State of the Union 2014 analysis

http://www.bowdoin.edu/~eyepes/newgr/ats/25.htm


This morning I studied two chapters of Spanish grammar: uses of ser and estar, and el participio.  Essentially the same usage as in French.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7beuWewFAc


I also watched a video from 29 Jan 2014 entitled “La visión de Rusia sobre el discurso del estado de la Unión de Obama.”  It was produced by Euronews, a station operating out of Lyon.  This video was in Russian, dubbed over in Spanish, with name/title captions in English.  It was a challenge to pay attention to the Spanish while filtering out the Russian.  I understood that they were talking about the recent State of the Union address by President Barack Obama.  The interviewer asked Mr. Kortunov, a political analyst, about several topics including Ukraine, Iran’s nuclear program, and the war in Syria.


I originally clicked on this video because I thought it would analyze Mr. Obama’s speech from 20 Jan 2015, but it’s interesting to look back a year at an analysis of important issues as they stood in early 2014.  A lot has happened since then – Ukraine is embroiled in violence, a sizeable jihadi force is challenging both the Iraqi and Syrian governments for control of territory, the West is still negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, to name a few.  I look forward to revisiting this video when I have a better understanding of Spanish.


Linguistically, I am beginning to be able to identify the parts of speech when I hear a sentence, and there are many words that are similar to French and English words.  I recognize common endings of adjectives and adverbs, but I'll often lose track of the message when I spend even half a second extra trying to decipher an unfamiliar word.  One way I'll improve is to expand my vocabulary, both by listening to authentic material like this video, and by making/studying lists of words.