spanishteacherbyday-blog

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Spanish Text Slang

Here are some common abbreviations that you may come across while messaging your spanish speaking buddy:

Pq/xq = Porque/por qué? (Because/why?) X = por (For) Jajajaja/jejeje/jijiji = Risotada (Laughter/LOL) Muak/muac/bs/besi2 = Besos/Besitos (Kisses) Tb = también (Also/me too) Salu2 = Saludos (Greetings) Porfi/Porfis/xfa = Por favor (please) Bnx = Buenas noches (Good evening) 5comentario = Sin comentario (No comment) Pera = Espera (Wait a second) Fu+? = Fumas? (Do you smoke?) Ja+ = Jamás (Never) Ktal = Qué tal? (What’s up?) Kn? = Quién? (Who?) Pa = Para (For) Grax = Gracias (Thank you) Ntnc/tonces = entonces (Then/so) Ymo = llamo (Call) Xau = Chau (Bye)

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What I Did After Duolingo

I think this is one of the biggest struggles of the langblr community because once you’re done with duolingo it’s kind of like you’ve just been thrown out on your own with no direction. In all honesty it took me a LOOONG time to figure out what to do with myself and how to keep progressing once I finished the tree, but now I’m at a point in my language journey where I speak my L2 every single day with my native friends. I wouldn’t consider myself fluent, but I’m definitely conversational.

Do the reverse tree I seriously cannot stress this enough. Go through and do the reverse tree of your language (if it’s available, of course). What I mean by this is when I finished the Italian tree for English speakers, I went through and did the English tree for Italian speakers. It may seem redundent, but at least for those two trees, the vocabulary the two trees offered was actually quite different and I ended up learning loads of new vocabulary. Not just new vocabulary, but you’ll have access to the duolingo forums in your target language. You can ask questions to an unrestricted amount of natives, and you could possibly offer help to a bunch of natives who have questions. Also for all of the brave ones out there learning more than 1 language at a time, try to see if there’s a duolingo tree for your L2 to your L3 (for a while I was learning French for Italian speakers)

Flashcards & Vocab Remember to be SMART about the vocab you learn. Learn words that you’ll actually use in day-today conversation. IF you never speak in your native language about a topic, don’t waste your time learning the words in your target language. Vocab isn’t just about acquisition of words, it’s about acquisition of words you will actually need and use. Memrise is my go-to for new and GOOD vocabulary. All of the vocab lists are user-submitted, so you’re guaranteed to get good, commonly used, and NATURAL vocab words that have been put into lists created by native speakers! There are so many thousands of lists for hundreds of languages and it’s honestly a gold mine. They have a mobile app for which you can download lessons so that you have access to them when you’re offline (aka perfect when you don’t want to use cell data or you have crappy service) AND THE BEST PART IS THAT WHATEVER YOU DO OFFLINE GETS SAVED AND YOU CAN JUST PICK BACK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF. Not only that, but they have an “ignore” option so that you don’t have to repeat any words that you already know. I love memrise. I’ve even made a few of my own lists just because I’m a hoe for a good deck of flashcards and I love the repetition method of memrise. Also, Memrise is a lot like duo in the aspect that you can add a bunch of friends and it keeps track of your experience points so that you can compete with people if that’s something that helps keep you motivated. They even have different rankings once you accumulate a certain amount of experience (personally, this is a HUGE motivator for me). All in all I love memrise. ALSO it has lots of other things completely unrelated to languages, so even if you dont study languages I would still check it out! ALTERNATIVELY: Anki! Just find somewhere to MAKE FLASHCARDS AND STUDY THE DAMN THINGS. I’ve never used Anki before so I can’t really give a good review on it (however if someone who has used anki wants to shoot me a message, I can add their review to the post or smth). I, personally, used an app called StudyBlue (there’s a desktop version as well) when I was making flashcards because it would let me make decks of like 1,000 words and then I could take quizes (you have the option of doing multiple choice, true/false, and fill in the blanks) and it’ll keep track of your progress and stuff. Also, you have access to other user-submitted flashcard decks so it’s pretty cool in that sense!

LEARN THE DANG GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES (Honestly you’d think this one would go without saying) I think people get too caught up in the accumulation of new words to stop and realize that knowing 8,000 fancy words is completely pointless if you don’t know how to put them in a sentence. To me, this is 900000000% more important than vocabulary, because if you don’t know a word you can quick do a simple search for a single word and slap it into a sentence, but if you don’t know an entire sentence structure you’re dead meat, kid. Please make notes and try to form simple sentences for all of the grammatical conventions, different verb tenses, etc. Also, don’t just learn HOW to use them, but WHEN to use them. — A really good website for explaining grammatical conventions in super simple terms is about.com. They have AMAZING resources! Lots of vocab lists, information on grammatical structures, verb conjugations, verb charts, etc. Plus, you can even sign up for newsletters, “word of the day” emails, and things of that nature. Here are the language subsections of the website that I’m aware of: Italian About, Spanish About, French About, German About. There might be more, but I’ve never checked. It should be easy to find out if they have a subsection for the website that you’re looking for, just type in “LANGUAGEHERE.about.com” into the browser and try your luck! — If there isn’t an about page for your language, google is your BEST FRIEND I PROMISE.

Switch to your target language This one is pretty simple: change your phone and all of your social media over to your target language. If you’re feeling really brave; change your entire computer over to your target language. This one didn’t particularly do a whole lot for me as far as learning new vocabulary and sentence structure, but I’ve always been really bad at trying to remember days of the week, names of the month, telling time, etc. and changing my phone over to my target language helped solidify that information in my brain and now I can throw out dates and times like I was born to do it. – ALSO: Since I know you’re on tumblr if you’re reading this post, FOLLOW BLOGS THAT POST CRAP IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. I follow so many Italian blogs, and honestly it’s just super great exposure for my dash to be half Italian, half English.

YOUTUBE God I frickin love youtube. There are LOTS of super great language-learning youtubes out there, and lots of channels that have subtitles. BASICALLY YOUTUBE IS AN UNLIMITED BOX OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LISTENING SKILLS. You like watching monthly favorites videos? Plug the line “my monthly favorites” (in your target language ofc) into the search bar and BOOM. You like watching pokemon letsplays? FIND U A DAMN POKEMON LETSPLAY SERIES IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. You wont understand everything at first, but trust me just hearing the language makes life easier. One thing I like to do is listen to asmr videos in my target language because people tend to speak more slowly in ASMR vidoes and it’s far easier for me to understand them.

NETFLIX On the note of listening skills, WATCH NETFLIX IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. There’s this really great google chrome extension called “Hola!” (the picture is a little flame with a face on it) that is basically a proxy extension so you can change what country you’re browsing the internet from, and–in turn–access netflix in different countries. This lets you have access to web-series’ and movies that might not be on the netflix in your country (fun fact, the first two Kung Fu Panda movies aren’t on America’s netflix list, but they’re on Italy’s netflix list in case you want to watch), and also access to films and series that were CREATED IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE!!! Not to mention access to subtitles, which is always a wonderful thing. (p.s. you can use Hola! for any website you want to, and it doesn’t slow your internet down ;) )

MUSIC PLEASE LISTEN TO MUSIC IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. Not only will you feel super cool and empowered once you can start singing along to songs in a foreign language, but you’ll feel even MORE super cool and empowered when you start understanding the lyrics of the songs you’ve learned. Also: please, please, please look up the lyrics to the songs you’re listening to. It’ll prevent you from singing along and mis-singing (is that a word lmao) lyrics and making silly errors, you feel me. A big bonus of listening to music is that you inadvertently pick up pronunciation skills! It’s great fun, I love music. – One way you can find foreign music is through spotify. You can go to the top 50 charts of different countries, and that’s a great way to get exposure to boppin’ tunes in your target language. Just go to the main menu then to charts, and then click “top 50 by country” and find the country you’re looking for and TADA. // CONVERSELY: If you don’t like spotify, use pandora, or find some songs you like in your target language and plug them into the youtube search bar and then weed through the recommended videos on the sidebar and find new music that way!

Children’s books This might not be for everyone, but sincerely googling and reading children’s books in your target language is a great way to get used to sentence structure. You might not know all the words, but sometimes it’s just such a wonderful thing to read such simple sentences and to just practice that sort of stuff. – If reading children’s books isn’t your style, then read books that you ARE interested in. Read translations of your favorite books, read books that were written originally in your target language, just read books man.

ASK QUESTIONS PLS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD This one can get to be a little tricky because it might be hard to find someone to ask questions to, but please keep in mind that there are lots of different native languages in the langblr community and we’re all here for the sole purpose of helping each other out so please don’t be afraid of asking a native (or even someone who’s fluent) to explain something or to correct your sentences, etc.

Find speaking partners Personally, I think this should be the LAST thing on your list of priorities. I KNOW LOTS OF PEOPLE WILL DISAGREE WITH ME BUT HEAR ME OUT: I think it’s rather discouraging to try and pressure yourself to speak your target language and realize “wow I’m not as good as I thought I was”, or to feel like you’re bad because you know so many words and you study your verb tenses but you still can’t make good conversation, etc. I THINK YOU SHOULD WAIT A WHILE BEFORE FINDING A SPEAKING PARTNER, but you definitely need to do it. I would wait until you’re comfortable reading and understanding your target language as well as forming basic sentences and stuff like that. JUST A WARNING, FINDING A LANGUAGE PARTNER IS HARD AS HELL. IT’S LITERALLY A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK ORDEAL. I used Hellotalk to find all of my language partners, however you could probably just as easily find language partners on other social media outlets like tumblr, facebook, twitter, etc. (Actually, using those types of social medias might be more comfortable for most people). A good way to find people on facebook is to join a bunch of language groups on facebook, and even if you don’t find language partners you can still see posts in your target language. REMEMBER IT’S ALL ABOUT EXPOSURE FOLKS. The more exposure the better. Like I mentioned: I do think you need to hold off a bit on finding a speaking partner, but I will say that for absolute certain speaking partners are astronomically more helpful than anything I’ve mentioned on this list. You can listen and read and make flashcards and write sentences to yourself, but at the end of the day is netflix REALLY going to fix that grammatical error you made?

Last but not least: please don’t be so hard on yourself. Making mistakes is ONLY NATURAL. Just think of learning a language like any other kind of skill; you make lots of mistakes when learning how to do anything but you learn from your mistakes and soon enough you stop making those mistakes and keep refining your skills. a quick vote of confidence for you all before you leave: I once confused the italian word for panties(mutande) with the word for snacks(merende) and basically told my friend “I BOUGHT SO MANY PANTIES IM GOING TO EAT THEM UNTIL I DIE”. And like two days ago I mixed up the word for the color lavender(lavanda) and the word for laundry(lavanderia) and told my friend she should wear a laundry-colored dress to her sister’s wedding. OKAY– in all seriousness, it’s really important to remember that mistakes are natural and they’re nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, once you learn that making mistakes is totally normal to do, you’ll enjoy yourself much more and learn way better. HAVE FUN AND STUDY HARD I BELIEVE IN YOU ALL.

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I have three that I use on a regular basis:

The Food and Life of Oaxaca by Zarela Martínez, Pati’s Mexican Table by Pati Jinich (she also has a cooking segment on PBS), and The Art of Mexican Cooking by Diana Kennedy.  The Oaxaca cookbook has my favorite mole recipe: Mole Amarillo.  I don’t care for chocolate, and this is a good mole that doesn’t include it.  However, my go-to book is always Pati’s Mexican Table.  The recipes are simple and the ingredients are easy to find.  Diana Kennedy’s book is excellent, but the recipes can have a lot of steps and are quite lengthy.

Hope this helps!

PS My absolute best resource is a Mexican friend I made recently.  We are constantly teaching each other our favorite family recipes.  She will come in my kitchen and make herself at home.  Then she teaches me how to do it the ‘Mexican way.’ 

Do you know of any Hispanic recipe books, preferably ones that focus on Mexican dishes? They can be written in Spanish or English.

I don’t know of any off the top of my head, and none of my cookbooks are primarily Mexican.

Do any followers have any cookbooks they’d like to share?

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Are you going to take this for a grade?

For me it is a tie between:

“Can we have a free day today?” and, “I don’t get it.”

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Hello! I've heard in Spanish you can't use possessive adjectives when discussing body parts (at least properly)? So if you wanted to say something like "I'm wearing a ring on my finger," would you have to use an indirect object with "wear" instead? Such as "Me llevo un anillo en el dedo"? Thank you!

You would just use the verb llevar or usar by itself as “to wear”, no need for any kind of object pronoun, but yes it would be en el dedo.

You can actually specify the finger like el dedo meñique “pinky finger” or el dedo pulgar/gordo “thumb” el dedo corazón “middle finger” etc but yes I wouldn’t use possessives for the body parts in that case.

So… usar un anillo de boda “to wear a wedding ring” for example might be written as se usa el anillo de boda en el dedo anular “one wears a wedding ring on the ring finger / a wedding ring is worn on the ring finger”

It’s not the worst thing in the world to have the possessive there but it’s considered redundant

EDIT: And llevar with object pronouns reads a bit differently; llevar with indirect objects means “to take/bring someone” like me llevan a casa “they’re taking me home / they’re driving me home”

And llevarse as a reflexive means “to get along (with)” like me llevo bien con ellos “I get along well with them”

The only verb that’s “to wear” that’s reflexive that I can think of is ponerse (la ropa) or vestirse but those are a little different. 

me pongo la ropa is “I’m putting on clothes”, but tengo puesta mi camisa favorita “I’ve got my favorite shirt on”… and then vestirse is “to get dressed” and it’s sort of more common for clothing habits just in general like me visto de negro “I’m wearing all black / I’m dressed in black”, or potentially it’s synonymous with vestirse de luto “to be dressed in mourning / to be wearing all black (for mourning/funerals)” so those are more particular and probably not what you asked, but just in case

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Upsetting grammar: “It is imperative that you use the indicative” is actually subjunctive

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Cheating

As I'm sure is the case with every high school, I have been catching a lot of cheating lately. I'm not sure if it is more a statement of this current generation or of the particular pressures they feel. It is difficult to know if there is indeed more cheating going on now or if I was less aware of its occurrence when I was in school. Whatever the case, since I have caught some particularly brazen attempts at cheating lately, I have taken a few steps to combat it. 1. All backpacks in the corner of the room when they enter the door on test / quiz days. 2. All electronic devices in backpacks. 3. All watches (especially Apple watches) in backpacks. 4. All sweatshirts / jackets off. 5. Sleeves pushed up and arms/hands shown before beginning of test / quiz. 6. All pockets turned inside out. 7. All desks in rows / columns (usually my desks are arranged in pods for conversations and projects ). Oh, and I've been known to give each section of the same class a different test or quiz. Suddenly, students are complaining that my tests are harder. I wonder why?

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I saw your post about assessing listening skills. Normally, on all my exams (and some quizzes) I have a listening sections. It's about 3-5 questions that I ask orally, and my kids (high schoolers) have to write their answers in complete sentences. They don't get to see the questions ahead of time, but its usually relevant to the current vocab & grammar. I don't let them write the question either. I usually repeat the question 2-3 times (depending on the length), Hope this helps! :)

I've done that also. The old, old texts we use (that I'm not really supposed to be using) have a listening section as well and I use those occasionally because I feel they should hear more than just my accent (heavily influenced by México). I try to vary it as much as possible. Thanks for the advice!

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¡Jajaja!

Amazing discovery: There’s an unusual verb known as ochar in el Cono Sur which means “to provoke to attack” or “to bark”.

I don’t think you all really know how much my life has been made complete by this, so let me explain it to you:

¿Por qué el seis le tiene miedo al siete? Porque siete ochó al nueve.

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Is it unfair that students have to pay to take remedial classes because they didn't meet the requirements/pass the basic entry level test? Or is it more than fair to give hem the opportunity in the first place? I mean, do you want to go to college or not? Basic requirements must be met. It is a privilege, not a right.

When Andrea Diaz was applying to colleges, she got good news and bad news. The good news was that American University, a private four-year university in Washington, D.C., wanted her. The bad news was that they required her to come to campus early to take two summer developmental-level courses in math and English.

“I was traumatized by it,” Diaz says, “because I felt that they didn’t see in me the potential to do well in college.”

When is a college course not really a college course? When it’s classified as “developmental,” or less euphemistically, “remedial.” These courses cover material considered high-school level, typically in math or English composition.

“It was teaching us sentence structure and how to write an essay and verbs and pronouns,” Diaz says of the English course she took as a pre-frosh. “It was such an elementary course, I was very surprised.”

College students who don’t meet academic standards or can’t pass a placement test must take these courses to graduate. They typically pay tuition as for any other course. But often, these courses don’t count for credit.

Taking High School Courses In College Costs Students And Families Nearly $1.5 Billion

Illustration: LA Johnson/NPR

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Canción de Navidad

Fantasma: Soy el fantasma de las Navidades futuras

Yo: ¿Dónde está el fantasma de las Navidades condicionales?

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rojizo/a = reddish

azulado/a = bluish

amarillento/a = yellowy

verdoso/a = greenish

bermejo/a = vermilion/dark red

caoba = mahogany / auburn

castaño = chestnut / brown

plata = silver

plateado/a = silvery argentino/a = silvery

oro = gold

dorado/a = golden

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Las emociones - Emotions

Nouns

la emoción = emotion

el sentimiento = feeling

el humor = mood

el estado = state

la actitud = attitude

la personalidad = personality

el temperamento = temperament

el carácter = nature, temperament

el genio = temper, temperament [in addition to “genius” and “genie”]

el estado de ánimo = current mood, state of being [lit. “state of mood”]

el ánimo = mood, spirits, “cheer”

la alegría = happiness

la dicha = joy

el júbilo = jubilation

la felicidad = happiness / good fortune

el gozo = enjoyment, happiness

la tristeza = sadness

la pena = sadness, grief, sorrow

la pesadumbre = sorrow [literary]

la depresión = depression

la vergüenza = shame

la culpa = guilt

el arrepentimiento = remorse, regret

la decepción = disappointment

la desilusión = disillusionment, disappointment

el desengaño = disappointment

el dolor = pain, grief

la herida = injury, wound

la lástima = pain, pity, sorrow

la frustración = frustration

la molestia = annoyance

el aburrimiento = boredom

el tedio = boredom, tedium

el hastío = weariness, boredom

el cansancio = tiredness, exhaustion / boredom, weariness

el agotamiento = exhaution

la crítica = criticism

la tontería = foolishness, silliness, nonsense

la barbaridad = nonsense

la torpeza = awkwardness

el enojo = anger

el enfado = anger, rage

la furia = fury

la ira = wrath, ire

la rabia = rage / rabies

la violencia = violence

la paz = peace

el estrés = stress

la envidia = envy, jealousy

los celos = jealousy

la ansiedad = anxiety

la ansia = desire, yearning, longing

la preocupación = worry

la inquietud = anxiousness, a state of something not feeling write

el recelo = mistrust, suspicion

la aprensión = apprehension, nervousness

el temor = fear, nervousness

el miedo = fear

el susto = fear, fright / shock

el choque = shock

el shock = shock

el horror = horror

el terror = terror

la confusión = confusion

la esperanza = hope

la desesperanza = dispair

la pasión = passion

la admiración = admiration

Adjectives

bueno/a = good

malo/a = bad

así así = so-so, not good but not bad

alegre = happy

contento/a = happy, content

feliz = happy, fortunate

animado/a = cheerful, “animated”

temperamental = temperamental

triste = sad, unfortunate / tragic

penoso/a = sad, pitiful, embarrassing

deprimido/a = depressed

vergonzoso/a = shameful

avergonzado/a = ashamed

culpable = guilty

arrepentido/a = remorseful, regretful

decepcionante = disappointing

doloroso/a = in pain, painful, causing pain

dolorido/a = causing pain, sore

herido/a = injured, wounded

lastimado/a = pained, injured

frustrado/a = frustrated

frustrante = frustrating

molesto/a = annoying

fastidio/a = annoying

harto/a = fed up, sick of, tired of / filled, satisfied, satiated

aburrido/a = bored, boring

pesado/a = heavy / tedious, boring

cansado/a = tired

cansador(a) = tiresome

exhausto/a = exhausted

agotado/a = drained, exhausted

agotador(a) = draining

mandón, mandona = bossy

exigente = demanding, finicky

tiquismiquis = finicky, picky, nit-picky

criticón, criticona = overly critical, nit-picky

tonto/a = foolish

tontito/a = silly, goofy

bobo/a = ridiculous, silly, goofy

torpe = awkward

enojado/a = angry

enfadado/a = angry

furioso/a = furious

enfurecido = enraged

airado/a = irate, angry

rabioso/a = rabid, furious, enraged / rabid (medical)

violento/a = violent

malhumorado/a = moody, in a bad mood, grumpy

pacífico/a = pacific, peaceful

tranquilo/a = peaceful, tranquil

tranquilizado/a = calmed down, tranquil(ized)

tranquilizante = calming [usually medicine or music] 

tranquilizador(a) = calming [usually words]

calmado/a = calm

calmante = calming

apacible = peaceful, pacified

relajado/a = relaxed

relajante = relaxing

estresado/a = stressed

estresante = stressful

celoso/a = jealous, overly protective

envidioso/a = envious

codicioso/a = covetous, envious, wanting what someone else has

vano/a = vain, conceited

engreído/a = conceited

arrogante = arrogant

soberbio/a = proud (negative), sovereign, haughty

altivo/a = haughty, believing oneself better than others

egoísta = selfish

santurrón, santurrona = “holier-than-thou”, believing oneself better than others

orgulloso/a = proud

ansioso/a = eager, excited / anxious, worried

nervioso/a = nervous

inquieto/a = uneasy, nervous

inquietante = unnerving, disquieting, worrisome

preocupado/a = worried, nervous

preocupante = worrisome, alarming, causing worry

receloso/a = suspicious, mistrustful

sospechoso/a = suspicious, suspect

alterado/a = upset

asustado/a = scared, frightened

temeroso/a = fearful

atemorizado/a = frightened, fearful

horrorizado/a = horrified

terrorizado/a = terrified

alarmado/a = alarmed, frightened

alarmante = alarming

shockeado/a = shocked

escalofriante = scary, spine-tingling

confundido/a = mixed-up, mistaken

confuso/a = confused, not knowing what’s happening, perplexed

perplejo/a = perplexed, confused

dudoso/a = doubtful

atontado/a = scatterbrained

aturdido/a = stunned, shocked

ensimismado/a = lost in thought, daydreaming, in one’s own world

ilusionado/a = hopeful

esperanzado/a = hopeful

desesperado/a = desperate, hopeless

apasionado/a = passionate, inspired

entusiasmado/a = enthusiastic, inspired

emocionado/a = excited, anxious, full of emotion

excitado/a = aroused (sexually)

conmovedor(a) = inspiring

Verbs

alegrar = to please, to make happy [gustar verb]

felicitarse = to be pleased with oneself

contentar = to make happy, to content

contentarse = to be content, to be happy

animar = to cheer up, to cheer on, to encourage

animarse = to be in a good mood, to be cheered up

gozar = to enjoy

disfrutar = to enjoy

estar de buen humor = to be in a good mood

entristecer = to sadden

entristecerse = to be sad

apenar = to sadden, to afflict

apenarse = to be saddened

deprimir = to depress, to sadden

deprimirse = to be depressed

avergonzar = to shame, to embarrass

avergonzarse = to be ashamed, to be embarrassed

arrepentir(se) = to regret, to feel sorry for

decepcionar = to disappoint

desilusionar = to disappoint, to disillusion

desilusionarse = to feel disappointed, to lose faith/heart

desengañarse = to have one’s expectations not be met, to lose faith

doler = to cause pain [gustar verb]

hacer daño = to damage, to harm [gustar verb]

herir = to wound, to injure

lastimar = to wound, to injure, to hurt

frustrar = to frustrate / to hinder, to make difficult

molestar = to annoy [gustar verb]

fastidiar = to annoy, to bother, to tick someone off

fastidiarse = to put up with, to shoulder a burden

hartar = to annoy, to irritate / to fill up

hartarse = to be fed up, to be tired of, to have had enough

cansar = to tire, to be annoyed by [gustar verb]

cansarse = to become tired

aburrir = to bore [gustar verb]

aburrirse = to become bored

agotar = to drain, to exhaust

agotarse = to become drained, to become exhausted

mandar = to mandate, to order / to send

exigir = to demand, to require

criticar = to criticize

enojar = to anger

enojarse = to get angry

enfadar = to anger

enfadarse = to get angry

enfurecer = to infuriate

enfurecerse = to become infuriated

airar = to make wrathful, to anger

airarse = to go into a rage

hervir = to boil

echar humo = to seethe with anger [lit. “to give off smoke”]

tener buen genio = to be easy-going

tener mal genio = to be temperamental, to have a bad temper

tranquilizar = to tranquilize / to make peaceful

tranquilizarse = to become tranquil, to become at peace, to calm down

calmar = to calm

calmarse = to calm down, to settle down

apaciguar = to pacify

apaciguarse = to settle down, to be at peace

sosegar = to pacify

sosegarse = to calm down, to be in control, to get a grip

relajar = to relax

relajarse = to become relaxed, to loosen up

estresar = to stress

tensar = to make tense

enervar = to enervate, to irritate, to make someone jumpy or anxious

envidiar = to envy, to be envious of, to be jealous of

poner de los nevios = to get on one’s nerves

ponerse nervioso/a = to become nervous

preocupar = to worry, to concern [gustar verb]

preocuparse = to worry about, to be concerned about

dar miedo = to be scary / to scare [gustar verb]

tener miedo a/de + algo = to be afraid of (something)

tener miedo a/de + alguien = to be afraid of (someone)

horrorizar = to horrify

terrorizar = to terrify

atemorizar = to terrify, to frighten

asustar = to startle, to frighten

alarmar = to alarm, to frighten

shockear = to shock, to startle

shockearse = to be in shock, to be surprised

confundir = to confuse, to mislead

confundirse = to make a mistake

estar confuso/a = to be confused

aturdir = to shock, to stun

aturdirse = to be stunned

extrañar = to shock, to bewilder [gustar verb]

esperar = to hope / to expect / to wait for

tener la esperanza = to have hope

guardar la esperanza = to remain hopeful

desesperarse = to lose faith, to lose hope, to despair

perder la esperanza = to lose hope

perder la fe = to lose faith

confiar = to trust

apasionar = to inspire

conmover = to inspire

entusiasmar = to enthuse, to inspire

emocionar = to excite, to make others excited

emocionarse = to get excited

*Note: Most emotions are done using the verbs estar “to be (temporary)”, sentirse “to feel (an emotion)”, or ponerse “to become (typically suddenly as in moods)”. Using ser “to be (more permanent)” is not typically recommended because it can make it sound as if someone’s emotion is their natural personality, and can confuse the meaning since it isn’t technically wrong.

*Note 2: Many of these verbs can exist as non-reflexive or reflexive. This means that a verb like enojar means “to anger (someone else)” while enojarse means “to become angry”. The difference here is the object (the person or thing that receives the action of the verb. Some verbs aren’t going to be mentioned if they’re not pertaining to emotions, such as felicitar is “to congratulate”, but felicitarse means “to be pleased with oneself”.

[spanishteacherbyday-blog]

A New Lexicon

I love that language is forever evolving. New words and definitions are added daily to any given language.

After explaining to my Spanish 2 class earlier this year that words come about for a practical and whimsical reasons, a particularly basketball-oriented young man grabbed a nearby dictionary and found the word for “buckets.” He settled on cubos. A few weeks later, I caught him conjugating a verb randomly on his homework paper… Yep! He had invented the verb “cubar” which officially (at our HS anyway) means “to drop buckets.”

This enterprising young man quickly taught his teammates this verb and soon all 4 sections of Spanish 2 were using it. I have included it on homework assignments, quizzes, and tests. We have conjugated it in the indicative, the preterite, and now the imperfect.

Recently, I have been sharing with my students some interesting words in Spanish that just don’t have English equivalents: pardo (the color between brown and grey), lampiño (someone who can’t grow facial hair), and sobremesa (the conversation that takes place at the dinner table once a meal is complete.

Today we also completed a study guide comparing the imperfect and preterite that we wrote on file folders. A student asked, “what is the one word in Spanish that means ‘to fill out a folder?’” I assured him one did not exist. He promptly went to work creating one: follenar. He combined folder in English and llenar (to fill) in Spanish. Of course he immediately ran to the board and conjugated his new verb in three tenses.

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. Here’s to a new lexicon in any language!

[spanishteacherbyday-blog]

I just wanna say something to our high school studyblr community:

YES you want to go to college. YES college is an exciting time in your life. 

HOWEVER

College in real life is NOTHING like they portray it in the movies:

Sororities aren’t all preppy girls. 

Fraternities aren’t all preppy/douchey guys

You are probably not going to be able to balance doing everything and keep your sanity

You’re probably gonna have a mental/emotional break down at least once

There is injustice.

Not everything is fair

The wifi won’t work sometimes

College food is incredibly unhealthy most of the time

your roommate will probably be one of those roommates

one night stands aren’t gonna be magical and fun sometimes

parties aren’t always what they show in the movies. 

You might injure yourself at some point.

Some residence halls don’t have elevators and a lot of floors.

some professors want you to fail

financial aid and admissions are going to be your worst enemy

blackboard fucking sucks. 

You’re going to want to quit school. 

You’re going to want to come home every single day.

Some days you’re gonna want to run away

some days you’re going to want to chug a bottle of liquor because life sucks

And you know what? It’s gonna be okay. College isn’t all rainbows and butterflies: it’s hard work. It’s late nights studying for a subject you absolutely hate. It’s nights alone in your room while your roommate is out with their significant other wondering how you’re ever going to move past that bad grade. It’s a breakup at a bad time in your life. It’s freaking out because you forgot an assignment that was worth a lot of points. 

HOWEVER

It’s also those afternoons where your roommate and their SO is talking and laughing and joking about everything under the sun with you. It’s quiet nights looking up at the stars wondering where this life is taking you. It’s getting that perfect grade you worked weeks for. It’s going to that party and jumping out of your comfort zone. 

College is nothing like the movies. It’s deeper. It’s much more than what movies provide for you as an example. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll stay it again: this generation has taken the “education” out of higher education. Take everything you hear about college with a grain of salt. Ultimately, it is up to you how you experience college, but don’t take a movie or social media’s word for how college is going to be. College is not going to be the most exciting time of your life. You have so much time ahead of you to have even more exciting experiences with the people you love most. 

[spanishteacherbyday-blog]

Details?

Educhums Mug Exchange

So my post this morning seems to have sparked some interest in another mug exchange. I’m willing to coordinate this if there is some interest- like or reblog this post if you would participate. I know I personally have trouble committing to the long-term buddies, but this is a fairly easy one to commit too and has some fun pay-off as well. Let me know!

[spanishteacherbyday-blog]

hey guuyss! the end of school year is coming up and AP exams and finals are on their way so I decided to create this post to help with all of the stress that we students feel constantly. so, here are some techniques to relieve stress!

Power naps

sleep is soooo important and as students we are always sleeping late, so a quick 20 minute nap in the afternoon really helps a lot.

for a more effective nap, try to avoid caffeine after 3 pm. 

Exercise

doing exercise reduces ‘stress hormones’ and increases endorphins so you’ll feel way better after.

here are a couple of quick exercises!

Deep breaths

taking deep breaths has been shown to lower cortisol levels which can reduce stress and anxiety.

Aromatherapy

lighting some candles, especially scents like lavender can reduce stress.

Drink tea

drinking black tea has been shown to relieve stress, so why not have a cup of tea during some study sessions?

Guided meditation

visualising a calm and peaceful scene can help ease anxiety.

Do an art project

art therapy can reduce stress related behaviors and reduce anxiety!

Take a walk

going at your own pace a breathing the fresh air outside has been shown to release stress.

Write it all

keeping a journal has many positive effects and has helped reduce stress due to the quiet, reflective attitude while writing.

Yoga

breathing exercises and poses can also help to lower cortisol levels. 

soo there you go! some quick tips to reduce stress! Hope you find these all useful!