Spanish ABC part 1 (For Chinese speakers)

[Pokarface]

A video I made just for fun.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq5mqpkbO-o

 

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTQwNzk1MjAwNA==.html

 

Update: All the alphabet 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxuwrmh4xEg

 

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTQwODAyOTgyNA==.html

[anonymoose]

Why does it only go up to M?

 

It is too slow. It's good that you say the words slowly to make the pronunciation clear, but all the other pausing in between is unnecessary and makes watching painful.

[889]

And you should be using the Spanish alphabet to teach Spanish!

[Shelley]

Yes it is very slow, and you keep looking off to the side as if there is someone/thing prompting you.

 

Not sure what you were trying to explain, but I am glad I don't have to understand.

[Pokarface]

Ok,

I fixed it,

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxuwrmh4xEg

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTQwODAyOTgyNA==.html

[anonymoose]

The overall speed of delivery is better, but I did mention that saying the Spanish words slowly was useful. It was mainly all the pausing in between that was annoying. Also, given that you have put Chinese text there, why do you need to say the words in Chinese? And look at the camera. And why does Hindu come under I?

Basically, what is the point of this video? I mean, I don't want to discourage you, but I'm not sure what you're hoping to achieve with it.

[Pokarface]

@Anonymoose, this is the video that they asked me to create for my Spanish WeChat group -__-

It achieves to deliver what I was asked to do. Make a video of the Spanish alphabet with an example for each letter.

Chinese-forums.com is a website that I use to log anything related to Chinese that I do in my life.

[889]

Sorry! It turns out the official Spanish alphabet has changed since my school days:

http://jornadaonline.com/Internacional/111736-LA-RAE-elimin%C3%B3-letras-del-alfabeto-y-cambi%C3%B3-el-nombre-a-otras

http://noticias.terra.com.pe/mundo/,e0ff900057245410VgnVCM3000009af154d0RCRD.html

[Pokarface]

@889 I'm sure Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau were so worried about keeping up with China when China simplified tons of characters -__-

I learned Spanish among Mexicans not Spaniards.

 

[Geiko]

To my ears, it sounds strange to call the letter r "ere" in Spanish (although in other places it seems to be the normal way). Usually it's simply "erre", and it can represent two different sounds,  /ɾ/ and /r/. But the real problem is that the word you use as an example for "ere" is "rápido", which does not contain the "ere" sound. In "rápido", r- corresponds to the phoneme /r/, i.e., exactly the same sound as the following word, "carro". In Spanish there is no /ɾ/- at the beginning of a word, it always sounds like /r/, although it's written with only one r. If you want an example for the /ɾ/ sound, you have words like "pero, pera, parar, hora...". The letter "ere" only occurs between two vowels (See www.academia.org.mx/r )

 

 

The alveolar trill [r] and the alveolar tap [ɾ] are in phonemic contrast word-internally between vowels (as in carro 'car' vs caro 'expensive'), but are otherwise in complementary distribution. Only the trill can occur after /l/, /n/, or /s/ (e.g.alrededor, enriquecer, Israel), and word-initially (e.g. rey 'king').

The underlined font is mine. Quote from the Wikipedia page about Spanish phonology.

[Pokarface]

@Geiko Hey! Thanks for the info. I use this video for my Spanish teaching WeChat group.

I did let them know why I chose Rápido， and Hindú as examples

as well as telling them I forgot the consonant, LL. I chose, Llené as my example饱了

 

I'm explaining them that Spanish speakers can't tell the difference between B and V

and Latinos cannot distinguish between S, Z and soft C, but Spaniard DO pronounce S and C different.

Y and LL are basically the same thing. H is mute, and Ch is almost the English language Ch

I really can't explain things using Spanish phonology during my lessons (lol, they are free anyways, so you get what you paid for, haha)

[Geiko]

I see. My point was that "rápido" will never be an example of letter "ere", because r- at the beginning of a word is never "ere", it's always "erre". Oh, and I understand that your aim is just to introduce the language to non-native speakers, but bear in mind that in some parts of Spain there is also seseo and ceceo (confusing the sounds of s/z/c).

[Altair]

I think the videos as is are quite good for the stated purpose, but would suggest adding two things.

 

For a language with such an elegant orthography, Spanish has really made a complete hash of its alphabet and the names of many of the letters.  It might be worth mentioning off camera to the students that because of changes in the recommendations of the RAE, there is great variation in how adults from different regions recite the alphabet, both in the number of letters used and in some of their names.  Although I think all the national academies are in agreement on the new rules, these variations have implications for how words are alphabetized in older dictionaries. 

 

 

To my ears, it sounds strange to call the letter r "ere" in Spanish (although in other places it seems to be the normal way). 

 

Until I read this link, I hadn't realized what a special mess has been created in the naming of this letter.  What I had learned was that the name of R was "ere" and the name of RR was "erre," but that "caro" had four letters and that "carro" had five.

 

I think I understand why the video was done in the way it was, but it still leaves no explanation as to how to pronounce words like "caro" and "pero" and no example of how this phoneme is pronounced in context.  One potential solution might be to use "raro" instead of "rápido" as an example.  It could then be explained off camera that the two Rs in "raro" have different pronunciations.  Similarly, you could use "ceco" and "gigante" as examples of the other letters that are used for two different phonemes, even though those variant sounds are pronounced for other letters.

 

 

I'm explaining them that Spanish speakers can't tell the difference between B and V

and Latinos cannot distinguish between S, Z and soft C, but Spaniard DO pronounce S and C different.

Y and LL are basically the same thing. H is mute, and Ch is almost the English language Ch

I really can't explain things using Spanish phonology during my lessons (lol, they are free anyways, so you get what you paid for, haha)

 

I think this is a pretty good explanation, especially for beginners.  For my learning style, I would explain things slightly differently.  For B and V, I would say that these letters used to represent different phonemes centuries ago, but now have merged into one sole phoneme that has two different pronunciations, depending on where it falls in a phrase and independently of how it is spelled.  The two letters have been retained merely as historical spellings.  For S, Z and soft Z, I would say that in northern Spain, where the language originated, these letters still represent two distinct sounds; however, outside of that region, i.e., in the south of Spain and all of the Americas, the two phonemes have merged into one, while retaining their spellings.  For Y and LL, I would say that here again, there were originally two different pronunciations, but LL has merged into Y almost everywhere in the Spanish speaking world, while retaining its use in the spelling.  H is mute, but is also retained as a historical spelling.

 

You might also want to throw in a mention of the use of accents on vowels to represent the stress where it would otherwise be unpredictable by the spelling rules or in order to differentiate one of the few homonyms.  The inverted ? and ! might also be worth a mention.

 

One question I have is why you seem to pronounce the name of the letter V with a stress on the second syllable (as if written "uvé").  Was this just for emphasis, or is that how you normally pronounce it. 

[Pokarface]

Someone made a video on the Spanish S, Z, C. He's from Spain. (Dat accent!)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_44klnkVVQc

 

Another cool example to explain the "R" vs. "RR" is the sentence,

"El carro caro" "The expensive (caro) car (car)".

 

caro = expensive.

carro = car.

 

No native Spanish speaker can ever confuse these two words. 

I'm getting more confident in explaining the "R" phenomenon,

 

but I don't know how to start on the S vs. C vs. Z.

I'll have to just tell them that all the Latinos pronounce it like me (except Argentinians, hehe)

For sure I know that Spanish used to be called Catellano (the language of the region