SpanishPod101.com Blog

Ascuncion means “Assumption,” in the English Language and refers to the Spanish celebration of Assumption Day of Mary. The Spanish call that day, “Assumption of the Virgin.”

The view of Assumption Day holds true to the fact that Mary, the mother of Jesus died and her body was united with her soul and ascended to heaven instead of experiencing the decay of the physical body through normal death.

The Assumption of Mary became a reputable custom and teaching in the Roman Catholic Church even throughout the seventh century. It continues to be a theological disagreement of historical tendency and the church has not entirely embraced the concept or idea.

There are still some misgivings today if Mary died before her Assumption or if she was assumed before her death. The Roman Catholic consent to these two beliefs and consider it to be one or the other. The Assumption of Mary is thought of as a gift from God to those who believed that Mary was the “Mother of God.”

The Spanish people celebrate it also on August 15th and for the entire month of August it is not uncommon to find most businesses closed down. On that day, transportation is limited and people take the time to spend with family and friends.

If you are a tourist visiting at that time, there is almost nothing to do on that day because all museums and other activities have been put on hold.

Spanish people view their public holiday as rich in culture and festivity. They will go all out to prepare a feast of festivals and entertainment to enjoy and solidify their belief in Assumption Day.

The practicing Roman Catholics in the Spanish speaking countries in the world, but especially Spain, also call this day the “Feast of the Assumption” and do embrace the belief that Mary did indeed ascend to heaven without a physical death.

The Spanish people take pride in their cultural cuisine and spend this time preparing meals to celebrate the day in honor of the Virgin Mary. It is customary to cook full course meals and bring the family together on this day as an indication of solidarity in their beliefs.

To celebrate Assumption Day, Spanish people love to watch their favorite mystery play called “El Misteri d’Elx” on the 14th and 15th of August.

That’s right; we said it! We don’t think you can do it! Oh, don’t get us wrong, we believe you can do anything you set your mind to here at SpanishPod101.com… but how hard will you really try to bleed us of our money? Hmm… I guess we’ll see at the end of August. What are we talking about?

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Thank you for reading!

The SpanishPod101.com Team

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How to Really Learn Spanish in Just Minutes a Day and Stick with it

The Myth

What if I told you mastering Spanish wasn’t that hard. That actually learning the language itself is not nearly as difficult as you may have heard. And that the problem to progressing is an age old one…failure to execute.

The Real Issue

Said another way, “People don’t progress ’cause they don’t do! If you don’t do the work, you won’t reach your goals.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Thank you for reading!

The SpanishPod101.com Team

Welcome to the SpanishPod101.com blog, Feature Spotlight. Here we would like to periodically introduce some well known features as well as some not so well known features here at SpanishPod101.com. We want to make sure everyone knows about all the great features that you can use to master Spanish in just minutes a day.

Today we would like to introduce My Feed. This is a fully customizable RSS feed. What’s that mean? Well, for those that haven’t studied up on the latest Web 2.0 technology, that basically allows Premium members to decide exactly what lesson content they want on their Premium feed.

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To learn more about My Feed check out the video below or if you’re a Premium member, click here to get started now.

(Sorry, the video’s a little outdated, but it still works perfectly for SpanishPod101.com!)

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One of our long time listeners is a writer in Mexico. Meet, Phylis Collier. She sometimes finds it difficult in some areas to find natives who don’t speak Spanish! That can be real discouraging when you’re trying as hard as Phylis is to learn Spanish.

Hear about how she toughs it out and tries her best to still practice.

“I have been living in Mexico for about three years. I lived in Oaxaca when I first came and my Spanish was coming along really well, mainly because so few people spoke English. However, when I moved to San Miguel de Allende that luxury changed. There are scores of Norte Americanos here and although the upside is more conveniences because of them, most Mexicans encountered in stores, restaurants etc., speak English.

 What I do is to go to the Jardin (what they call the Zocalo here) where you find all the Norte Americanos on benches facing the church, and most Mexicans sitting everywhere else. So I sit “everywhere else” and seek out non-English speaking people. I’ve been fairly successful and my goal is to increase my number of Mexican friends.My biggest problem is that most of them speak Spanish very rapidly, and I have to keep asking “por favor, mas despacio”! That’s why I am so happy to have found SpanishPod 101, because while improving my vocabulary it will certainly help train my ear to this language that I love.

I like being able to replay the conversation over and over, until I really understand every word and phrase, and of course, I speak along with it, improving my accent.

I am about to begin classes again, and I can only think that continuing to use SpanishPod 101 will be a strong supplement.

Estoy agradecida!”

Great job Phylis! Does anyone else have a similar situation? What do you do to practice when facing the odds?

This week we’d like to share a story from John Miller.

John enjoys listening to Spanish while working and had a great experience with being able to use his Spanish to help out a fellow passenger on a plane.

“I came across this podcast via iTunes, in the best of 2008 listings. I am and have always been totally blind, and therefore I obviously learn best through audio. As one who has made repeated attempts to learn this language, I thought your offerings might well help.

Since then, I’ve actually dated a Spanish woman who resided in Madrid. Of course, being in a relationship is a difficult way to learn a language.

I’ve tried other couple online sites that helped a little as well, although according to the woman in Spain their teachings were a little sketchy. So, I eventually left them alone out of fear of learning too much of the wrong thing. However, SpanishPod101 has not let me down yet!

For example, on one of my return flights from Spain I had to help a young woman who knew no English as she attempted to communicate where she needed to go next to the airport workers. Luckily, I knew just enough vocabulary to aid them in sorting the whole situation out, and she ended up on the correct connecting flight. Everyone was very happy with my limited Spanish in that case.

And to wrap this long e-mail up, I listen to the show on my Zen Stone MP3 player to aid me in passing the long hours at my incredibly boring job. I work at a factory for the blind at the moment, although if I can get into grad school I’d start classes this August.Thanks, and it’s a great show!”

Great job John!  Keep up the studying so you can always help out others with your Spanish!