Showing posts with label Spanish. Show all posts
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In case you didn’t know this, it’s Friday! Many of our customers learn Spanish for travel purposes. These people travel to Spanish-speaking countries and are able to do more things and have more fun because they have some degree of command on the Spanish language. I want you to be able to have more fun when you travel as well. This is a short list of a few Spanish travel expressions that could be helpful to you on your weekend getaway or whenever you
travel:
I want to go to the travel agent’s office. | Quiero ir a la oficina del agente de viajes.
I want to go to the city. | Quiero ir a la ciudad.
Where is it? | ¿Dónde está?
Where do I turn? | ¿Dónde doy vuelta?
This way. | Por aquí.
That way. | Por allí.
When will we arrive at the beach? | ¿Cuándo llegaremos a la playa?
Please show me the way to the store. | Por favor dime cómo se llega a la tienda.
How far is it? | ¿A qué distancia está?
How long does it take to go to the city? | ¿En cuánto tiempo se llega a la ciudad?
Can I walk there? | ¿Puedo llegar a pie?
Obviously I can’t put every Spanish travel expression you could possibly need for your travels. There is a travel section of the Visual Link Spanish Level 1 software which will aptly prepare you for speaking Spanish during your travel adventures. Take advantage of any opportunity who you can to speak Spanish with local people in their native tongue. Ask them questions and truly listen. Good luck and have fun!
Tags: travel expressions
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One of the details you should settle before leaving for Spain is where you plan to stay while in Spain. Sometimes, it can get a little tricky if the hotel you booked using the internet turned out to be a dud. What can you do? Here are some ideas you might want to consider.
Call your embassy and find out how they can help you. At the very least, they can recommend a decent place to stay
in.
If you have the means, just book at least one night in a hotel while you get yourself organized. This will decrease the stress you are going through, and give you an opportunity to recharge for the challenges of the next day.
There are youth hostels that usually do not charge an arm and a leg. You will have to call in advance to make a reservation because there is normally a waiting line especially during peak holidays.
If you are traveling with a group, you might want to consider a self contained unit like a daily apartment or townhouse. This will save you some money because rates here are usually lower than in hotels. Other savings could come from cooking your own meals instead of eating out all the time.
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If you are visiting Spain for the first time, try to learn a little Spanish to help you as you travel inside and around Spain. Seventy four percent of the population speak Spanish, although most can understand basic English.
As for religion, 94 % of Spaniards are Roman Catholics, and the remaining 6% are of different religious groups.
Most of the people are a mixture of two to three races. If you have studied the history of Spain, you will know that Spain has several waves of people coming to settle in their shores. This would explain the strangely beautiful look of Spaniards. Some are Nordic – light colored, while others have that Mediterranean look. It will not be unusual at all to meet a Spanish girl with light complexion, dark hair and blue eyes.
Being a highly developed nation, it is but natural that the literacy rate of Spain is a high 98%. The major products of Spain are grain, dairy products, noodles, wine, olives, meat and fish. You will have probably seen at least one product of Spain in your local department store or grocery since Spain exports a lot of its products around the world.
The major industries in Spain are textile, clothing, preserved food, chemicals, footwear, bags, food and beverages. The Spanish are also known for their craftsmanship in shipbuilding and machinery.
In Spain, the climate can change to extreme temperatures and low rainfall. There’s a saying in Madrid about the climate being “9 months of winter, and 3 months of hell.” This is because of the freezing cold winters, and the extremely hot summer months. In fact in many places in Spain, there are two weeks in August where people will just close shop and move to cooler weather – usually along the coastline.
In Granada, Cordoba, and Seville, the summer months get scorching hot that many wildfires have been known to start, destroying land, crop and homes.
Spain is a country of great history and culture. Learning more about Spain usually takes more than just reading about it. Visit Spain and experience the true beauty of nature in a modern setting.
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There’s something in the cliché: the Spanish coast is an infinite source of marvel and surprise. Such is the country’s surfeit of coastal riches that you can be sure to find a beach to your taste – from party resorts with great facilities, to surf towns, to pretty coves dotted with parasols. The Mediterranean coast alternates between rocky coves and inlets, and flatter, straighter stretches that are blessed with long beaches and gentle warm waters. The Atlantic coast has cooler seas and whiter, sandier beaches, while Galicia is deeply indented by long estuaries called rías, with plenty of sandy beaches. Even the unspoiled beach experience, which made the Spanish coastline world-famous, remains a possibility. You just need to know where to look.
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Street fairs can be unruly events. But when the whole purpose of the gathering is to create as much muck as possible, they move into a league of their own.
Food fights are surprisingly common festival activities the world over, and more often than not the weapon of choice is the humble tomato. Each year, on the last Wednesday in August, as many as 30,000 people descend on the small village of Buñol in Valencia to celebrate the Tomatina Festival . They've been coming here since 1944 to pummel each other with over-ripe tomatoes grown especially for the event. Sure, the scene is messy but at least it's relatively pain-free (and low-fat).
Not so in Piedmont, where partygoers are armed with welt-causing oranges. Legend has it the catalyst for the event was a local woman in the 12th century who, on her wedding day, refused to let the local duke sleep with her. She chopped off his head and (presumably) hurled it at him. Ouch.
For organizers faced with the unbridled enthusiasm of gathering hordes, even the gentlest festival can quickly turn messy. Take International Pillow Fight Day for example, a flash mob event now celebrated in more than a hundred cities all over the world, from Accra to Zürich. The pillow fights are so ferocious the pillows often burst on impact, sending plumes of stuffing sky high like a mushroom cloud. (Participants are encouraged to use hypoallergenic pillows.)
While a street full of stuffing, tomatoes or oranges might not be the most beautiful sight to behold, some messy festivals result in a painted wonderland. In Galaxidi, a small fishing village in Greece, revelers hurl multicolored flour to celebrate one of the holiest (and most ironically named) days of the year - Clean Monday. The coloring in the flour is so strong is stains the brickwork (homes and businesses tend to wrap their property in plastic, a la Christo and Jeanne-Claude).