- Thread starter Norma Rosa
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Forum Reading -short articles
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OK, I expressed my interest in participating, so here I am 
I did read the article, understood well, except a few words. Should I look them up ? I tend to go on reading since it does not prevent me from understanding the overall meaning (or at least I hope so).
Couple of questions. In this sentence: Pero esa preocupaci?n se magnific? recientemente con la elecci?n de los nuevos miembros de la JCE, que representa a todas luces, un retroceso de 30 a?os
What is JCE ?
retroceso ? Does it mean step backward ? If so, why is the election of new JCE members is a step 30 years back?
I did read the article, understood well, except a few words. Should I look them up ? I tend to go on reading since it does not prevent me from understanding the overall meaning (or at least I hope so).
Couple of questions. In this sentence: Pero esa preocupaci?n se magnific? recientemente con la elecci?n de los nuevos miembros de la JCE, que representa a todas luces, un retroceso de 30 a?os
What is JCE ?
retroceso ? Does it mean step backward ? If so, why is the election of new JCE members is a step 30 years back?
OK, I expressed my interest in participating, so here I am
I did read the article, understood well, except a few words. Should I look them up ? I tend to go on reading since it does not prevent me from understanding the overall meaning (or at least I hope so).
Couple of questions. In this sentence: Pero esa preocupaci?n se magnific? recientemente con la elecci?n de los nuevos miembros de la JCE, que representa a todas luces, un retroceso de 30 a?os
What is JCE ?
retroceso ? Does it mean step backward ? If so, why is the election of new JCE members is a step 30 years back?
Africaida, if I may I chose the article and it is obviously a scathing opinion piece about the current state of politics here so it fits well that the definition you understand means to take a step backwards most likely due to a partisan selection process or corruption. I commend you on your Spanish too as I had to translate a lot of words but was pleased that the structure was simple for me.
Thank you Chip, there are also many words I did not know (around a dozen). However, because French is my first language, I can a lot of times guess by looking at the root of the word.
Also I don't look up words I don't know unless they prevent me from understanding the overall meaning of the sentence (not sure if it is a good thing or not).
My problem is that I could never write a piece like that without making a lot of mistakes (mostly grammar).
Please, take one paragraph and work with it!
In my opinion, if you want to develop a broader vocabulary, you should look up new terms.
The author does not state why it is a step backwards. However, second paragraph (line1) states that the many people that voted for the PLD party in the last three elections ?est? preocupada por el excesivo control del Estado en manos de un solo partido.? So, the reader should assume that the new members of the Junta Central Electoral belong of the ruling party. (Chip said something to that effect.) This is a practice in DR politics that goes way back.
Thanks Norma !!
You are right I should look up the words afterwards. I was told before that it is better to look up the word definition in Spanish rather than translation, so I would do that.
If you use the Google translate and translate the "representa a todas luces"
it comes back with a meaning that will make sense to you. In fact I had to translate it too. BTW, you can leave the "que" as it means that. Sometimes you have to play around with how many words you want to translate in order to get a clear meaning.
To add to other responses given on this, remember that English says: In the light of . . . (from the point of view of)
The article says (line 7):
.
. . . with the election of the new members of the JCE, that represents from every point of view, . . .
A tu orden:
Pasarela Dominicana Moda?presenta colecci?n oto?o-primavera
A fairly simple article. I hardly had to translate at all. I have found Hoy and El Nuevo Diario to have an apparently (to me anyway) simpler style of writing in general as opposed to La Informacion de Santiago o Listin Diario.
Good point and grammar is important~
I understand what you are saying and agree with you in the sense that it's very difficult from a grammatical perspective but I do believe that one can learn to write well although it's a (very) long process. However, if one practices to write, recognizes, accepts being corrected and reads a lot, it can happen.
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I do think it's easier to read than write but yes, I agree the grammar would be the most difficult part and one would have to have good grammatical knowledge to write well. However, that comes with a lot practice (lots of emphasis here). If a person is not in a position to engage in years of study or one on one tutoring another option is to practice on his/ her own but a competent person who speaks and writes the language very well should always check it-be it English, Spanish, French etc writing practice, the person who is practicing should give it to someone for overall feedback. In my opinion, there is always something that needs correction or modifying. Overtime, one can get very close to writing well. However, recognizing and accepting being corrected combined with reading is what it takes in order to achieve this.
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Writers who write for newspapers columns never write in a simple way. They use a lot of journalese, 'flowery' language and or complicated vocabulary intentionally. It adds to the writing piece (I suppose). Compare an article in an opinion section to a simple article on the front page. There's a big difference. Space also plays a factor in the writing style. A writer with limited space to write a column has less opportunity to use excess words, long sentences etc. The more I read the more selective I get.
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Newspaper articles are very diverse and there are abundance of newspapers in Spanish on the web from which one can choose for reading and comprehension purposes. It does not have to be a Dominican paper. Find one that you like and stick with it for a while. I am down to one DR paper now and have been for years which is Listin Diario. I never liked Hoy Digital and El Nacional . The main newspaper I have been reading for years long before the age of interent online reading is elmundo.es from Madrid, Spain. The main reason is it's very informative, diverse and it's good Spanish linguistically. I get my main news from this paper and then read bits and pieces from other Spanish language newspapers.
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One aspect they started recently is bolding key words and phrases in every article and I am not sure what the stratgey is with this concept. My guess is they are the key points in the article to focus on. I also think for people that are reading to broaden their knowledge of Spanish, it's a tremendous help because what is highlighted is also key vocabulary and sentence structure that one can learn and use in the spoken language.
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I have been following the Haiti cholera outbreak exclusively via El Mundo and then going to other papers like The Montreal Gazette (Quebec, Canada), Le Figaro (France) and Listin Diario (DR) for more details. This sample article shows what I mean about the bolding of the letters. It's a disturbing topic about the situation of albinos in some African countries ('brujos' that kill them). Look at the bolded text. I think it's very helpful to people who are also reading the paper to improve their Spanish reading skills.
Interstitial - Noticia
-MP.
I understand what you are saying and agree with you in the sense that it's very difficult from a grammatical perspective but I do believe that one can learn to write well although it's a (very) long process. However, if one practices to write, recognizes, accepts being corrected and reads a lot, it can happen.
::
I do think it's easier to read than write but yes, I agree the grammar would be the most difficult part and one would have to have good grammatical knowledge to write well. However, that comes with a lot practice (lots of emphasis here). If a person is not in a position to engage in years of study or one on one tutoring another option is to practice on his/ her own but a competent person who speaks and writes the language very well should always check it-be it English, Spanish, French etc writing practice, the person who is practicing should give it to someone for overall feedback. In my opinion, there is always something that needs correction or modifying. Overtime, one can get very close to writing well. However, recognizing and accepting being corrected combined with reading is what it takes in order to achieve this.
::
Writers who write for newspapers columns never write in a simple way. They use a lot of journalese, 'flowery' language and or complicated vocabulary intentionally. It adds to the writing piece (I suppose). Compare an article in an opinion section to a simple article on the front page. There's a big difference. Space also plays a factor in the writing style. A writer with limited space to write a column has less opportunity to use excess words, long sentences etc. The more I read the more selective I get.
::
Newspaper articles are very diverse and there are abundance of newspapers in Spanish on the web from which one can choose for reading and comprehension purposes. It does not have to be a Dominican paper. Find one that you like and stick with it for a while. I am down to one DR paper now and have been for years which is Listin Diario. I never liked Hoy Digital and El Nacional . The main newspaper I have been reading for years long before the age of interent online reading is elmundo.es from Madrid, Spain. The main reason is it's very informative, diverse and it's good Spanish linguistically. I get my main news from this paper and then read bits and pieces from other Spanish language newspapers.
::
One aspect they started recently is bolding key words and phrases in every article and I am not sure what the stratgey is with this concept. My guess is they are the key points in the article to focus on. I also think for people that are reading to broaden their knowledge of Spanish, it's a tremendous help because what is highlighted is also key vocabulary and sentence structure that one can learn and use in the spoken language.
::
I have been following the Haiti cholera outbreak exclusively via El Mundo and then going to other papers like The Montreal Gazette (Quebec, Canada), Le Figaro (France) and Listin Diario (DR) for more details. This sample article shows what I mean about the bolding of the letters. It's a disturbing topic about the situation of albinos in some African countries ('brujos' that kill them). Look at the bolded text. I think it's very helpful to people who are also reading the paper to improve their Spanish reading skills.
Interstitial - Noticia
-MP.
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I find it odd that you state somewhat negatively that newspapers use an inefficient and overcomplicated form of writing and then go on to say you think Listin Diario is better than El Diario or Hoy (btw just by chance the same ones I mentioned) with this regard. I think your level of Spanish has caused you to lose perspective as to what is simple and what is not.
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