In This Newsletter
My Current Projects
Last week there wasn't a newsletter because of some poor planning from my side. I'm currently busy with college, learning French, getting better at English because of my minor, finding time to write articles, the newsletter, and some side-projects I run to help people get better at Spanish. This all takes a lot of time, so things go bad from time to time.
I'm currently working on two projects for Spanish-Only.com. The first is a sentence pack containing around 500 sentences, which comes with audio and an SRS deck. The second is an all-new sentence database, which comes with several thousand Spanish-English sentences with audio.
The sentence pack will be released in May, and will come in three flavors: a basic pack with all sentences in a PDF file, a medium pack with the PDF file plus audio for every sentence, and a deluxe pack with the PDF file, audio and an Anki deck which is ready to use. The deluxe pack will be around $15 and the basic pack will be around $8. Not too bad if you ask me.
The new and improved sentence database will go live in August or September, and will feature more sentences, audio, an option to export sentences to Anki and an improved search engine for paying members. The script is done, and just needs some minor tweaking. However, most of the work will be recording the sentences and adding all keywords for the search engine. Prices will be somewhere between $5 and $10 per month for the premium features. The rest of the site (the Spanish-English sentences without audio and the standard (non-keyword driven) search engine) will have ads and will remain free. However, becoming a premium member certainly makes life easier for the average SRS user, and will be offered at a good price.
People that want to help me with the sentence database and speak Spanish well (important for the keywords) can contact me. I can't offer big money, but a free premium membership for life will be included.
So that's what I'm currently working on, and which causes me to slack off a bit regarding writing articles and answering questions. Now, enjoy reading the newsletter and the new article I'll publish next week.
Peace!
Spanish Word of the Week: potra
Because I learned a lot of Spanish in the streets, I often use words with more than one meaning without being fully aware of it. One of these words is the word potra.
The other day I was listening to a reggaeton song called potra, but the it wasn't in the sense I know it as. I normally use it to say that someone has luck, which is one of its colloquial meanings in both Spain and some parts of Latin America. However, in the song it wasn't used to say that someone was lucky, but more that the person in question had a hernia or rupture. Reggaeton wouldn't be reggaeton if it wasn't vulgar, and I discovered that potra can also mean having a ruptured... eh... scrotum.
Anyway, you better use it in Spain to say that someone is lucky, otherwise you could get yourself in an embarrassing situation ;-).
Click here to listen to the song (beware: it's pretty vulgar!)
Sentences
¡Qué potra tienes!
You're so lucky!
Audio
¡Qué potra tienes, te han caído justo las preguntas que te sabías!
You're so lucky! They asked you exactly the questions you knew!
Audio
¡Qué potra!
How lucky!
Audio
Encontrar aparcamiento en la calle es mucha potra.
You're lucky if you find a parking space in the street.
Audio
Bilingual Text from The Little Prince
Click here for the audio. (Special thanks to AlbaLearning for the audio.)
CHAPTER 5
Cada día yo aprendía algo nuevo sobre el planeta, sobre la partida y sobre el viaje.
As each day passed I would learn, in our talk, something about the little prince’s planet, his departure from it, his journey.
Esto venía suavemente al azar de las reflexiones.
The information would come very slowly, as it might chance to fall from his thoughts.
De esta manera tuve conocimiento al tercer día, del drama de los baobabs.
It was in this way that I heard, on the third day, about the catastrophe of the baobabs.
Fue también gracias al cordero y como preocupado por una profunda duda, cuando el principito me preguntó:
This time, once more, I had the sheep to thank for it. For the little prince asked me abruptly–as if seized by a grave doubt–
—¿Es verdad que los corderos se comen los arbustos?
"It is true, isn’t it, that sheep eat little bushes?"
—Sí, es cierto.
"Yes, that is true."
—¡Ah, qué contesto estoy!
"Ah! I am glad!"
No comprendí por qué era tan importante para él que los corderos se comieran los arbustos.
I did not understand why it was so important that sheep should eat little bushes.
Pero el principito añadió:
But the little prince added:
—Entonces se comen también los Baobabs.
“Then it follows that they also eat baobabs?”
Le hice comprender al principito que los baobabs no son arbustos,
I pointed out to the little prince that baobabs were not little bushes,
sino árboles tan grandes como iglesias y que incluso si llevase consigo todo un rebaño de elefantes,
but, on the contrary, trees as big as castles; and that even if he took a whole herd of elephants away with him,
el rebaño no lograría acabar con un solo baobab.
the herd would not eat up one single baobab.
Esta idea del rebaño de elefantes hizo reír al principito.
The idea of the herd of elephants made the little prince laugh.
—Habría que poner los elefantes unos sobre otros...
"We would have to put them one on top of the other," he said.
Y luego añadió juiciosamente:
But he made a wise comment:
—Los baobabs, antes de crecer, son muy pequeñitos.
"Before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little."
—Es cierto. Pero ¿por qué quieres que tus corderos coman los baobabs?
"That is strictly correct," I said. “But why do you want the sheep to eat the little baobabs?”
Me contestó: "¡Bueno! ¡Vamos!" como si hablara de una evidencia.
He answered me at once, "Oh, come, come!", as if he were speaking of something that was self-evident.
Me fue necesario un gran esfuerzo de inteligencia para comprender por mí mismo este problema.
And I was obliged to make a great mental effort to solve this problem, without any assistance.
En efecto, en el planeta del principito había, como en todos los planetas, hierbas buenas y hierbas malas.
Indeed, as I learned, there were on the planet where the little prince lived –as on all planets– good plants and bad plants.
Por consiguiente, de buenas semillas salían buenas hierbas y de las semillas malas, hierbas malas.
In consequence, there were good seeds from good plants, and bad seeds from bad plants.
Pero las semillas son invisibles; duermen en el secreto de la tierra, hasta que un buen día una de ellas tiene la fantasía de despertarse.
But seeds are invisible. They sleep deep in the heart of the earth’s darkness, until some one among them is seized with the desire to awaken.
Entonces se alarga extendiendo hacia el sol, primero tímidamente, una encantadora ramita inofensiva.
Then this little seed will stretch itself and begin– timidly at first– to push a charming little sprig inoffensively upward toward the sun.
Si se trata de una ramita de rábano o de rosal, se la puede dejar que crezca como quiera.
If it is only a sprout of radish or the sprig of a rose-bush, one would let it grow wherever it might wish.
Pero si se trata de una mala hierba, es preciso arrancarla inmediatamente en cuanto uno ha sabido reconocerla.
But when it is a bad plant, one must destroy it as soon as possible, the very first instant that one recognizes it.
En el planeta del principito había semillas terribles...
Now there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the little prince;
como las semillas del baobab.
and these were the seeds of the baobab.
El suelo del planeta está infestado de ellas.
The soil of that planet was infested with them.
Si un baobab no se arranca a tiempo, no hay manera de desembarazarse de él más tarde;
A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late.
cubre todo el planeta y lo perfora con sus raíces.
It spreads over the entire planet.
Y si el planeta es demasiado pequeño y los baobabs son numerosos, lo hacen estallar.
It bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces. . .
"Es una cuestión de disciplina, me decía más tarde el principito.
"It is a question of discipline," the little prince said to me later on.
Cuando por la mañana uno termina de arreglarse, hay que hacer cuidadosamente la limpieza del planeta.
"When you’ve finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care.
Hay que dedicarse regularmente a arrancar los baobabs, cuando se les distingue de los rosales,
You must see to it that you pull up regularly all the baobabs,
a los cuales se parecen mucho cuando son pequeñitos.
at the very first moment when they can be distinguished from the rosebushes which they resemble so closely in their earliest youth.
Es un trabajo muy fastidioso pero muy fácil".
It is very tedious work," the little prince added, "but very easy."
Y un día me aconsejó que me dedicara a realizar un hermoso dibujo, que hiciera comprender a los niños de la tierra estas ideas.
And one day he said to me: "You ought to make a beautiful drawing, so that the children where you live can see exactly how all this is.
"Si alguna vez viajan, me decía, esto podrá servirles mucho.
That would be very useful to them if they were to travel some day.
A veces no hay inconveniente en dejar para más tarde el trabajo que se ha de hacer;
Sometimes," he added, "there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day.
pero tratándose de baobabs, el retraso es siempre una catástrofe.
But when it is a matter of baobabs, that always means a catastrophe.
Yo he conocido un planeta, habitado por un perezoso que descuidó tres arbustos..."
I knew a planet that was inhabited by a lazy man. He neglected three little bushes. . . "
Siguiendo las indicaciones del principito, dibujé dicho planeta.
So, as the little prince described it to me, I have made a drawing of that planet.
Aunque no me gusta el papel de moralista, el peligro de los baobabs es tan desconocido
I do not much like to take the tone of a moralist. But the danger of the baobabs is so little understood,
y los peligros que puede correr quien llegue a perderse en un asteroide son tan grandes,
and such considerable risks would be run by anyone who might get lost on an asteroid,
que no vacilo en hacer una excepción y exclamar: "¡Niños, atención a los baobabs!"
that for once I am breaking through my reserve. "Children,” I say plainly, “watch out for the baobabs!"
Y sólo con el fin de advertir a mis amigos de estos peligros a que se exponen desde hace ya tiempo sin saberlo,
My friends, like myself, have been skirting this danger for a long time, without ever knowing it;
es por lo que trabajé y puse tanto empeño en realizar este dibujo.
and so it is for them that I have worked so hard over this drawing.
La lección que con él podía dar, valía la pena.
The lesson which I pass on by this means is worth all the trouble it has cost me.
Es muy posible que alguien me pregunte por qué no hay en este libro otros dibujos tan grandiosos como el dibujo de los baobabs.
Perhaps you will ask me, "Why is there no other drawing in this book as magnificent and impressive as this drawing of the baobabs?"
La respuesta es muy sencilla: he tratado de hacerlos, pero no lo he logrado.
The reply is simple. I have tried. But with the others I have not been successful.
Cuando dibujé los baobabs estaba animado por un sentimiento de urgencia.
When I made the drawing of the baobabs I was carried beyond myself by the inspiring force of urgent necessity.
Homework
Beginner
Although there wasn't a newsletter last week, I do hope you continued getting input in the form of television. Your goal should be to get 1000 hours of television-based input as soon as possible, so aim for 50 hours of Spanish-only television this week, without subtitles. Don't speak Spanish at all!
Intermediate
Try to get as much input as you can. Music, podcasts, television; everything counts. You might even try to read some short articles online on newssites like ElPais.com or ElMundo.es. Also, use the bilingual text in this newsletter to listen-read and get a feeling for Spanish spelling and how to pronounce certain letters. Don't speak a lot; focus on getting input first and foremost.
Advanced
You had two weeks to read a book in Spanish. How did it go? Did you finish it? Try to read it again (there are always details that you'll notice reading it for a second time), or pick out another book you can finish in a week. Also, try to get some speaking practice.
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