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Stelle Speaks Spanish and Tagalog | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4147 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 105 of 384 02 November 2013 at 1:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I tried to read Harry Potter about six weeks ago, and found it very difficult. I needed to tandem read the novel in
both Spanish and English. I prefer to read extensively, so after a chapter I ended up setting it aside and reading easier novels by Roald Dahl instead: The Witches (which I enjoyed) and The BFG (which I didn't - in fact, I didn't finish that one). Today I started reading Harry Potter again, for a multilingual read along. Feel free to join in if you like: HP readalong Anyway, I was really pleased to see how much my reading skills have improved over the past month and a half! I was able to read ten pages in 30 minutes, with good comprehension. I only had to look up one word - lechuza, or owl - while reading because it led to a breakdown in comprehension. The rest of the unknown words I was able to guess (more or less) from context. I plan on reading the whole book extensively for 30 minutes per day, using this approach: - read for 30 minutes (with a timer). I don't stop to look up a word unless it affects my comprehension. Whenever possible, I rely on context to guess the meaning of unknown words. - as I read, I jot down a few words on a sticky note that I leave on the page in the book – just a few, no more than 5 or 6 per page. I only write down words that I'm interested in confirming, or else completely unknown word that didn't affect my overall comprehension but that I'm curious about. - after 30 minutes, I stop reading and hop on Spanishdict.com to look up all of the words that I wrote down on the sticky notes. I add a word to anki only if I think that it'll be useful in the immediate future. If I don't think I'll want to use it anytime soon, I just move on, trusting that it will come up again in books and articles and eventually make its way to my active vocabulary. I'm excited to read Harry Potter now that I can actually understand it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4147 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 106 of 384 17 November 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, it snowed this week, which means that I've turned the treadmill on for the first time in months. I don't know
what it is about winter, but I always get an urge to take up running when the days get short and cold. Sadly, the urge generally goes away after a few weeks. I was digging through my DVDs trying to figure out what to watch, and grumbling about the fact that our XBox Live subscription ran out and I can't watch Netflix. That's when I realized - Buffy seasons 2 through 7 AND Angel seasons 1 through 5 all include Spanish audio! That's hundreds and hundreds of hours of Spanish! I've always had a bad attitude towards dubbing, but I thought I'd give it a try. And it was pretty good! I know Buffy well. I think I've watched the entire series three or four times on DVD, plus the first time 'round on TV. So I had absolutely no problem following the story and understanding the dialogue. I like the voice actors. This is awesome. Now I can geek out with Buffy again. Except that I'm not geeking out. I'm studying. Life is good. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tajosto Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4660 days ago 54 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Czech | Message 107 of 384 20 November 2013 at 11:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Stelle,
The Buffy reference has pushed me to stop lurking and tell you that I really appreciate this log. It continues to inspire me with my own language learning. I love Buffy, as well, and look forward to the day when my Czech is good enough to watch it with Czech dubbing. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4147 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 108 of 384 20 November 2013 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the kind words tajosto. I'm glad you're enjoying the log - even though I don't update it nearly often enough! Has Buffy been dubbed into Czech? That's awesome! Hmmm…now I'm thinking I could learn any number of languages, using Buffy as a base. Ha! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BaronBill Triglot Senior Member United States HowToLanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4692 days ago 335 posts - 594 votes Speaks: English*, French, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Persian | Message 109 of 384 20 November 2013 at 10:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have watched the entire series of Buffy in German and am just starting to watch it in Spanish. Sounds like we've found a great language learning tool right under our noses!
Keep it up. I enjoy your log very much! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4147 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 110 of 384 20 November 2013 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | ||
Thank you! I love the thought of rewatching the same show in multiple languages. Very neat idea. I doubt that there's a version of Buffy dubbed into Tagalog, though... I'm still getting used to the dubbing - I have a bad habit of listening to the Spanish and trying to lipread the English. Ha! But I'm working on breaking myself of that. I really love the voice actress who plays Willow in the Spanish version. I think that she's perfect. Edited because typos. Use of "because" as preposition because this post Edited by Stelle on 20 November 2013 at 11:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4147 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 111 of 384 23 November 2013 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been really unsatisfied with my reading habits lately. I'm reading Harry Potter in Spanish, which is great fun,
but I feel like I need some more mental stimulation - with ideas, rather than just language. Here's my problem: reading in English : the rest of the world disappears, and a good novel might supplant any and all language learning (and housecleaning, and laundry, and social interaction, and exercise, and…). So lately I've been avoiding reading in English. Not a good long-term plan. reading in Spanish : absolutely love it, fun, understand it - but not yet ready for meaty adult books. After several months of Roald Dahl and JK Rowling, I'm really starting to miss adult fiction. reading in French : errrr… Yeah, never do it. Never have. I think that I've only read one French book for pleasure in my adult life. Seeing as how I grew up speaking French and I've been a French teacher for the past 15 years, that's absolutely shameful. I feel my language actually deteriorating. 15 years of teaching beginners in a monolingual English region really does a number on your vocabulary. While fluency in one's native tongue is never going to be an issue, higher-level vocabulary can and does erode. I'm very ashamed to admit it, but at this point I'm afraid that I'd panic at first if thrown into a university-level discussion in French. I've discovered a love for a timer while reading in Spanish. When I first started reading in Spanish, I couldn't get "lost" in a book. It was just too much work. So I set a timer for 10 minutes, and just pushed my way through. As it got easier, I increased the time. Now, I find that 30 minutes is exactly the right amount of focused reading time: long enough to get immersed in the story, short enough that I'm surprised when it's over. I'm thinking that - just as it helped me increase my reading time in Spanish - a timer might help me control my reading time in English. And obviously I'm perfectly capable of getting lost in a French book for 30 minutes at a time. I just have to bother actually picking up a French book in the first place. So I'm making myself a reading schedule. I'll aim for at least 60 minutes on weekdays and 90 minutes on weekends, in 30 minute blocks. This will give me at least 3 hours of reading in Spanish every week, and 2.5 hours of reading in both English and in French. Monday: Spanish, English Tuesday: French, Spanish Wednesday: English, French Thursday: Spanish, English Friday: French, Spanish Saturday: English, French, Spanish Sunday: English, French, Spanish My current reading selections are: English: The Orenda (Joseph Boyden) Spanish: Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (JK Rowling) French: La Route de Parramalta (Louise Simard) I'm not sure how this is going to work. I tend to be a bit of a maladaptive reader in English, reading for hours and hours at a time. But I want to break out of my feast or famine approach to reading (especially since I've been in famine mode ever since starting Spanish last May), while improving all three of my languages (particularly French, which really needs some TLC right now). So extensive reading of three books at a time. Starting today. I hope this experiment works out! Edited to add: after 30 minutes with La Route de Parramalta, I have to set it aside. I just don't like it. I wouldn't like it any more if it were in any other language. And therein lies my problem: it's really hard to find a French novel that holds my interest. If I had more access to French books, I'm sure that I'd be able to find novels that I enjoy, but here, I seem to be limited to mediocre historical fiction (which already isn't my favourite genre) and translated English books (which seem kind of non-sensical when I can read them in the original language). I'll go to the base library on Monday after work to see if they have a better selection than the public library. Edited by Stelle on 24 November 2013 at 1:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4147 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 112 of 384 27 November 2013 at 1:24am | IP Logged | ||
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OK, so my "3 books at once" plan did NOT work. It feels chaotic to juggle so many
stories at once. I'm back to reading two books at once, one of which is in Spanish. I think I'm going to alternate between French and English for my second book. I fully expect to read more books in English than in French in the coming year - so maybe 2 English books followed by one French. I just posted my 2014 language goals in this thread, so I figured I may as well post them here as well! I'd like to work on... Spanish: I'm at a solid intermediate stage now. I'd like to bring my skills up to an upper intermediate/advanced level. I plan on finishing FSI Basic during the first quarter of 2014. I want to read the whole Harry Potter series in 2014, as well as The Hunger Games trilogy. I'd also like to listen to Spanish talk radio and watch Spanish movies without subtitles. I want to keep up my conversational Spanish through Skype exchanges at least four times a week before my trip to Spain (at least twice a week after coming home). And after spending six weeks in Spain in March/April, I definitely want to add Spanish to the languages that I speak. Tagalog: When I get back from Spain in early May, I plan on jumping right into Tagalog with the six-week challenge! I already have one husband-approved learning resource - Tara, maga-tagalog tayo (my Tagalog-speaking husband is very critical of resources like Pimsleur, which he feels teach a very stilted and unnatural Tagalog). I'm also thinking about picking up a second resource, either Teach Yourself or a subscription to filipinopod101. With those resources, tutors on italki, and conversation practice with my husband and his family, I'm hoping to be able to add Tagalog to the languages that I speak by the end of 2014. I'm not interested in reading or writing in Tagalog - my goal is purely conversational read more in general: at least 15 English novels and 5 French novels, as well as some non-fiction books and magazines. Question: when people start learning a new language, do they start a new log? Or will I just tack Tagalog onto this one come May? Edited multiple times because adding links is a real pain in the butt on this forum. Edited by Stelle on 27 November 2013 at 1:28am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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