Hey, Sports Fans!
A great way to practice el español is to watch sports in Spanish! With the press of a button on your remote you can change the language for major sporting events, or in places with large Hispanic populations events are simulcast on a Spanish-language network when the event is a big one (playoffs, Super Bowl, etc).
This provides great aural exposure to the language, but the fact that you already understand what you are seeing adds another layer of comprehension. Sports can be repetitive, so you will start to associate repeated phrases with the actions you see onscreen. For example, in a baseball game, how many times do you hear “Strike!” or “Bases loaded!”? Or in football, you can learn and practice lots of numbers: “4th down,” “50 yard line,” the score, or even a player’s jersey number. By listening to the audio explanation of the game, you will pick up these phrases in a relaxed setting…without a dictionary!
To find your team, do a simple Google search. Here is some recent news about the Minnesota Twins broadcasting in Spanish.
¡Have fun watching your básquetbol, beísbol, fútbol, golf, tenis, fútbol americano, hockey sobre hielo, et cétera!
Watch movies and TV with the subtitles on. In Spain, you can watch the Spanish version of “Spongebob” but there they call it “Bob Esponja.”