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Do you want to improve your Spanish? The 14 tracks in this album are devised as revision of basic Spanish structures for introductions, talking about routines, describing people and places, making comparisons, expressing likes, making plans, talking about the future, and expressing wishes. The tracks contain recordings of Spanish and Latin American speakers mixed with suggestions for activities to do while you listen. This material has been adapted from the audio material for The Open University course L140 En rumbo: intermediate Spanish.
We’re going to listen to street interviews with eight people from different parts of the world giving basic personal information.
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Personal information part 1
Here are three examples of people introducing themselves and giving basic personal information. What are their names? How old are they? Where are they from? What do they do?
Play now
Personal information part 2
An important part of talking about routines is using expressions of time and frequency. In this conversation a woman from Colombia is asking a man from Spain about how often he does certain things.
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Routines part 2
We’re going to listen to a conversation between two women talking about the differences they find between the countries they come from. One woman comes from Spain and the other from Colombia. They use the verbs soler and acostumbrar to talk about regular activities.
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Soler and acostumbrar
We’re going to listen to two women talking about their families. The first woman is from Spain and the second woman is from Colombia.
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Talking about your family
We’re going to listen to Francisco again. This time he compares the two cities of Jalapa and Veracruz. Which one does he like best?
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Comparing places
We’re going to listen to Paloma, a woman from Spain, talking about her holiday plans. She is planning to go on two breaks. Where is she going on her first break? For how long? And how about the second one?
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The future
We are going to listen to several questions for you to practise the way we express wishes in Spanish. The verb gustar is used in the conditional form: gustaría.
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Expressing wishes
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iTunes U freezes my computer, both on MacOS and Windows. This is a known issue which has been reported to Apple and which they have, so far, done nothing about. Is there any chance you could make this content - and the other iTunes U content, much of which looks very interesting - downloadable in some way which doesn't involve itunes, as they clearly have no interest in fixing this problem. Even making it downloadable only for current students (Hello, next course start not until February, BORED!) would be a start! For someone like me, this is like giving me a huge delicious cake.... encased in a transparent but completely impenetrable box.
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How do I get these tracks to open? I've downloaded itunes (why itunes?) but cannot find OU stuff on their site.
I click on the titles of the podcasts and nothing happens. I click on OU at itunes, and I get a download request page. Searching itunes will not bring up the OU.
Hi Jennifer,
I'm sorry the En Rumbo tracks aren't working, we are in beta and are still finding errors (with your help), these tracks will be fixed in the next upgrade.
In the meantime the direct link to this content on iTunes is at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=380227316 and the link to OU on iTUnes is http://itunes.apple.com/gb/institution/the-open-university/id380206132.
I hope this helps a little and again, many apologies.
Many thanks
OpenLearn Moderator
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iTunes U freezes my computer, both on MacOS and Windows. This is a known issue which has been reported to Apple and which they have, so far, done nothing about. Is there any chance you could make this content - and the other iTunes U content, much of which looks very interesting - downloadable in some way which doesn't involve itunes, as they clearly have no interest in fixing this problem. Even making it downloadable only for current students (Hello, next course start not until February, BORED!) would be a start! For someone like me, this is like giving me a huge delicious cake.... encased in a transparent but completely impenetrable box.
How do I get these tracks to open? I've downloaded itunes (why itunes?) but cannot find OU stuff on their site.
I click on the titles of the podcasts and nothing happens. I click on OU at itunes, and I get a download request page. Searching itunes will not bring up the OU.
what am I doing wrong?
Help.
Hi Jennifer,
I'm sorry the En Rumbo tracks aren't working, we are in beta and are still finding errors (with your help), these tracks will be fixed in the next upgrade.
In the meantime the direct link to this content on iTunes is at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=380227316 and the link to OU on iTUnes is http://itunes.apple.com/gb/institution/the-open-university/id380206132.
I hope this helps a little and again, many apologies.
Many thanks
OpenLearn Moderator