Spanish in Seven Months (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Spanish in Seven Months
Tags: Linguaphone \| Flash cards \| Michel Thomas \| Listening-Reading (L-R) \| Audiobook \| Pimsleur \| Spanish
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Emerald
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Message 41 of 62

25 May 2010 at 5:35pm | IP Logged

Volte wrote:

Emerald wrote:

L & R Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal

I have started the second step today. I listen to the audio in Spanish and read Spanish
at the same time. About a paragraph, or if it is a big paragraph then a few sentences
at a time.

Then, read English text.

Then, read Spanish text out loud without audio.

Sometimes, I read Spanish text out loud first, and then read English. Both works. The
reason for still having the audio is to get more grasp over pronunciation. Talking out
loud by myself without audio means I focus on the words more as I can't say them as
fast as the audio yet, and also then when I read English, I am more aware of the
context.

I also have an online dictionary and ANKI open during L-R. So I look up words I don't
know. Not necessarily every word, but all the ones that seem important to the context,
and I add them to ANKI. This way, they should be included in my daily vocab practice,
and also hopefully when I come across those words later in the book, I will remember
their meaning.

It is rather slow going, but I have to remind myself that I can't learn a language in a
week, and have to put the work in to get the results. But I am quite hopeful about
this, because I think it's helping in getting used to the context of the sentences,
pronunciation and just vocab in a more subconscious manner.

a) If you have the books electronically, use a pop-up dictionary - it'll save you tons of time.

b) That's not L-R (it's missing intensity, you're interrupting it to look up words and use anki, etc). That said, parallel texts with audio are still great - enjoy, and good luck.

Volte,

I have the paper copies of books. I can't stand e-books, so it takes time anyway, but I enjoy reading, so I don't mind. However, what I do now is just jot down the words I want to add to ANKI, and then look them up later. I just wrote a post about my current method in the post you started, so I won't repeat it here, but basically intensity that's lacking in certain steps is made up in others, so overall I think it may work out okay, but we shall see.

Yes, now I am aware it's not LR method as it was intended, but until recently I assumed it simply meant Listening Reading method (you listen and read at the same time), so that's what my L&R mean anyway. :-)

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Volte
Tetraglot
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Message 42 of 62

25 May 2010 at 6:17pm | IP Logged

Enjoy, and good luck.

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Emerald
Triglot
Senior Member
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Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English
Studies: Spanish

Message 43 of 62

26 May 2010 at 8:29pm | IP Logged

Separate listening to Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal is going great. I am amazed at
how much I understand, and it is especially satisfying to gauge improvement. I
understood much less of Chapter 1 than of current chapters.

At the same time doing R&R (reading in English and reading in Spanish) is also going
well. I am using the same book, but reading is behind listening, so hopefully as I get
to each bit, my pronunciation should at least be decent. Instead of looking up words as
I read, now I just read in English and Spanish. Only at the end of each session, I go
back over what I did, and note down words I want to add to ANKI. It also becomes a
quick review of what I read.

Pimsleur 1 course is nearly finished. I have only got the last unit left, which I will
do tomorrow morning.

Then, I plan to start straight on Pimsleur 2.

I do want to start Michel Thomas Advance too, but first I want to finish scriptorium
for Michel Thomas Foundation. That's progressing, though it will probably take a few
days since I am spending time on other tasks, and of course I do have other things to
do besides Spanish.

Not having much luck in finding free Spanish audio books but I am still looking.

What I am really looking forward to though is to be able to read the books I have
bought and understand them. Can't wait to get to that stage.

I really need to start doing serious work with Practice Makes Perfect. Hoping to do
that in the weekend, as it needs decent amount of time. I don't want to neglect
technical aspects of the language, and this Verb Tenses book is a good place to start.

EDIT: Forgot to add. Just for fun, I have started reading Shakespeare's Sonnets in
English and Spanish. I don't sweat over the words, but try to take in the meaning. I
believe it is helping, but more importantly, I really enjoy doing it. Those sonnets are
great in English, but I think they sound even more beautiful in Spanish.

Edited by Emerald on 26 May 2010 at 9:01pm
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Volte
Tetraglot
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Switzerland
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Message 44 of 62

26 May 2010 at 8:35pm | IP Logged

Is there some reason why the ones at librivox aren't good for you?

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Emerald
Triglot
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Joined 6236 days ago
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Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English
Studies: Spanish

Message 45 of 62

26 May 2010 at 8:43pm | IP Logged

Volte wrote:

Is there some reason why
title=&author=&cat=&genre=&status=complete&type=&language=Sp anish&date=&reader=&bc=&mc=&a
ction=Search">the ones at librivox aren't good for you?

At this stage, I wanted something more familiar. Those all seem original Spanish books; I
was hoping to find something translated from English, so I could be familiar with English
story as well. I have book-marked librivox for later stage, once I have more grasp of the
language.
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Teango
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Message 46 of 62

26 May 2010 at 10:35pm | IP Logged

Emerald wrote:

That sounds really great. I'm also really interested right now in how to make the most out of separate listening. What I'm currently doing is adding completed audio files to a background playlist, but I often find that I end up switching off after a few minutes of trying to follow the story. What do you find works best for you?

Emerald wrote:

I plan to start straight on Pimsleur 2.

I've gone through all 3 levels of Russian Pimsleur in the past, and found this very useful for getting started with speaking. It's limited to 400-500 words of course, which doesn't really get you anywhere far and fast in conversation, but it's good for pronunciation and basic phrases and dialogue all the same. I'm wondering now whether to do this for Spanish too? If I had more than a week before meeting a tutor in my next experiment, I'd definitely consider adding it to the list.

Emerald wrote:

I have started reading Shakespeare's Sonnets in English and Spanish. I don't sweat over the words, but try to take in the meaning. I believe it is helping, but more importantly, I really enjoy doing it. Those sonnets are great in English, but I think they sound even more beautiful in Spanish.

I totally agree, Shakespeare's sonnets are simply wonderful. I'm curious now as to how exactly someone would go about translating works like these whilst trying to keep the rhyme, rhythm and allusions as close as possible to the original, that must be a challenge and a half! ;)

Edited by Teango on 26 May 2010 at 10:36pm
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Emerald
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
languagedabbler.blog
Joined 6236 days ago
316 posts - 340 votes

Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English
Studies: Spanish

Message 47 of 62

27 May 2010 at 8:28pm | IP Logged

Teango wrote:

Emerald wrote:

That sounds really great. I'm also really interested right now in how to make the most
out of separate listening. What I'm currently doing is adding completed audio files to
a background playlist, but I often find that I end up switching off after a few minutes
of trying to follow the story. What do you find works best for you?

I don't have good attention span for just audio, so I do this during my commute to work
when I can't really do anything else except read or listen to mp3. This works for me,
though sometimes I do have to remind myself to focus because my mind starts wondering.
If I use it just as a background listening, I find that I don't pay attention. For
background, I prefer to have Spanish DVDs on instead.

Also with audio, it is useful to listen to a book you know. I feel this a game now,
where each time I try to figure out if I understand exact sentences in Harry Potter. If
it was a different book that I didn't know, I feel it would be harder and less
interesting.

Teango wrote:

Emerald wrote:

I plan to start straight on Pimsleur 2.

I've gone through all 3 levels of Russian Pimsleur in the past, and found this very
useful for getting started with speaking. It's limited to 400-500 words of course,
which doesn't really get you anywhere far and fast in conversation, but it's good for
pronunciation and basic phrases and dialogue all the same. I'm wondering now whether to
do this for Spanish too? If I had more than a week before meeting a tutor in my next
experiment, I'd definitely consider adding it to the list.

I find it very useful to learn some grammar and structure. Vocabulary can be learned,
and I find it is much easier to learn new words than to learn structure and grammar.

Teango wrote:

Emerald wrote:

I have started reading Shakespeare's Sonnets in English
and Spanish. I
don't sweat over the words, but try to take in the meaning. I believe it is helping,
but more importantly, I really enjoy doing it. Those sonnets are great in English, but
I think they sound even more beautiful in Spanish.

I totally agree, Shakespeare's sonnets are simply wonderful. I'm curious now as to how
exactly someone would go about translating works like these whilst trying to keep the
rhyme, rhythm and allusions as close as possible to the original, that must be a
challenge and a half! ;)

Sonnets actually seem to match English version quite well. Most of the time each
sentence has same words, though sometimes depending on the context, you would have to
two lines in language to get the exact context, but overall it's pretty close and
pretty good. I started doing this just for fun, but just by repeated vocab, I am
learning new words.

Edited by Emerald on 27 May 2010 at 8:29pm
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Teango
Triglot
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Message 48 of 62

27 May 2010 at 8:35pm | IP Logged

If you like Spanish prose poetry, you might like to read "Platero y yo" by the Spanish Nobel laureate Juan Ramón Jiménez later on. You can even get your hands on a dual-language version (in Spanish-English) here. It's a little too difficult for me right now, well actually a lot too difficult really, but I look forward to leafing through this at a later stage.

Edited by Teango on 27 May 2010 at 8:36pm

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