Spanish Language Audio

MP3 files may be played in your computer, or converted for listening in your CD player or vehicle. When burning a CD, your computer will ask if you want a data CD or a music CD. Make sure to choose a music CD format (it will provide a file with a CDA extension) or you will not be able to play it in a CD player. WARNING: Make sure to keep the files from the Spanish and English projects in different folders so you don't overwrite one or the other.

SUGGESTION: If you plan to burn these MP3 files, I would suggest that you listen to the first file once, "Strategies for Learning Another Language," but do not burn it into your CD, as it is meant to only be heard once or twice.

SCRIPT: Some of you have asked for a script of the audio files. Akos, a kind colleague in Hungary, has included both the audio files and the script to go along with them at his site, http://www.e-spanyol.hu/en/transcript.php.

El mar estaba sereno (learning to pronounce the vowels in Spanish)
(Spanish song, 1.51 minutes, 1.7 MB, Author: Folk Song, Artist: Myriam Grajales-Hall, 12 May 06, zipped file)
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A-E-I-O-U, the donkey knows more than you! (more practice with vowels and diphthongs)
(Narration, 2:16 minutes, 2.08 MB, Folk Saying, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, 15 May 06, zipped file)
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Abecedario (Spanish alphabet and Spanish sounds
(Narration, 4:03 minutes, 3.71 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Mary Currie, 15 May, 06, zipped file)
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Difficult consonants (including motorcycle erre tongue rolling exercise)
(Narration, 2:104 minutes, 1.89 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, 17 May 06, zipped file)
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Greetings
(Narration, 1:38 minutes, 1.5 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Deborah La Barbera, 22 May 06, zipped file)
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Polite Expressions
(Narration, 6:00 minutes, 5.5 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Deborah La Barbera, 22 May 06, zipped file)
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Praise
(Narration, 1:32 minutes, 1.4 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Deborah La Barbera, 22 May 06, zipped file)
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Days and Holidays
(Narration, 3:13 minutes, 2.95 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Deborah La Barbera, 22 May 06, zipped file)
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Climate
(Narration, 3:10 minutes, 2.9 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Deborah La Barbera, 22 May 06, zipped file)
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Time
(Narration, 3:05 minutes, 2.83 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Deborah La Barbera, 22 May 06, zipped file)
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More on days and numbers
(Narration, 5:36 minutes, 5.51 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, 22 May 06, zipped file)
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Common questions
(Narration, 3:30 minutes, 3.2 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 23 May 06, zipped file)
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Giving driving directions
(Narration, 2:16 minutes, 2.1 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 23 May 06, zipped file)
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Giving instructions
(Narration, 8:07 minutes, 7.6 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 23 May 06, zipped file)
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Irrigation
(Narration, 0:57 minutes, 0.9 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 23 May 06, zipped file)
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Health and Safety
(Narration, 6:36 minutes, 6.1 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 24 May 06, zipped file)
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Shifts and Pay
(Narration, 4:20 minutes, 4 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 24 May 06, zipped file)
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Around the office
(Narration, 1:55 minutes, 1.8 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 24 May 06, zipped file)
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Animals
(Narration, 2:03 minutes, 1.9 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 24 May 06, zipped file)
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Orchards, Crops and Plants
(Narration, 7:23 minutes, 6.8 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 24 May 06, zipped file)
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Tools and Equipment
(Narration, 3:03 minutes, 2.8 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 24 May 06, zipped file)
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Measuring tape, distances, weights +
(Narration, 1:41 minutes, 1.5 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 24 May 06, zipped file)
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Farm Jobs
(Narration, 1:50 minutes, 1.7 MB, Narration: Gregorio Billikopf, Nathaniel Battig, 24 May 06, zipped file)
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Materials will be added here. We are always interested in special requests.

There has been a mounting interest on the part of farm employers in learning a little Spanish, based on a desire to better communicate with their Spanish-speaking employees. So it is that in December 2000, we embarked on a project based on the following principles:

1. Provide tools that will help farmers learn Spanish naturally
2. Focus on learning by first listening
3. Focus on learning by repeating after native Spanish-speakers
4. Preserve the correct use of the Spanish language
5. Avoid the use of slang of "Spanglish"
6. Where several correct words are available, provide those used in Mexico
7. Where several correct words are available, provide words of more universal usage
8. Provide a neutral sounding (audio) Spanish that avoids regional accents

This Website was built to support this Spanish language project. The ideal, at first, is not to have to read at all, but just listen and repeat. However, we realize that when learning another language one might have to look occasionally at a word here or there in order to make out the letters being used by the speaker. To the degree that you focus on listening and trying to pronounce the word as the native speaker, the better your accent will be. On the down side, people might think you know more than you do :-). While we hope that with advanced technology the time may come where this dictionary page might provide instantaneous audio of each word looked up, right now it may take quite a long time to download a single sound.

One of the principal products of this project will be to tape English words and expressions followed by their Spanish equivalent, repeated twice. Rather than providing a list of vocabulary along with the tapes, users will be directed to this Website where they can download the latest version of the written dictionary. It is simply impossible to include all of the vocabulary in recordings, and the written dictionary will contain many more words than the recordings.

Team members. The University of California project team for the general dictionary consists of Gregorio Billikopf, Lucia Varela, Jesus Valencia, Ramiro Lobo, Myriam Grajales-Hall and Richard Molinar. Alberto Hauffen and Myriam Grajales-Hall have already been of great help with the technical aspects of the project. David Underwood created the cold fusion program that makes the on-line dictionary program possible. Gregorio Billikopf is the Webmaster and project director. Commodity specific team members include Lucia Varela (viticulture), Arturo Scheidegger (Universidad de Chile) and Tom Shultz and Alejandro Castillo (dairy) and others. Special thanks go to numerous contributors including Roberta Lee Crill (Cornell): Hector Rene Diaz-Saenz (U. of Texas); Alejandro Fernandez del Castillo F (Consultora Logica Empresarial, S. C., Mexico) and numerous other contributors.

Other contributions. As we become aware of either contributions that are not copyrighted or those we obtain permission to include, we will do so, taking the liberty of making needed corrections or changes.

While we are talking about gaining a better ear for language, I also want to invite you to read an article on listening skills, or how to listen to others who need to vent and be heard.