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James29’s Spanish Log

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James29
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5186 days ago

1265 posts - 2113 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French

 
 Message 617 of 668
19 April 2015 at 6:54pm | IP Logged 
The grammar books are "Gramatica de uso del Espanol" and are great. They all follow the same basic setup for each lesson (a page of grammar rules, examples and explanations on the left and a page of exercises on the right). You can see pdf samples online just by googling the name.

For Buenos Dias America I just play it on my phone. The website simply has a button to play the audio. My phone hooks up to my car speakers somehow (they call it a blue tooth). It is really easy.
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iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5073 days ago

2237 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

 
 Message 618 of 668
19 April 2015 at 7:49pm | IP Logged 
The half an hour "Buenos Días América" episodes are also downloadable on the VOA website. The episodes are available Monday through Friday after 0900 ET in the US.

Edited by iguanamon on 19 April 2015 at 7:50pm

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Clarity
Groupie
United States
Joined 3333 days ago

85 posts - 107 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 619 of 668
20 April 2015 at 5:02pm | IP Logged 
Thanks guys! When I'm through with FSI, it looks like I'll have more audio to play in my car. I'm putting those grammar books on my wish list in Amazon. They will be my reward when I've worked through my Practice Makes Perfect books.

Edited by Clarity on 20 April 2015 at 8:35pm

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James29
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5186 days ago

1265 posts - 2113 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French

 
 Message 620 of 668
20 April 2015 at 7:06pm | IP Logged 
For what it's worth, I think the grammar books are significantly better than the PMP books. I did a couple PMP books and they are good. I found the subjunctive book helpful. That being said, the Gramatica de uso books are more comprehensive in every way. The only major distinction is the Grammatica de uso books are monolingual and don't have any English in them. I don't know how I'd feel using the lower level book (without English explanations), but for the B and C levels I think that is a helpful point.

One other point, I wish I would have started the B level book when I was at a bit lower level so it was not as much of a review for me. I think the B level book is appropriate for someone who wants to get to a solid B1 level or a B2 level and I'd imagine the other books are similarly leveled.

anyway, good luck with your studies.

Edited by James29 on 20 April 2015 at 7:07pm

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Clarity
Groupie
United States
Joined 3333 days ago

85 posts - 107 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 621 of 668
20 April 2015 at 8:43pm | IP Logged 
Hi James29. Better than PMP you say? Well sign me up! I googled "Gramatica de uso del Espanol" and you are right that many pdf links pop up for it. I actually prefer a pdf to an actual book these days since my computer is almost always with me. I'll see if there are some cheap-ish pdf files for sale over the next few days.         & nbsp;
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James29
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5186 days ago

1265 posts - 2113 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French

 
 Message 622 of 668
26 April 2015 at 2:06pm | IP Logged 
Nothing too new this week... just another week with a bit of Spanish every day. I still don't have a ton of free time. This upcoming week is going to be a major time crunch, but after that things should get back to normal.

I worked through a grammar lesson every day this week. I've started doing grammar lessons on the weekend. As I get closer to finishing a big project I've noticed that I get more motivated to get it done. I finished lesson 97 (out of 116) today. I've been doing one lesson a day for quite a long time now and it has become a great habit. I really like the method and wish I knew about it for when I was at the earlier stages of Spanish. I'm really looking forward to eventually doing the C level book.

I've been reading a bit out of the Connelly book also. I enjoy the book and it is not too hard to read. I like detective books and the star, Harry Bosch, seems interesting. There are tons of books about him so maybe I'll read more eventually. I Amazon has a 6 Connelly books in Spanish special so I have five more in my kindle.

I've been reading lessons (in Spanish) out of the Assimil French book. I'm on lesson 92 now. I'm really not paying too much attention to the French at all... I'm just treating it as a free reading exercise in Spanish. French spelling is very strange and I've decided that I don't want to begin my French studies with something that is heavily text based. I'd like to get a good solid base with an audio only program first, then do Assimil. I did Michel Thomas a while back, but that's pretty much it. I have the first half of Paul Noble and when I'm done with the Spanish grammar book and reading the French Assimil book I'll probably work my way through Paul Noble.

I'm listening to Buenos Dias America every morning. I'd really like to do something that is more conversational based, but I'm not complaining. I've been searching for radionovelas and found a few which I might try out. Crush suggested a good Radio Theater resource from Chile that looks promising. The one thing I don't want to do is break the habit of listening to Spanish in the car in the mornings... so, I may just stay with the news.

Meetups are, as always, pretty good. We now have a decent turnout of native speakers every week.

I've been having some random text exchange with skype partners but nothing too meaningful and I simply don't have the time to schedule talks.

That's it for this week.    
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Clarity
Groupie
United States
Joined 3333 days ago

85 posts - 107 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 623 of 668
28 April 2015 at 11:50pm | IP Logged 
Hi James29! You'll have to let us know how you like the radionovelas. I've never listened to one, but it sounds like fun.
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 624 of 668
03 May 2015 at 1:32pm | IP Logged 
Well, this week was the week where everything at work came to a head so it was a slower week for Spanish. I'll start having more free time now. I still managed to do a tad bit of Spanish every day, but one day I only read Spanish for about 10-15 minutes.

I did three Grammar lessons, read a couple hours from the Connelly book, listened to the news three mornings, read a bit from the Assimil French book and had a few decent skype exchanges.

I'm really feeling like transitioning into a more mellow use of my Spanish. My mini goal is to finish the following by the end of May: the grammar book, Assimil French and the Connelly book. I'll then just do free reading in Spanish for a while as I work on some other things in my life that need attention. I'm still hoping to finish my 2014 goals by the end of the year and think that should be pretty easy.

I haven't been watching much TV at all in Spanish. I just have so much computer time at work that the thought of sitting in front of my computer for a half hour or so in the evening just is not appealing at all. That being said, I really do need to work on my listening comprehension. Listening to the news in the morning is good.




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