Hi there!
I’ve just released a brand new kind of collection for the Spanish library. As you may probably know I have many different collections in the library for different levels. But his one is UNIQUE. I’ll try to explain why.
In all the lessons (an even videos on Youtube) that I had previously created I was really aware to the audience I was talking to. Even in the “Improvisaciones” collection. I think they are all good useful collections for students, but I must admit that in none of them and in any other collection in the library (at least in Spanish and English) you can find the real language people speak in the street, the informal language people use with their families and friends.
So this is the main point of this collection. Lessons are based on conversations with Berta and we don’t speak to the microphone or having in mind that we will create lessons for LingQ. We just speak naturally about any topic (that is the less important point of this lessons). Later on, I have selected excerpts to create lessons. So you will not find a “Hello” and “Goodbye”, just the two of us speaking.
In this lessons you will listen to the way people speak in Spain. It doesn’t mean that you have to learn all this expressions to be able to use them, but at least it is interesting that you understand them even if you will never use them.
Finally, you will find some words in bold. These are words or expressions that I have considered that may require some explanation that may be difficult to find in a regular dictionary. So at the end of the lesson you will find a short Vocabulary list with these bold words briefly explained.
Right now there are just a few lessons uploaded (the transcript process is slow) even though we have several hours already recorded. I will try to update this collection in the following weeks. I hope you enjoy them.
One additional thought, since this series uses “coarse language”. It is true that the tolerance for colourful language varies from country to country and from language to language, and within different groups in any society. We have all kinds of members here at LingQ. It is also possible that we could see similar collections in other languages. Therefore I think that it would make sense for the introduction to this series to state.
“Warning the lessons in this series may contain coarse language”.
This would warn the sensitive and probably be quite attractive to many people.
Una última advertencia, estas lecciones no son aptas para personas sensibles al uso de un cierto tipo de vocabulario informal o “vulgar”. Nuestra intención no es ofender a nadie, así que, por favor, si crees que el uso de cierto vocabulario puede resultarte ofensivo, simplemente no estudies estas lecciones.
If that’s what you mean by coarse language. If not, oh.
There’s also a warning in the description of the collection. He really covered his bases.
@ alsuvi
I love this collection! There’s definitely nothing like it in the library. It’s quite challenging for me to understand, so being able to read the transcripts is great. Ummm … I do feel self conscious making a forum post on a couple things I don’t understand, but I will go for it.
I think it was already quite clear in the description box and in the Introductory lesson, but just in case, I’ve just added the sentence Steve proposed: “Warning: the lessons in this series may contain coarse language”.
Thank you very much Angela. I’m happy you enjoy them! You already know which is my position about the coarse language and I just thought it was important to have at least 1 collection in the library in which you could study the language in the way it’s spoken in the street. I would really love to find something similar in English or any other language I’m studying or planning to study.
Of course, feel free to ask anything that you don’t understand. In my opinion, there is no problem in using the forum for this, because we are just talking about language, but it’s true that a Note function just attached to the lesson (not in the forum such as at present) would be really interesting to implement. Maybe some day!
@alsuvi - But we did just add a Note function to the lesson. You create it just like a translation or video in the resources section at the bottom of the edit lesson page.
Albert and Berta, you may have started an interesting " adult genre" for LingQ. While I am sensitive to having coarse language on our Forum, and while I recommend that non-natives avoid this kind of language until they are very fluent, I know that many people want to learn this kind of language, not only in Spanish.
As long as we identify this content as “may contain coarse language” , and if we can deal with questions in the Notes section, or obliquely on the Forum, there may be other people who want to do this for other languages where a rich colourful lexicon exists.
Alsuvi, dude, this is AMAZING! I’ve been searching forever and a day to find something not only casual and loose, but transcribed. Thank you very much to you and Berta for doing these!!
Steve said: “Albert and Berta, you may have started an interesting " adult genre” for LingQ. While I am sensitive to having coarse language on our Forum, and while I recommend that non-natives avoid this kind of language until they are very fluent, I know that many people want to learn this kind of language, not only in Spanish."
I would LOVE to learn how to swear in German.
Perhaps Friedemann would like to make another trip home to his parents and record some choice content…? ;-D
I’m curious as to which languages this would work in. I think that in English, to me it would seem quite lowbrow, but I don’t get that same feeling in Spanish.
