Good Spanish TV Shows
 

I have been getting better at understanding what i am reading.

My understanding when people talk is a little different. I am slowly getting better but i need to know the words before hand, so when i hear them i know what they mean.

I have been getting into Spanish Rap Music and Spanish Horror Movies, because they are things i would watch/listen to either way.

I was just wondering if there is any Spanish TV shows that are any good? Or if you know of any videos, music, etc that is good for practicing with? Either Educational or Entertainment! Just the exposure has gotten me quite far in such a short time of learning.

Most the movies i buy usually comes with Spanish subs, and some have Spanish Dubs.

Horror films: Tesis and Los otros, both by Amenábar. Historias para no dormir (Ibáñez Serrador) was an old TV series of short stories, available in youtube, at least in this very moment.
Rap: I don know very much about it, but Nach Scratch and SFDK seem to be very popular.

Good is a matter of opinion.

If you live in the United States Univision and Telemundo are generally available. They have programs like "Ocurrió Así" and "Primer impacto"
that I think have pretty easy to understand human interest stories. When I watch them, I am rarely baffled by what they are talking about, and Spanish is not my mother tongue. These shows are not great, but they demand very little concentration from gringos like me.

Whatever program that covers matters that interest you will be helpful
and more easily understood.

If you have a Spanish language cable package, TVE has a magazine-format program similar to "Ocurrió así" that used to be called "En directo" but now goes by a different name. Shown at early evening you can see very easy stuff spoken in peninsular rather than Latin American accents.

If you live in Spain, Good Spanish TV Shows is a contradiction in terms, I'm afraid. We have a dozen channels, and never found anything worth watching on any of them which was actually Spanish and not badly dubbed from American. But it's a question of taste. :(

You don't have Gol, then? ;)

No - what is it?

gol tv has a lot of soccer stuff on it. You can also try using the SAP feature whenever its available..

I have cablevision and have an array of canales en español

I like big Hollywood movies cause they are usually trustworthy, so writing down the subtitles then studying them is great practice, cause you get the context in which they are spoken. Plus i am sure 20 million dollar movies have the best translators to do the subtitles.

I found Tropic Thunder, Blades of Glory, Epic Movie, and Clerks 2, all to be great. They are filled with a lot of Dialogue and have many exciting/funny things, so they don't get boring.

I am thinking about a Spanish program like that instant immersion or Rosetta Stone.

For now I use these books called Spanish by Association and Instant Spanish Vocabulary, they have been really great for learning a bunch of new words.

Then i got a 24 hours in Spanish and the Art of Spanish Verbs, they have been great for combining those words.


Either way, out of all the things i tried, writing down subtitles and memorizing them and watching the movie over and over, has been solid. Mainly cause the repetition that turns into to me watching it in Spanish Dubs and learning to keep up!


Does everybody else use movies? I don't mind spanish dubs or subs, and the netflix and ondemand seem to have a lot of spanish shows, i just need english subtitles with them.

I love movies but I find concentrating on English subtitles is not a very good way to learn Spanish. As you become more familiar with the Spanish language, you may want to see Spanish language films with Spanish subtitles (close captioned- designed for people with hearing problems). Reading and hearing Spanish spoken at the same time may enhance your understanding. Movie preferences are a matter of taste, but the
Spanish film industry produces some internationally famous films and has
a few great directors like Almodóvar. Mexico produces a lot of hyper-violent poorly acted awful pot boilers, and occasionally something very special. I've seen good movies directed by Ripstein. The golden age of Mexican movies produced produced very entertaining films with songs. A serious classic called "la Perla" is easy to understand and very fine. Argentina's film industry has a long history of filmaking, and is known for very good actors.

I'm sorry to insist on this issue, at least I am consistent...

Please don't watch movies with subtitles, just watch the movie closely paying attention to what's being said, even if you don't understand. If you want to read, then read a book. :)

Am I persistent or what? ;)