I'm trying to improve my spanish and thought reading some books might help.
PM me if you have anything and we'll see if we can work something out.

I don't have ANYTHING in Spanish. But seeing as I live in Texas, I can find Spanish stuff pretty easy.... at least I think I can... hell all the signs here are half in English half in Spanish.

A few weekends ago my daughter found a Pooh book she wanted and I wouldn't get it for her. It was kinda hard to explain to a two year old, "You can't have that book because mommy dosen't understand Spanish."


I'll look around and see what I can find for ya.

I can see if I can find some books. Anything more specific than YA?

No just need anything for practice. I need young adult or teens because I think adult stuff would be too difficult for me. I actually found 1 book at the blue bicycle book shop at the convention. None of the used book stores around here sell spanish books. :shrug: Which is weird because we have a fairly large spanish population, although probably not as large as Texas or Florida.

No problem will keep an eye out for you. Miami is 80% Hispanic. You know, when we arrived in Charleston, our first thoughts were, wow, this is so American! Wow, everybody speaks English! :lol:

*snort* Sorry I just can't stand it when other people speek Spanish or any other language for that matter. Now if they are tourists or something, it doesn't bother me.

I guess I just come from the school of...

"If I was going to move to France I sure as hell wouldn't expect France to start learning English just to make me happy, I would learn French!" (Ok, so I know they probably speek English in France too, but you get my point.)


I know I can find some children's books as well. I'll hook ya up! OH.. maybe I can find a Spanish Charmed book. :whistle:

I have this one (teens):
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4853110
Let me know if you are interested.

:lol: When I went to Montreal with my aunt, one of the last days we were there, another (American) tourist came up to us with French book in hand and said in really bad French "Can you tell me how to get to the Subway Station?" So between my aunt and I we know about 5 years of French, so we knew what he said; so we replied in English, "It's around the corner and down the block a bit." I guess he wasn't suspecting that we knew english, so he got really flustered, turned around and saw a guy on a bike and asked him in French (who told him the same info we told him first!!)

In any case, most europeans know more english than the rest of us! (I also have heard if you're near the border-regions, you know your national language, English and whatever language is across the border! :P )

I wonder if they print the Charmed books in Spanish, that would be excellent!! I looked at Amazon online today, they have a spanish section, and damn are the books expensive!! Almost everything is 12.00 or more. So I definately need used books. Or I need to hit the lottery. :lol:

That would be great, could I offer you something in trade?

Edited to add:
PS. Welcome to the forum!!

PMed you! ^_^

I'm here in Cali and should be able to find lots of Spanish books.. I should get some for myself too because I'm taking Spanish courses now.. :giggle:

Apolonia si necesitas cualquier ayuda pregunta me por favor :)
Te puedo recomendar clásicos adaptados para cada nivel. En el fin de cada libro hay ejercicios con poco de gramática y poco de vocabulario. Es bastante divertido. Libros son clasificados también por cantidad de las palabras, entonces cuando termines un libro se supone que más o menos sabes (no sé cuanto) palabras. También en las marginas hay dibujos que explican la historia. Son muy buenos.
Desafortunadamente yo tengo solo fotocopias (con permiso del Instituto Cervantes) y si quieres te puedo mandar algunos (depende del franqueo).
También puedes consultar estas páginas de web:
http://www.cvc.cervantes.es/ aquí tienes montón de cosas interesantes pero, es verdad tienes que tener un nivel de conocimiento un poco elevado.
Otra es Aula Virtual Cervantes: http://ave.cervantes.es/ que se paga pero obtendrás tu propio tutor y hay muchísimas ejercicios, juegos, películas cortas, etc.

Espero que estos informaciones sean útil :)

I’m in total shock. Really the last thing I expected to see here in multi national/cultural/(and for someone) multi lingual community is something like this. Such a disappointment…

I think we are reading each other wrong. (It's so easy to do in here anyway, as we're typing and not seeing or talking to one another.)

The way I was raised is that its rude to speak a language in front of people who don't speak it.

As an example. When I was young my grandfather told me a story of one of his hunting trips. On the trip one night he was joined by two Native American men, one older and one younger (like father and son perhaps.) Everyone there could speak English. At one point the younger Native American said something to the older Native American in his native tongue. The older man let him finish, then told him (in English btw) it is rude to speak our language to each other when those around us do not understand.

I don't have anything against people from Mexico or any other country. What I do have a problem with is the fact that some people here (not cyber here, but Texas area) refuse to speak English. There have been several cases in my life when a kid who was born here, had his/her parents come to the school and the kid would have to translate because the parents refused to learn English.

And its not just Spanish either. As another example when I go to get my pedicures at a place in town, the people who own it are Oriental (what Nationality I admit, I don't know.) When the ladies in there talk to me, its in English, but they only speak to eachother in their Native tongue. Its not that I'm being nosy or anything and want to hear what they are saying. Its just that I was always taught that was wrong and rude.

On the flip side. A few years ago I went to Mexico for the first time. I have 2 and a half years of Spanish under my belt, but I don't use it much and so to be honest I'm really rusty and I've forgotten more than I'll probably ever re-learn. My ex-husband didn't know any Spanish, except for the cus words. I went to Mexico (a border town btw) expecting to have to try and scrape by on my crappy ass high school Spanish. But for the most part, people did know English. (As Jazmin said in border towns its kinda expected.) Still, the street signs and store signs and everything were in Spanish. The longer I was there, the more it started coming back. I did order my food/drinks in Spanish, but I wasn't able to really shop in Spanish, as that part was very weak. When I did speak to people, I tried to use Spanish as much as I could. The people there were a bit surprised at me trying to speak Spanish and were very understanding when I told them I knew very little Spanish.

I guess what I was trying to stay that got miss-under-read was that if I was to go to another country, I wouldn't expect that country to cater to me. I would learn or at least try to learn that language before hand. Kinda like the person Jazmin ran into with the French book. I'm not saying that all people who come here refuse to speak the language (and if you want to get really technical we should all .. in the US.. be speaking different Native American dialects based on what area we are in) There are a lot of people I see who come from other countries and who have learned or are trying to learn the language.

Oh... I just thought of something. I have a friend who is deaf. I was in a club in high school called Silent Friends, and I learned sign language. When you talk to someone in sign language you always say out loud what you are signing. Even if the only other person in the dang room is the person who is hearing impaired, and when the hearing impaired person talked to you in sign, they will also voice. It's just the way its done. The main reason (I see anyway) is because the other people around don't understand. Now the only time you don't use your voice and your hands to speak is when you are like at an assembly or something and there is a speaker who you are translating for, even then you move your mouth and form the words with out using your voice.

Please don't think I have anything against other languages, or cultures, because I don't. I am actually very interested in other cultures. (Like I sent Jo - cosmic-gin - some stuff from local Native American tribes and a Cherokee legend, I'm part Cherokee btw, because I knew she was interested in other Native cultures as she is part Native as well. She msgd me and told me that she loved it, and wanted to do the same for me with her culture, and I am so excited, and dying to see it.)

Part of what makes the US so great is that we are a melting pot of other cultures, that people from all over the world come here to make the US unique. Its as if we have bonded and come together to make this place our own. I don't think that when people come here they should forget or loose their cultures or languages and become American.

I guess you could call it "Southern Hospitality", something us in the southern US are known for. I was always told to use manners, be polite, respect people, etc. And because of that it bothers me when others are not polite or respectful of others. To me, its nothing against the other culture/language, its just a polite thing.

zzz, I know we come from different cultures, and languages, but I really don't want you to think I was being a bitch snob with my previous post. I feel so comfortable here. Maybe I should have phrased it another way, because the way you took it was not what I meant at all. I assume its different where you are because the countries are smaller and a lot closer together. And I have heard that there are several places in Europe where several forms or what have you are in several languages. It does bother me that several jobs here require that you know Spanish and English (I had that problem when looking for a new job recently) because of people who come to this country and refuse to learn the language. I would never go or move to another country and not know or learn the language and expect everyone in that country to accommodate me. I hope you understand what I meant zzz. I really didn’t mean to offend anyone.

I just want to add that I work in a tourist mall, and we get lots of international visitors. It's very difficult to communicate with them, but I'm 30 years old---there's no way I can learn that many different languages. Spanish is the main one, but there are French, German, Italian, etc. etc. Foreign languages were not emphasized very much when I was in school. We could graduate on 2 years of foreign language, not necessarily both years the same one, and we didn't get that until high school. I know that foreign language is taught more extensively now, but imo, it's still not enough. I've said it before: it amazes me how well people from other countries speak English around the message boards...better than us English folk do, sometimes. :whistle:

I also hate it when people speak foreign tongues in front of me because I always think they're talking about me! :lol:

I have that feeling everytime I get my nails done! :P I can just imagine them saying... "eww.. look at this girl's nasty feet, I can't believe I have to touch them." More than likely they are just gabbing about what so and so wore on her date with such and such or the newest soap opra or something, but it still makes me wonder.

Same here. The one Spanish teacher I did learn so much from was a Native from Peru. I loved her accent! It was just so easy to learn from her.. then again it could be because she taught us like we were small children. To me that was the best way to learn, starting very small like that.

In college, one of the majors I picked at some point or other I had to have a foreign language. So I picked Spanish, sinc I already had 2 and a half years of Spanish (1 Honors btw and how I passed that class I'll never know.) I didn't make it past the first few weeks. The first thing they did was get rid of some letters of the alphabet. :blink: How and why do you just get rid of letters of the alphabet? :blink: That tossed me for a loop. Then what really killed me was it was BEGINNING SPANISH... as in Spanish 101, and that crazy woman had us speaking Spanish from day 1, and on day 3 she expected us to ONLY speak Spanish in her class. Um... HELLO... why would I take BEGINNING Spanish if I could ALREADY SPEAK SPANISH! :blink: I asked her that when I dropped the class and told her, I took it to LEARN Spanish, and it WAS NOT a beginning Spanish class. She told me that it was and they expected me to have already taken 2 years of it in high school before I took her class. (Um.. to me that would make it Spanish level 3 not 1. :rolleyes: )

I also remember at one of my previous jobs I worked accross the hall from some German Military men. I loved the smell of their office. Coffe, German Chocolate Cake, and Cigars. (They did get in trouble for smoking inside the office tho. :P ) I made friends with a few of them and they would teach me a few words in German. I still remember most of them.. like (and I know I'm gonna kill the spelling of this) shista coffin :D I called my ex-fieance that a lot..(it means shit head) and doom caugh (dumbass)

Oh.. did you ever see, So I Married An Axe Murderer? It's got this great scene in it where Mike Myers and his girlfriend (forgot her name at the moment) are walking down by the pier and a few Russian saliors walk past and say something about her, like a great butt or something, and she says something back to them in Russian? I had one of those moments once in my 1st year of Spanish, I was at the shop where they worked on the trucks. (My dad worked for a trucking company as a comptroller.) And a young Spanish guy about my age said I was cute in Spanish, I turned around and thanked him in Spanish... boy did he blush. :P

For me hearing Spanish (or sign language for that matter when I'm talking to my friend) is like that part on Billy Maddison when he's trying to learn I think French from the garder, and the guy would say something, it would turn back to Adam Sandler, and all he would say was "slow down" and the guy would say the exact same thing at the exact same speed.

I never could get the hang of it. I've always heard you have to "think" in Spanish to be fluent in Spanish. I never could do that. I was always thinking "perro" is the Spanish word for "dog", its like I would translate in my head, it never came natural to me.

Now my sister, she took 4 or was it 5 years of French in High school and in College, but she forgot dang near all of it, and it takes her forever to tell you anything about any word in French.. but when she talks in her sleep... its NOT in English.. She speeks fluent French in her sleep. :rofl:

I guess I'm just crappy at phrasing things. I do have foot in mouth disease... which often gets me in trouble. :bash:




OH and Ap.. btw... I'm going to the bookstore tonight afterwork, and I'll see what they have in Spanish. I think they have a Spanish section, but I can't remember.

Same here, NMZ! When I went to college, it was a requirement to take 6 credits (2 classes) of any language class. Both times the German Proffessor, and the Spanish proffessor started talking in that language the first day!! The entire class (both times) were like "What? What did she say?" :lol:

:rofl: That's how it was for several in my class too.

Hey Ap.. I got a question for you. Do you want books you haven't read or books that you have?

Reason I asked is because I saw a Harry Potter book on ebay in Spanish, and I knew HP was in Spanish. HP is one series I can read over and over again, and usually read all over before the new one comes out so the books are fresh in my mind. It got me to thinking. Would you also want books that you have read kinda like HP? That way you might have a frame of referrance?

I figured for the most part you would want books you haven't read, but thought I would ask. Also, is there like particular book you would want.. like do you have a favorite book that you would like to find in Spanish? Not promising anything, but I could try and find those as well. :whistle:

Ok... I'm being lazy... I'm about to run and watch a movie with mom, but wanted to tell you about hte book I found first... here's the JE I wrote in it for you....

This one I bought just for apolonia. I had to read this in High School I think for my Spanish class. (I read the English Version.) And I LOVED IT. So much so that I kept the book, and re-read it at a later time. I ended up giving my copy to a very dear friend who was reading books about Spanish culture. This is one of those books I really wouldn't mind reading once every year or so.

I was looking for some YA for apolonia, but when I couldn't find any, I almost gave up, until I looked on the top shelf, and found this book, and thought it was fitting.

I hope you will like it!



And here's the book info..
Bendiceme Ultima

by Rudolfo Anaya

Annotation
Tie into the mass market release of Rudolfo Anaya's Alburquerque with the Hispanic masterpiece Bless Me, Ultima--now in Spanish! The English version of this classic was published in hardcover for the first time in April in a beautifully-illustrated collector's edition, and was simultaneously released in a mass market paperback version.
From the Publisher

Antonio Marez tiene seis años cuando Ultima viene a quedarse con su familia. Ultima es una curandera, una persona que cura con hierbas y magia. Bajo su protección, Antonio va a explorar las ataduras de la familia que le rasgan y comprometen, y se va a descubrir a sí mismo en los secretos mágicos y el pasado pagano --un legado mítico tan palpable como el catolicismo de América latina--. Y a cada vuelta de la vida, allí está Ultima, quien le ha entregado a Antonio a la vida, quien alimentará el nacimiento de su alma.
****

And the version from the English copy...
From the Publisher
A talent for meaningful storytelling and exquisite prose has made Rudolfo Anaya a leading exponent of Chicano literature in English. Anaya's work has won international acclaim, earning him a premier place in virtually every anthology of Latino writing. Now his classic bestseller, "Bless Me, Ultima" is reborn in this beautifully illustrated special edition. Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima enters his life. She is a curandera, one who heals with herbs and magic. 'We cannot let her live her last days in loneliness,' says Antonio's mother. 'It is not the way of our people,' agrees his father. And so Ultima comes to live with Antonio's family in New Mexico. Soon Tony will journey to the threshold of manhood. Always, Ultima watches over him. She graces him with the courage to face childhood bigotry, diabolical possession, the moral collapse of his brother, and too many violent deaths. Under her wise guidance, Tony will probe the family ties that bind him, and he will find in himself the magical secrets of the pagan past—a mythic legacy equally as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America in which he has been schooled. At each turn in his life there is Ultima who will nurture the birth of his soul. Enhanced by four full-color paintings by noted New Mexican artist Bernadette Vigil, this book will be treasured by all admirers of Rudolfo Anaya, whether they are longtime followers of his work or are discovering him for the first time.
From The Critics
Library Journal
Besides winning the Premio Quinto Sol national Chicano literary award, this novel of a young boy in New Mexico in the 1940s has sold more than 300,000 copies in paperback since its 1973 debut. Here, however, the book gets the hardcover treatment, with a few illustrations added for color. LJ's reviewer asserted that ``the novel has warmth and feeling'' (LJ 2/1/73) and a place in all fiction collections, especially those serving Chicano populations.



anyway.. I'll be sending it off with a few Charmed books for ya. :wink:

I read Bless Me Ultima not too long ago..very good.. :) In fact, I think Apolonia might have that copy now! :lol:

Yes I think I do!! Now I might have to dig it up, plus it's on Breeni's wishlist and I have been meaning to read it and send it off to her.

Well, now that your about to have the Spanish copy :P


You could pull a me. I have a tendency to offer up TBR books, and then I end up taking forever to read them, but I really want to read them, I just get behind, so I end up sending it on and then buying me another copy. :lol:

If I get that backed up I have sent them on and then added the book to my wishlist. I'm trying not to do that anymore though.

Ap, did you check BookCloseOuts for your spanish books? I was just on looking for books for my Happiness partner, and I saw several inexpensive children's/young adult titles in spanish. (One was called Castille de Horror......oooooooooo!)

I am going to the Crown books liquidation store today, I'll see if they have anything.

Good idea Kel, I'll have to check bookcloseouts later today.