steve s. Newbie United States Joined 6280 days ago 39 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto
| Message 33 of 39 18 September 2009 at 4:44am | IP Logged |
Had a couple of days where I wasn't as focussed as I want to be, but I got back at it with a vengeance.
Michel Thomas served its purpose, and was helpful, but I got tired of the one person that had issues with the accent, and then Michel lost me as to where he was and I got to where it wasn't helpful.
Pimsleur is what I have going now for the mp3 player during cardio time. Here I am walking around the gym saying, "Si. Hablo un poco castillano," and things like that. I'm getting looks, but I'm a gym veteran so I can do what I want. :-)
Still doing Rosetta, now on Unit 3 of 4 for Session/Level I. Trying to get an hour a day still...one day at at time.
Very much enjoying occasionally breaking into Spanish. Those that I know that speak it (many in Austin) I just switch and they pick it up. I'm catching differences in traditional Spanish and more Tex/Mex lingo, but that is quite fun, actually. "What did you say? No, I got that part, but what was that last word?" I still have to ask that in English, but I'm getting better.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
steve s. Newbie United States Joined 6280 days ago 39 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto
| Message 34 of 39 02 October 2009 at 7:37pm | IP Logged |
We have now moved up to movies that are in Spanish but I haven't seen yet. I am really enjoying that as it makes me focus fully and new words are coming to me.
Within the concept of researching topics that I would research anyway, I have found an 8 page article on Juego del Palo, which is a stick fighting style a la the Canary islands that I have had interest in for many years. Now I have a language learning reason to study this! The article is in Spanish, so that will be one of my projects.
I am loving this process and am very pleased to watch it progress.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
steve s. Newbie United States Joined 6280 days ago 39 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto
| Message 35 of 39 02 November 2009 at 1:24am | IP Logged |
Unit 4 of 4 on Level 1 of Rosetta now! Progressing along, but gotta stick with it...love this! Still fun, but gotta keep learning...
1 person has voted this message useful
|
steve s. Newbie United States Joined 6280 days ago 39 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto
| Message 36 of 39 14 November 2009 at 5:47pm | IP Logged |
I need to know the best Spanish to English, free, online (or off) translator. There are a few words I can't find in my dictionary every once in a while and I need some back up to that.
Am cruising along, enjoying the process! Rosetta stone and pimsleur still...best book so far is a course for kids, a home-school course...one day at a time...
1 person has voted this message useful
|
steve s. Newbie United States Joined 6280 days ago 39 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto
| Message 37 of 39 09 September 2010 at 3:28pm | IP Logged |
Ah, life gets in the way. I was doing quite well with Spanish learning, but a job layoff has redirected my efforts of late. Will get back to it fully soon enough.
Am currently reading A Mouthful of Air, by Anthony Burgess. Its a very thorough linguistic study; very fascinating. Anyone else read (linguistic) stuff by Burgess?
1 person has voted this message useful
|
steve s. Newbie United States Joined 6280 days ago 39 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto
| Message 38 of 39 20 January 2016 at 3:14pm | IP Logged |
Back in the game!
Observations about learning languages in the US: it's tough to get support, even from friends, because most believe that English is all you need. I am now finding that, regardless of others, I should learn because I enjoy it.
The other observation of significance is that trying to learn a language with no specific goal and/or timeline is like trying to get in shape eventually: it doesn't work as well as short, more aggressive goals. My goals aren't as aggressive as Tim Ferriss's concepts, but I am trying to get Esperanto learned in half a year and then work on fluency in Spanish within another year. These are much more aggressive goals than my past goals.
Finally, for me, in the past I set aside "free time" as going back to English. Well, now all that is out. It's amazing how much learning one can squeeze into the day if he/she uses all time for language learning.
That being said, started Esperanto because multiple sources (ie Benny Lewis) suggest taking a break to learn Esperanto can improve other learning.
That seems to be true as Spanish is much clearer. But more significant is that Esperanto is fun and I am really loving learning it.
Just on week three but this language can be learned very quickly. I'm cruising along using Memrise, Duolingo, any music/radio I can find in the language and, very slowly, getting up to reading books in the topic. May take a few more weeks, but can already read many sentences and understand a surprising amount.
Thanks for reading and will keep everyone posted. Glad to be back.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4743 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian
| Message 39 of 39 26 January 2016 at 8:26pm | IP Logged |
Glad you're back!!! :) I read this log when I signed up in 2012, and it's always great to
see people who slowly fade away come back after a few years. Stick around and good luck
:D
1 person has voted this message useful
|