Vocabulary in reading newspapers and magazines is difficult
When I read newspaper articles of columns in magazines they have so much vocabulary that is strange to me. It makes me feel like I've been learning the wrong stuff because the sentences are so long and complex that I get lost in the middle of them. Any pointers? Anyone know of any flashcards that have vocabulary from newspapers or magazines.
5 Answers
These are just suggestions:
You might try to read the article straight through, and any time that you come across an unfamiliar word, jot it down in a notebook (using a separate page for each term), but don't look it up right away. Simply continue reading while trying to infer the meaning from the context. Do this with each unfamiliar word you come across.
When you come to the end of the article, use a decent Spanish-Spanish dictionary (RAE, Pequeño Larousse, etc) to look up the words that you wrote down. Write the definitions for each word down beside each word. If the definition for the word includes a word or words with which you are unfamiliar then look these up too and write down the definitions. Continue doing this until you come to a point where you understand the words as they are used in the definitions. As a last resort you might also try using a Spanish-English Dictionary to look up the word.
Once you think that you understand the meaning of the words that you were researching, try doing a google book or news search using each term as a keyword. Try looking at 5 or 6 different sources to see how each word is used in different contexts. It is also helpful to write a few of these examples down beneath the notes you have taken for each word.
Once you have done this for each unfamiliar word in the article, go back and reread the article using your notes if necessary to help you understand the meaning of the words.
Truthfully, this entire process can be somewhat time consuming, especially early on, but researching the words in this way helps to build a "web of understanding" in that it exposes you to various contexts in which the word is used, tying them together, while also providing you with exposure to synonymous phrases and words which can help to give you a deeper understanding of the word.
Another trick that you might try is to use the internet to see if other new outlets have covered the same event. Often, what is reported in one newspaper will be worded much differently when it is reported by another newspaper (especially if the two papers are geographically isolated). Try comparing two or three articles on the same subject and see if you can't infer the meaning of unfamiliar words based on the different phrasings employed by each respective paper. (It is simple enough to find links to newspapers from various countries by simply searching the web. For example, you can find lists by typing in such search terms as periódicos de México or periódicos españoles
I also don't think that the value of consistency and volume can be underestimated in building vocabulary, so be sure to read and read often.
It really depends on where you are in the spanish speaking world, versus your studies.
Our local "El Heraldo" in its general articles uses all the all the familiar spanish forms of the north of México. It might cause a columbian to have to think a moment on the way a word is used or the meaning of a phrase.
I have a bit of a time reading the newspaper of Madrid online for this very reason.
Hi, Dewclaw, I understand your point.
The vocabulary for well-known newspapers and magazines is generally not the sort of vocabulary you will hear run-of-the mill people using in everyday speech, at least that has been my experience.
If you are looking to improve your vocabulary for reading newspapers or magazines, maybe if you stuck to just a couple of publications it would be helpful. You would start to get the hang of what expressions are used in those particular publications, as well as the theme of the major news in that area. A lot of mental "elbow grease" is needed, along with a good dictionary and google or similar search engine.
If you are looking to improve your vocabulary with more common expressions, if you can locate a "yellow press" sort of publication it would be helpful. I try to read two or three of those a week and it has really helped my grasp of local slang.
I would be happy to share my online publications with you, if you are interested in Mexican resources.
When I first started reading online Spanish newspapers, I liked Prensa from Panamá.
It loads in a frame controlled by Google, and you can click "Translate" at the top and see the whole page in English. Then, you can hold your mouse over any sentence and it gives you a message tip containing the original Spanish text.
It's almost a perfect way to read both English and Spanish together. The Google translation to English is not bad for the kind of language used in this newspaper.
It's fairly light reading, and covers top stories in world news, national news, business, sports, entertainment, fashion, opinion, and features.
Almost all of my flashcards are from words taken from newspapers.
Remember that news stories often use sensational or rarely used words to make a catchy headline and then to keep you interested in the story.
For an English example, "Firefighters Delve Into Defunct Department Store." With someone learning English we'd probably advise them that the words "delve" and "defunct" are hardly used in every day speech and it's not critical to learn them right away.
