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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5186 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 345 of 668 05 January 2014 at 3:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Goals for 2014:
Read any 15 books in Spanish. -> 2 done (Anthem and Joven Abogado #1) Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes in Spanish -> more than 17 done Re-read Cassell's Colloquial Spanish -> finished the "B" section. Re-read Practice Makes Perfect "Subjunctive Up Close." -> No progress yet. Discussion: I am moving along. This was actually a fairly slow week due to the holidays, year end work stuff, bad weather and travelling for work. I still managed to do some Spanish every day. I did make some good progress on Man Economy and State. I finished the first chapter (77 pages). It is surprisingly easier to read than I thought it would be. I rarely have to look up words. I just chug along and it is just as interesting as it was in English. I think this will be fun. It is different than the other Spanish things I have done. I don't feel the urge to stop. I just feel like continuing. Usually with Spanish I get to about the one hour mark and I say... "I've been doing this long enough, I'll stop now." This feels more like when I was studying economics... I just keep reading. I am still watching The Simpsons. I watch one episode every night. If I pay close attention I can understand the episodes quite well (but miss jokes, insults and idioms). I sometimes don't really watch too carefully. I like the Simpsons and am starting to think that I may eventually try to watch all the episodes in Spanish. That would be quite a project. I have been continuing with my new skype partners. It is starting to get better. I had three good skype talks. The economist seems to prefer speaking in Spanish. Spanish is the better of the two languages for us and the content of the conversation seems more important so we just go in Spanish. I have noticed that this has worked well in the past where I develop these exchanges where we talk in Spanish in exchange for me talking about some obscure/nerdy knowledge I can "teach." It is a good deal because both sides like it and we do it all in Spanish. No meetups this week due to the holidays. I am starting to think about another trip. I may have the opportunity to combine a trip with a business conference I'll have this spring. We'll see. It is fun to start the search. I am motivated to see that forum member randomreview has started a log. I don't follow too many logs, but he has been very helpful over the years. Hopefully I can now convince him to return to the active study of Spanish!! I am moving through the Cassell's book again. I really like it. It is easy to read so it does not feel like studying and the knowledge has a way of sticking in my mind. I read a fairly detailed analysis of the different language levels that a poster linked to here on the forum. I feel quite confident that I am solidly in the B2 area. I was discouraged however that I seem quite a long way away from C1. I am definitely closer to the definition of B1 than C1. The more I think about it, the more I want to work on reading/listening/understanding fluency. I think that will be most helpful to my goals. I'd like to get to a point where I can almost effortlessly use Spanish in my job with customers. The barrier right now is really my listening/understanding. I can speak good enough to accomplish what I need to do. I am thinking that it will be easier to advance my listening/understanding anyway so this is good. I'll just keep reading and watching TV. I am hopeful that I can get my listening/understanding up to C1 with massive input over the next two years. Even if my speaking stays at B2 I'd be fine with that. To understand at C1 would be great. My writing is almost certainly my worst talent. I NEVER use accents. I also make a lot of spelling mistakes. I would not have the confidence to write a letter to a customer or anything moderately professional. Maybe someday I will work on this, but it is really not a big priority. In terms of where I am with my skills... I still make a lot of little mistakes. Choosing between the meaning of verbs when they are reflexive and non-reflexive is an issue. I still have problems with commands, especially negative familiar, etc. If I think about it I can do it, but I basically have to stop everything and think in order to get it right. I am using the subjunctive pretty well, I think. I make some mistakes, but it is now becoming somewhat natural. This is cool. It is just happening on its own. I have to stop everything and think when I need to use the past subjunctive or the subjunctive of haber. I know it, but am not confident or smooth with it. I think my vocabulary is a weak point that I could definitely advance pretty easily. That's what I am trying to do this year by reading a lot of books. I was talking with someone yesterday who recently went to Mexico. I talked about how I would like to go. In the course of the conversation she said it would have been more enjoyable if she could speak Spanish. I quickly and confidently said "I speak Spanish." I am at the point where I don't feel dishonest about saying I speak Spanish. Also, one of my Skype partners speaks English pretty well. It occurred to me in our last conversation that my Spanish is likely better. This was cool because it made me realize that our Spanish conversations must be more advanced than our English conversations which are pretty good. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5346 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 346 of 668 05 January 2014 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | ||
I need to dig out my DVDs of this show (I have like the first 6 or 7 seasons, if I recall correctly) and start doing the same. Nearly all of my DVDs are still packed up from my last move and they aren't all in the same boxes, so I need to dig them all out for that matter (since many US DVDs have Spanish audio tracks). I found the DVD for The Simpsons Movie a couple weeks ago and ripped it to my media server, so once I find the TV series DVDs I can start doing the same. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3955 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 347 of 668 05 January 2014 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Very interesting update!
Me too. I make a ton of mistakes, especially with connectors (ie. "los cuales que", and other such things), but I can make myself understood. My accent is not bad, and I have a decent command of verbs. What I really want to improve this year is my ability to understand. While I can have a long conversation one-on-one with a native, I'd be lost trying to follow a rapid-fire group conversation. I'm hoping that massive input via TV shows will help. I've started watching the Simpsons (on your recommendation), and I'm really enjoying it. Let's hope that we can both meet our goal of improving our listening comprehension this year! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5186 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 348 of 668 12 January 2014 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Goals for 2014:
Read any 15 books in Spanish. -> 2 done (Anthem and Joven Abogado #1) Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes in Spanish -> more than 22 done Re-read Cassell's Colloquial Spanish -> finished the "B" section. Re-read Practice Makes Perfect "Subjunctive Up Close." -> No progress yet. Discussion: Not the greatest Spanish week, but I managed to so something everyday. Things at work are very busy and I had to travel one day. I missed The Simpsons two nights and I missed reading on Man Economy and State a day, but made some good progress due to one day where I read it for about two hours. I am now done with chapter 2 of M, E & S (approximately page 185). I am very pleased that I can simply read the book and it does not really feel like I am reading much slower than in English. I don't even stop anymore to look up any words. There are very few words I don't know and the ones I don't know I can tell approximately what they mean or I can tell they are irrelevant to the underlying point. For example, if he talks about a type of fruit that is being traded I know it is a fruit, but won't look it up because it really does not matter as it could be any type of fruit. People talk about "thinking in Spanish" when they are reading. I don't get that sensation. What I notice is that when I am reading the Rothbard book I am thinking much more about the content of the book than the language. It just does not really occur to me that I am reading Spanish because my mind is thinking so hard about the content of the book. This is cool. It is a very thick book (over 1000 pages) and I am amazed when I look at my bookmark that I have made so much progress through it in such short time. In a way I was kind of dreading it because I felt like it would take me forever. Luckily I am reading much faster than I thought I would. I had a very long drive for work this week (about six hours) and I did not play any Spanish... bad James. I only have a few books on CD and I am sick of them because I have heard them so many times. I have the Assimil and Living Language dialogues on CD, but they don't seem to get me too excited anymore either. Someone told me about something called a blue tooth (that is neither blue nor a tooth) that will let me play the audio books on my phone over my car's radio. I am going to look into that because I will be in my car a lot this year and that would be great. I can listen/understand the Narnia books without text now and I'd like to go through them this year. I may have those be my project for my car this year. I went to a meetup and had some nice chats with a couple natives. One conversation was with a Spaniard. I have not heard Castellano for a while and I am realizing how distinct it sounds. Previously it just sounded like normal Spanish because I was hearing it so often. I can do great in one on one conversations with just about any native. I don't seem to have any problems now in these types of conversations... even if they are on the phone. Sometimes I have to ask questions about meaning or ask to slow down a bit, but it is not a problem. I do have problems with group discussions. Interestingly, MY ability to speak seems much better in one on one discussions than in group talks. In a one on one talk I feel quite fluent and natural. It just flows really nicely. When talking with two or more people I feel like I am bumling and tongue tied a bit. I only recall a very short skype talk. Not much in that department this week. I am really starting to feel a bit "guilty" about Spanish infringing on my work time. I am a morning person and the morning is when I am most productive. Now, when I arrive at the office, I feel a bit guilty when I am studying Spanish as a priority because there are just so many things to do. I think over time this will get better. I will be busy the upcoming months at work and I need to keep my focus. As long as I do something (anything) in Spanish each day I will be happy. And, as long as I accomplish my 2014 goals sometime this year I will be pleased. I may scale back my morning Spanish and try to focus mostly on doing Spanish on the weekends and in the evenings. Doing the Simpsons in the evening is working out great and I will definitely keep it up. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5186 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 349 of 668 19 January 2014 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, I had to go to the bottom of the fifth page to find my log. A ton of log activity in the past week. This past week was crazy for me. More on that later.
Goals for 2014: Read any 15 books in Spanish. -> 2 done (Anthem and Joven Abogado #1) Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes in Spanish -> more than 26 done Re-read Cassell's Colloquial Spanish -> finished the "B" section. Re-read Practice Makes Perfect "Subjunctive Up Close." -> No progress yet. Discussion: It does not look like I made much progress this week, but in actuality, it was the most productive week I have had in a long time. I had a nasty case of the flu the entire week. In a strange way that actually let me do more Spanish stuff. I still did my Spanish in the morning and I have made a ton of progress on Man Economy and State. I am well past 25% of the way through the entire book. Every day when I close it I look at my bookmark and it is actually a pretty cool feeling to see it moving along through the book. I love the book too. I never look up any words anymore. I really do not need to look anything up. Understanding the content is more challenging than understanding the Spanish. I ordered the Narnia book from the library. When I get that I will take a break from Man Economy and State and read through a couple Narnia books. I had a long drive for work so I hooked up my new blue tooth so I could listen to audio from my phone. It worked, but the site I use for audio (ivoox.com) kept bugging out and the audio book I was listening to kept re-setting. It was a pain and did not work well at all. After about an hour of driving and re-setting the site I had only listened to the first chapter of the next Narnia book so I quit listening. I was encouraged that I could fairly easily understand Narnia without the text even though it was a new book I had never read. I think it will be great to go through that series with the text in front of me. I watched about 8 Simpsons episodes. I know I did not record 8 in my list above. That was becuase, frankly, I lost count at the beginning and I was doing only estimates. I know with certainty that I have now done at least (probably more) than 26 episodes so I am going to leave it there. Also, I may start just counting episodes of the Simpsons. I'd like to eventually finish the entire series. That won't happen this year, but it is starting to become a longer term goal. Big news on the Spanish front at work! The new Mexican restaurant next door has finally opened! I have been waiting for this forever. I went in this week (when I was feeling better) and the hostess had apparently remembered me from a meetup group and greeted me in Spanish. We chatted away in Spanish right from the start. I ended up talking with quite a few employees in Spanish. It was great! I had a great talk with our waitress. She had me guess where she was from and I figured out that she was from Peru based mostly on her accent (and the fact that she said she was from South America). One funny thing happened. It is a very big place. When I was looking around I said something to a Mexican employee in Spanish. He looked at me like I was crazy. At first I thought he might not speak Spanish and I felt silly. Then we had a nice chat. I think he was just surprised that I was speaking to him in Spanish and it just did not process in his brain. There are not many Spanish speakers around here and I look very non-Latino. Because I had to keep my distance from my family due to the flu, I had a bunch of great long skype talks. I have developed a couple fairly solid partners now. One Mexican and one Argentinan. I prefer to have regular partners than new partners all the time. I just get sick of talking about the same "breaking the ice" things like "where are you from", "what's the weather like", "what do you do"... that sort of thing. No meetups this week due to the flu. That's all I can think of for now. Edited by James29 on 19 January 2014 at 7:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4433 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 350 of 668 19 January 2014 at 9:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Uso también el libro Subjunctive Up Close. Lo saqué de la biblioteca. Escribo las respuestas en un papel y reviso si
las haya contestado bien o no. Cuando hago muchos errores, leo la explicación del texto y escribo los ejercicios de vuelta el siguiente día. A veces me sale bien, a veces no. Tal vez debo de leer la explicación primero ;). Escribiste que no has progresado con ese libro. ¿Quiere decir que no lo has usado o que no te ha ayudado tanto en aprender? Como sin duda has experimentado (ahora que estudias el español) Latino o hispano no es raza, sino una cultura. Hay gente rubias con ojos azúles o gente cuyos antepasados vinieron de Africa o Asia que hablan el español como lengua materna. En los EEUU, existe una tendencia desafortunada en pensar que todos hispanoparlantes son "mexicanos". Por lo menos aquí en California. I have heard many, many times people say, "you/he speak Mexican". So the reverse is true as well. Anything outside of the stereotype can be a surprise for some people. Kudos for you to keep practicing! And hope you feel better soon. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3955 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 351 of 668 19 January 2014 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I hope you feel better soon! Sounds like you're really progressing well…
Thanks to your suggestion, I finished season one of The Simpsons and have started on season 2. Like you, I sometimes lose the thread during arguments, and I *never* understand the crank calls. But it's definitely getting easier to understand! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5186 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 352 of 668 20 January 2014 at 12:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I did the "subjunctive up close" a year or so ago and really liked it. I told myself I would eventually do it again. I did it much the same way you describe, BAnna. I won't likely start it until quite a bit later in the year.
You are right about Latino, of course, not being a race. There are many more dark hair/eye Latinos than light hair/eye Latinos. I don't recall seeing many light hair/eye people in Ecuador or the Dominican when I visited. The thing that drives me nuts is how everyone here uses the term "Spanish" for Latino. I have a friend who refers to all Latinos as "Spanish." My wife does this too. They just don't get it at all. It is just a basic thing of ignorance, nothing bad. The Simpsons is cool. I have noticed that it is starting to change a bit. It is getting a bit more crude. Hopefully I will continue to enjoy it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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