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Stelle’s Log (TAC15 Spanish and Rare) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 25 of 87 08 February 2015 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | ||
Thank you iguanamon! That's a very useful site! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 26 of 87 08 February 2015 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Things have finally quieted down a bit at work. I'm still overwhelmed by the sheer size of the daily to-do list, but I've
fallen into a rhythm that gives me a bit more time for doing the things that I love - including language learning! As for this morning, I'm going to post an update, finish my cup of coffee, fold my laundry, talk to Auri on Skype and then start cooking a big brunch for my in-laws. Here's my update for the week of February 1st. Spanish Speaking: Unfortunately, I had to cancel my session with Auri last Sunday, due to the never-ending renovations going on in my house. But I'll be talking to her later this morning, and I did have one 60-minute Skype conversation yesterday, with Alex. I enjoyed talking to Alex, both because I'm excited about preparing for the DELE, and because it's always a bit of a challenge to talk to someone new. I'm actually thinking that - eventually - I need to book sessions with random teachers on italki, just to chat for an hour. It's very easy to fall into the trap of being overly comfortable when you talk to the same person every week for over a year. Alex's schedule is such that I can book Saturday morning sessions every couple of weeks. Maybe I'll book informal sessions with other teachers on days when she's not available. Reading: This week I read the first volume of The Walking Dead, translated into Spanish. I love The Walking Dead. I've loved it since it first came out. But I'm not sure that I love it in Spanish! Every few frames someone shouts out "¡Maldita sea!" in large, bold letters. I don't know why, but it started making me laugh every time I read it...not exactly the feeling that Kirkman was going for, I'm sure. And at least twice, a character said "síp". I checked the English version of the comic, and it looks like they translated "yep" for "síp". Is this even a thing? Do people *ever* say "síp" in Spanish? Anyway, the first five volumes are available in Spanish. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to use my book store gift card to buy the next four. I'm still reading Guía para un perro feliz. I'm about a third of the way through the book. It's much easier to read than fiction! But, of course, it's also easier to put down. I like reading non-fiction, but there's no sense of "oh no! What's going to happen! I know it's late, but....just one more chapter!". Still, I'm really enjoying it, and I think that I'm going to finish it before starting a new novel in Spanish. listening/watching I watched three episodes of El Internado this week, taking me up to season 2 episode 5. This show is so good. The episodes are pretty long, at 70-80 minutes, but it's just such a riveting show! I'm dying to know what happens next, but I don't think I'll have time to watch today. I listened to one podcast this week: Fallo de sistema - Steampunk I love all things steampunk. As a matter of fact, I still have several bags of metal gears in a box somewhere, from a few years ago when I was modding nerf guns for a steampunk costume for comic con. (Uh-oh. Now I've outed myself. Yes, I'm an utter and complete geek - or, as they say in Spain, "friki". But I don't watch Doctor Who, so don't even bother asking me how I feel about TARDIS.) So of course I loved this podcast! It sounds like there isn't a huge steampunk community in Spain, but it is out there. grammar/writing Nope. Nothing. If I'm going to prepare for a C1 test, I know that I need to do a bit more formal study. In fact, the whole point of taking a C1 test is to give myself some motivation for formal study. I don't *need* a language certificate. But I do want to kick my Spanish up a notch. This coming week, I don't expect that I'll start. But over the next few weeks, I want to create some kind of schedule made up of FSI (I have yet to complete the last 10-ish units), GLOSS and Aveteca. Tagalog Speaking Of course I've been practicing my broken Tagalog with my in-laws. But yesterday, for the first time, I was brave enough to have a conversation with a stranger. I had a 10-minute conversation with a Tagalog-speaking librarian that started with me asking for a new library card, and ended with her asking if I had a sister who would like to marry one of her sons. I'll call that a huge success! I also had my weekly half-hour tutoring session through Rosetta Stone. These tutoring sessions really are fantastic. While they make mention of group classes, I have yet to have to share my session with anyone else. Each one has been a private session, with zero English and lots of visuals. Because I'm the only student, the teacher is also a bit more flexible, and we can sprinkle lots of informal conversation in between the more structured activities. I cannot recommend the Rosetta Stone tutoring enough - although, if you're learning a "bigger" language, I suspect that you might not get the benefit of private sessions. I'm not sure how I'd feel about a group session. Anyway, my free online subscription runs out at the end of the month. I'm thinking about extending it for a few months, just to be able to access the weekly tutoring until I finish with Rosetta Stone. At 13 dollars per month, it comes out to $3.25 for a very high-quality one-on-one half hour tutoring session. Rosetta Stone I finished unit six, and have started unit seven, which puts me a little bit past the halfway point. When I first started the program, I could happily spend up to an hour working through the exercises. Now, I find that my attention starts to wander somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes. This week, I did five 25-minute sessions, which allowed me to progress at a reasonable rate. The program is definitely getting more difficult, and - while my passive understanding is decent - I have a hard time using a lot of the words myself in the speaking or writing exercises. I'm ok with this, though. My goal with Rosetta Stone was actually to improve my passive skills. I'll have more time to work on my active skills later, when I finish with Rosetta Stone and crack open Tara Mag-Tagalog Tayo for the first time in months! Other stuff I really didn't do a lot of other stuff in Tagalog this week! I did write a short paragraph (a few posts back) and post it to italki for corrections. I only got one correction, but it was really excellent, explaining how hyphens work with English loan words turned into verbs. Good stuff! Books - 2015 Spanish Sinsajo (young adult novel) Días pasados - Walking Dead tomo 1 (comic/graphic novel) English Walking Dead Volume 20 (comic/graphic novel) French Chambre 426 (novel) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 27 of 87 09 February 2015 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Everyone I have chatted with on Skype uses sip on occasion. They use it when we'd say yup.... kind of how you used "nope" instead of no.
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| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 28 of 87 09 February 2015 at 1:16am | IP Logged | ||
Thank you James! Exactly what I was looking for! I've *never* heard anyone say sip. But 99% of my exposure (TV, radio, Skype chats, travel) has been to Castillian Spanish, so maybe it's a regional thing. I think that I need to expand my Spanish horizons. My next TV show should really be Latin American. After all, I live in the Americas. While it made sense to start with Castillian Spanish because I was learning in preparation for a trip to Spain, it just doesn't make sense to keep my learning so isolated now. ¡Gracias! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 29 of 87 09 February 2015 at 2:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I did most of my early stuff with Castillian Spanish too (tons of Assimil and a few seasons of El Internado, etc) and still find it easier to understand. I have a basic rule that I follow now... I watch/read/etc whatever I want to, but when there is an option between Latino Spanish and Castillian Spanish I'll always opt for the Latino Spanish (for example, The Simpsons). That seems to work well.
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| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 30 of 87 14 February 2015 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Book Talk
I just finished my second French novel of 2015 - and the third French novel that I've read for pleasure in my entire life. (How sad is that? I'm really happy that I decided to make 2015 the year that I read in all of my languages.) Le Quartier des oubliés, par Madeleine Robitaille What a book. It was riveting, impossible to put down, and one of the most feel-bad books that I've ever read. It was horrifyingly graphic and made my stomach turn at times. The premise: 30+ people are kidnapped, locked in a barely-ventilated bus, and left in the heat with very little water. It was horrible. I have a new appreciation for water - and for air. I'm not sure that I would recommend this book. While it was the kind of book that makes you say "just one more chapter" after every single chapter, it was also one of the darkest and most depressing books that I've ever read. The constant head-jumping combined with very short chapters made my head spin sometimes. The author purposefully left one large thread very loose, which was a bit frustrating. And if you have a weak stomach, some of the descriptions might make you feel a bit ill. I'm not at all sorry that I read it, but it took over my life for the past four days, and left me feeling sad and uncomfortable. In a way, I suppose that's a sign of a good book - the fact that it weasels its way into your brain. But I definitely need to take a break from Madeleine Robitaille and read something a bit more cheerful for my next French novel. Interesting language note: There was a six-week-old baby in the story, a little girl. Everytime someone referred to her as "le bébé", "le poupon" or "le nourisson" (all masculine nouns), they would carry on calling her "il" (or he). It struck me as interesting, because, I would never do that. I would say "Le bébé pleure. Elle a faim." (The baby cries. She is hungry.), using the feminine pronoun. My way is grammatically incorrect, but it's what would come naturally out of my mouth. Books - 2015 Spanish Sinsajo (young adult novel) Días pasados - Walking Dead tomo 1 (comic/graphic novel) English Walking Dead Volume 20 (comic/graphic novel) French Chambre 426 (novel) Le Quartier des oubliés (novel) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 31 of 87 15 February 2015 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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My update for the week of February 8th:
Spanish Speaking: I spent 90 minutes on Skype this week. My weekly hour-long session with Auri on Sunday went very well, as always. I always look forward to coffee and Spanish on Sunday mornings! I also tried a half-hour session with a new teacher, Karen from Venezuela. I enjoyed our conversation! She spoke much more slowly than my other Spanish teachers, but I don't know much of that is regional and how much of it was her slowing down because she doesn't know my level yet. I've booked an hour-long session with her in two weeks. I really want to expand my Spanish horizons to include more Latin American Spanish, so I'm happy to have found a teacher that I enjoy talking to. Reading: I'm about 3/4 of the way through Guía para un perro feliz. It's a bit repetitive, but I'm interested in the topic and I plan on finishing the book. Now the question is whether or not I can actually follow the advice and teach Yogi how to walk on leash. Ha! listening/watching I watched two more episodes of El Internado this week. I love the show, but sometimes it's hard to find time for an 80 minute episode. I also listened to two podcasts this week, one about Aguascalientes in Mexico (Nómadas) and one about mindfulness (Futuro Abierto). Ironically, my mind kept wandering during the podcast about mindfulness. Go figure. As part of my focus on listening to different accents, I watched a 25-minute clip of Caso cerrado on YouTube. Oh dear! That show is insane! With everyone shouting over each other, I feel like I'm watching a cross between Jerry Springer and Judge Judy - and calling it language study. It was ridiculous, but fun to watch. That's one of the best things about language learning: you can watch something embarrassing in your target language, and not even feel guilty about it. vocabulary For the first time in months, I opened my Spanish anki decks. I have 700+ words to review, but I just started with 100. I was surprised at how many words I'd forgotten! Once I saw the answer, it seemed obvious, but I just couldn't pull the Spanish word out of my brain. I think that it's time to reactivate my SRS, and also to start adding more vocabulary. While extensive reading is great for passive vocabulary, I definitely see that I need targeted practice to maintain my active vocabulary. I also did a few skill refreshers on Duolingo, just for the fun of it. It's not a great use of my time, though, so I don't think that I'll bother doing it anymore. Tagalog Speaking Not much to report! I had another good half-hour session with the Rosetta Stone tutor. Rosetta Stone I used Rosetta Stone for 20-25 minutes only four times this week (not including the tutoring session). I would like to do at least five RS sessions per week, plus tutoring, so that I can finish the program more quickly. I do intend to finish, but I don't want it to drag on for too long. At this rate, I expect to finish by the end of March. Other stuff I opened up anki again, for the first time since before Christmas. It was a bit daunting to see 1000+ cards waiting for review. But the drill and practice through Rosetta Stone has obviously served me well, since I've been doing 150 cards per day (to clear up the backlog), and I've been able to remember most of them. Other reading I finished Le quartier des oubliés this week, and started The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (translated into English). I'm not wild about the writing style, to be honest. I almost abandoned the book - but then the old man stole a suitcase, and I decided to keep reading. I think the story will be fun, but I don't expect it to make my list of favourite books. Edited by Stelle on 15 February 2015 at 4:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 32 of 87 22 February 2015 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's my update for the week of February 15th:
Spanish Speaking: My parents were visiting last weekend. They were on their way home from 10 days in Mexico. They had a wonderful time, and they both used their (limited) Spanish often. My Mom - who has always been *very* shy about speaking other languages, in large part due to her experiences growing up as an anglophone in Montreal - said that she ordered in Spanish every time they went to a restaurant. They were visiting friends of theirs, snowbirds who've spent the winter in Mexico every year for a decade. And their hosts spoke no Spanish at all. To me (and to my parents), that's absolutely shameful! We had fun speaking in Spanish together over the weekend. Anyway, all that to say that I had to cancel my session with Auri last Sunday. I missed our conversation, and I look forward to talking to her today! I did speak to Alex (my C1 tutor) yesterday, and it went very well. I like that she pushes me out of my comfort zone, since I've definitely become a bit complacent with speaking Spanish over the past few months. Yesterday we debated the positive and negative effects that the internet has had on communication. Our conversation was very animated, and we ended up having to cut it short because we ran out of time. She's teaching me to interrupt politely, which is an interesting cultural lesson, since Spaniards often talk over each other and don't wait for "their turn" to speak. Reading: This week I finished reading Guía para un perro feliz, by César Millán. The book was repetitive at times, and I think that Millán is more than a little bit enamoured with himself, but I enjoyed reading it. Throughout the book, he often mentioned his philosophy for calm, happy dogs (and people): "Ejercicio, disciplina y afecta...en ese orden." (Exercise, discipline and affection...in that order.) It kind of hit a chord for me, since both exercise and discipline have fallen to the wayside in my life, and I can feel the chaos creeping in. I've never lacked for affection in my life, for which I am forever grateful. And up until very recently, I never lacked for exercise. But I haven't done much physical activity since my big dog passed on in September, and I'm definitely feeling the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle: weight gain, interrupted sleep, lower energy. As for discipline...well, if it's something that I like (like reading or language learning), I have no problem committing. But if it's something that I dislike (like pulling weeds, folding clothes or marking writing assignments), I let it pile up until it overwhelms me. "Ejercicio, disciplina y afecta...en ese orden" - it might be worth thinking about! I'm currently at 61.6 books in the Super Challenge. No problem at all with finishing before the end of 2015. listening/watching This week, I watched one episode of El Internado (84 minutes), one episode of Aquí no hay quien viva (60 minutes), and several clips from Caso cerrado (85 minutes). I like both ANHQV and Caso cerrado because they expose me to so many different accents. Some people I understand perfectly, and others leave me blinking and shaking my head to clear it. I still miss a lot of words when watching TV shows, but I never have a problem with understanding the context. I'd love to see the effect of a week of serious binge-watching - 2 or 3 hours per day. Not possible now, but perhaps in the summer! I'm currently at 36.8 films for the Super Challenge. I'm a bit behind where I should be at this point, but I don't anticipate that I'll have a problem completing the challenge. Tagalog I worked on Rosetta Stone five times this week. I had to cancel my tutoring session due to an unexpected family issue that we had to deal with. I've finished unit seven, and will begin unit 8 today. The lessons are definitely getting more complicated! I have absolutely no problem with my receptive abilities in RS (reading and listening), but I sometimes struggle with the speaking or writing sections - especially with some of the verbs. Tagalog verbs are tricky! They're easy to conjugate, but they have several different forms, and while I don't have any issue recognizing them, I never know which one to use! Not much more to report on Tagalog this week. I'm just plugging away, trying to do a little bit every day, and listening very attentively when my in-laws are speaking. Books - 2015 Spanish Sinsajo (young adult novel) Días pasados - Walking Dead tomo 1 (comic/graphic novel) Guía para un perro feliz (non-fiction book) English Walking Dead Volume 20 (comic/graphic novel) French Chambre 426 (novel) Le Quartier des oubliés (novel) Edited by Stelle on 22 February 2015 at 3:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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