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Hey everyone!  Here goes nothing.

Yay for summer vacation!  I’m seriously working on videos.  You might not realize how long the planning process takes

Hope that people out there are still watching.

Below is a list of videos I am planning on making.  These are tentative and I might take the video-editing in another direction!  Feel free to leave suggestions below.

1. ser vs. estar
2. ser + descriptions
3. direct objects + 2 verbs
4. indirect objects
5. indirect objects + 2 verbs
6. direct & indirect objects
7. future
8. conditional

Thanks for watching and for your questions/comments!  ¡Hasta luego!

(please note that Mexico is NOT part of Central America even if it appears misleading in the video).  I was coloring the Spanish speaking countries.  Note that Belice is officially an English speaking country, but Spanish is also used (from what I understand).

I’ve been getting requests by teachers to show how I make my videos! Enjoy!

Leave any questions, comments or suggestions below!

Youtube just upped the quality standards so in my NEWEST videos this will not be offered. You’ll probably only notice the description below for most of the preterite irregular videos.

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I’ve started saving my videos in a high-quality format because youtube offers to viewers the option of watching the videos that way on the website. I just found out that you can watch them in high quality here too. It isn’t a drastic difference but I have noticed that things look a little crisper at least!  Keep reading to see how to do it!

This will only work on the most recent videos!  But to do it…

First, make sure to push the play button.  Then…

and then…

Pretty cool, huh!?  Happy watching!

¡Hasta luego!
-Sr J.

-Sr. J

~~~~~~~~~Original Entry Below~~~~~~~~~

I read an article awhile back about restaurants where you could pay whatever you thought was fair. Sometimes people overpay, other times people underpay. It intrigued me.  (See story)

Ok all.  Here’s the low-down.

As I’ve explained, the videos are meant to be free and that will not change. I don’t want anyone to pay for them. They’re just something I’d like to do to help anyone with their Spanish.  But who is to say that someone isn’t so appreciative of the extra Spanish help that they want to give back?

So here we go. I’ve created a poll to see what you think about the Paypal button on the side of the site that I’ve added. Please be honest.  You can also comment below this post to let me know if you have an opinion not expressed on the poll.  Any feedback is welcome and appreciated. I’ll let the poll run for a week or 2 and then after reading the results, I’ll heavily consider them before deciding to keep the button or take it down.

I don’t want people deterred from coming to my site because of the button and I don’t want people to think I am begging. Like I said, the videos are free and that won’t change. I’ll continue to do them and hopefully the quality will continue to improve!

So please let me know your thoughts! ¡Gracias y adiós!

[polldaddy poll=1271628]

My brother suggested that I do a ‘making of’ video of my video-making process. I just might.

Until then I thought I would blow your mind with what you would probably never imagine the room I worked out of looked like.

Also, if you were wanting to do something similar, this is what I’ve been using.

In above picture: indirect lighting, green screen, microphone hanging from ceiling.  The mic is actually going to be a new addition to the video making process that my brother just made possible for me to use in buying me a camera for Christmas that it plugs into.

In above picture: laptop acting as teleprompter, camera and much messiness. Wow I should really clean it. If only video editing wouldn’t take so much time!

Well, that’s it for now!  I should have some new videos up by the end of the week.   ¡Adiós!

I did find some links that might be useful to you though… and for your enjoyment, here’s me singing ‘Feliz Navidad‘ originally sung by José Feliciano.

In English and Spanish:

In Spanish only:

José Feliciano is a prominent singer, songwriter, and guitar virtuoso from Puerto Rico. The most amazing thing about José Feliciano is that he is blind but plays guitar amazingly!

For more on José Feliciano,
http://www.josefeliciano.com

Since the tradition varies depending on the country and regions in the country, the possibilities are endless!  But here are some links you can check out for more information!

• http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/christmas.html
• http://www.navidadlatina.com/
• http://www.interpretermagazine.org/interior.asp?ptid=43&mid=11687
• http://www.allthingschristmas.com/traditions/christmas-guatemala.php
• http://www.cocori.com/library/crinfo/xmasincr.htm
• http://www.perulinks.com/amigos/Xmas.html
• http://www.californiamall.com/holidaytraditions/traditions-Venezuela.htm
• http://www.joeskitchen.com/chile/culture/christmas.htm

In Microsoft Word / Wordpad

Simply follow the directions below:
1) press ctrl and ‘
2) release
3) press key of vowel you would like to accent
4) release

example:
[ctrl and '] + [a] = á

For ñ, [ctrl and shift and ~] + [n]

For any other program

Make sure num-lock is on.  This is important because you’ll be using the number keypad (numbers on the right side of keyboard).

You’ll press alt, type in the code below, and release alt and it will yield the resulting letters.

Á = 0193
á = 0225
É = 0201
é =  0233
Í = 0205
í = 0237
Ó = 0211
ó = 0243
Ú = 0218
ú = 0250
Ü = 0220
ü = 0252
Ñ = 0209
ñ = 0241
¡ = 0161
¿ = 0191

Hope this is helpful!

Forgive me for my slacking on this site.  It was ambitious but I knew that from the getgo and plan on continuing, although the pace might be a little slower as I try to improve the quality of my videos where I can add pictures instead of text.  Since I am not a talented artist though, the pictures can take awhile.

Hopefully, I’ll have a few videos by the end of the week.

Regards,
Sr. J

To attempt to organize amidst the confusion, I’ve changed the titles of the videos.  At the beginning of the titles on this page, there will be either 01 or 02 and a three digit number.01 - means it is a video designed for my Spanish I class.  These will progressively get harder.

02 – means it is a video designed for my Spanish II class.  These will be more advanced and will be missing videos in between to explain certain things for now.

After that, I will have three digits.  These will help to explain which lesson the video is.
001 = Lesson 1, 002 = Lesson 2, etc.

So 01-015 would be Spanish I, lesson 15.

I hope this doesn’t completely ruin the site for anyone using it!

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions let me know.  Perhaps you have a better idea for an organizational system… ¡Déjame saber! (Let me know)

¡Gracias!