Saturday 11 April 2015

Time well spent, improving your Spanish

I've mentioned before how useful I find films, videos and series in Spanish, for improving my understanding, and as practise listening to different voices and regional accents.

I've also spoken about watching video with subtitles in English, or DVDs with the subtitles in Spanish, so you can simultaneously see what you're hearing.

Well, here's good news, especially if you're science fiction fans.

In February, Spanish TV channel RTVE launched a new series called 'El Ministerio del Tiempo'.
 It's a time-travel series, the main protagonists of which are a paramedic from 2015, a soldier from the 1700s, and a female university student from the 19th century.

The paramedic, Julián Martinez, is played by Rodolfo Sancho, who played King Fernando in 'Isabel', a Spanish historical drama, shown on UK TV with English subtitles last year.

The soldier, Alonso Entrerríos is played by Nacho Fresneda, and the student, Amelia Folch, is played by Aura Garrido, who played Valeria in the Spanish TV series 'Angel o Demonio' (also worth a watch HERE )

Apart from a solid cast, the storyline is actually pretty good but what makes it worth a watch, from a Spanish learning point of view is that it not only has Spanish subtitles, but also a complete transcript available, so you can watch, listen and read, at the same time.

You can find the complete series so far HERE and here's a few screenshots to give you an idea of what's on offer.



 You can start the video in a frame, and click 'ver transcripción' to have the transcript running up the side.



Or you can select subtitles using the 'Subt' button (Note: this may vary from device to device. On my Android tablet it appears as 'CC' for 'closed captions')
Clicking the bottom right icon selects full screen.


I did try to find 'Isabel' on the RTVE website too, but Series1 appears to have been removed, or at least the episodes don't play.

Make sure you watch 'El Ministerio del Tiempo' before the same happens!

Enjoy!