Pilar Vidueira

It might be getting colder now, and you might now want to salir a la calle (going out into the street) to do your usual exercise routine, but that’s not excuse to not estar en forma (be in shape). Let’s take a look at some places where you can hacer ejercicio (do exercise) and the activities available there.

In otoño (autumn) and invierno (winter) this could be a good option instead of having to exercise outdoors. Having said that, here in Madrid, when you come and learn Spanish, you’ll find that it almost always hace buen tiempo (is good weather) so you could go a correr (out for a run) in pretty much any month of the year!

But, if you do fancy joining a gym, you might need some gym and exercise related vocabulary to get you started. Here are some words and phrases.

Now, there’s no excusa (excuse) to get yourself down to your local gym and start levantando pesas (pumping iron)!

Most gyms also offer clases (classes) of various activities too, so there’s always something you can do there even if using the machines isn’t your thing. You can also hacer natación (go swimming) at the bigger gyms, as well as relax after your exercise in their balneario (spa). A gym is also a great place to hablar en español (speak in Spanish) as you’ll probably need to ask for instructions on how to use the machines, or simply to interact with the other people in your gym classes. Exercise and learning – a great combination!

Like we said before, especially here in Madrid and further south, the weather in most of Spain means when you’re here studying Spanish you can get outside most of the year to do some exercise. As Hablamos is based in Madrid, we know this city better and we’d say that you can correr (run) around one of the many parques verdes (green parks/spaces) that the city has to offer.

Apart from inner city activities, the huge amounts of campo (countryside) near Madrid are perfect para dar un paseo (to go for a walk) or hacer trekking (go trekking/hiking). For the more adventurous of you out there, you could do a spot of barranquismo (canyoning/canyoneering) in one of the many valles (valleys) in the region. The Comunidad de Madrid and Castilla y León regions are also known for their mountainous areas, so getting out to escalar (climb) is another way of keeping fit and seeing all the gorgeous countryside.

Even if you’re learning Spanish online, or no tienes ganas de salir de casa (you can’t be bothered to leave your house), you can still be immersed in Spanish and keep fit from the comfort of your own salón (living room). All you need to get started is una esterilla de yoga (a yoga mat) and a video on YouTube and you can get into some funny posturas (positions) without anyone having to see you! Nowadays, there are even entire planes de ejercicio (exercise plans) available to watch online which require only a mat and maybe a little bit of equipment.

En total (in conclusion), there’s simply no reason nowadays not to mantenerte en forma (keep in shape) given the multiple options available to you. We at Hablamos think that it’s important to keep your mind and body in top condition, so we hope that these suggestions will be useful to you when you’re here on one of our Spanish courses to give you plenty to do in your free time.

Learning Spanish doesn’t need to be some awful, tedious experience spending hours and hours hincando los codos (swotting up) with lengthy grammar books or lists and lists of tedious vocabulary. Here at Hablamos we believe your experience studying Spanish should be more fun and enjoyable – and it can be by finding easy ways to practise your Spanish doing little things each and every day. Here are some ideas to help you disfrutar (enjoy) engaging with Spanish in a way that makes your learning interesting.

A fantastic way to escuchar español (listen to Spanish) is to descargar (download) one of the multiple podcast apps available for your phone or tablet. There are literally thousands of podcasts on every topic you could possibly think of! It’s simply a case of searching for a theme you would enjoy learning about in your idioma native (native language), but listening to a programme about it in Spanish. Coffee Break Spanish is a great one to get you started as it’s short but varied so you get a little bit of vocabulary and grammar on many different topics.

Such a consejo sencillo (simple tip), but one that will have you learning tons of new words en un santiamén (in a short space of time). All you have to do is go to the Settings (Ajustes) and change the language there. You can then sacar fotos (take photos), mandar mensajes (send messages), usar las redes sociales (use social networks) and everything else you’d normally do while absorbing all that lovely language!

We’d definitely recommend starting off with shorter texts, but to practise reading Spanish, there’s no better way than engaging with topics you’d already want to read in your own language. Online periódicos (newspapers) like El País have Spanish and English versions so you can always compare articles if you aren’t sure of something. In terms of books, it might be worth reading something you’ve already read in one language but now in Spanish as then you’ll know the trama (plot) and have a better idea of what’s happening.

Another logical idea would be to start listening to as much Spanish as possible to improve your oral understanding. Just like with our previous tip, it makes sense to find things you would want to watch in a language you already speak, but watch them in Spanish instead. It’s often a good idea to put the subtítulos (subtitles) on at first, preferably in Spanish, so that you can hear and read the language at the same time. This helps you to differentiate the sounds of individual words and phrases. Over time, you can switch them off and just sit back and enjoy your favourite shows!

This doesn’t sound easy, I know, but if you’re learning Spanish here in Madrid, for instance, it’s pan comido (as easy as pie). For example, whenever you ir de compras (go shopping), you’ll need to pedir cosas (ask for things) in places like the supermercado (supermarket) or the mercado (market). Or, in a restaurant (restaurant) obviously you need to speak to the camarero/a (waiter/waitress). Every day there are loads of opportunities to chat with people – you just need to take them! If you’re studying Spanish online, you can easily arrange with your classmates to have an extra chat after class, or look for a Spanish person who wants to learn your language and do an intercambio de idiomas (language exchange). A quick Google will suffice to find many a willing partner!

If you follow tip 2, whenever you now descargar (download) a new juego (game) for your device, it’ll automatically load in Spanish. What a great way to pick up lots of new words while having fun at the same time! Fancy a word-based game? Try La palabra del día (Word of the Day) which is the new name for the Spanish version of the massively popular Wordle. Each day you get to practise your spelling and word knowledge and it makes you complete against yourself to find the answer in as few tries as possible.

Yes, I know this sounds a bit weird, but talking to yourself in Spanish is a great way to keep practising making the sounds of the language. You don’t need anyone there to correct you as the aim is to gain confidence speaking in a foreign language. You can try different dialogues out on yourself so you feel better about going out and talking with other people. It’s all about the confidence!

Follow these quick and easy tips to help yourself improve your Spanish and you’ll soon see what difference little changes make to your language learning experience. We’d love you to come to class here at Hablamos and tell us what you’ve been doing to help yourself improve your level and we’ll help you with the rest.

So, you’ve been learning Spanish for a while and settled in your Spanish-speaking country of choice. It’s time to start thinking about buscar un trabajo (finding a job) as you’ll need something to pagar las facturas (pay the bills) so you can start your new life!

First of all, you’ll need to know some basic words to understand the oferta de empleo (job advert).

Now you’ve applied for the job and recursos humanos (human resources) have asked you to an interview, you need to be prepared for whatever preguntas (questions) the entrevistador (interviewer) might ask you. Let’s have a look at some common ones. *We’ve written these questions in the polite usted form but nowadays you might find bosses who ask you in the more informal tú form. 

• ¿Por qué le interesa trabajar en esta empresa? – Why do you want to work at this company?

This question gives you a chance to demostrar tus conocimientos (demonstrate your knowledge) about the company. Make sure you’ve done your deberes (homework) before the interview and found some things out about the business!

• ¿Me podría hablar de usted? – Can you tell me something about yourself?

Obviously, this isn’t meant to be about how amazing you are at playing videogames or that you love surfing on a Saturday afternoon! You should talk about your cualidades personales y profesionales (personal and professional qualities) which make you a good fit for the position.

• ¿Por qué deberíamos contratarle? – Why should we hire you?

This is very similar to the previous question. Again, make sure you talk about what you can aportar a la empresa (contribute to the company) in both personal and professional terms. Talk about your experience laboral (professional experience).

• ¿Por qué renunció su último empleo? – Why did you leave your previous job?

Potentially una pregunta trampa (a trick question) you need to be careful to balance honesty with tact here. Don’t say you had problems with your compañeros (colleagues) or your jefe/jefa (boss) but try to say something like, “Quiero un nuevo desafío” (“I want a new challenge”). That way you can then give a more positive answer!

• Cuénteme sobre un problema o una situación difícil que resolvió en su carrera laboral – Tell me about a problem or difficult situation you resolved in your professional life

Try to think of un ejemplo (an example) which shows how you did something to mejorar el rendimiento (improve productivity/output) in one of your previous jobs. That way you get to show off your habilidades (skills) again.

It’s customary nowadays for the interviewer to say ¿Tiene algunas dudas o preguntas? (Do you have any queries or questions?) at the end of the process. This is your chance to bring up anything which wasn’t mentioned during the main interview. Here are some ideas of things you might want to find out before you aceptar el puesto (accept the job).

There you go – a whole set of questions and consejos (advice) to help you land your first job in the Spanish-speaking world after you’ve been studying Spanish for a while! It’s a good idea to make sure you get all the papeleo (paperwork) you need to stay in Spain after your Spanish course ends sorted in good time. That way, you can focus on your job hunt and practising speaking to get yourself ready for your interviews! ¡Buena suerte! Good luck!

There’s absolutely no shortage of great series and películas (films) in pretty much every language. When you’re studying Spanish, a fantastic way to mejorar el oído (train your ear) to the sounds of this fantastic language is to ver series y pelís (watch series and films) in their original version. Just like all the English students around the world do in that language, as a learner of Spanish you can benefit from the vast number of productions made in Spanish each year!

Nowadays, no hace falta (there’s no need) to go to the cinema to watch the latest estrenos (releases) as most of them are almost simultaneously released on the myriad of plataformas (platforms) we have such as HBO, Netflix and Disney+. The great thing about these is that there’s a Spanish language version which means you get everything doblado (dubbed) into Spanish if you fancy listening to international titles too! Also, all the shows and films have full subtítulos (subtitles) in multiple languages so you can listen in Spanish but read in another language to make sure you fully understand. It’s a great way to aprender (learn) new words and phrases in authentic contexts.

Here’s some vocabulary to help you find your way through the menus on your favourite platform.

As you can see, if you’re an English speaker, then half of these words are practically the same – ¡esto es pan comido! (this is easy!). We’d recommend looking for something that’s in a genre you already enjoy in your idioma nativo (native language) and go from there. The idea is to start practising listening in Spanish so that when you hear people speaking Spanish to you in the street, you can better understand them!

Given the huge choice available, you might get a bit agobiado (overwhelmed) trying to figure out what you want to see. There are always lots of reseñas (reviews) written by people online of all the new films and series, so get looking at some to give you some ideas. Here are some words to help you understand reviews in Spanish.

With all that information you get from the reviews, you’re sure to be able to encontrar (find) something that appeals to you! It’s just a case of thinking about your gustos (tastes) and spending some time looking through what’s available.

Once you’ve watched a few capítulos (episodes) or the latest pelí (film), you’ll probably want to go and have a chat about what you’ve seen with your Spanish-speaking friends. Here are some more useful phrases you’ll need to get the conversation started.

It’s always a good idea to practise speaking Spanish by getting out and talking to people about things you enjoy as you’ll be more motivated to make yourself understood. Watching series and films gives you hours of conversation material, and your listening skills will improve massively. You’ll learn about the culture of the Spanish-speaking world while having fun at the same time. Why not try finding something new to watch in Spanish and see where it takes you?

I know mine has, on multiple occasions and almost to the point that I worry I might have some memory problems! As you can see, this phrase in Spanish includes the word blanco (white) and there’re lots and lots of refranes (idioms) and frases hechas (expressions) about colours in Spanish. Before we get into those, let’s take a look at how we say all the colores (colours) in Spanish.

However, as you’ve probably already learned if you’re studying Spanish, we also need to make sure that the colours agree with the gender of the word they describe. Here’s a quick reminder of the different forms for the colours above.

As you can see, some colours do not have a separate masculine and feminine form. The reason for this is due to the spelling rules in Spanish, which you can learn more about in our blog on adjectives on this site. Even if you say the wrong form when speaking Spanish, people will generally understand you so don’t worry and try to just learn from your mistakes. Everyone gets it wrong sometimes when learning Spanish – it’s part of the process of language learning!

Now that we have an idea of what the colours are in Spanish, let’s take a look at some refranes (idioms) and frases hechas (expressions). Obviously, most of the significados (meanings) have little to do with the colour itself, but that’s like in any language! Here at Hablamos we love idioms, so we want to give you some great examples to be able to use when you’re out and about practising Spanish.

You can probably work this first one out – it means “to go bright red” just like a tomato! If you’ve ever felt embarrassed or very nervous you’ve probably turned this colour!

Me puse rojo como un tomate en la cita ya que estaba muy nervioso – I was so nervous on the date that I turned bright red

Here’s a romantic one! Whereas in English we would say “my other/better half” to refer to your partner, in Spanish we use mi media naranja. Personally, I think it sounds much more poetic in Spanish, don’t you?

Julia es mi media naranja y nos conocimos en un sitio web – Julia is my other/better half and we met online

A bit more literal this time, as now we are talking about the press and journalism. This little phrase means, in the US at least, “the yellow press”, but for a lot of you that doesn’t mean anything either! Another way of saying it in English is “tabloid journalism”, as in sensationalist media that is normally about celebrities or which exaggerate the truth just to sell copies. Do you ever read la prensa amarilla?

En la prensa amarilla siempre hay artículos sobre las relaciones amorosas de los famosos, que no me interesan nada – In the yellow press/the tabloids, they always talk about celebrities’ love lives, which don’t interest me at all

Now we’re getting a little bit mean with this one, as if you do this it’s that you’re talking badly about someone behind their back. Come on, you know you’ve done it at some point even though we all know we shouldn’t!

A Pablo le pusieron verde cuando salió de la reunión – They all talked about Pablo behind his back when he left the meeting

Another more romantic phrase – or possibly an unrealistic ideal depending on how you look at it. If you talk about someone as your príncipe azul then you’re calling them your “prince charming” – the person you want to be with as they’re your perfect partner.

Lucía considera que Alex es su príncipe azul porque es guapo, inteligente y muy romántico – Lucia thinks of Alex as her prince charming as he’s handsome, clever and very romantic

I always do this at Christmas – it’s so easy to ponerse morado when you’re surrounded by all sorts of tasty snacks and treats! Can you guess what it means yet? That’s right, it’s similar to “to stuff yourself” with food or drink (or both!). 

Ponerse morado en casa de mis padres en navidad es muy fácil porque mi madre compra una cantidad ingente de comida y bebida – It’s so easy to stuff yourself at my parents’ house at Christmas as my mum buys a ridiculous amount of food and drink

As you’ve spotted by now, there are quite a few of these expressions with the verb poner (to put)! This one means “to get very angry” – sometimes I guess it’s inevitable!

Me pongo negro con mis hermanos cuando rompen mis cosas – I get extremely angry with my siblings when they break my things

You’ve seen this one already – do you remember what it means? That’s right – it’s the same as “my mind’s gone blank”. Hopefully this doesn’t happen too often!

Me quedé en blanco cuando tuve que contestar a la pregunta en la entrevista – My mind went blank when I had to answer the question in the interview

Well, things get a bit ugly with this one. A marrón in this phrase means “a disagreeable situation”. So the whole phrase means “to get stuck with/be lumbered with an unpleasant situation”. You don’t want to have to deal with things at times, but unfortunately you don’t always have a choice!

No me voy a comer el marrón de decir al jefe que no vamos a terminar a tiempo. ¡Hazlo tú! – I’m not getting lumbered with telling the boss we won’t finish on time. You do it!

In a lot of languages there’s a saying pretty similar to this one. It means “to see things through rose-tinted glasses”, that’s to say to look at things very positively even when it’s not the case. Maybe it isn’t such a bad way to view life?

Miriam lo ve todo de color rosa y no quiere ver que su situación podría ser mejor – Miriam looks at everything through rose-tinted glasses and doesn’t see that she could be in a better situation

And there you have a whole arcoiris (rainbow) of expressions you can use when speaking Spanish with your friends! As you learn Spanish you’ll come across a huge number of similar phrases which you can start incorporating into your own speech. Why not try using one next time in your Spanish class and impress your teacher?