La Mia Prima Pubblicazione in Italiano Ciao tutti. Ho iniziato a imparare la lingua italiana perche mi piace molto. Come lo spagnolo è la mia lingua nativa, qualcune cose in italiano sono facile per me, ma non tutto. Falsi amici dappertutto! Ulteriormente io non so molte parole. Oggi ho imparato qualcuni nomi di frutti e lavori, ma il processo sarà piano piano. Anche io sono contento, perche io penso che tutti possiamo imparare altra lingua allo stesso modo che abbiamo imparato la lingua nativa: parlando e sentendo. Scrivire questo mi ha aiutato un po, per esempio. Domani sarà meglio di oggi. Ecco! Quello è tutto il italiano nel mio cervello per ora. Buona fortuna per tutti. A dopo!

A Journey Through Romance Languages As a native Spanish speaker, other languages´ speakers would probably expect me to understand written French, Portuguese, or Italian. Well truth is that all other Romance Language turn out to be really different and almost impossible for us to understand. I checked out some articles at Wikipedia in their Latin, French, Italian and Portuguese versions, and only the latter was possible for me to understand (really easy, actually), although I had to look up some words on Google. Spoken Portuguese, however, is really difficult for us to understand, especially the Rio de Janeiro accent (as I´ve been told), which apparently is the thickest of all Brazillian accents. Being a South American, football is almost a disease for me, so I´m always watching sports stuff on TV, where of course it is very common to hear Brazilolian footballers talk. I get some words, but something like 20% of what they say. You get used to football terms after a while, but the rest of it is tricky to hear. I find very interesting to see how my language relates to and differs from other Romance Languages, but the truth is they´re very different from each other. ¿Qué opinan ustedes, amigos?

Spanishh Recommended of the Week: Carlos Vives http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faDsDFrYna0 Carlos Vives is one of the most successful artists in the music of my country. He started out as a child actor in the TV show "Pequeños Gigantes". He did some other TV stuff and some unsuccessful pop albums, until he got the main character for a soap opera named "Escalona", that was an insight on the youth of legendary Colombian vallenato songwriter Rafael Escalona (Vallenato is a musical genre from Colombian atlantic coast region). That was a breakthrough for Vives´ carreer, and after recording the highly acclaimed soundtracks for "Escalona", he started making solo albums again, but with a whole new sound with very interesting fusions that involved Colombian musics from different regions, funk and rock. He put together a band that included among others virtuoso accordionist Egidio Cuadrado, and monster guitarist "Teto" Ocampo, who after spending several years in the heart of New Orleans learning the escence of jazz, got himself into a very deep and juditious research in Colombian musics and instruments, so besides being a killer lead guitarist he can play fluently every Colombian fretboarded traditional instrument (believe me, that´s a LOT of instruments, styles and musical genres). This one´s a beautiful ballad named "La Tierra del Olvido". I´m sure you´re gonna love it, especially if you´re from somewhere away from South America. The Land of Oblivion Like the moon that lights the roads at night, like the leaves in the wind, like the sun scares the cold away. Like the earth awaits the rain, like the sea awaits the river, I´m waiting for your return to The Land of Oblivion. How bad my fears are castaways if I navigate your stare, how you alert my senses with your enamoured voice. With your childish smile, how you move my soul, how you take off my slumber, how you steal my calm. You have the key to my heart, I love you, more than I love my life because without your love I die. La Tierra del Olvido Como la luna que alumbra Por la noche los caminos Como las hojas al viento Como el sol espanta al frío Como la tierra a la lluvia Como el mar espera al río Así espero tu regreso A la tierra del olvido Como naufragan mis miedos Si navego tu mirada Como alertas mis sentidos Con tu voz enamorada Con tu sonrisa de niña Como me mueves el alma Como me quitas el sueño Como me robas la calma Tu tienes la llave de mi corazón Yo te quiero Mas que mi vida porque sin tu amor Yo me muero