Spanish movies or shows

¡Hola! where I live is not easy to find spanish native speakers, I need to improve my spanish by increase my vocabulary and adjust my hearing to spanish so I thought of watching movies and shows. but sadly, in our local TV there are no much spanish shows or if there a little are with dubbing , so there are no benefit of watching them. I find it hard to find spanish movies or shows with Subtitle online, so if u know any good sites or links (With Subtitle) please share, unfortunately I can not access Netflix on my area, so don't break my heart by its links :P Thanks in advance

Check http://www.meetup.com/ and look for any spanish meetups in your area. It's a good way to hook up with other spanish learners.

Maha: I recommend "Destinos." It was made in the '80's or '90's by a university professor as an introduction to conversational Spanish. It is styled as a telenovela, with a storyline that begins in Mexico, travels to Spain, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and back to Mexico. It does have subtitles, and some of the dialogue is slow enough to follow. I also like that it incorporates a little history of the places they visit, such as the Spanish Civil War, about which I knew little. There are also some exercises that accompany each lesson. Here is the link: http://www.learner.org/series/destinos/watch/index.html?sect_spain

I tried googling "El Salvador News Video" and I ended up listening to the problems of gangs there. Not too uplifting. I need more positive and uplifting Spanish videos in the internet.

Thanks Tom for sharing Meetup , i did not find a group for spanish but indeed i found other interesting things. Im going to creat my own group to look for people . thanks . Dan, Thats really what I want, I want something really interesting and keep progress my learning. I think it is so fun and enjoyable. ¡muchas gracias! Aurora, News Videos is smart idea.. I though of news-hearing- but i said I'm not gonna understand. the video -with subtitle - is interesting too Thank you all :)

Maha, I think you will like it and learn from it. It is melodramatic in the way of telenovas, but fun to watch. A funny story about Destinos: last summer I was taking a Spanish class from a former professor at an all-women's college here in Roanoke. At the time they were using Destinos as the beginning Spanish class, and the college put the episodes on their closed circuit TV network for the Spanish students to use. Later they found out that a lot of the girls who were not Spanish students found and liked the programs, and were even having "Destinos parties." when the episodes would air. It became kind of a cult classic there.

wow, sounds fun. thats reminds me of the show " Mind your language" in English. I used it to improve my English when I was intermediate on it. it is an old comedy show. i recommend it even for native English. You made me more excited for it.. Thank you again

Another free online beginners series is "Mi Vida Loca". It is an interactive drama with 22 episodes. Find it here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/full_details.shtml

Hola a todos! Try going on Youtube and searching "Extra Spanish". Although Spain, spanish, it is quite good, and some episodes have sub titles. Kind of a "Threes Company" type sitcom. Buen suerte!

Hola Tom, yes i watched on BBC, and I highly recommend it for beginners too. the best thing about it. it is to allow you interact with the video too. Hola Kevin, Thanks for telling me about it, "I looked it up on youtube" I will start watching it once I'm done with" Destinos" Thank you all for your help and recommendation!

Dan, thanks for the Destinos link. I've been looking for something like that.

Hola a todos, I've watched Destinos through all the chapters several times and each time I understand more. There is a sequel, Nuevos Destinos, which is a bit more advanced and of course won't make sense without having viewed the original. http://www.learner.org/resources/series151.html Saludos, Ricardo

Hola Ricardo, Thanks for the link. I just saw the first video. Even if you haven't seen the original series (which I haven't), the story isn't too hard to pick up. I will certainly try and follow this through to the end. ¡Muchas gracias! Saludos, Steven

Hola Steven, De nada. I'm glad you are able to pick it up. I think both are good practice and the first is also interesting in that it offers more "travelogue" footage of Spain, Puerto Rico, Argentina and Mexico. There is another telenovela I've watched a couple of times which is not an educational production and it is far more difficult for me. Oddly it's very good, as so many I've watched have been kinda dopey. Saludos, Ricardo

I recently began watching Destinos again from the beginning, looking for additional practice in hearing and understanding Spanish. I notice that I am able to recognize and understand more words and more of the plot and interactions between characters than I did the first time through. It gives me hope that I will be conversant in Spanish some day.

Hola Dan, It's the same for me . I find reviewing and watching things over and over to be of great benefit and for me understanding the interaction and the characters in Destinos was helpful before watching the sequel. Today I once again watched, probably for the 10th or 12th time, several short videos from Casa Rojas that I saved from their year of free lessons. Not to brag, but to encourage, a couple of weeks ago I went to a Medical Clinic where my wife goes to make an appointment for myself. Most of the staff there is Hispanic, though that is not why I went there. After going through the initial information I told the young man, who spoke flawless English, that if they called me, the message on the answering machine was in Spanish. He asked me why and I told him that I'm learning Spanish and it helps to some degree with nuisance calls. From that point on we conversed for the most part in Spanish and he said it was amazing that I could converse without having a tutor etc. It was one of those times when I was relaxed and just went for it. I had a brief deer in the headlights moment when he said something, but I got the gist of it. I'm not conversant yet , but I'm working on it. We're gonna get there Dan! Saludos, Ricardo

Hola Ricardo - Do you have a link to that other telenovela you mentioned which is more advanced / very good? Thanks. - Saludos, Steven

Hola Steven, The name of the telenovela is La Reina Del Sur, which was recommended on the Learning Spanish Like Crazy forum. The original link is not available and I watched it for the second time by searching out watch La Reina Del Sur online and sometimes had to vary sites. This won some awards, but I must mention that it contains some extreme violence and I squirmed at times. The plot is complicated and there are a lot of characters as the story unfolds, 64 chapters, each about an hour. There are a number of different Spanish dialects, even Moroccan Spanish. Saludos, Ricardo

Hola Ricardo, I just finished "Nuevos Destinos". It was good - I was actually getting to the point where I was looking forward to the next chapter in the story. "La Reina Del Sur" won't play in my region for whatever reason. I had no idea there is a Moroccan Spanish. It's probably only spoken in the far south of the country (si no se cayó en desuso). I was able to get a hold of a sci-fi series in Spanish ("Babylon 5") and I seem to be able to follow it fairly well (depending on the day...) so I'll stick with that for awhile. Thanks again! Saludos, Steven

Hola Steven, As result of watching "La Reina Del Sur", I learned that there are two small areas in Morocco that belong to Spain, Melilla and Ceuta and though Arabic and Berber are also spoken, Spanish is the official language. I can relate to depending on the day. Saludos, Ricardo

Steven: I find it interesting you are watching Babylon 5 in Spanish. You probably know that it originally aired in English here in the US. For lots of information on the Babylon 5 series, check out the Lurkers Guide. http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/

Thanks, guys!