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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes  Studies: Spanish | Message 25 of 154 04 November 2012 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's been a while since my last update but I'm still plugging along. I have been traveling alot for work but still studying every day. I'm on lesson 42 of platiquemos and I have about 1400 vocab words in my anki list.
I've had one meet up since my last post. It was fun, as usual, and I had a chance to speak with 4 people from Mexico. One guy's English is just about perfect. He's been in the states for 14 years and he said that it took him about 2-3 years to really learn it. His accent is kind of funny because he talks like a cowboy. Another guy who is a photographer brought his business cards and I plan on calling him this week for to set up a time to talk. One american lady really inspired me to keep on working on my accent. He language skills are very good but the accent is kind of like how I talk when I slip out of character. I'm really thankful to the husband & wife team that hosts the meetings. I wouldn't be close to my current level w/o the meetups. One day I will have to do something nice for them as payment. This past week was my trip to Hermosillo Mexico. I was there from Monday until Friday. As you may know from previous posts I was very exited about using my Spanish. All and all I'm very please with how thing went. I thought about keeping a language journal while I was there but we were too busy for that. I'll try to go though the trip day by day and just give some of the highlights and funny things that happened. Monday Oct 29 Landed on Hermosillo and went through customs. The officers asked me some questions in Spanish that I couldn't understand. I was kind of disappointed that I started off that way but no biggie. The driver that picked us up has limited English skills so he prefers to speak in Spanish. Without being too rude to the other 2 people who were traveling with me. I spoke with the driver for the whole 30min driver in Spanish, clueing in my American co-workers when we would laugh. The conversation wasn't too complex. How have you been? Your family? etc. When we arrived at the hotel I started rehearsing in my head what I would say. I realized that I didn't know the word for check-in but it was no biggie. I left the other two check in first so I could offer help if they needed it. Once they were all set I was ready to begin my practice. "Hello, I'm trying to learn Spanish can we do everything in Spanish." "of course"... We continue through the usual check-in process totally in Spanish. Weeee I was proud of myself. That night the 3 of us walked to dinner for a steak dinner. The state of Senora is known for their beef. I ordered everything in Spanish and help the other two out as well. Tuesday Oct 30 This was our first day in the office. I greeted my buddies in Spanish and they reminded me that i needed to do everything in Spanish. We got down to business and had our meetings all in English. We went down to the production floor several times and whenever I had to interact with an operator (line worker) I tried to let them know that nothing was wrong and we were just there to look. It has to be nerve wracking to have some large foreigners standing behind you, saying things you can't understand, and writing in note books. That night we went to a baseball game. There's a traveling team that comes every month or two. I had been before but one of my american coworkers had never done it before. I thought it would be good for him to get to see some of real Mexico. There was about 8 of us from work who went. We had a great time and I got some great practice just hanging out with the guys in Spanish. We talked about the usual guy stuff, what type of women do you like, do you have a girlfriend, where you from etc. I was able to make some crude jokes that I won't repeat here, but the guys loved them and they were contained some pretty complex Spanish. Probably the funniest part of the night was when I was talking to a friend of a co-worker. We were all talking about dancing and I asked if she could help teach us. She said yes and I asked if she had taught before. Yes, she had. Then I said ohh, how much do you charge? "Cuanto cobras?" All the mexican guys/gals started laughing and she wagged her finger at me. Cuanto cobras, while meaning how much do you charge, is what a person would say to a prostitute. I was alittle embarrassed about the mistake but they were just teasing me in good fun. I also had a conversation with a some co-workers about their career dreams. Pretty complicated stuff, but I held my own. Ohh yea, Mexican hazing of the opposing team is pretty funny. There was a guy with the other team's jersey on. When ever he or is girlfriend got up everyone yelled CHIVOOOO! which means "your girlfriend is cheating on you." It was sooo funny. He got up to get some food and we were all yelling CHIVOOOOOOOOO and the yelling followed him all the way to the food court and back. Wed Oct 31 A busy day at work I spoke Spanish as much as I could. Alot of the operators on the line would turn and look at me when I would speak. Probably because I was butchering the lanuage but they at least smiled. I really think they appreciate the fact that I'm trying to learn. The best thing that happened was that a guy was explaining something to the Mexican engineer and he kept looking at me too while talking beacuse I heard me speak and thought I could understand. I really couldn't keep up with him, but through his hand motions. But the fact that he thought I could understand meant alot to me. That night we were all pretty tired so we just had some drinks at the hotel lobby then walked across the street for dinner. I ordered all the drinks and settled the bill all in Spanish and spoke with a couple of the waiters about learning Spanish. At dinner I had to translate for my coworkers and order for them. The Spanish highlight of the night was when the waitress said that she was having trouble with the system and couldn't give us a reciept. I expliained how we needed them and she came back with hand written reciepts. We say a few trick-or-treaters and the costumes were pretty amazing. There's a club nearby that had a costume party. We saw spiderman batman a volleyball girl and some witches. Nov 1 Last full day of work so I had to complete all my meetings with the product engineers. One of them is just out of school and her English isn't that great plus she's a little shy about it, but it's good for me. i got though all my meetings pretty easily and mostly in Spanish. Nov 2 When checking out of the hotel I spoke to some of the ladies behind the counter. They asked where/how I learned and they gave me some compliments and that they could understand everything i was saying. Then one lady asked me a question too quickly and I just replied "si". She started laughing and so did I and she asked if I understood what she was saying. Of course I didn't so she repeated it slowly. She asked if I wanted to make a donation to a charity. All in all it was a great trip. I have alot more confidence in my speaking ability and all the compliments were like fuel for my learning. I know people on this site talk about compliments that don't mean anything, but these actually did because they were commenting on my improvement. Edited by HermonMunster on 05 November 2012 at 4:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 26 of 154 08 November 2012 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Last night I went to a meetup for prepping (getting ready for disasters). The group was fun and I met some interesting people. This may seem off topic for a language learning forum, but when I was introducing myself to the group I detected a slight accent in a lady's voice. Without hesistation I slipped into Spanish and said it's nice meeting you. Her face lit up and she started asking me questions about where and why did I learn Spanish. I gave her a short story and she said that I'm doing well for only 9 months of study. I think this was a polite compliment because I started stumbling with tenses during my story about wanted to learn, but I still count it as a victory. I explained to the group that there are about 30million people in the US that only speak Spanish. In the event of a disaster it would be great to be able to communicate with any and everyone around.
I'm noticing that speaking the same language as someone, especially when you don't look like the stereotypical person that speaks the language, creates an instant bond. I'm glad I'm learning. Still having fun and still excited about where I'll be in a few years. Edited by HermonMunster on 08 November 2012 at 7:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5378 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 27 of 154 10 November 2012 at 3:13am | IP Logged | ||
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I love reading your posts. It sounds like you had a great trip to Mexico. You are indeed doing quite well for being so early in your studies. I can still vividly remember being on a business trip after 6 months of Spanish study and checking in at a hotel. It was the first time I ever used Spanish with someone... I remember I could not say "check in" either... I also wanted to ask where I could go for a run, but I could not say run... nor could I figure out how to ask if I could borrow a CD player. Your level seems quite good... keep it up... it gets more and more fun.
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| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 28 of 154 16 November 2012 at 7:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm glad you enjoy reading my posts. It's funny how you are embodying a saying that my grandfather used to say," The stick that you pick up, I threw down."
Living everday life in spansih really exposes a person to how many basic words and phrases they dont know. Today I got my best compliment to date. The new guy in IT was helping to fix some computer problems remotely. I switched to using Spanish with him and at the end he said, " I hope that this doesn't offend you, but are you Mexican or speak Spanish very well or both?" I explained that I'm a regular ole american and he said, "Ohh that's good, I congratulate you because you write better than me." He speaks English, Spanish, and japanese. This really made my day. I'm planning on riding some of this momentum into a productive weekend of studying. Edited by HermonMunster on 16 November 2012 at 7:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 29 of 154 20 November 2012 at 12:12am | IP Logged | ||
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The problem with direct translations:
Note to self and everyone who reads this. Google translate will get you into alot of trouble. I normally take what "the google" says with a grain of salt when it comes to translations and I'm glad I did. Today I needed to write a deviation on a tail lamp part. I wrote the whole email and checked it. Everything was ready to go but I didn't know how to say "tail." I went to google translate and it gave me the word cola. I tried that word in a few sentences like "Where is the cat's tail." It didn't seem right so I asked some of my Mexican co-workers. Yup, that wouldn't have been right. lampara cola (tail lamp) actually would have meant "ass lamp." Glad I checked before sending. They all got a good laugh out of it. I'm still plugging along with Platiquemos. I'm on the audio of lesson 44 but only on the lesson 42 reading. I've been pretty busy traveling so I haven't had time to put into studying like I should. I have alot of time off of work for Christmas break so I plan on making a huge leap. I need to talk alot more. I'm going to get back into working my Spanish reader. I pick up a few vocab words here and there but I think the main benefit is from reading out loud. I don't have time to translate in my head when I'm reading so it really pushes me to understand quickly. I'm at 676 hrs of studying since late Feb of this year. Not too shabby. I'm counting time listening to radio as well. That may be cheating but I've read enough to know that every little bit helps. edit. Didn't want to create a new post, but I had my review today and I floated the idea of working in Mexico for a while. My supervisor was receptive and it looks like it really could happen someitme in late 2013. It would be a 2 or 3 year commitment which I think is more than enough time to take my Spanish straight to the moon. I'm going to redouble my efforts in learning so I can be as ready as possible if the phone rings and I'm told to pack my bags. I think a few years abroad would be a fantastic experience. I'm glad for that bloody nose 9 months ago that inspired me to start studying. Edited by HermonMunster on 26 November 2012 at 4:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 30 of 154 03 December 2012 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello,
It's December now and I fell alittle short of my goal or finishing Platiquemos by the end of Novemember. These latest lessons are taking me about 5 or 6 listens to get them down. I'd much rather learn the lessons than meet some arbitrary date. I'm on lesson 45 in listening and 43 with the coursework. I think that I'll be done sometime in January. I've been having more dreams in Spanish and I'm signing/humming alot of songs throughout the day. I'm not sure on all the words but I do think listening during the day has been helping me. Last week I had to give a 2hr technical presentation to my Mexican collegues (over the phone). After every page or two worth of my talking, the manager would stop and have a discussion with the engineers in Spanish. Granted, the sound quality wasn't that good and they were talking very fast, but I couldn't understand a word :-( Once I'm done with Platiquemos I'm going to start trying to find lists of techincal terms to boost my vocabulary. There's just so much to learn. Believe it or not I still don't know the alphabet. I used to think that the 10,000 words to be fluent was crazy, but now that I officially know 1600 (+ a couple hundred that I already knew and didn't have to study), I can see that it's true. If I keep on my same pace I will havae about 2100 words by the end of my first year of study and 10,000 sometime during my 4th year which is in line with most of the people I have spoken with. Last week's language exhcange was cancelled because of lack of RSVPs. I was disappointed because I missed the last two meaning I haven't had a meaningful discussion for 3 weeks. My writing is getting to be leaps and bounds above my listening/speaking. I've gotten back into my Spanish reader so I'm at least reading outloud. I'm having some difficulty stopping translating in my head. I tried to stop myself and just kind of feel the words, but to no avail. Hopefully it will just happen on its own eventually. I keep thinking about a saying my football coach would use. "If it was easy everyone would do it." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4685 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 31 of 154 04 December 2012 at 9:43am | IP Logged | ||
`cola' does indeed mean `tail' (but it can also mean `queue', `penis', `glue', `ass', `coke' --the drink--, etc) Be very careful when using idioms. I know the English words `tail' and `lamp', but I had no idea what a `tail lamp' is (I had to google it to find out it is the rear position lamp in a car. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4636 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 32 of 154 04 December 2012 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the comment Quique,
I had no idea cola could mean so many things. Idioms do require much more thought and I need to be more carefull. They are so familiar that it didn't even occur to me that it would be different. The difficult thing is that "tail light" is the actual name of the part. I probably should have left it as tail light and not tried to translate. Kind of like any other proper noun. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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