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| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5857 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 537 of 668 10 October 2014 at 1:58am | IP Logged |
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Congrats! As for the audio, there is an audiobook produced for the Library for the Blind. I can't remember, but the audio available online is all either robot voices or missing two tapes. The majority of it is there, but there is a good chunk missing near the end. One of the members here actually got a copy of it from the library several years ago, but i can't remember who it was or if they're still around. I'll PM you if i remember anything.
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 538 of 668 12 October 2014 at 2:34pm | IP Logged |
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I remember I searched high and low for an audio book of La Reina del Sur and I eventually found it and it was one of those books for the blind with a robot voice. I was so disappointed. Some of those voices are terrible. There is a real audio book of La Reina del Sur and maybe someday I'll use it. I am amazed, however, that such a famous book like 100 years does not have a real audio book. Anyway, thanks for the input. If/when I read it I will likely use the parallel text and do it as an intensive vocab/reading exercise.
I'm feeling like I am in a transition phase. I have almost entirely finished my goals for 2014. I only have two books to go. I am now reading the first CHERUB book. It is another book about kid spies in England. I am liking it so far. I have only read the first nine (of 41) chapters. It is very different than the Alex Rider book. The star of this book is a delinquent. He is a total loser. I think I would likely hate the book in English (I skimmed through some pages in English when I was checking it out) and it uses very crude, childish and bathroom type humor/language. It must try to appeal to young teenagers who want to read something their parents will get upset about. Anyway, in Spanish it doesn't bother me because I don't know the trashy words they use. I'll definitely continue with it. It is a pretty fast/easy read so far. I'd say it is roughly equivalent to the Alex Rider and Theodore Boone series in terms of reading ease. I also ordered the first Hunger Games book from the library. Hopefully that will come in about when I am ready to read it. I really don't know what to do next. Part of me wants to just continue reading as many books as possible because I am starting to really like it. It is easy and kind of fun. I never really read many fiction books ever in my life (with the exception of about 4 or 5 Grisham books which I really liked). I am thinking that if I can get my reading level up to being able to read "normal" adult novels like Grisham, Follett, Dan Brown, etc then I'd really be able to continue with doing something in Spanish for the rest of my life. I feel like getting my reading up to that level would be like a major investment in the sense that once I get there I'll never lose Spanish because it would be so easy to simply always have a nice relaxing Spanish book going and listen to the Spanish news in the morning... kind of an auto-pilot for using/developing Spanish. My mind keeps telling me that there may be a point in the future where I am going to tell myself that I need to stop spending the 40-ish minutes in the morning on Spanish and devote that to other things. I'd like to be ready for that if it ever happens. Ok, so the other part of me tells me that I should really do a hard push on grammar. I have some great courses I could work through and I really do need to get more confident with my active skills. Plus, most of the good courses I have now are totally mono-lingual so it would not be like I'll be spending a lot of my Spanish time reading English... I'll still be doing everything in Spanish which will be good. Plus, other than the brief review of the PMP subjunctive book I have not done any grammar or real "study" for about a year. That was by design to get my reading/listening up to par so I am happy, but maybe it is time to really consolidate my grammar tools. Well, in terms of this week... not much new. I'm generally quite busy with work. No meetup this week. No Skype talks that I can remember. I think all I really did was read my books and listen to the news in the morning on the way to work. I did have to take a trip in a direction I don't usually go. It brought me right through the small city where there are a majority of Spanish speakers. It made me think more and more about developing my business in a way to reach out to this part of the market. I don't understand why people in my industry seem to totally under-serve Spanish speakers. I just don't get it... it seems like something so obvious to do... a win-win for everyone. This is going to be in the back of my mind as I continue with my Spanish studies and is really starting to become more of a priority for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5857 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 539 of 668 13 October 2014 at 6:05am | IP Logged |
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The audiobook produced by the Library for the Blind is read by a real person, the problem is that most (all?) of the downloads available seem to be missing two sides from the tapes. A full version may have popped up since then, but i haven't bothered looking for it. To double check whether it's a human voice or not, you can just search for "voz humana", that's the standard way to say that an audiobook doesn't use a digital voice. For some reason, though, it seems like Spanish speakers love making robot voice audiobooks. I'm really not sure why as they sound so bad and are hard to listen to. I also find it hard to believe that a book that helped García Márquez win the Nobel Prize over 30 years ago doesn't have a better quality audiobook available. For being such a large, international language, there are surprisingly few Spanish audiobooks around, especially of Spanish authors.
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| nj24 Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4655 days ago 56 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian, French | Message 540 of 668 13 October 2014 at 11:11pm | IP Logged |
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There is an audiobook for Cien años de soledad.
Here (which I believe you can download): http://www.ivoox.com/c ien-anos-soledad- gabriel-garcia-marquez-audios-mp3_rf_2490864_1.html And on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=6lmJqUsa-ng Or maybe this is the one you are saying was not of good quality? I enjoyed listening to it when I read the book. Edited by nj24 on 13 October 2014 at 11:14pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 541 of 668 14 October 2014 at 1:53am | IP Logged |
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Those are great links, Nicole. Thank you. ivoox is an awesome site. I had searched it before, but thinks seem to mysteriously disappear and reappear on that site. It is also possible that I was just not searching it correctly. Edited by James29 on 14 October 2014 at 1:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 542 of 668 19 October 2014 at 3:41pm | IP Logged |
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It was just a regular normal week for Spanish. Nothing special. I'm still reading the first CHERUB book. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it now. I read roughly three chapters a day which is probably 40-ish minutes. It is not a bad read. I like it better than Harry Potter, but definitely not as much as Alex Rider or Theodore Boone. I'd say it is a tad bit tougher to read than Rider and Boone, but easier than Potter.
I still listen to Buenos Dias America every morning on the way to work. That's a great habit. I must admit that I do space out a bit, but that's fine. I think this will become a permanent habit as I have always just listened to the news or music on the way to work and this does not seem to be any effort at all to get a good 20-30 minutes of Spanish listening in. I am proud of myself for approaching a Spanish speaking family in a store recently. There are very few Spanish speakers around here and at first they looked at me like I had three heads. It turned out to be a local man with a wife from Colombia. They live here and have a young child. I'd say my Spanish was totally sufficient to discuss numerous "small talk" items off the cuff. In fact, the woman asked me how I learned Spanish and I said "I study a little bit every day" and she said, "you study every day? but, you already know Spanish!" Meetup was essentially cancelled and I don't recall doing any Skype talks this week. I have The Hunger Games from the library all ready to go and will start it as soon as I finish CHERUB. Then, when I'm done with the Hunger Games, I'll be done with my goals for 2014. I'm already planning for what I want to tackle next. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 543 of 668 25 October 2014 at 1:35pm | IP Logged |
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I finished the first CHERUB book today so I am going to update my 2014 goals.
Read any 15 books in Spanish. -> 14 done (Anthem, Joven Abogado #1 and #2, Narnia #1, Harry Potter #2 and #3, Alex Rider #1, CHERUB #1, Man, Economy and State, Think and Grow Rich, Cuando Era Puertorriquena, Short Stories in Spanish by New Penguin, Stories From Puerto Rico and El Intermediario). Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes in Spanish -> COMPLETE (well over 100+ done) Re-read Cassell's Colloquial Spanish -> COMPLETE. Re-read Practice Makes Perfect "Subjunctive Up Close." -> COMPLETE. Discussion: CHERUB was not the greatest read and I reluctantly say that I cannot recommend it. It was not bad, it was just average and "ho-hum." I probably would have hated it in English. The language seemed quite trashy for eleven year olds to use. Also, the eleven year old star at times in the book smokes cigarettes, goes to a party and gets drunk, steals a case of beer from a liquor store, makes out with an older girl and does numerous other things that are typically reserved for older (or even criminal) adults. The story was a bit strange... it was almost three distinct books. The first third was about his pathetic home life. He is a total loser that gets kicked out of school for beating up a girl and then his loser mother dies leaving him in an orphanage where he joins a "gang." The first third was actually the best. The second third is where he goes to CHERUB and does basic training to become a spy. This is ok. Then, the last third he does his first mission. I felt this part dragged and was just not that good. By the last few chapters I was just reading through the book as fast as I could to get it over with. Anyway... I have a trip today and I'll be sitting on a train and a bus for several hours so, hopefully, I'll get a good start on The Hunger Games. This next book will complete my 2014 goals. I'm surprised I'll finish my goals in November. I never thought it would take so long. I had an extremely eye opening experience at work yesterday. I got a call from a Spanish speaker. He was exactly the type of customer I want so I was happy about that. Anyway, he specifically asked for a Spanish speaker so I got the call. We spoke for a couple minutes and then he promptly switched to English. Ugh. That was like a kick in the stomach. His English was objectively better than my Spanish so I totally understood. His wife was on the phone with us and she knew no English and that's why he wanted a Spanish speaker. Toward the end of the talk when his wife was asking questions we switched back to Spanish. This conversation was quite demoralizing to me because I really realized that my Spanish is NOT good enough to do what I really need to do for my work. It made me feel a bit guilty holding myself out as a "Spanish speaker" when this happened. I think the customers were basically fine with my situation and my Spanish because they want to become paying customers and work with me (this is good), but it was really an eye opener for me that I cannot expect to do what I need to do all in Spanish without someone in my business who is a native speaker. This is good that I realize this now because I have all these dreams of doing my work in Spanish and I am definitely going to hold off for a while before pushing things in that direction. Mixing my hobby (Spanish) with my livelihood is probably not a great idea right now. I've been noticing that I don't do as much Spanish as I used to. I consistently stick with my 30-60 minutes a morning which is the backbone of my studies. That won't go away for a while. I'm also doing the news every morning which is now simply a part of my life. But, that's basically it. I no longer ever watch TV in the evenings or do anything else. Meetups are more a social event now as there are rarely native speakers. The call from work actually has been making me think about taking a bit time off from Spanish. Maybe I'll devote that hour in the morning to my business. I had always thought that is what I'd do when I became the owner of the business... now I simply like doing Spanish too much. Or, maybe I'll spend six months or so doing a bit of French. Who knows. I'm feeling perplexed about this Spanish journey now. But, I definitely still love it. I ordered four new young adult books to read and I've been planning out my trip to Mexico. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5857 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 544 of 668 25 October 2014 at 5:01pm | IP Logged |
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I think if you really want to start incorporating Spanish into your business you should work on vocabulary and grammar specific to situations you'd need at work. Perhaps a business Spanish course or something would be useful, or at the very least take note of some of the conversations you have in English and then think of how to say them in Spanish. Trading in one of your Skype meetings for a weekly tutor might be a huge help and give you a lot of practice handling those situations. You might get tripped up in a couple spots here and there, but i would really be reluctant to "tachar" the idea of being able to use Spanish as a working language. You've just got to work on another area, another set of Spanish skills. If you hadn't trained for it in English, you'd probably have difficulty handling your business in English, too.
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