates between two or more languages or dialects, it’s known as code-switching. Code-switching can occur within an utterance or between groups of speakers. For example, my Hispanic friends may speak to each other in Spanish, but certain words or phrases within their sentences will be said in English or vice-versa.

While watching Jane the Virgin, a show featuring a Hispanic family living in Miami, I was curious to see if and how code-switching would play out with the characters. The main family consists of Alba, Xiomara, and Jane Villanueva. Alba is the matriarch, mother to Xiomara and grandmother to Jane. She immigrated to the United States from Venezuela with her husband not long after they got married. Xiomara is Jane’s mother. She was born and raised in Miami and so was Jane.

After re-watching the entire series on Netflix for the 3rd time, I took note - somewhat haphazardly - of each time I caught a character code-switching. Something interesting about the way language is used in JTV is that Alba communicates almost solely in Spanish, but most characters, including Xiomara and Jane, communicate almost solely in English when talking to each other and with her. Regardless, the Villanueva family understands each other, meaning they are fluent in both languages, but Alba prefers Spanish and the others English.

JANE

Initially, the only Spanish we hear from Jane is when she refers to her grandmother as Abuela. In one episode, she ends a conversation with her Abuela with “Adios y bendiciones.” Sometimes, when Jane is having one of her fantasies, the characters she portrays speak entirely in Spanish. In this scene from episode 47, she is portraying her Great Aunt Cecilia, who had a falling out with Alba back in Venezuela.

Keep reading

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Summertime Sadness Spanish Vocab List

https://www.soyioblogging.com/post/30-spanish-terms-relevant-to-my-summertime-sadness

For a lot of people, Summer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Typically, it’s a time to relax and rejuvenate from all the hard work you did in fall and spring, but for some people, summer means a part-time job and getting things ready for the next school year. I’ve been particularly busy managing free time while working a part-time job, communicating to my department for grad school, filling out paperwork for financial aid. This has made my summer particularly stressful at times, so I made a list of Spanish words I could use to talk about it.

VERBOS – VERBS

preparar - to prepare

estresarse - to get stressed out

trabajar - to work

deber (dinero) - to owe (money)

quedarse dormido - to oversleep

Llover (o → ue) - to rain

picar(se) - to sting, to bite, to (be) itch(y)

NOMBRES/SUSTANTIVOS - NOUNS

el estrés - stress

la deuda - debt

la lluvia - rain

la tormenta - storm

la tristeza - sadness

el verano - summer

preparación - preparation

un trabajo de medio tiempo - part-time job

la venta al por menor - retail

el huracán- hurricane

el mosquito - mosquitoes

los bichos - pests

la quemadura de sol - sunburn

las cuentas - bills

el préstamo estudiantil - student loans

préstamos - loans

papeleo - paperwork

la escuela posgrado- graduate school

ADJETIVOS - ADJECTIVES

(estar) estresado - (to be) stressed

estresante - stressful

exhausto - exhausted

irritado - irritated, itchy

soñoliento - sleepy

If you want to study these terms, then check out the flashcards for this set of vocabulary words on Quizlet.

[soyioblog]

Here’s something I’ve been curious about:

NCT fans, or anyone else, how do you pronounce nctzen? 

In my head, I always read it as ‘N-citizen’, but are there people who pronounce it ‘NCT-zen’ or otherwise?

[soyioblog]

Here’s something I’ve been curious about:

NCT fans, or anyone else, how do you pronounce nctzen? 

In my head, I always read it as ‘N-citizen’, but are there people who pronounce it ‘NCT-zen’ or otherwise?

[soyioblog]

la casa de los espíritus is another great Spanish book. We read it in my multicultural literature class in high school, but that was the English version. That was also when I learned about Magical Realism and that Isabel Allende is one of the authors credited with starting the Magical Realism genre.

realizing la casa de los espíritus has magic in it …. i think i’m going to enjoy this book

[soyioblog]

“Morpheme is the Smallest Meaningful Unit in a Language“

is the linguistic equivalent of

“Mitochondria is the Powerhouse of the Cell”

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I’ve literally only ever seen egg cups in storybooks from my childhood.

The great Scottish egg rant...

[soyioblog]

2AM Thought

I think you can tell a lot about a person based on their reaction to the word “cleant”

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Oh my goodness, I love this book. If anyone is ever in the market for Spanish fiction that’s probably not in your curriculum, La Sombra Del Viento (The Shadow of the Wind) is a good choice. It’s the first book in the El cementerio de los libros olvidados (Cemetery of Forgotten Books) series by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and it is a trip!

It’s a period drama/mystery/bildungsroman about a boy, Daniel, who works in a bookstore with his father who takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten books (a special, secret library) where he chooses a book to take home and becomes obsesses with its mysterious author, Julián Carax. Daniel tries to uncover the mysteries surrounding Julián’s past, which includes forbidden love, a love triangle, a family secret, and murder.

I first came across this book in high school while looking for something to write my Extended Essay about. I was in the IB program and our English literature teacher was already a chosen advisor, so I switched gears to write about Spanish literature. It was tricky reading it at first, so I bought both the Spanish and English versions. 

This book is full of so many great quotes:

“This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens...”

“The female heart is a labyrinth of subtleties, too challenging for the uncouth mind of the male racketeer. If you really want to possess a woman, you must think like her, and the first thing to do is to win over her soul.”

“There are worse prisons than words, Daniel.”

“He would have liked to know that somebody wanted to keep him alive, that someone remembered him. He used to say that we exist as long as somebody remembers us.”

It’s a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind.” 

Zafon, Carlos Ruiz. The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books 1) . Penguin Publishing Group.

🌩 The two hundredth page of La Sombra Del Viento during a thunderstorm… me gusta leer en español de nuevo, debo encontrar más informes de investigación para mejorar mi vocabulario académico

[soyioblog]

This isn’t really relevant to my blog, but does anyone else remember this low key nightmare from their elementary school music class. I was watching a video where the background music was Hall of the Mountain King and it gave me flashbacks to this.

Have fun reminiscing!

[soyioblog]

Gutted and broke: Brazil’s National Museum pleads for money

Brazil’s devastated National Museum is broke and cannot afford storage for artifacts rescued from the ashes of the gutted building, its director said Tuesday.

In a desperate plea for more funding, Alexander Kellner warned “there will be no more National Museum” in Rio de Janeiro unless the education ministry coughs up some cash.

“We urgently need one million reais ($250,000) to be able to breathe,” Kellner told reporters as the museum presented pieces from its Egyptian collection that survived the September 2 fire.

After the blaze, the education ministry released the equivalent of $2.5 million for emergency works to preserve the building’s facade. But other public funds have not yet been disbursed.

Kellner told AFP last month that the museum had received the equivalent of $280,000 in donations – a fraction of the more than $950,000 donated for the reconstruction of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.

The total cost of restoring the National Museum will reportedly be around 100 million reais.

Continue reading.

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Soy Io Blog turned 1 today!

A year ago, I started this blog and my website as a way to keep myself involved in Linguistics during my gap year between graduation and graduate school. I forgot to post about it here, but in April, I found out that I was accepted into my Master’s program and would be starting grad school this Fall 2019. I’m really excited to be taking the next into learning about Second Language Acquisition and sharing it with you guys.

This past year has been an interesting one. I had hoped that I would keep up with this blog and my website more, but I think I got more caught up in designing it than anything else. 😅

I’ve posted old things and written really short things mostly to stay active, but I’ve also managed to take the time to write out some new essays related to Linguistics, language learning, and college. Researching about Linguistics on the internet (through blogs, news websites, social media, etc.) has exposed to me to a lot of cool ideas surrounding how we learn languages and Linguistics is perceived in general, so I aim to share more of that as well.

Hopefully next year I’ll be more productive and share what I’ve learned in a more useful way. Thanks to everyone who’s been tagging along!

[soyioblog]

Sometimes, I’ll practice speaking in Spanish with my customers.

Customer: ¿Estás casada? (Are you married?)

Me, seven hours into an 8-hour shift: Si, estoy muy cansada. (Yes, I’m very tired.)

Listening is definitely a skill that I need to practice more.

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30 Romantic Spanish Terms

https://www.soyioblogging.com/blog/30-spanish-terms-you-can-flaunt-on-valentine-s-day

I originally made this as a Valentine's Day themed vocabulary list, but the majority of these words could be used for romance in general.

VERBOS - VERBS

enamorar - to make fall in love

enamorarse - to fall in love

salir juntos(as) - to go out together

besar - to kiss

abrazar - to hug

latir - to beat/pulsate/throb

ruborizarse/sonrojarse - to blush

invitar a salir - to ask/invite out on a date

NOMBRES/SUSTANTIVOS - NOUNS

el Día de San Valentín/Día de los Enamorados  - Valentine's Day

el/la amante - lover

la cita - (romantic) date/appointment

ramo de flores - bouquet of flowers

la rosa - rose

la vela - candle

cena a la luz de las velas - candlelit dinner

la comedia romántica - romantic comedy

el beso - kiss

el abrazo - hug

tomados de la mano - holding hands

el latido (del corazón) -  heartbeat

el rubor/sonrojo - blush

el cumplido - compliment

el chocolate - chocolate

la pasión - passion

ADJETIVOS -  ADJECTIVES

enamorado(a) - in love

lindo(a), mono(a) - cute

hermoso(a), bello(a), bonito(a) - beautiful

en forma de corazón - heart-shaped

romántico(a) - romantic

apasionado(a) - passionate

If you want to study these terms, then check out the flashcards for this set of vocabulary words on Quizlet.

[soyioblog]

30 Spanish Words You Can Use During Spring Break

https://www.soyioblogging.com/blog/30-spanish-words-you-can-use-during-spring-break

Spring Break is a great time to have fun with friends, travel, relax at home with your family, or practice your Spanish. Beachy cities like Cancun and Miami are popular destinations for Spring Break trips and wonderful places to practice your Spanish while also enjoying yourself. Read on to learn some new vocabulary that you can use during Spring Break.

VERBOS – VERBS

pasar un buen rato/ pasarlo bien - to have a good time

quedarse con alguien - to stay/make plans with someone

salir a comer - to go out to eat

hacer turismo - to go sightseeing

ser voluntario - to be a volunteer/ to do volunteer work

tomar alcohol - to drink alcohol

relajarse - to relax (oneself)

pasear por la ciudad - to walk around the city

quedarse a dormir/ pasar la noche - to sleep over/ spend the night

NOMBRES/SUSTANTIVOS - NOUNS

las vacaciones de primavera - Spring Break

la arena - sand

el centro vacacional - resort

complejo de playas/ el centro turístico costero - beach/seaside resort

el viaje por carretera/ el viaje en auto - road trip

el traje de baño - bathing suit/ swimsuit

tiempo/clima - weather

el trabajo voluntario - volunteer work

ADJETIVOS - ADJECTIVES

soleado(a) - sunny

lluvioso(a) - rainy

divertido(a) - fun

emocionante - exciting

cálido(a) - warm/hot (weather)

fresco(a) - cool (weather)

borracho(a) - drunk

relajante - relaxing

If you want to study these terms, then check out the flashcards for this set of vocabulary words on Quizlet.

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30 Spanish Terms You Should Know for Business

https://www.soyioblogging.com/blog/30-spanish-terms-you-should-know-for-business

In our global economy, knowing another language can be an invaluable skill. If you’re learning Spanish, pursuing business, or working in Spanish-speaking environments, then add these business-related terms to your vocabulary.

VERBOS - VERBS

cobrar - to charge; to get paid

invertir (i > ie)- to invest

retirar - to withdraw

LOS NOMBRES/SUSTANTIVOS - NOUNS

las acciones - stocks, shares

la cuenta corriente/ de ahorros - checking/savings account

el/la cuenta habiente OR cuentahabiente - account holder

la divisa/moneda - currency

el/la cajero/a - cashier

efectivo - cash

el fomento - promotion

el fondo de inversión - investment fund

el ingreso - income, deposit

el préstamo - loan

el préstamo hipotecario/la hipoteca - mortgage

el presupuesto - budget

el recibo - receipt

el rendimiento - yield, return

el seguro - insurance

la sucursal - branch (of a business)

la tarjeta - card

ADJETIVOS -  ADJECTIVES

aconsejable - advisable

diplomado(a) - certified

cooperativo(a) - cooperative

eficiente - efficient

barato(a) - inexpensive

productivo(a) - productive

fiable - reliable

exitoso(a) - successful

sucinto(a) - succinct, concise

tangible - tangible

If you want to study these terms, then check out the flashcards for this set of vocabulary words on Quizlet.