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Spanish Log (TAC 2014 Team Lobo) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 265 of 271 25 July 2014 at 12:57am | IP Logged |
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Oh dear, looks like I've lapsed a bit in keeping the log updated. I find that often happens around this time of year.
Okay, so, how did Spain go? Well, I had a few great, lengthy conversations. I became friends with a Colombian secondary school teacher who lives in the states. The encouraging thing was that she was perfectly bi-lingual, but choose to remain completely in Spanish while talking to me, and said that it was really no problem at all. We sat up and spoke for maybe 2 or 3 hours in Spanish one night, and I didn't quite get that "brain-melt" feeling that I have had in the past in these situations. She said that she was very surprised by some of the vocabulary I used, and that I didn't keep re-using the same words, although of course, my accent needs work. She also said that the next step for me would be to try and do my work in a Spanish speaking country. It was so encouraging to hear that from the lips of a native speaker! We even did a guided to of the Alcazar in Spanish, and I introduced myself to several of the people on the tour. My comprehension did begin to slip after a while though. I also became friends with a Mexican family from the States, and spent a couple of evenings talking to them. The father of the family told his bilingual son that I had mainly learned on my own, and the son said "wow!". They said that the way I construct sentences was very Spanish, i.e I was speaking correctly and not just turning English into Spanish. It was great to be able to speak to Spanish speakers in a casual, fun fashion. I'm very glad that my Speaking ability was up to scratch, as at home I literally go months at a time without speaking. It just begs the question of who well I would be able to speak if I spoke everyday? I will have to continue updating tomorrow, its late and I have jobs tomorrow. Night! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4612 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 266 of 271 25 July 2014 at 4:51pm | IP Logged |
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Congratulations! It sounds like you had a great time. This wonderful experience can only inspire you to keep going and get even better.
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| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 267 of 271 01 September 2014 at 12:50am | IP Logged |
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I can't believe its been two months since I last updated. I have a lot less time for the forum nowadays. I only really keep up with the few logs that I've read for ages, and I try and keep out of the rest of the forum most of the time.
I have been quite slack on Spanish since my holiday, although I definitely either listen or read to at least something each day. I think its important not to forget that there is a very high maintenance cost that comes with learning a language to a decent level. I really feel that I need at least an hour a day to even begin making noticeable progress. For me, I find that a decent level is a dangerous level. It would be very easy to just take it for granted that I can speak Spanish, stop doing things in the language, and regress. I have been very busy working on my career and my fitness lately, and both things are going well. I remember posting in the new year that I wanted to drop my bodyfat percentage down from 29.5% to 18% in six months. I didn't quite make it, at the end of the six months i was 19.9%, which is still a significant drop. I have plans to find a local tutor sometime in September, which I hope will inspire me to ramp things up again. I am tempted to set the goal of working towards a C1 exam sometime next year, but I'm not sure yet if I will realistically have the time available that it deserves. We will see. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 268 of 271 08 December 2014 at 1:07am | IP Logged |
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I thought I better post a bit of an update. I no longer visit the site with any regularity, although I do keep up with the odd log here and there. To be honest, I haven't been doing too much with Spanish lately, other than some very light listening and skimming the odd article in El Pais Semanal.
Unfortunately, as I have written before, I just don't have contact with the Spanish language in my day to day life, without going out of my way to get it. On the flip side of that, I have been lucky enough to spend some time in both Berlin and London recently, two of the worlds major cities, and been shocked to find that I hear Spanish spoken everywhere. So I understand that where I to live elsewhere, my knowledge of Spanish would really open u a new world to me. Also, I have decided to catch up with some English reading for the next couple of months. I just finished A peoples history of the United States by Howard Zinn, a fantastic book which has been top of my list for years. I am about to finish Chavs: The demonization of the working class by Owen Jones, after which I will be reading A peoples history of England by A.L Morton, and then hopefully Capitalism and slavery by Eric Williams. I have felt that Spanish has taken away from my English reading for the last 4 years or so, and I guess that maintaining and advancing my Spanish reading skills at the same time as remaining a well read person in English, is something that I will have to continually work on. Edited by dbag on 08 December 2014 at 1:08am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5855 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 269 of 271 09 December 2014 at 11:54am | IP Logged |
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I felt the same thing. I just recently went on an English-reading splurge, something i haven't done in about the same timeframe as you, doing pretty much all of my reading in Spanish. Luckily for me, there is a huge wealth of interesting reading material in Spanish (and there are still hundreds of books on my "to read" list).
"A people's history.." is really worth reading, i enjoyed that a lot. On a possibly similar note (i haven't read it yet), there's David Graeber's "Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology" (which was also translated into Spanish not long ago, available as a free PDF download from Virus Editorial). I recently read several books on Chinese anarchism and radicalism ("Shifu: Soul of Chinese Anarchism", and "Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution") as well as a bunch of fiction stuff, George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984, a really great book called "Alanya to Alanya" about aliens who come to Earth to give humans the tools for a revolution and stress using dialog and communication to work together to solve problems, another interesting little book called "The Canbe Collective Builds a Be-Hive", and a bunch of autobiographies and other books. It was really great to catch up on all the stuff i'd put aside the past few years, but on the other hand i've basically ignored my Spanish all year. I also don't know if i mentioned it before or not, but i finally got around to watching Mundo Bayer and thought it was really great, thanks for the recommendation! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 270 of 271 28 August 2015 at 12:28pm | IP Logged |
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So I haven't updated all year! Thats crazy. I just can't believe how quickly this year has gone.
I have done very little formal study of Spanish this year, and haven't even listened everyday. However, when I do dip into Spanish I feel like I have lost very little, if anything. I guess after a while a language becomes a part of you.It feels like I have known most common words forever. I did have an absolutely fantastic almost 2 week holiday in Granada in February. Granada is my favourite place I have ever visited, and the only one where I can genuinely see myself living some day. I am going back with my dad in October. I will write a bigger post on that one day soon, at the moment I just wanted to drop in and say hi, I'm still alive! I am going through another one of those periods of change in life, leaving the job I've been happy in for the last 18 months and seeking pastures new. I can feel an HTAL binge coming on! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5365 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 271 of 271 30 August 2015 at 1:06am | IP Logged |
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Wow! eight full months since an update. how time flies! It is good to have you back. I've often been curious how much Spanish I'd lose if I just stopped. Nice to hear you did not lose too much. Good luck with the big changes in your life.
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