Hello everybody! We are seven girls from the University of León, a small city in the North-West of Spain. Our names are Alba, Hermelinda, Mariana, Olga, María, Rebeca and Pauline (who's actually French!).
Our English teacher wanted us to write a blog about Spanish traditions and customs, aimed at American students of Spanish.
We've decided to call it 'Killing Torrente' but... wait a minute. I'm sure you're wondering...
...Who's Torrente, and why do we want to kill him?
...Who's Torrente, and why do we want to kill him?
Unfortunately, a lot of foreign countries (specially in Europe) usually think of Spain as the country of "siesta and fiesta". Spaniards don't have a very good reputation: we're supposed to be irresponsible, not very hard-working, a little bit bad-mannered, loud, jokers and party-goers. 'Torrente' is a Spanish film whose main character has all the worst 'qualities' of the Spanish stereotype: he's stupid, lazy crude and sexist.
Well, the thing is that most Spaniards are not like that, and that's why we want to kill Torrente: We want to bring down all the cliches and stereotypes about Spain. But in order to do that we're gonna need some help : we're not very sure of what the Americans think about Spanish people, so we'd like you to tell us what do you think of our country and its citizens or to ask questions about Spain, which we'll love to answer. Any opinions, doubts, suggestions, experiences from people that has already been to Spain... are welcome!
That's all (fot the time being.) We're really looking forward to reading your comments!
¡Nos vemos!
My name is Grant Glass; I am a student at Harvard University Extension in Cambridge, Ma. I am currently taking Spanish and thought your blog to be very informative. Hopefully next time I will respond in Spanish, I wanted to at least introduce myself before I battered you with my jumbled Spanish. I love Spain; I went there over ten years ago. I was sailing and was beaten pretty bad by the local boys. On this trip, I got to sample a lot of Spanish food. I fell in love with your wine, the reds of course! Also, I had the best steak of my life there. I hopefully can learn enough Spanish to come back there someday. Do you know anyway I could accelerate my learning in Spanish? I would love to help you with English if you want.
ResponderEliminarBuenas! Mi nombre es Will. Soy un estudiante estadounidense en la Universidad de Nuevo Hampshire. Vuestro blog me parece bastante interesante y informativo. La verdad es que leí el blog con la intención con proveerles comentarios sobre su forma de escribir pero la verdad es que sin uds. compartir que no eran hablantes nativos, no me hubiese dado cuenta no lo eran. No es decir que no hay errores, pero no me acuerdo dónde lo vi y eran tan escasos que pienso que no vale la pena buscarlos. Tuvo el privilegio de pasar unos meses el otoño pasado en Granada y quiero decirles que me encantó España y estoy loco para regresar. Espero que sigan con lo que están haciendo con este blog porque estoy de acuerdo con uds. que la España presumida no es la España verdadera. ¡Ciao!—y si les interesan practicar inglés con alguien que tiene más o menos niveles de comprensión semejantes en ambas lenguas estoy disponible para ayudarles.
ResponderEliminarHi!! I'm Herme, one of the Spanish students that wrote in this blog. When I read your coments I don't understand why you say we have a good English (in my opinion, mine is horrible and will be horrible forever Uu). If you want, I think we can talk by messenger to practise English or Spanish -my sister usually talk with people who live in other countries and she is learning a lot of English and about other cultures :D
ResponderEliminarI've never been in USA -a lot of my friends have been there, but I haven't-, I think I have to go some day :)
Bye! Thank for your visit!
what is the messenger service you use? Do you use Skype at all?
ResponderEliminarI use Skype (Mariana). But I think Herme doesn't xD
ResponderEliminarWhat's your skype ID?
Hi guys,
ResponderEliminarThe theme of your blog is great, and its title is hilarious! Very clever! Your English is fantastic. How long have you been studying English?
My name is Drew Chisholm and I am an American student from Holliston, Massachusetts. I study at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. Last year, I lived and studied in Palma de Mallorca. I am in love with Spain!!
I think that a lot of Americans assume that everyone in Spain loves flamenco dancing and loves bullfighting. Americans also tend to think that there is a lot of partying in Spain.
I'm eager to continue reading your blog!
Jajajajaja, no, I don't -I'm really bad at new tecnologies xD
ResponderEliminarBut, well, I've seen I need one Skype ID, so I'll try to make one... ¬¬
See you!! :D
Well, it's done: my ID is herme.vilar :)
ResponderEliminarmy id is grantglass80, when would you like to Skype??
ResponderEliminarmaybe you can help me with my spanish...
ResponderEliminarMe levanto a las seis de la mañana. Al principio yo tengo mucha sed. Yo beber aqua, entonces yo como los huevos con queso. Mas tarde, yo voy a trabajar. Yo tomo el tran verde entonces yo tomo el tran roja. Yo llego a trabajar a las ocho. En el almuerzo, a las doce, yo como el sandwich con papas fritas. Yo dego a trabajar a las cinco yo para voy a clase. Después de clase, me voy a casa. En la cena, yo como el burrito con el pollo. yo duermo a las once de la noche.
how is that?
Hi!
ResponderEliminarWhen... xD Well, now I'm a little bit stressed, because I have to do a lot of things, but I think that we can talk some weekends' morning or some monday and tuesday evenings... Do you? :)
Por cierto, en tu texto quedaría "luego" o "después" mejor que "entonces", creo yo :)
Hi Grant! It's Alba writing this time :3
ResponderEliminarFirst of all I'd like to thank you for your comments and for taking some time to read our blog.
The text you posted is quite good, but I've corrected it so it sounds more natural (corrections are in caps):
"Me levanto a las seis de la mañana. Al principio yo (YOU DON'T REALLY NEED TO SAY "YO" AGAIN BECAUSE THE VERB ALREADY INDICATES YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT YOU) tengo mucha sed. [Yo] BEBO aGua; DESPUÉS [yo] como huevos con queso. MÁs tarde, [yo] voy a trabajar. [Yo] tomo (you can say COJO, too, but in some Latin American countries it means a very different thing, so "tomo" it's ok) el tran (do you mean train? If you do, the correct word is TREN) verde; LUEGO tomo el TREN rojO (it's masculin). Yo llego a trabajar a las ocho. En el almuerzo, a las doce, [yo] como el sandwich con papas fritas. Yo DEJO DE/TERMINO DE/SALGO DE trabajar a las cinco PARA IR a clase. Después de clase, me voy a casa. En la cena, [yo] como UN burrito con pollo. yo ME VOY A DORMIR a las once de la noche."
:) Hope you find it useful!