Spanish language Q&A Forum

I ask because in the recording for "Yo vivo en Córdoba" it's a "yo" sound. But for the "Yo vivo en el barrio de Gràcia" recording it's a soft j sound resulting in "jo".

When I practice at Duolingo I also sometimes here the y vs. j difference. Are both interchangeable in Spanish? If no, what are the rules for choosing j vs. y?

Or, is the recording audio simply not of good quality?

How to decide to use por (for because) versus porque (as in the example above):

Would it be correct to use porque in these examples?  How would one know which to use (por vs porque)?

Ha salido en la televisión por tener quince minutos de fama.
He's been on TV because he was famous for fifteen minutes.

Va a estudiar medicina por seguir la tradición familiar.
She is studying medicine because it's family tradition.

Here in Puerto Rico, it was suggested to me that one had the flavor of "perhaps" and the other "maybe", but I always forget which is which. 

The title of my question is only an example of several variations I've found on the same theme: when to use reflexive and when to use estar+participle? 

Me sorprendí cuando me propuso matrimonio

Estaba sorprendida cuando me propuso matrimonio

It seems to me that the reflexive above suggests more of an action (it surprised me...), while estar+participle suggests a state (being in a state of surprise).  

Could you explain and demonstrate by example how one might be chosen over the other?  

Also, the reflexive seems to be prompting me to add que+subjunctive (Me sorprendí que me propusiera matrimonio), but the participle version does not.

As you see, I'm a little confused and I wonder if my confusion comes from learning Latin American Spanish? The participle seems to occur more often when I read that variant. 

Saludos a todos