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El Mariachi: Spanish experiment 2 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5561 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 9 of 35 03 June 2010 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's pretty close to the mark. In "El Mariachi" I'll be focusing particularly upon listening and speaking, and hopefully filling in a few of the many gaps along the way. I really need to make a quantum leap forward before the fortnight's done though, and it's all a bit nerve-racking. I've only got one week booked with my native Spanish tutor so far, during which time I'll turn my attention to some real-life conversation and lots of writing. When the weeks are up, I'll be heading off to Barcelona for a little holiday in mid-July (kind of like a Spanish field trip to round it all off nicely). :) [edit] Edited by Teango on 03 June 2010 at 5:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5561 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 10 of 35 03 June 2010 at 7:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"El Mariachi", Day 4/14
(palabras, la música, y mucho más) SUMMARY Pronunciation: 5/7 hours ———————————————————— Background listening: 1.5 hours (music) TV: 1.25 hours ("El Internado") ———————————————————— Total time today actively studying Spanish: 5 hours Total time spent studying Spanish during this experiment: 16 hours Total time actively studying Spanish so far: 107 hours Grand total of Spanish study and immersion: 139.25 hours [18 days] NOTES Rather than go mad for videos, as originally planned today, I spent part of this Feiertag looking deep into the depths of Spanish pronunciation and prosody, in the hope of honing in on a Castilian accent and perhaps even native prosody. The first thing I noticed is that "Pronounce It Perfectly in Spanish" is really based more around Latin American accents rather than castellano, and the course is certainly a bit light in content where it matters most. The second discovery was that the vast majority of videos in Yabla are also not castellano either, and the few that were didn't happen to be the fun ones I wanted to watch. The third thing that happened today is that I thought I sounded ok...until...I recorded my feeble efforts on a digital voice recorder (we used to call these things "dictaphones" back in the day). It was one of those dreadful experiences you have when you listen to your own recorded voice and declare "hey, that's not me, that sounds nothing like me...it's so..well..foreign"...and in my case I could also add "...and definitely a million miles away from the original Spanish recording". So I'm going to go easy on myself with regards to pronunciation from now on, and just aim to work through lots of fun and interesting videos on Yabla instead during this period of study (regardless of accent or country). It would be great of course to own native-like Castilian pronunciation or otherwise, but I realise that the amount of effort required is quite enormous and is probably best acquired with some special tuition or intense immersion in a Spanish speaking community. Besides, my priority right now is really to prepare for communicating with my tutor in almost 10 days' time, so that I can make the most of our study sessions together and get speaking for real as soon as possible. So tomorrow is definitely LoMásTv day, and now I'm just going to catch the next episode of "El Internado" and get an early night for once. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7108 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 12 of 35 03 June 2010 at 9:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
Mark, Can I ask why you've decided to hone in on a Castilian accent? Andy. P.S. Subscribed today to the French version of Yabla on a monthly basis. I've got a trip to Orleans coming up in August and the old French needs a bit of a refresh. I have to say I'm really impressed so far. Edit: Don't get discouraged on the accent front - I know I did for a time. I know I don't sound like a native even now but these days when I tell people I'm from England, they either don't believe me or ask "yes, but where are you from originally?". Edited by Andy E on 03 June 2010 at 9:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5561 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 13 of 35 04 June 2010 at 7:41am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yabla currently have sites in Spanish, French, German, and English. As promised, I sent an email to enquire about the possibility of extending their system to other languages in the near future, as I know this question comes up from time to time on the forum. Here's the official response from their support team:
"We don't have any other language available at this time, and none on the verge of being released. But thanks so much for your feedback and we hope you'll enjoy LoMasTV (and perhaps French and German too!)." Edited by Teango on 05 June 2010 at 5:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5561 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 14 of 35 04 June 2010 at 8:10am | IP Logged | |||||
The only reason I wanted to learn castellano really is because quite a few people recommended I start with this, and of course it will also be the accent of my tutor. However, as most of my materials and resources are in a colourful mix of accents (most which seem to be Mexican at the moment), I'm just going to go with the flow and hope I can still be understandable to the majority of Spanish speakers by the end. Personally, I'm starting to really love Latin American accents, but I think I'll still keep the 'th' rather than 's' sound for the letter "c" for now... ;) Incidentally, as I'll be traveling to Barcelona next month, I wonder if anyone could recommend a few handy phrases in Catalan too so I don't get stuck?
Thanks, Andy. I can't deny it's a little bit of a downer to sound so distant from the way they speak in these videos, and I'd love my studies to be one in the eye for all those cynical linguists out there who maintain that it's virtually impossible to assimilate a native accent after a certain age. As a linguist myself, I've always wanted to disprove this view, and I still don't believe it entirely, but when I heard my recording yesterday (before which I thought I sounded pretty much ok), it was indeed a shock. People never guess I'm from England either when I speak a foreign language, but I put this more down to the misconception throughout much of Europe that native English-speaking people are all monolingual, hence that infamous quote: "If you can speak three languages, you're trilingual. If you can speak two languages, you're bilingual. If you can speak only one language, you're an American [or de facto, British]." When I speak a little bit of Russian, people swear I'm from the Baltics. And when I try out a line or two of intermediate French, I'm no doubt from Holland or Italy. If I ever say I'm from England, strangers will invariably just shake their heads and declare "no, I don't think so, where are you really from?". Last time I ate out in Germany they asked what part of France I was from [edit: and I almost forgot...I was wearing a top with a union jack emblem on it at the time too] (lol) - fantastique! :) A trip to Orleans sounds superb by the way, good luck with brushing up with Yabla! Edited by Teango on 04 June 2010 at 8:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7108 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 15 of 35 04 June 2010 at 8:37am | IP Logged | |||||
I remember being told in the language lab at uni by a lecturer (native French woman) that I spoke French with a German accent! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5561 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 16 of 35 04 June 2010 at 8:39am | IP Logged | |||||
Classic! :D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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