https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZYMW7UdMmE
I am ignorant of most of the history of the Spanish speaking world, but I do know that just because Spanish is spoken in both Mexico and Argentina, for example, doesn't mean that those two countries share a common history. I want to understand how different regions of South/Latin America, Spain, and the southwestern U.S. have experienced history differently, and one way to do this is by listening to the people tell their own story, as they understand it.
This 4-minute video describes the history of Colombia in 4 minutes. The narrator speaks decently slowly, and I was able to understand a good amount of it. Linguistically, I noticed how he pronounced the 'D' sound softly, as in 'periodo.' Sometimes sounds like he could be saying 'th.' I picked up on adverbs like 'lentamente' and 'quando.' The r's are rolled beautifully. Noticed descriptive adjectives like 'en este etapa.' Often had difficulty when, for example, I'd hear an unfamiliar verb and then focus on it for half a second too long, enough to miss the next few words. I'm realizing that it helps me to know how words are spelled - if I can imagine it while I'm hearing it, I have an easier time understanding. Often the rolled r, beautiful though it is, will throw me for a loop because it'll take so long that I'm imagining several letters, when really there's only one r and the narrator's taking his sweet time. Another phonetic difficulty is combined vowels - not necessarily diphthongs, but clusters of syllables that are filled with vowel sounds. Since I'm not used to the ways vowels are used in Spanish (particularly their grammatical functions at the ends of words), it's hard for me to decipher how the words are spelled, thus I miss the meaning.
Content-wise, I didn't learn a whole lot since this was a broad overview, and doesn't go into much more detail than an American high school history book. I did think the narrator's tone was a little cheery given the violent history of the country, but oh well. Not too many places on earth are free from violence.
I am ignorant of most of the history of the Spanish speaking world, but I do know that just because Spanish is spoken in both Mexico and Argentina, for example, doesn't mean that those two countries share a common history. I want to understand how different regions of South/Latin America, Spain, and the southwestern U.S. have experienced history differently, and one way to do this is by listening to the people tell their own story, as they understand it.
This 4-minute video describes the history of Colombia in 4 minutes. The narrator speaks decently slowly, and I was able to understand a good amount of it. Linguistically, I noticed how he pronounced the 'D' sound softly, as in 'periodo.' Sometimes sounds like he could be saying 'th.' I picked up on adverbs like 'lentamente' and 'quando.' The r's are rolled beautifully. Noticed descriptive adjectives like 'en este etapa.' Often had difficulty when, for example, I'd hear an unfamiliar verb and then focus on it for half a second too long, enough to miss the next few words. I'm realizing that it helps me to know how words are spelled - if I can imagine it while I'm hearing it, I have an easier time understanding. Often the rolled r, beautiful though it is, will throw me for a loop because it'll take so long that I'm imagining several letters, when really there's only one r and the narrator's taking his sweet time. Another phonetic difficulty is combined vowels - not necessarily diphthongs, but clusters of syllables that are filled with vowel sounds. Since I'm not used to the ways vowels are used in Spanish (particularly their grammatical functions at the ends of words), it's hard for me to decipher how the words are spelled, thus I miss the meaning.
Content-wise, I didn't learn a whole lot since this was a broad overview, and doesn't go into much more detail than an American high school history book. I did think the narrator's tone was a little cheery given the violent history of the country, but oh well. Not too many places on earth are free from violence.
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