Instituto Cervantes launches Web TV

Uncategorized — By admin on February 13, 2008 1:00 am

Even though we’re an English language
magazine – hey, we’re in Spain!
And as everyone here at MAP speaks Spanish (some better than others…), we
thought we’d give a shout out to our beloved “other tongue”. So, a big round of applause and a tip of the
hat goes out to the Instituto Cervantes, Spain’s premiere organization
dedicated to the promotion of the Spanish language and Spanish-speaking
cultures across the globe, for the launch of Cervantes TV.

As the first
Spanish-language culture channel with world-wide coverage, Cervantes TV hit the
Internet airwaves yesterday, 12 February, 2008, at 19:30, and is currently
offering original video content in the form of daily bulletins, study groups,
documentaries, classes, and reports. This WEB TV station also prides itself as
being the first language/cultural institution in all of Europe
to claim its own TV station. Who said that Spain wasn’t innovative, eh?

But the “pavo” doesn’t stop there. With a totally renovated web
presence, the Instituto Cervantes is implementing a diverse multimedia
platform. Not only can you find them in Second Life, but they are also
branching out into conversation guides via mobile telephones. An Internet Radio
station in on the way as well.

Though Cervantes TV will offer an abundance of diverse content, of special
interest is their pledge to cover over five thousand cultural events celebrated
in seventy IC centers. In addition, live broadcasts will be offered from their
official seat in Madrid,
as well as their offices in forty countries.

Our Hispanophile Mapistas will also be glad to hear about the Spanish language
courses being prepared in collaboration with RadioTelevisión Españoña (RTVE).
These online courses will offer over 200 programs for Spanish language
learning, 8,000 screens of interactive and multimedia activities through their
“Virtual Classroom,” and almost 20 hours of audio recordings. These
resources are complemented by nine books, three student guides, as well as
other online services. I guess there’s only one thing to say to such an
ambitious initiative: joder… ¡que bueno!

Cervantes TV is dedicated to young people, especially students and potential
Spanish language students who want to join over 400 million other Spanish
speakers on the planet. Though MAP wants English speakers to easily enjoy media
in their mother tongue as well as help Spanish Anglofiles practice their
English, we got one word out there for all of our readers: LEARN SPANISH!

And to all of the editors, filmmakers, and technicians at Cervantes TV -
¡Enhorabuena! We’ll be watching.