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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 369 of 384 28 November 2014 at 3:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish
I'm back in the habit of daily Spanish. I listen to a podcast, watch a TV show, or read from a novel almost every day. I listen to Buenos Días Américas several times a week. It's very easy for me to understand at this point. My attention wanders sometimes, but that's just because my attention always wanders during the news. Nómadas is both more challenging and more interesting, but I don't always have an hour to listen, and I don't like stopping halfway through. I'm currently 3/4 of the way through the third Harry Potter book, and while the story is OK, it's not exactly riveting. If I recall correctly, I stopped reading HP in English after book 2 or 3. Everyone was going gaga over it at the time, and I liked it - but not enough to keep buying and reading the books. So it doesn't come as much of a surprise that I'm starting to lose interest in the books in Spanish. I've learned from my experience with Percy Jackson, though, and I will stop reading the series after book 3! I won't push my way through books that I'm not loving when there's a nearly infinite number of other books waiting to be read. My plan for the rest of 2014 is to finish HP 3, and then read the third Hunger Games book. I really love this language. It's been over a year and a half, and I'm still eager to spend some time with Spanish every day. Even when it's challenging, it never feels like work. I definitely chose the right foreign language to start out with. I fully expect this to be a life-long love. Tagalog Tagalog, on the other hand, has turned into TagaSLOG. I like interacting with my in-laws and trying to share my thoughts in Tagalog, but I want nothing to do with my textbook unless it's to cast it dirty looks. I've reviewed dialogues a few times, but I just DON'T WANT to do any more lessons right now. I never felt this way with Spanish. If anything, I had to stop myself now and then because in the beginning I was neglecting the rest of my life in order to spend more time on Spanish. The only thing that I didn't enjoy for its own sake was Anki, but other than that, everything was fun. Tagalog isn't fun right now. What I'd really like are some "easy" resources that I can just go through in order, the way that I did in Spanish with Destinos, Duolingo and simple novels. Instead, I'm slogging my way through a textbook - which I think is actually a great resource, but which has grown stale. I don't want to abandon it. But I do want to take a break. I actually found myself considering Rosetta Stone for Tagalog over the past few days! I've always been quite vocal about my negative feelings about Rosetta Stone. I don't think that it's what it claims to be. But I have to admit that the idea of a simple, step-by-step software is *very* tempting right now. I could just spend 20 minutes per day on Rosetta Stone, and have the rest of my Tagalog study be very casual, through interactions with family. It just seems so much more pleasant than clawing my way through a textbook right now. Then, after a few months, I might feel ready to jump back in to the meat and potatoes of learning. Am I crazy? Rosetta Stone would definitely be the lazy route, and I certainly wouldn't expect it to teach me Tagalog. But some low-stress daily contact is better than abandoning altogether, right? Life in general Things have been...interesting. We have our 15-year-old niece living with us for two months. She's a lovely girl and I'm happy to have her here with us! I don't regret a minute of the time that I spend with her! But I have to accept that my decline in interest in Tagalog is directly related to the increase in time spent doing things that I didn't used to do: watching cheesy teen movies, listening to English pop music and talking (and talking and talking and talking) over hot chocolate. I may start work soon. Right now I'm jumping through administrative hoops, and I'm waiting to find out if they can even hire me (since I'm an external applicant and it's officially an internal posting). But if it goes through (fingers crossed!!!), I'll be teaching grade 2 French Immersion at a public school a little over 2 km from my house. I'm eager to be back in the classroom and spending my days in French again. I'm also really excited about the distance. Two kilometres would be *perfect* for commuting by foot, and I'd easily be able to fit in 40 minutes of Spanish listening every day! Other than that, just getting ready for the holidays! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5378 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 370 of 384 28 November 2014 at 2:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can relate to a lot of what you say about Spanish. It is tough to find good/interesting books to read at this level. I really liked the Hunger Games (thanks to your recommendation) so thanks for that. I've been searching for easy to read adult books. It is hard to tell how hard books are to read. Some things that may seem to be easy are actually pretty tough when you read them and others are the other way around. If you know any good easy reading adult books let me know. I've ordered an Agatha Christie because I was able to read the online sample fairly easily and it seems like I'd like that type of book.
I've got the fourth Harry Potter and I think it will sit for a long time. It is MUCH longer than the first three and the thought of spending 30-ish hours on it is just not too exciting. I've also had the first Percy Jackson book for a long time which will sit for a long time too. I'd also like to congratulate you on your progress. Reaching your level after a year and a half is awesome. I see on your log that you are from Nova Scotia. I did not think there were a ton of native French speakers in that part of Canada. Am I mistaken? I don't remember hearing French when I visited. I went to visit people in Antigonish when I was in school. It was the middle of the winter and I think it was probably the coldest night I've ever lived through(and I've lived in some very cold places). I also have fond memories of bicycling the Cape Breton Trail when I was 16 years old. That was in the summer and absolutely marvelous! Beautiful country. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4009 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 371 of 384 28 November 2014 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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For what it's worth, after groaning my way through the first 2 1/2 books of Harry
Potter(1st one in Spanish, 2 through 5 in French so far), the resolution to book 3 and almost all of book 4 were a joy to read. Not that I disliked the first few books, but I definitely would not have read them in English. Then again, I've never read much YA literature and it may just be that the later books in the HP series are closer to the kinds of books I'm used to reading. James29, I can highly recommend Paul Coelho's El Alquimista as good book for adults, but about as easy to read as a Harry Potter. 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 372 of 384 28 November 2014 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Sorry, I can't recommend any adult books - since I haven't actually read any yet! I'm hoping to expand my reading horizons in 2014, and I'll definitely still be following your log, so hopefully we'll be able to share ideas and recommendations. I lived in Nova Scotia for three years, but we moved back to Ontario at the end of October. My husband's in the military, so we've had the opportunity to live all over the country. Nova Scotia is beautiful, and there are pockets of French-speakers. Acadians (descendants of whom became Louisiana's "Cajuns" after the deportation in the late 1800s) are nowhere near as numerous as they are in New Brunswick, but there are definitely Acadian French communities in Nova Scotia. There are also French-speaking military personnel and families close to bases. But unless you're close to one of those French-speaking pockets, you might easily think that Nova Scotia is anglophone. Often people think that all of the native French speakers in Canada are in Quebec, but there are large French- speaking populations in New Brunswick (and to a much lesser extent Nova Scotia and PEI), Manitoba, Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario. Each region has its own accent, although to a European ear we would probably all sound the same. ;) I grew up in Eastern Ontario. 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 373 of 384 28 November 2014 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm going to try to power through the rest of HP3 this weekend, so we'll see if I have the same experience! I love fantasy and science fiction, and I really like YA, but the whole "wizard boarding school" thing always struck me as a bit silly. Still, I have to love and respect the series that made a whole generation of kids want to read! 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 374 of 384 01 December 2014 at 5:14am | IP Logged | ||
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So I did it. I started Rosetta Stone for Tagalog.
I know, right? I've always been pretty vocal about Rosetta Stone, so I'm as surprised by my decision as anyone! My reasons are threefold: 1) I'm on month two of doing nearly nothing in Tagalog. I'm completely uninterested in my textbooks at the moment. I want something that requires no planning on my part. I want to be able to move through lessons one after another without figuring what to do or how to do it. Yes, this is lazy on my part. Yes, I fully expect to advance more slowly. But at least I'll be doing something (which is better than nothing), and the fact is that I'm not in any rush at all. 2) I've always been against Rosetta Stone, but the truth is that my opinion is based only on running through a few lessons in French - one of my native languages. I've never used it for more than a few minutes. I've certainly never used it as a learner. So basically, I've made judgments based only on opinion, with absolutely nothing to back them up. Yeah, that's less than rigorous. I'm very curious to see if Rosetta Stone is as bad as I've always thought it was. I want to keep an open mind and actually try using it to the best of my abilities. 3) It was offered at a dramatically lower price than usual, and I had more than enough in my paypal account to buy it without using my bank account or credit card. (My paypal account is a strange place where I earn and spend money online. I don't think of it as "real money" and I never transfer any of it to my actual bank account. Yes, I know that's a bit odd.) So here's my plan: - start at the very beginning, knowing full well that it will start out too easy and I'll be able to breeze through the first lessons - participate in weekly live tutoring sessions (free for the first three months) - spend a minimum of 30 minutes on Rosetta Stone every day for a full 30 days (no maximum - if I feel like it, I'll keep going) - there's a 30-day guarantee, so if it's useless, I can get a refund. If I like it, then I'll carry on. - do no other formal Tagalog learning - just Rosetta Stone and informal conversations with family members. I want to give the program a fair shot, which means working to a level where information is new (rather than simply review) - report weekly on my log on how things are going So...yeah. I'll keep you posted! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chrisphillips71 Groupie United States Joined 5239 days ago 64 posts - 86 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 375 of 384 02 December 2014 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
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If you looking for an adult book, I highly recommend reading La Búsqueda
http://www.amazon.com/B%C3%BAsqueda-enfrent%C3%B3-nazis-Prec io-especial- ebook/dp/B005BVW0PG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417475228&sr=8-1 &keywords=LA+BUSQUEDA. The author has written many other books, some of which I have read, but La Búsqueda really is riveting. 2 persons have 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 376 of 384 21 December 2014 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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So I surprised myself for signing up for TAC 2015.
I didn't really participate much in TAC 2014. Well, I tried, but the group threads kind of fizzled out. I did follow my teammates' logs (those who posted throughout the year), but I would have done that even with TAC, simply out of interest's sake. So I'm not sure that I gained much from TAC this past year. The past few months I've found my motivation fizzling, but this week I have a bit more mental energy and I'm excited about languages again. And so...TAC 2015, here I come! Plans for Spanish I really want to get my Spanish to a solid advanced level by the end of 2015. I want to communicate easily and articulately. I want to read adult novels originally written in Spanish. I want to be able to watch movies with good comprehension. Over the past few months I haven't done much watching at all, so I know that I'm going to need to create some kind of schedule for myself. In 2014, I read all 5 books in the Percy Jackson series, books 1-3 in the Harry Potter series, books 1 and 2 of the Hunger Games trilogy and Despereaux. In 2015, I'd like to keep reading lots of novels. If a decade of teaching has taught me anything, it's that people who read a lot have a stronger vocabulary, better writing skills, and more articulate speech. So far, in my "pile" (some in an actual pile, some loaded onto my Kobo), I have... translated books (that I'll type in English because I'm too lazy to go check): The Book Thief Mockingjay (book 3 of the Hunger Games) Harry Potter 4 Spanish books: El Tiempo Entre Costuras Como Agua Para Chocolate La Casa de los Espíritus El Asesino de la Via Lactica Those should keep me busy for a while! I've also strongly hinted that I'd like The Walking Dead in Spanish for Christmas (I think the first 5 volumes have been translated so far). I hope that someone gets me a few of those! If not, then I might actually buy it myself after the holidays. I want to watch a lot more in Spanish. I'd like to watch season 3 of Isabel (not yet available on DramaFever, but it says that it's coming!). I'd also like to watch El Tiempo Entre Costuras, but I'd like to read the book first. I'll continue with Aqui No Hay Quien Viva - but I think the problem with that show is that while I really do enjoy it, it's not addictive. I'm not dying to know what happens next. It was the same with dubbed Buffy. I really like Buffy, but I know the story so well. I need to find a Spanish show that sucks me in, so that I want to watch "just one more" the way that I do with English shows. Can anyone recommend any really good, addictive Spanish shows? In English, I love Dexter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Homeland, Hell on Wheels. So really complex stories with multi-dimensional characters that leave you dying to know what happens next. In Spanish, I've already watched (and enjoyed) Desaparecida and seasons 1 and 2 of Isabel. So something like that would be perfect. Plans for Tagalog I seriously crashed and burned in Tagalog. While my main resource is very good, it's also very dry, and I found myself dreading study time in Tagalog. I never felt that way in Spanish, where if anything I had to force myself to stop doing Spanish and do something else like clean the house. As a beginner in Spanish, I was drowning in materials: Destinos, Mi Vida Loca, VeinteMundos, Duolingo, easily accessible children's novels. I could always find something that I felt like doing. As a beginner in Tagalog...not so much. So at the end of November, I did something that I never thought that I would do: I started using Rosetta Stone for Tagalog. I wanted to relinquish responsibility for planning my own curriculum for a while. I wanted to do something "easy" that I could pick up every day without having to make any decisions. And you know what? I actually like using Rosetta Stone! No one's more surprised than me. Aside from 3 days last week when I was curled up in bed with strep throat, I've used RS every day for 30-60 minutes. Admittedly, a lot of what I'm learning is review, but I've also learned a lot of new things. While it's repetitive and I feel like it should be boring, it really isn't. My download of RS came with a free 3 month subscription to the online services. The live tutoring is very, very good. I have one 25-minute lesson per week, and so far all of my lessons have been one-on-one. I don't know if this is because Tagalog is a less popular language (maybe Spanish or French would have group sessions), but I'll happily take the personalized attention. The teacher is really fantastic. She pushes and challenges me exactly the right amount. I'm very impressed. Some of the other online resources, like the levelled readers and games, are also very good. RS Tagalog has 3 levels with 4 units each, and I'm currently in unit 4 of level 1. I hope to finish most of the 3 levels within 3 months of starting, since that's when my free online subscription runs out, and I don't plan on paying to continue. After three months of RS, I also feel that I'll be better able to review the program (which is one of my goals in trying it out). At that point, I'll go back to my other resources. Plans for English (dominant native language) Over the past year and a half, most of my reading and writing time has been dedicated to learning languages. I no longer feel that I'm a well-read person in English. For the first time this year, I had no idea what books to buy for my Mom and sisters for Christmas. I need to read more in English in 2015. I also have to make time for writing. I have a few half-written novels, and it's always been my dream to publish a book. Well, guess what? It turns out that publishing a book is really hard if you don't actually write one first. Plans for French (second native language) Ummmmm. No, I don't really have any plans for French. Despite growing up in both French and English, I've never bothered to read novels in French. Isn't that terrible? Maybe 2016 will be the year that I start reading French novels. This year, I'll just do what I've done for the past several years, and focus all of my French reading attention on children's literature. I started working again in the beginning of December, teaching second grade French immersion. The contract covers a maternity leave and goes to the end of the school year, so it's nice to be able to stay put. And I love discovering beautiful picture books, so I'm in my element. Happy language learning in 2015! edited because typos make me sad Edited by Stelle on 21 December 2014 at 4:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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