Mi Vida Loca- Free Learning Resource (Telenovela)

Question

For those of you who are using the fantastic interactive video series 'Mi Vida Loca' presented by the BBC I just thought I'd share some free resources that I've been putting together to help learners to get the most out of the series. I hope that they'll be useful.

Although the series is designed for beginners even intermediate and advanced learners can learn a lot from the narrators dialogue. To that end I've started to make flashcards for beginners as well as extra sets for those more advanced learners.

Here's an example set of resources from episode 3 which includes links to the BBC site, flashcards and a quiz.

Thanks mate , you are as always on the ball. - ray76, Jun 20, 2014

Ésa es la iglesia . Why the accent mark on the E ? - ray76, Jun 20, 2014

Thanks Ray, I appreciate the encouragement :) See answer to your question below. - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 20, 2014

Thank you Kiwi. :) - rac1, Jun 20, 2014

my pleasure Rac :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 20, 2014

Hi Kiwi, it's a nice series. And free! - annierats, Jul 7, 2014

I know, awesome aye! You can actually learn a lot from it - whether you're a beginner or more advanced :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jul 7, 2014

Answer 1

Ésa es la iglesia . Why the accent mark on the E ? - ray76

It used to be that you would use a tilde to signal that the demonstrative pronoun was being used as a noun.

Ésa es la iglesia.

that (building)

Conversely the tilde wasn't used when the demonstrative pronoun was used as an adjective (appearing with the noun).

Esa iglesia es vieja.

That church is old.

I could be mistaken but I believe that these days RAE says that the accents are no longer necessary. But old habits die hard and you'll still see them all over the place,

Gracias guapita , that threw me , but i knew that you would be on top aye. - ray76, Jun 20, 2014

:) - ian-hill, Jun 20, 2014

thanks guys :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 20, 2014

Answer 2

Kiwi-G. - Thanks for alerting us to this resource. I watched episode 3, and it was excellent.

I found the scenes of Madrid and the Metro interesting, and the interactive elements engaging. The dramatic elements certainly add an intrigue that helped to interest me in seeing the next episode. Your assessment is spot on that someone at an intermediate level could still profit from watching episodes of this series designed for beginners. I know I did.

Great stuff, it really is a great resource, I do hope that you'll make use of the quizzes that I've made too, to see how much you've retained :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 24, 2014

Maybe later I will - I enjoyed flipping the flashcards . . . - Esteban_317, Jun 24, 2014

Answer 3

Episode 4's Flashcards and a beginner's quiz.

Answer 4

For any advanced learners that might be interested i have just added an advanced quiz taken from episode three.

Answer 5

Episode 6 with flashcards, a beginner's quiz etc is ready to go

Answer 6

Episode 5's flashcards are ready.

Gracias amiga. :) - rac1, Jul 5, 2014

Answer 7

Episode 4's - Advanced Quiz

If any of our advanced learners do have a go, please let us know how you get on and if you found the quiz to be helpful.

Answer 8

Here we go for episode 10

Answer 9

Episode 9's resources are now up, including links to a number of games/quizzes for practicing with ser vs estar. Enjoy!

Answer 10

Episode 8 resources are ready to go! Great practice for your Spanish numbers and the video includes very realistic announcement type dialogue from a bus station. See how you would go travelling through Spain, buying bus tickets, paying the right amount of money, checking your change and understanding departure and arrival times.

A great lesson!

Answer 11

Here's a couple of advanced sets of flashcards from the narrator's dialogue of Episode 7. Use them to see how capable you are at translating phrases uses different verb tenses including the imperative, the preterite, the imperfect and the past perfect etc.

Set 1

Set 2

Answer 12

Flashcards for episode 7 are ready to go, even if you aren't using this resource but you're learning the days of the week and how to tell the time then these ones should be useful.