I want to improve my spanish so can spanish speakers recommend any books, movies or novelas to watch?

Question

My friend is Mexican and I met him in the 7th grade (he just moved from mexico)and he learned english really quickly (we are now freshman in high school). I asked him how he learned english so fast and he said by watching lots of television. Sooo...

Any good spanish speaking shows I can watch? Im not a big fan of novelas but thats all that basically show on the spanish shows. And any good books in spanish I could read? (Not "how to speak spanish" kinds of books, more like novels written in spanish). Im giong to be going to Costa Rica within the next two years hopefully and want to improve the spanish I learned in high school

*oops I said we are freshman in highschool, I meant to write freshman in college.

Thanks everyone for your advice, but I was looking more into any specific movies, novelas, tv show, books... Especially books around the middle school level :]

Answer 1

Books:

La tregua (short novel of Mario Benedetti), it's a really good one...
Inventario (from the same author but poetry)
Cien años de soledad (García Márquez)

Movies:
Amores perros, Al otro lado(Mexico)
(Mexico)
Volver, Hable con ella (Spain)
Spanglish (usa) hehe it's not a bad movie, it's light, but good..

try to watch the movies with the subtitles in spanish..

Music:
listen to slow songs, ballads maybe..
Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, Alejandro Fernández, Alejandra Guzmán, Reyli... u can download some songs, and their lyrics..


Magazines
Expansión
Mexico Desconocido
National Geographic

and please do not watch all those bad shows that the hispanic tv presents...I'm from Mexico and I was in the US for a year, i prefered not to watch anything...they choose the worst...

Answer 2

im from costa rica and i went 1 year to the USA and learned from the tv shows and because i went to school over there so if u want to know there is not just only novelas there are tv shows and really good ones and in mexico thats their culture they whatched lots of novelas.
but it helps a lot the TV and to read the subtitles in ur case
u can whatch movies on english and read the subtitles.
that wil help alot and try with not too cumplicated movies try with finding nemo or something like that and then u will start having more practice then if u want whatch novelas or TV shows that they are only in spanish. if u got any questions just email-me [e-mail]
or chat. good luck

Answer 3

Spanish from Spain... "cleaner"? What do you mean? There is not such a thing as a "clean" language... only different dialects of the same one. People from Spain speak beautifully, but oh, so fast!

Go for any Spanish speaking movie that you find appealing, but try to rent the ones with Spanish subtitles. That way, you can read and listen at the same time and you won't be lost. For tons of Mexican Spanish words and lots of fun, too, get a copy of the "DF", one-act collected plays by Emilio Carballido.

Answer 4

If you want to learn to speak like they do in Mexico City,well where my hubby is from, slang wise or whatever try Amorres Perros and Y Tu Mama Tambien. I learned spanish by printing out lyrics online then sitting down with a dictionary and translating them. Music is a wonderful way to learn, especially because the majority of it comes from the heart. It's got feeling. Formal spanish is much prettier and cleaner and I think easier to understand. They also have a computer program and book spanish for dummies that is easy to use and it helps too. Good luck!!

Answer 5

Well, regarding tv shows (not only novelas) I think u can watch either telemundo or el canal de las estrellas (this is from Mexico).

Regarding movies try to find old movies with Pedro Infante, and, u will know if u really know spanish when u can see a movie with cantinflas and understand it he he, if u see one of his movies u will understand why am i telling u this :-)

Books, try to find a poetry or short stories first.

Also, if u like to chat u can go to www.latinchat.com is a chat for hispanic people.

Answer 6

I would try to watch movies from Spain. Spanish spoken in Spain is clearer and "cleaner." I spent a summer there and learned it so well. Oh, that's another thought! Go to Spain. It's the best! But, on to other options if you can't.

I don't think watching Spanish TV stations like Telemundo will be as helpful. They speak much faster so you won't be able to understand as much.

Go to Netflix.com and look in their foreign language film section. This will give you recommendations and since members rate movies they watch, you can see how many stars they got. You don't have to be a Netflix member to do this. Also, there are some movies at Blockbuster that are dubbed in Spanish.
Buena suerte! =)

Answer 7

Many movies on DVD allow you to choose the language. Try watching them in Spanish. Since you might have already watched many of them you will kind of know what they're talking about.

Answer 8

Female Life in Poetry is in Spanish & English - available on Amazon and Kindle -

Answer 9

You can read Finding Nemo and then put the language in spanish. That is what my Spanish teacher did.

Answer 10

Godfather