Background

Spanish is a Romance language, spoken in Spain and 22 other countries, with approximately 470 million speakers. [Reed more in Omniglot].

The World Factbook - Select a Spanish speaking country to get information about its history, people, geography, environment, communications, etc.

Easy reads

Short stories in Spanish (parallel text in Spanish and English) [print]
The leper bishop = El obispo leproso / by Gabriel Miró (parallel text in Spanish and English) [print]
Stories from Mexico = Historias de México (parallel text in Spanish and English) [print]

SFU library has a small number of easy books in Spanish, such as fairy tales, children's books and short stories. You can try browsing the Curriculum Collection: in the Library Catalogue / Advanced Search, type in 'Spanish', select 'Books' as a 'Resource Type', and on the left-hand side under 'Location' select 'Curriculum Collection'.

Public libraries usually have a larger selection of easy books. Check, for example, the Vancouver Public Library and search in 'Call numbers' by SPA J, or SPA J FIC.

Movies in Spanish

To find a movie at the SFU Library, use the Catalogue / Advanced Search. In the 'Resource Type' choose 'Videos', in the 'Subject field' type in 'feature films' and add a keyword 'Spanish'.

A selection of movies available at the SFU library:

Amores perros (Love's a Bitch) [DVD]
Cría cuervos [DVD]
El espíritu de la colmena [DVD]
Fresa y chocolate (Strawberry & chocolate) [DVD]
La historia oficial (The official story) [DVD]
Lengua de las mariposas [Butterfly] [DVD]
Kamchatka [DVD]
El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) [DVD]
No habrá más penas ni olvido (Funny Dirty Little War). Argentina, c2001. [DVD]
Relatos salvajes [DVD]
Un cuento chino [DVD]
Y tu mamá también, c2002. [DVD]

Films by Pedro Almodóvar:

Carne trémula (Live flesh), 2000. [DVD]
La flor de mi secreto (The flower of my secret), 2000. [DVD]
Hable con ella (Talk to her). [DVD]
La ley del deseo (The law of desire), c2007. [DVD]
La mala educación (Bad education), c2007. [DVD]
Matador, c2007. [DVD]
Todo sobre mi madre (All about my mother), c2007. [DVD]
Volver, c2007. [DVD]

Newspapers and radio stations

Newspapers from Spanish speaking countries - a library guide from MIT Libraries
15 Spanish Newspapers in Latin America for Intermediate Learners
8 Best Spanish Talk Radio Stations
Radio Nacional de España
Radio Formula -
Podcasts, music, TV and news articles based in Mexico
Guide to Mexican podcasts
Spanish podcasts

Dictionaries

WordReference - Spanish dictionary and an active language forum where you can ask native speakers questions about grammar, style, expressions, translations, etc. Recommended!
Collins Spanish dictionary [print]
The Oxford-Duden pictorial Spanish-English dictionary [print]
The Facts on File English-Spanish visual dictionary [print]
The Oxford paperback Spanish dictionary [print]

Grammar and writing

Basic Spanish: a grammar and workbook - C. Arnaiz and I. Wilkie, Routlege, 2006
A student grammar of Spanish - Batchelor, R.E., Cambridge UP, 2006 [online or print]
A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish [print]
Spanish: an essential grammar - P. T. Bradley and I. E. Mackenzie [print]
Spanish verbs made simple(r) - D. Brodsky [print]

To find Spanish grammar books in the Library, search the catalogue by Subject 'Spanish language--Grammar.
Verbix.com - Spanish verb conjugator
Verb drills - From www.studyspanish.com
Spanish Grammar Exercises - Spanish Language & Culture by Barbara Kuczun Nelson, Colby College.
The writer's reference guide to Spanish - D. Altamiranda [print] - Punctuation, capitalization, terminology, grammatical and lexical doubts
How to type Spanish characters and accent marks

Public libraries have a good selection of audio tapes for learning and practicing Spanish. Search, for example, the Vancouver Public Library catalogue by Subjects: 'Spanish language--Sound recordings for English speakers'; 'Spanish language--Spoken Spanish--Interactive multimedia'; 'Spanish language--Study and teaching--English speakers'.

Pronunciation

Forvo - The pronunciation dictionary. Recommended!
Spanish Pronunciation Tutorial - From www.studyspanish.com

Useful websites

Easy Spanish: Learn Spanish From the Streets!
lingQ by Steve Kaufmann, Vancouver, BC - Books, podcasts, news, sports, entertainment, food, culture; audio lessons with matching transcripts.
Learning and teaching Spanish - History, culture, pronunciation, vocabulary, writing skills, grammar.
SpanishDict - Spanish-English dictionary, translation, and learning website
StudySpanish.com
Ver Taal - Vocabulary, grammar, listening exercises, movie trailers, reports, and cultural information with transcripts to follow along.

Spanish language information resources

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