Learning futbol Spanish is my GOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

June 22, 2010 7:06 PM

Where can I find transcripts of Spanish-language soccer play-by play/color commentary?

I'm trying to learn Spanish. World Cup fever gave me an idea.

For listening practice and for practicing speaking, I'd love to be able to find youtube videos of passionate Spanish-speaking color commentators (easy) that have transcripts (no luck so far). Failing that, even just transcripts of the play-by-play would be great. I've seen some of the GameCast stuff on the Spanish language ESPN site, but it's too "twittery" and premeditated in writing. I really want the flavor of the live, amped-up announcer (Doesn't even have to be timely or World Cup)

posted by holterbarbour to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (2 answers total)

Univision has closed captioning for its Copa Mundial. The problem you'll have like what you've seen on the web with the "twittery" transcripts is since it is made live and accuracy doesn't matter as much as a presidential address so it isn't like people go back and recode the captions. You get the obvious goooooooooooooooooool and sometimes just things like cabeza or derecha or just random words from the commentary. If you've ever watched open or closed captioned movies in Spanish you may see it isn't an exact transcript but gets you the gist (this is true in English captions of English programing as well... and the English subs or Spanish movies, or Spanish subs of English movies).

For me the key is to listen actively and wind back the hear key things again. If I don't understand it I'll try and guess and google that text and I've been surprised as many idioms come right up -- or the Google will suggest the correct spelling. In a way having the words up is sort of cheating because often times you'll be just reading along and not actually listening. Not a direct answer to your question, but I hope it helps you learn Spanish.
posted by birdherder at 7:47 PM on June 22, 2010

This is not that - but it is a learning spanish podcast series (castellano) that includes a two-parter on a Barcelona-Real Madrid matchup (way back at the beginning of the series), where the host goes over all the important football words, explains how they're used and spelled, etc. I doubled my play-by-play comprehension after listening.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:45 PM on June 22, 2010