Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar is working on a new film, Los abrazos rotos. And in the process, he's created a wonderful opportunity for film fans and Spanish students to get an inside look at how a film is made: a blog, where he muses on the script, the best translation for an English title (he decided the title's abrazos are more "embraces" than "hugs"), Penelope Cruz's hairstyle and, seemingly, whatever crosses his mind.

Blogpedroalmodóvar is written in Spanish, with English and French translations. (Access the translations through the blog's main page,  www.pedroalmodovar.es .) If you're an intermediate or high beginner student of Spanish, the translations  will provide a quick way for you to understand vocabulary or colloquialisms new to you, before carrying on reading the blog in Spanish. 

El Castellano published an intriguing article a few weeks back about the effects of bilingualism on the brain. The article, titled "Los idiomas entrenan el cerebro" (Languages train the brain), describes the results of a number of studies on bilingualism. My favorite finding? It never is too late to learn a language. In fact,  learning a second language late in life has beneficial effects beyond being able to communicate with a whole new crowd.

The studies shed some light on why young children learn multiple languages so effortlessly and completely, as well.

And the article is in Spanish, so reading it alone will be a good workout. :)

Results from our last poll are in!

Seems readers of this blog would choose to study in a major city in Spain (37%),  a small town in Spain (21%) or a major city in Latin America.

The full results are below. (If you'd like to explore the cities and towns in Spain and Latin America, by the way, don Quijte's destinations page is a good place to start.)

Where would you study?

If you won a free course today, where would you study Spanish?

 

Latin America, in a major city

 30 (20%)

Latin American, in a small town

 21 (14%)

Spain, in a major city

 53 (37%)

Spain, in a small town

 31 (21%)

Nowhere. I'd keep studying in my home country.

 8 (5%)

Total votes: 143

Auf der Weltausstellung in Zaragoza dreht sich vom 14. Juni bis 14. September 2008 alles um das Thema „Wasser und nachhaltige Entwicklung“.
Deutschland präsentiert auf der EXPO eine attraktive Mischung aus Information und Unterhaltung und zeigt innovative Technologien, richtungsweisende Entwicklungen und kreative Ideen.
Der Deutsche Pavillon nimmt Sie mit auf eine Reise in die wunderbare Welt des Wassers. Erleben Sie ein modernes Wassermärchen und entdecken Sie faszinierende deutsche Wasserlandschaften.

Ayer se inauguró en la Rioja el seminario el español de los jóvenes, en el que se debatirán las nuevas jergas y usos de la lengua Española.