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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 33 of 154 06 December 2012 at 8:30pm | IP Logged |
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Well I hit lesson 47 today, and everyone was right. The level of difficulty and length has increaseed dramatically. It's about 20-25mins longer than the other lessons which throws me for a loop because now I can't finish the lesson during my commute. In addition the sentences are much longer. They say things like,
"Well, it wasn't quite like that, but rather I told you that here some things are different from the Spanish of Madrid. They say American Spanish is more like Andalusian." That's really difficult to repeat and remember everything that you're supposed to say. Like others on the this site, I will have to break the lessons in half and study one section at a time. As tough as it is now, I'm excited to think that I'll be able to say two long sentenes. Today I got a compliment from a coworker saying that my Spanish is getting a whole lot better. I'm noticing that I can say many more phrases and my speaking, writing, thinking is less halted. I find my self saying crazy things in my mind to use all my new vocabulary words in a sentece. I also make jokes on the instant messenger like, "if you don't send me this information the customer will break my face, throw an arrow in my shoulder, and then make delicious bread," so I can use alot more words. I'm somewhat concerned that I'm discovering too many words that I don't know. I'm only trying to learn 30words per day, but at my current pace I could come across 250-300 words per week. I guess I'll just have to try to learn more per day. The good thing is that all the words are coming to me in some sort of context so at least I would be familiar with them when they come up in my Anki queue. I went through some of my News in Slow Spanish downloads and I think it will be excellent for my continued development. Since it's based on real events the vocab I will learn should be applicable in my daily life. Most likely I will be in Mexico again in March or April of 2013. I hope that by then I can live totally in Spanish and find some way of communicating through language and gestures. That last sentence jogged my memory about a funny story. While in Spain, after college, we wanted to get some authentic food and we ended up in a resturant where the wait staff didn't speak very much English. We new some basic Spanish and could pick out the similar words, "Hey man, I think that means tomato," but we didn't have a clue on the main dishes. I pointed to one item on the menu and the waitress scratched her head in deep thought and then started makings a snorting sound while pointing to her hand. We were confused for a short while and then I said, "PIG'S FEET!!" and all of us, including the waitress, burst out laughing. I guess where there's a will there a way. P.S. About 80% of the time I reply to my emails in Spanish. If something is really critical I'll only use Engish. Today the engineering manager in Mexico replied to one of my emails with grammatical corrections and saying that my Spanish was really good. Weeee. Still a long way from fluency but it's nice to be recognized for my efforts. P.P.S To anyone who reads this in the future, know that you have to make you're own way in learning a language. I'm fortunate to have Mexican co-workers, but I've been in this job for almost 5 years and it never crossed my mind to learn Spanish until the bloody nose. Now that I've caught fire, I'm trying to create my own little total immersion enviornment. If you're on this site you've probably caught fire too. Don't let it go out, just try do at least one thing everyday to improve your skills. Edited by HermonMunster on 06 December 2012 at 10:44pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4514 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 34 of 154 07 December 2012 at 4:16pm | IP Logged |
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Congratulations for your improvement, first of all.
I think you shouldn't be as concerned as you are because of your vocabulary. Thirty words a day is more than great in my opinion. Last year, when I started to improve my English after years without using it, I used to learn around 25-40 words per day. I don't use many of them, although the effort worthed in many senses. Now I've been said to have a very wide vocab for my level (I'm at C1 classes), and I still come across lots of unknown words while reading. Note that Spanish is barely as ancient and spoken as English. Hence, its vocab is immense. As a sidenote, your sitation remind me of mine! I also try to create my English atmosphere and am about to work abroad in English, regardless my passion for languages harks back just a couple of years! 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 35 of 154 12 December 2012 at 3:44pm | IP Logged |
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Hello Dagane,
Thanks for the post. Sometimes I can get obsessed with measuring my progress. I'm "behind" about 150 words on my anki but I'm not too concerned. I can still communicate just fine without them although I'm a bit inefficient in my sentence structures. Last night I had another Spanish meet up. It was a great time like always. I'm glad my schedule allowed me to attend. It had been over a month since I've had a long conversation in Spanish. There was a nice turn out so I got to speak with 7 different people about all kinds of things. Mother/Daughter from Guatemala were cracking me up because I was asking if she was a good daughter and who was the boss of the house... that's a good way to get anyone fired up and talking. There was a Spanish teacher who was happy to speak with some adults. Also a guy from Honduras, a few Americans, and the Mexican wait staff. It's a great idea to have meetings at a restaurant. Food and drinks break down barriers and puts everyone in a good mood. I had a few questions about when a g is pronounced as a g or an h. Overall I'd say that I did pretty well. I got caught up several times where I dodn't know the word that I wanted to use and I had a few sentences where I switched between languages without knowing it, but practice makes perfect. I need to talk more. I'm still getting beat up by unit 47 in platiquemos. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of this week. It's really stretching my mind. For people who are just getting started, don't spend all your money on products as soon as you start. Check out the Spanish selections in your library. I found several audio programs that I have archived for later listening. Spanish for travelers and Spanish for health care professionals. I'm not a health care professional but at a cost of approximately $0 I figured I'd take a look. Besides, I think it would be useful to know how to complete the standard dialogue if, heaven forbid, I ever have to go to a doctor/hospital while in Mexico. A good friend of mine is planning a vacation to Mexico. I hope to be able to go. It should be a great time and it will happend right around my 1 year of studying anniversary. I think it would be an awesome way to celebrate. I've always thought that I would stop learning languages once I had Spanish under my belt. (I know that's a misleading statement because I will never be finsihed with learning... I'm still learning words in English frequently) However, I have been thinking of learning French sometime down the road. I figure that by the I'm 36 years old I would have had ~ 3.5 years of intense Spanish study and be pretty fluent. If I then focus on French I could be somewhat competent by the time I'm 40. My inspiration for learning French was an industry magazine that was talking about the emergence of Africa as the next manufacturing powerhouse. French is spoken in many countries in Africa so it could probably come in handy if my career ever took us there. I've heard that French is very difficult to learn but I imagine it would be easier and more versitile than learning an African language. Who knows... but for the most part I'm just using my "garbage" time to study. (travel time commuting to work, part of lunch hour and short breaks) So no matter how busy my life gets in the future, this time should always be available. I'm at 754hrs of studying. I've stopped watching Detinos (it was moving too slow for me and I thought my time could be better used with platiquemos) I also haven't watched the telenovela for a while. I may watch a few epdisodes this weekend. Edited by HermonMunster on 12 December 2012 at 4:40pm 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 36 of 154 05 January 2013 at 1:53am | IP Logged |
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Happy New Year!
I had a nice and relaxing break and I'm feeling refreshed. During my time off of work I took a break from Platiquemos and only worked on my flash cards. Believe it or not, I think the time off really helped my Spanish sink in. On new years day I went to a party with some Spanish speakers and I did very well. All were commenting on how good I was in such little time. At times they were struggling to understand me and vice versa but I was holding my own. I have alot more confidence when speaking and that helps me with my pronunciation. I've had several breakthroughs in the last few days. I was waiting for an appointment and noticed that there was a free Spanish newspaper on the table. I picked it up and I could read and understand just about everything. I was impressed at how the articles were just flowing. Also, it seemed as though I wasn't translating in my head more of just picturing a movie in my mind. There were alot of individual words that I didn't know and I underlined them to add to my vocab list. This weekend I plan on finishing that paper and will add it to my normal studies. Today I had serveral instant messages that shocked me. I was just talking about everything. Making jokes, talking past present future tenses. Not to shabby for 10months of study. Today I got a complement saying that languages are easy for me. I don't necesarily disagree, I've always had a way with words, but I'm really just smashing Spanish into my head. It's hard not to learn when I'm listening to and hour of platiquemos 5 days a week. Reading about an hour a day, chatting with coworkers throughout the day, and listening to Spanish radio all throughout the day. I guess I've kind of underestimated how much my Mexican co-workers appreciate the fact that I'm learning the language. They REALLY like me for it. It's like I'm everyone's pet and they want to teach it new tricks . Everyone is offering help here and there. Ohh yea, another quasi milestone. Today I was chatting and I just made up a word.I conjugated it and everything. It was pretty funny because they were like, "Uhhh that's not a word, but I know what you meant." I'll take it! Of course I want to sound like Senor Spanish himself, but the real goal is to communicate. On Wednesday I found out that I'll be going to Mexico again on the 21 of Jan for 3.5 days. I'm really glad to be going again so soon. I was just there the last week of October. In the next few weeks I want to learn the script for checking into the hotel and the alphabet. I plan on maximizing my opportunities to talk. Also, one of my 2013 goals is to really take charge of my career. I'm secretely working on a presentation that will blow everyone's mind. I imagine some people will hate on me for going above and beyond but I don't care. It's my time to shine. I don't think I will be moving to Mexico anytime soon so these short trips are my classrooms. When I think about the future I get excited. In a few more years I think I will be really good. On a cultural topic, I was suprised to learn that some Mexicans who are not of European decent call Spain the "motherland." I was kind of left jaw dropped. "After what they did to you?!?!?" But I guess to each his own. I think it's good to speak with all kinds of people to broaden your mind. Now I'm on lesson 49 of platiquemos and have completed 783 hrs of study in a little less that 10 months. Edited by HermonMunster on 05 January 2013 at 3:42pm 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 37 of 154 10 January 2013 at 2:33am | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone,
The last few days have been pretty interesting. On Monday evening I ended up staying very late at work and it wasn't a particularly busy day. One my Mexican co-workers was crying a blues about how he is the only engineer who can't speak English. (his English really isn't that bad) He's a young guy about 24 years old and I felt sorry for him because I remember those feelings of self doubt when I first entered the work force. Although my patience is long, I tend to have a short fuse for people who aren't trying to find solutions to their problems. (funny how time changes you) To anyone who may be reading this in the future... IF YOU WANT TO DO IT, FIND A WAY! After the guy was done having a small pity party I started brainstorming ways he can learn English. 1. meetup - Not in his town 2. Church - No native speakers there 3. Internet - Hasn't tried 4. Self study with tapes 0 Hasn't tried (I brought some programs down with me the last trip and told one guy to share) 5. Through work - Never thought about it Maybe because I'm 9 years older than him I just know more or something, but I suggested something that was really easy. There are probably more than 6months worth of American visits to the plant (if you count multiple people at the same time as separate days). Why doesn't he go to the boss and say, "Whenever one of the Americans comes down I want to be the guy who takes them out at night." He's the perfect age for it, no wife or kids, the Americans get lonely, bored, scared so it's a win/win situation. He shot that idea down because he didn't think his English was good enough for it. I tried to explain the concept of "fake it 'till you make it." (very hard to try to translate) Finally I had an idea that should work and show if he's serious about learning English. There will be about 17 American visiting in 2 weeks and we normally have about 2 hours between getting back to the hotel and when we leave for dinner. I invited him to come to the hotel after work and just hang out with us. We'll all be drinking so there's no need to be nervous and if he's lucky the managers might invite him to dinner too for showing some initiative. I hope he shows up. Last night was my Spanish meetup. I had a great time as usual and met some good people. This was by far the funniest meet up to date. There are a few people in the group that are pretty funny and when we do our table rotations sometimes we all end up together and laugh our selves silly. Last night was one of those days... So we're all just chatting about our holidays and stuff, when a new guy comes to the table. He says in Spanish, "I thought you were studying to be a flight attendant," to a lady sitting beside me. I didn't know the word for flight attendant so I asked him to repeat it. When he did, I kind of smiled alittle bit and then the jokes began. One of the words for flight attendant is "azafata." Seeing how it was a table full of non native speakers, it was originally pronounced "ass-a-fat-a." The first joke came from a 70year old man. "Here in the US it seems like we have too many fat-a-ass-es. Another replied, "I like women with azafatas. Then on, and on, and on. We were almost crying from laughing so hard. I think that's one of my favorite things about learning a language, it brings so many different people together. Our table age ranged from 24-70yrs, 3 different ethnicities, from 3 different states. There is no other way all of us would have been at the same table at the same time. Today I chatted with an old buddy of mine that lives near Monterrey. He sent me a message out of the blue, in English and I replied in Spanish, "Hey I know Spanish." He couldn't believe it. We had a great time catching up although I realized how many things I can't say. We both like to work out and I was explaining my exercises. I had to say "push up" for pushups and "to sit up" for situps etc... But it was all good, he figured out what I was trying to say. I also learned that you can't just put 2 unrelated things together and make them have meaning like you can in English. For instance, in English you can put any verb together with "off" and it almost always means a contest, even if it has never been used in the history of the language. Stare-off, dance-off, cook-off, bake-off are some common examples but it could be used for just about anything. Cat-off could be a contest where people try to act the most like a cat.... I was chatting with a buddy in Mexico and asking if he was ready for all the gringos to be visiting at the same time. He said that he thinks so. I asked, in Spanish, was he worried about getting gringo poisoning. He was really confused and said, "Hey you know that word you used means poison." I replied, "Yea, like there will be soo many gringos that you get sick." He was cracking up at that. I'm listening to lesson 50 of platiquemos but only on lesson 48 of the written lesson. I'm hoping to finish before my trip. I'm really glad I didn't get scared away by some posts I read about it being too long, boring, or hard. It is long, sometimes it's boring, and some lessons are very difficult the first time through. So what?!? Learning a lanuage is fun but it's also hard work. Sometimes it's like taking horrible tasting medicine. So what? Just like medicine you get it down and keep it down. It's worth it. I think the direction of my life's path has shifted 90 degrees because of this endeavor. Edited by HermonMunster on 10 January 2013 at 2:50am 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 38 of 154 14 January 2013 at 4:14am | IP Logged |
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New, New Year's resolution. Learn salsa & merengue.
Last night I went to see a Mambo band a few cities away. I got an invite from a guy in my Spanish meetup. I had the time so I figured,"why not." I ended up having a great time even though I was envious of everyone on the dance floor. They looked like they were having soooo much fun. Hell, I was having a good time watching them have a good time. The band was great and I got to talk with my meet up buddy's wife and daughter ( they are from the Dominican Republic). One thing that I thought was really cool was the fact that there were some kids running around. It's good for mom and dad to be able to go out for alil dancing and not have to spend a ton for a baby sitter. I did pretty well talking Spanish. I spoke to about 4 different people and I held my own even though I had to ask the Spanish words for many things. The coversation covered so many topics I kinda had to say, "I haven't arrived there yet." Super fun time. The squeeky wheel gets the grease because I was commenting on how I wanted to learn how to dance. At that moment a guy was walking out and they flagged him down. He's the dance instructor. I got his number and plan to make an appointment ASAP. I've always wanted to learn how to do latin dance. A few people told me, "you just do what you feel," but I'm somewhat tall and didn't want to be the big ole frankenstein that's bumping into people on the dance floor. It was funny talking to my buddies wife. One of the things she loves most about the US is garage sales. It just blows her mind how you can find some really great stuff for super cheap. I'm hoping that they will invite us to one of their next parties. We had some brazilian friends when we lived in Michigan and it was really fun getting to know them and the culture. When you speak in your own language you never really notice how much a coversation can wander. We went from dancing, to garage sales, to skinny feet, to good pediatrists, to robberies, to birthday cake. I'm really glad I went out to the bar. I also saw flyers for a cool concert and then a 1920's casino night at a bar. I have a fake tux from halloween that says "high roller" on the pocket that I'm sure will be a hit. So far I'm having fun in 2013. 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 39 of 154 18 January 2013 at 9:55pm | IP Logged |
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Your posts really crack me up and they are also very motivating.
Regarding the guy that was not too motivated to learn English... I have encountered a few of those types of people online for language exchanges and they just could not believe how crazy I was about Assimil. I encouraged them to get Assimil's American English for Spanish speakers. I occasionally hear from them and two of the people I suggested Assimil to are still using it and loving it. The other suggestion for the guy is to find an English speaking girlfriend somehow. You are right about being Frankenstein on the dance floor... that was me in Ecuador on my recent trip... man, everyone there is so short (and I cannot dance). Salsa is really cool... we are going to try to organize lessons in my meetup. Keep up the good work. I am glad to see someone else out there seems to have as much fun as I do with learning Spanish... I just wish my wife understood. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kronos Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5264 days ago 186 posts - 452 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 40 of 154 18 January 2013 at 10:26pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, Hermon's log posts are a real treat and never fail to lighten me up. I am also learning Spanish, but at a slow pace and more passively. It's great as a contrast to see someone jumping into the fray and report right from the front line. - Or maybe I should say border line, since it's all about Mexico. :)
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