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Lorren’s Language Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 33 of 212 28 August 2013 at 10:57am | IP Logged |
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It seem like sometimes I can seem to fit a lot of time in, and other times I can't find as much time. I fit in about an hour of practice over the last few days. I do like the current lesson in Rosetta Stone because there are so many vocab words that seem to overlap with what I've been reading.
My husband showed me this scene from an English television show where they were speaking Spanish (with subtitles) and I understood quite a lot. Much more than I did with the movie that I watched. In the television show, they were speaking more clearly, and it made a big difference. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 34 of 212 01 September 2013 at 9:51am | IP Logged |
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I received my first issue of National Geographic En Español that I subscribed to, so I guess that I better get cracking on reading the one I bought on eBay. I was able to read an article today (it was short, just two pages), and I have one left. I needed Google translate for about 13 words for the entire article. In the new issue, I was able to browse it and look at a map and understand what it was illustrating without any help. To get the details, I'll probably need some translation help.
I finished Unit 1 of Rosetta Stone Spanish 5. Three more to go, and I will be done with RS for Spanish. I probably won't need it for review, especially if I keep reading my magazines and start reading more news from the Mexican point of view. Outside of its limited use during travel, that's the main reason why I picked this language to improve on first. While I do like the software, one of the things that I find so frustrating is that there are words that RS often likes to say that I pronounce wrong. Like gracias. Or si. Trigo and disculpe are other words that I have trouble with. I know for a fact that actual Mexicans can understand me when I say gracias or si. I've never had reason to say "trigo" (meaning wheat) to someone in Spanish, and I wasn't too familiar with "disculpe" (excuse me) last time I traveled, so I don't know if they would understand me on those either, but I bet that they would. I don't really care if I sound like a native (in fact, I pretty much know that I never will because I have an r-rolling problem partially due to a tongue-tie), as long as someone can understand me. It's not like my northern-European ancestry would be a dead giveaway that I wasn't a native anyway. I might pass for a native German, but never a native Mexican. I was pretty happy with the progress that I made today. I wish that my days didn't always seem so packed and I was able to get more done every day. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4577 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 35 of 212 02 September 2013 at 6:51pm | IP Logged |
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Hello Lorren,
I had a good laugh reading your latest post. When I was using Rosetta Stone I couldn't get discuple right to save my life. My wife would be cracking up because I would have to say it 20 times before the program recongnized what I was saying. Not that my accent was right during the beginning stages of my learning, but I think there is a glitch in the software for discuple. As for a looking like a German in Mexico; you could pass for a native of German decent if your accent was good enough. I work with a German company and there are many German companies that have been in Mexico for well over 100 years. Some of my German colleagues have liked living in Mexico so much that they have brought their wives and families over. I think that I may follow in your footsteps and get National Geographic in Spanish. I loved reading them and looking at the pictures when I was child. Edited by HermonMunster on 02 September 2013 at 6:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 36 of 212 07 September 2013 at 9:55am | IP Logged |
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I'm glad that I'm not the only person having trouble with some of the RS language detection software. My husband was using it at his friend's house when his friend's Mexican in-laws came over. They didn't have trouble getting the software to say it sounded okay. My husband is only in the very beginning stages of the program though. He probably isn't even out of Unit 1 of Level 1 yet.
I would have to relearn most of what I learned in German, but I'm fairly good with that accent. It helps that I started studying it at age 11. My family is becoming a little concerned about the future of my country, due to recent events. We're considering relocating to somewhere that might be a little safer if some of our investments gain in value as we think they are going to; one of the places that we're considering is Uruguay. I guess that my Spanish would come in handy if we go. My husband will have to get out of level 1 as well. My kids will likely be able to pick it up though. My little boy likes to ask me "co-ME esta?" He'd probably learn to pronounce it right if we went too. Today I did a few sections of Rosetta Stone L5 Unit 2 lesson 1. I can probably get it done tomorrow if I make the time to do it. I also read a section out of an article on peasants in Romania that cultivate plants, flowers, and herbs. There were 28 words that I didn't understand in that section (and added to Anki), but the fact that there were 28 words is actually a little deceptive; a lot of the words that I added were the names of specific kinds of flowers and herbs. There was a lot that I was able to read without needing help from the dictionary. I registered at a web site that is full of Spanish Podcasts (http://www.ivoox.com/), but the audio is still way over my head, at least on the podcast I was listening to. I was able to pick up words here and there, and I suppose that it is helpful to listen to it, but it will be a while before I'll actually be able to learn anything by listening to them. But I'll get there someday. There was a time earlier this year when it was a challenge to get through one relatively short newspaper article. I just read a newspaper article (on a subject that I was familiar with) and I didn't have to look up one word. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4088 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 37 of 212 07 September 2013 at 1:25pm | IP Logged |
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Have you listened to any of the podcasts at Notes in Spanish? I listened
to the whole series of intermediate podcasts, and have now started listening to the advanced ones. I find them very helpful for working on listening comprehension! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 38 of 212 08 September 2013 at 1:58am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the link! That looks awesome!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 39 of 212 08 September 2013 at 4:50pm | IP Logged |
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Yesterday I got a lot of Spanish done. I listened to the first two podcasts of Notes in Spanish. It uses Spain's version of Spanish, instead of Latin American Spanish, which is a little difficult to get used to, but it reminds me of the time that I went to Spain. Since there's a couple of people that have been reading this, I thought that I'd tell of the time I went to Spain:
I was there for work, and was given a car to rent for the week. They ended up giving me this giant van, which was a challenge to drive. Even with the seat pushed all the way forward, I could hardly reach the pedals. Plus, it was a stick shift, and I'm not very good with driving those, so it was quite difficult. Anyway, as I was driving to the Naval Base, I got lost. I'm pretty sure that I made it to the town where it was, but I couldn't find it from there. Anyway, I ended up asking someone "Donde es el baso naval?" They looked at me like they didn't know what the heck I was saying. (Using Google translate, it tells me the correct way to say it would be Base naval, but I should have been close). Somehow, I did eventually communicate that I needed to get to the US Naval base. I don't remember the evening well (I probably blocked it out of my mind because it was pretty stressful) but somehow I ended up getting a police escort there, I believe. On the way back, I had another interesting experience with the Spanish spoken in Spain. I think that I had someone drive my car back to the airport for me... I had met some people that week at work and they could drive it much better than I could. When I got to the airport, I must have had a transfer or something, because I needed to find the Juarez gate. So I went to one of the people working there and asked "Donde es Juarez?" She looked at me like I was speaking Swahili. At this point, I was wondering what was going on. I know that it had been quite a while since I took Spanish in college, but after three semesters of Spanish, you would think that I would remember how to say "Where is Juarez?" I knew that I was saying it correctly... yet nobody could understand me. Somehow, I was able to communicate where I wanted to go, and my confusion as to why they couldn't understand me that week was answered. The lady, once figuring out what I was talking about, said "Juareth eth...." It was then that I realized that Spain has a completely different way of pronouncing certain words. Other than Notes in Spanish, I finished RS 5 Unit 2 Lesson 1, and started lesson 2. I didn't read any more about the Romanians, but I did review my Anki words. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 40 of 212 10 September 2013 at 11:01am | IP Logged |
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I got a lot of Spanish done today. I listened to podcast 4 of Notes in Español Intermediate, finished RS Level 5 Unit 2 lesson 2, studied my Anki cards for the day, and went through another section of an article in National Geographic.
Not much else to say today. The article on Romania has a lot of new vocabulary, but the new lesson in Rosetta Stone that I started today has a couple of words in it that I have been having trouble with (I did the core section in lesson 3, as a sort of sneak preview). So hopefully that will reinforce a couple of Anki words that I've been having trouble with. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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