Spanish/English Word Buddies

As you may have noticed from some of my prior posts, I love learning languages. Aside from my native language (English), Spanish is the one I've spent the most time learning. I think it's a beautiful and practical language and I'm always striving to improve my fluency. Over the years, I've used lots of mental tricks to try and remember the language, and one of which is below.

I have listed a word in Spanish, what it means, and then an English word that is related to it (usually by a Latin root word). For example, the word Mar, which means "sea" in Spanish, is related to the word Marina in English. If you've ever been near a body of water, "sea" or not, you've probably heard of the word Marina, which is a designated area for boaters to dock their boats. And now you've made a connection and are more likely to remember the Spanish word Mar.

Not all of these "buddies" will work for every person. For example, if you don't know what a Monstrance is, you it probably won't help you remember the word Mostrar. Unless of course you take time to look it up, in which case the hunt for knowledge may help you anyways. :)

Spanish Word	What it means	English word buddy
Mar	Sea	Marina
Sol	Sun	Solar
Tierra	Earth	Extra-terrestrial Terra-cotta pot Terrain
Mostrar	To show	Monstrance (Maybe this is only helpful if you're Catholic and already know what a monstrance is. :P)
Bailar	To dance	Ballerina
Arbol	Tree	Arbor Day
Ratón	Mouse (both the animal and the computeraccesory)	Rat
Cuerpo	Body	Corporal (As in Corporal Works of Mercy, providing for the physical needs of others [food, water, clothes, etc.]) Corporate (A group acting as one body)
Luna	Moon	Lunar Lunatic (Person affected by the moon's changes)
Contar	To tell	Recount (To recount a tale after a long journey, perhaps)
Brazo	Arm	Embrace (Where you wrap your arms around someone :D:D)
Mano	Hand	Manufacture(To make by hand) Manacles (hand cuffs) Manicure Manual (by hand)
Escribir	To write/desk	Scribe Inscribe Script
Mal	Bad	Malignant Malfunction Malice
Bien	Good	Benevolent Benefit Benefactor Benign
Carne	Meat	Carnivore (someone who eats meat)
Camisa	Shirt	Camisole
Collar	Necklace	Collar (although not jewelry, it does go around ones neck)
Realizar	To perform	Realize (As in, to realize ones dreams)
Campo	Field	Campus
Enfermedad	Sickness	Infirmary
Media	Half	Medium
Pájaro	Bird	Parrot
Cien	Hundred	Century (One hundred years) Cent (One hundredth of a dollar) Percent (Of one hundred) Centimeter (One hundredth of a meter)
Mil	Thousand	Millennium(One Thousand years) Millimeter(One Thousandth of a meter) Millipede (A bug with "one thousand" legs)
Ocho	Eight	Octopus Octo-mom Octuplets
Vida	Life	Vital (Essential to life) Revive (Bring back to life)
Muerto	Death	Mortuary Morbid (Relating to death) Immortal (Cannot die) Mortified (Scared to death)
Ano	Year	Annual Anniversary
Con	With	Connect Contiguous
Grande	Large	Grand
Amigo	Friend	Amnesty Amicable Amity
Dormir	To sleep	Dorm (Where college students sleep)

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I had fun making it. What words/word buddies did I miss? Have any of you ever done this, either with Spanish or another language?

Reading Wednesday: Batter Up by Robyn Neely

If you couldn't guess by my last book review, I'm going through a phase where I enjoy reading sweets-based romance. Here's another adorable one.

This book follows a woman who lives an ordinary life as a baker in a quaint small town. There's nothing super unique about her, except for one thing: she can cast a spell (in cake batter, of course) that shows the name of a man's true love. Every week she hosts "Batter Up" night at her bakery, and never fails to draw a local crowd. Then comes along an attractive news reporter who wants to "break" the story of her spell and ruin the life she's made so far.

This book was a fun, predictable romance with a magical sweet-tooth twist.

Songs for August 2016

It's a little bit late, but here are thirty songs for August! A mix of thirty-one random, but awesome songs that I've either discovered or re-discovered recently. Enjoy!

I can't guarantee that all of the songs are "clean", especially since not all of them are in English...

My favorite song is on the 20th, since it's my birthday. :D

August 2016    Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Any songs I should know about and maybe add to September's music calendar?

Olympic Party!

So we did have a party for the Olympic opening ceremony and it was a ton of fun! Here's what we served:

Savory set of Olympic rings

Sweet set of olympic rings

Pao de queijo

The Teddy olympics!

Swimming

Beach volleyball

Rowing

The spread!

The Olympic Torch cocktail

Do you do anything special for the Olympics? I'd love to hear about it!

Reading Wednesday: Corporate Husband by Beverly Farr

Lately I've been going through a kick where I love super-predictable, definitely-a-chick-lit romance novels. And today I'm going to share with you my latest read, a book called Corporate Husband by Beverly Farr. It's the first in her "Love and Chocolate" series, and falls into the genre of "marriage of convenience" romance.

The book centers around a woman named Louis who is the CEO of a chocolate company. She fears that the company will fall apart after the death of the founder, her grandfather, if she doesn't inherit a large portion of the shares. Unfortunately, her grandfather is sexist and although she excels at CEO, she doesn't stand much of a chance of inheriting without a guy by her side. Enter Justin, a fellow chocolate company employee, who agrees to marry her until her grandfather passes away and she inherits the company.

This book was, although predictable, incredibly adorable and just what I wanted to read. If you're in the mood for a warm and fuzzy chick-lit romance, with a touch of chocolate, I would recommend this book. :)

Olympic Party?

So my roommate and I just had the best idea every... host an Olympic party for the opening ceremony two weeks from now! I can't guarantee it will happen, but we have a Pinterest board going, and so far, this seems to be the (very tentative) plan:

Food
1 savory set of rings
Blue - Corn chips?
Yellow - Cheese and crackers
Black - Olives
Green - Celery, cucumbers, Snap peas
Red - cherry tomatoes, ham

1 sweet set of rings
Blue - Blueberries
Yellow - Pineapple
Black - Oreos, Blackberries, Chocolate
Green - Grapes
Red - Strawberries, Watermelon

Some pin-spiration

Brazilian cheesy bread
Pao de Quejo, since the Olympics are taking place in Brazil this year.

An adult "house" drink for the night
Most likely, the Olympic torch cocktail

Ridiculously cute Olympic activity food (I think these are hilarious)
Barbells
Swimming Teddy Grahams
Rowers
Beach volleyball Teddys

Decorations
Mostly paper chains, because they're fun to make and a great throw-back to elementary school.

Entertainment
Possibly do trivia, or something else we can use for our own "Olympics"

Any other ideas? Hopefully you'll see a "success" post in a couple of weeks! :)

Learning French!

My sister and I are trying to learn new languages, one of which is French! I've been poking around to find ways to build my French vocabulary (which is, as of right now, pretty much non-existent). So far, here is what I've found:

Duolingo
If you've ever tried to learn a language, chances are you've heard about this app. But I love it so much I'm going to share it with you anyways. :) Basically, it's an app that guides you through mini-lessons towards learning a language. You can choose how many lessons you want to aim for a day (each lesson takes 5-10 minutes), and the lessons include reading, writing, speaking, and listening portions, but all mixed in. It honestly feels like a game, which just makes it so much better. You can also switch between multiple language if you have dreams of being a polyglot.

This is what the app looks like.

Each of the icons repesents a section of lessons. You can see there are 7 "food" lessons and I haven't done any of them. The gold color on the top three indicate that I have finished all of the lessons and that I'm up-to-date on them. After a while, they lose their gold status, to remind me that I still need to practice stuff I already know.

Miraculous Ladybug

This is honestly the show that made me want to learn French in the first place. It is an adorable and awesome cartoon that you definitely need to give a chance. Even if you're not interested in it to learn French, I suggest watching the French version with English subtitles, because the English subtitles are far better than the English dubs.

(Source)

Pop Music
Today I've been dabbling a little into French pop music, thanks mostly to this blog article that I found. So far, my favorite artist is Frero Delavega, and my favorite song is Le Chant des Sirenes, which I've linked below.

So that's what I've got so far! What do you like to do when learning a new language?