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James29’s Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 473 of 668 17 July 2014 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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While I am here I am going to update my goals for 2014 before I forget I finished the Penguin book:
Read any 15 books in Spanish. -> 9 done (Anthem, Joven Abogado #1 and #2, Narnia #1, Harry Potter #2, Man, Economy and State, Think and Grow Rich, Cuando Era Puertorriquena and Short Stories in Spanish by New Penguin). Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes in Spanish -> COMPLETE (well over 100+ done) Re-read Cassell's Colloquial Spanish -> finished the "P" section. Re-read Practice Makes Perfect "Subjunctive Up Close." -> No progress yet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 474 of 668 21 July 2014 at 3:02am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm going to be quick this week because I have had an exhausting week and weekend.
I've been reading Stories from Puerto Rico. I like it a lot. The later stories are a bit more challenging. I read the first four and also then listened to the audio. Now I have read maybe four more. I now feel like I am reading something about culture and history. It is cool. Well worth it and I am only about half way done. I had a couple nice long Skype chats and talks. My old Skype partner who I used to talk with all the time now needs help again with English for another job interview. I may take this week and just help out with English instead of study Spanish in the morning. We speak in Spanish more often so I have offered to do a bunch of intensive English sessions. I listened to the VOA "desde Washington" newscast quite a few times this week. I did a meetup, but it was nothing special. I also went to a funeral for a polyglot I know. I knew she spoke a few languages, but never really realized how important languages were to her life. I knew her before I cared about languages. It was pretty impactful hearing people talk about her life. She spoke five languages to a native or near native level. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 475 of 668 27 July 2014 at 11:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm going to be quick this week too. I have been busy lately, but still managed to do some Spanish every day. I did much less than usually because I have been helping my best Skype partner practice English for an upcoming interview in English. That is actually a quite rewarding thing to do. I used my usual Spanish time in the morning to do mock interviews in English.
In terms of Spanish, I've been mainly reading from "Stories from Puerto Rico." I'm almost done with it. I also read from the Cassell's book. I finished the Q section. The meetup this week was awesome. I invited some folks from the Mexican restaurant and they came with some friends so there were tons of native speakers. I picked up the "gramatica del uso de espanol" for C1/C2. Once again, thanks to Iguanamon for introducing me to this series of amazing books. I really am having a problem buying resources lately and have way way too many. I'll probably won't get to this one for at least a year... I still need to do the B1/B2 one. Anyway, looking through this C1/C2 book was cool. It does not look as hard as I thought it would be. Also, a cool minor thing that happened to me... I was in a far away little town and went into a large used bookstore and in the foreign language section they had an original Berlitz Self Teaching Spanish book. It was almost mint condition and they were only asking $1 for it. I sat there and flipped through it for quite a while and it really looked like an awesome resource. I ended up not getting it because it would not ever get used by me and I'm not much for just having old books on my bookshelves. Well, I have basically quit French again. Sad to say, but it is true. I just really value Spanish much more. Eventually I may pick it up again... we'll see. For now, I am just still loving my Spanish journey. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5863 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 476 of 668 28 July 2014 at 4:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Well can i tempt you with some Euskara or perhaps some Catalan? You'll really have no choice but to use Spanish to study them ;) Or if you're interested in the history and development of Spanish, Galician is pretty interesting as it still has some older features that got dropped in Spanish, including pronunciation (f's that turned to h's in Spanish, for example), though i believe Portuguese is said to be more conservative than Spanish or Galician in its pronunciation. It was kinda cool reading Lazarillo de Tormes and recognizing things from Galician.
I may pick up that grammar book, too, i'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it. In my experience a lot of books aimed at higher level students seem to have a different idea than i do of what C1/C2 means (and probably what the Cervantes Institute thinks, too). Edited by Crush on 28 July 2014 at 4:55am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5389 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 477 of 668 28 July 2014 at 8:05am | IP Logged | ||
I struggled a lot with starting a new language versus plunging deeper into French. I go through cycles and sometimes have a hard time balancing but I'm at peace with that now, I think. I had been focusing heavily on Irish for a while, then lately I've been more into French (especially since the beginning of the SC), and Spanish has been on the back burner for a while. But that's fine - if I live an average lifespan I'll get to my language goals and projects (I plan on working on Spanish again in the near future so I don't even need decades). No need to feel pressured to do everything now. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 478 of 668 28 July 2014 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Crush, I hyper focused on doing things that are somehow productive. I doubt I ever would have started studying Spanish, but at the time I was going crazy with my work and needed a productive outlet. I had a good job but it was too easy and not challenging at all. In the back of my mind I told myself that, in the long run, Spanish would be useful for my work and back then I really needed to do something challenging with my mind. Studying Spanish really helped me with what I needed at the time and kept me sane until my employment situation really changed/improved.
I really liked the challenge and long term process of learning Spanish and somehow I'd like to feel that again. French, for me, seemed to make sense due to family history and certain personal interests I have. I think I could learn it too. After doing Michel Thomas it did not seem too much more difficult than Spanish. I have definitely thought of Catalan. My best Skype partner speaks it and I could/would immediately have someone to practice with. I think the history and issues in Catalonia are very interesting. Portuguese seems like a good option too (and probably the most realistic) because it would be easiest to learn with my Spanish and also because, next to Spanish, it would be the most productive for my business. All things considered, however, I think I just stumbled into studying Spanish at the right time in my life and it was what I needed. My life is different now and the thought of putting 1000 hours or so into a new language just seems to not be something I can justify. Oh well. by the way, I sent you a PM about the Gramatica del uso de espanol. let me know if you don't get it. Yes, scrtoyenne... it is so much nicer and easier to feel like you can study what you want. I don't really mind quitting French right now. It will always be there and I can come back to it when the time is right. when I sit down and think about it, there are just so many more reasons to put that extra time into studying Spanish right now. I am going to update my goals for 2014 because I finished the stories from Puerto Rico today: Read any 15 books in Spanish. -> 10 done (Anthem, Joven Abogado #1 and #2, Narnia #1, Harry Potter #2, Man, Economy and State, Think and Grow Rich, Cuando Era Puertorriquena, Short Stories in Spanish by New Penguin and Stories From Puerto Rico). Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes in Spanish -> COMPLETE (well over 100+ done) Re-read Cassell's Colloquial Spanish -> finished the "Q" section. Re-read Practice Makes Perfect "Subjunctive Up Close." -> No progress yet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5260 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 479 of 668 28 July 2014 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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One of the problems of taking on another language is that we know what we've done with our first second language and how we got to where we did. This often means putting the first second language on hold while devoting a lot of energy to the new language. When we may not be satisfied with our level in our first second language it can feel as if we are leaving a job "unfinished".
There's nothing wrong with feeling that way. When you feel you are ready for French, it will always be there for you. Just because you learn Spanish to a high level, doesn't mean you have to learn French to the same level, when the time is right. The thing with HTLAL is a lot of folks have different priorities with languages. Some are more into learning lots of languages and enjoy the process as much as, if not more than, the actual use of the languages. Some want to dedicate their efforts to delving deep into a language and reaching as high a level as possible. Most are somewhere in between. What matters more, as far as advice goes, is what you want to do. Deciding to learn Portuguese after Spanish had many repercussions for me- good and bad. The similarity of the languages presented (and still presents) problems, especially when I've been doing either language extensively for a long period of time and then have to switch quickly. It takes a while for me to switch modes. The advantages are that it opened a whole new Lusophone world for me and the closeness to Spanish allowed me an easier segue into that world. Emk's approach to Ancient Egyptian influenced me a lot with my choice of Ladino. I wanted something fun but not so demanding that it would take away from my Portuguese and Spanish. Emk's approach to AE is light and easy. It satisfies an urge to do something a bit different and the light approach doesn't impinge on his main goal which is to improve his command of French. Being a dead language, he doesn't have to worry about speaking it. Ladino offers the same benefits to me with the added advantage of the language being highly similar to Spanish. I enjoy the challenge of the Rashi Hebrew script and the many, many, different words from all over the Mediterranean that have been adopted. When you feel you are ready to start learning French again, it will still be there, waiting for you. As a bonus it will be easier to learn because of your advanced level of Spanish. You'll be truly ready for a new language then because it won't feel like you are leaving a job unfinished. The rest of us will still enjoy following your Spanish journey- a journey that you are enjoying and that joy is what makes it worthwhile and fun for me and others to accompany you. You could spend a lifetime enjoying what Spanish has to offer culturally. P.S.: I will be happy to give you travel tips for Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands when your trip gets nearer. Edited by iguanamon on 28 July 2014 at 3:49pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 480 of 668 28 July 2014 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'll definitely hit you up for travel advice about Puerto Rico. The other island I will have to visit (for my conference) is Nevis. I don't know anything about Nevis other than someone once told me someone brought monkeys there and, by mistake, they got into the wild and now there are wild monkeys. That is the only thing that comes to mind when someone mentions Nevis.
The first thing I am noticing about researching for my trip is that there are not many ways to get to Nevis other than flying from San Juan. That is fine because it is probably what I want to do. I'll probably go down a week early and stay in Puerto Rico for the week before the conference. If there is a cool (and cheap) way to get to Nevis that would be good to know. Also, I travel alone and I am always very safety cautious... and cheap... so I look for cheap and safe ways to see as much of the "real" part of the country where I visit. I'd love to see the jungle in Puerto Rico and also some nice small towns. It's so true about everyone having different reasons to learn a language. The "why am I doing this" is a question I ask myself quite often. With Spanish I can easily explain how it might end up being very useful for my business. As of yet, it has not really helped in a meaningful way, but I have not yet decided to really push/market for Spanish speaking customers... I want to advance a bit further. With French the "why am I doing this" just is not there. When I was at a meetup last week there was a French woman and I said the few words I know and she looked at me like I had three heads. It made me think... man, I do not want to go through that phase again where I am a babbling idiot learning a language. I have forgotten to mention that I am still listening to "Desde Washington" on the way to work every weekday. It is really getting "easy" to understand/listen to. I watched a few public access shows from Miami where a guy with my type of business has a call in show. I can understand him and the other host absolutely perfectly. When he has someone call in I have much more difficulty... I cannot anticipate what they are going to say and I cannot see them. Plus the slightly worse audio from the phone definitely makes a difference. I tried listening to an episode of La Tremenda Corte, but it did not go well. So, that is a good explanation of my Spanish level. I can understand the news of the day pretty easily, I can have long deep fluent one on one conversations with natives, I can watch the Simpsons and enjoy it, I can read children's books fairly easily. I can read adult books with some difficulty. I cannot understand La Tremenda Corte very well nor can I understand slang or tricky jokes. When I get calls at work it is hard at first until I "train" the caller to speak clearly and slowly... then I don't have too much of a problem. Wow, I think I am spending too much time on my Spanish log. I write too much. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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