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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 577 of 668 06 January 2015 at 1:48pm | IP Logged |
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I'm going to do a quick update of my Goals for 2015 so I don't lose track of what I've done.
1. Finish Gramatica de Uso del Espanol B1/B2. -> Finished Lesson 36 today. 2. Read novels totaling 1,000,000 words. -> No Progress, but will start tomorrow. 3. Listen to Spanish every morning on the way to work. -> So far, so good. 4. Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes. -> So far have watched equivalent of 12 episodes. 5. Write 12 letters or memos for correction. -> No progress. 6. Read the Spanish side of Assimil's New French With Ease (Spanish Base). -> 22 lessons done/read. Discussion: I have a hard time keeping track of TV shows for some reason. I have watched the first three pages of La Corte del Pueblo which contains 21 episodes of varying length. They just over 10 minutes a case so I've watched equivalent of 10 TV episodes if I consider the length of The Simpsons as my standard. I've also watched a few episodes of the Simpsons... maybe two of those. I also read a bunch of the Asismil lessons out of the French book. Wow, that is pretty fun. I'm really enjoying it. The Spanish is quiet easy to read and I feel like I actually learning some useful French. I simply read the Spanish translation of the lesson and then I read the grammar notes. This book has WAY more info in the notes than the Spanish Assimil did. I really like it. I'll keep it up. 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 578 of 668 21 January 2015 at 3:40am | IP Logged |
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I finished the second Hunger Games book yesterday on the plane ride home. By my rough (very rough) calculations I figure it has about 105,000 words. I think my goal of 1,000,000 words is going to be easier than I thought.
I don't think I'll read the third book. I kind of slogged through this and actually thought of quitting it about half way through. I did not think it was nearly as good as the first book. For about the last third I listened to the audio book and followed along with the text. That seemed to make it go a bit faster, but it also decreased my comprehension substantially. I hope to do a good update on my trip to Mexico sometime soon. It was amazing and loved every minute of it. 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 579 of 668 21 January 2015 at 10:51pm | IP Logged |
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OK, I'm going to briefly summarize my trip to Mexico before I forget! All things considered it was an amazing trip.
The first five days I was in Cabo San Lucas for a four day work conference. This is a cool little resort type town. The only bad thing that happened the entire trip happened right when I got off the plane. The folks at Thrifty car rental seemed to try to work me over. They really tried to press me for all sorts of extras and it annoyed me. Then they did their "inspection" to document if there is damage or not and one guy told me "if you take care of us (with tips) we'll take care of you." All things considered it was a bad experience. Anyway, Cabo was very easy to get around in and my hotel was nice. I stayed right downtown in a "cheap" hotel for $40 a night, but it was very nice. It was clean, quiet and the owner was extremely helpful. I had several long talks with him in Spanish about all sorts of things. The highlight of the trip was the first morning. I get up early and Cabo is earlier than where I live so I was up super early there. I wandered around the town and eventually found some coffee. Then I decided I'd watch the sunrise. I went toward the beach and eventually asked a native lady (in Spanish) where the best place was to watch the sunrise. She told me about a hidden trail to climb a small mountain that looks over the Arch of Cabo, the beach and the city. I went for it. I might have been trespassing because I had to climb a fence. It was dark and actually parts of it seemed a tad bit dangerous. Anyway, it was amazing. I climbed that mountain right next to the famous Arch... all because I could talk to this woman in Spanish. Anyway, the conference was awesome. I sat next to a Spanish speaker that has my type of business in Washington state. We had some nice chats. I also sat next to a guy who does what I do and says he speaks Spanish. I realized that I definitely speak Spanish well enough to say "I speak Spanish" too. Cabo would be a great place for a first or "easy" Spanish trip. It was noticeably Mexican and there was plenty of opportunity to speak Spanish. But, it was not intimidating at all and had a very resort-ish or beach town type feel to it. One minor thing happened one evening. A sketchy looking guy approached me and asked me if I wanted to buy some Cuban cigars. I casually just told him I did not smoke and that was the end of that. If I did not speak Spanish this guy would have freaked me out due to his sketchyness look and attitude. I am sure I would have thought he was selling drugs or something. With my Spanish I felt totally fine and we had a nice very brief conversation. Then, after my stay in Cabo I went to DF. Wow, that was cool! I don't have enough time now to go into all the details, but it was awesome. I took the subway and bus around to some pretty cool places. I stayed in the "Bellas Artes" part of town and loved it. I stayed at a very nice hotel that cost $38 a night. Generally, DF was not as cheap as I thought it would be, but it certainly was not expensive either. I had plenty of good long conversations in Spanish with a huge variety of people. Generally, my Spanish was always good enough to get the job done. Only one person switched to English the entire time (when I was in the airport asking for directions to a terminal). I went to the pyramids, the castle of Chapultapec, the Bellas Artes Museum, the Museum of Archeology, a bunch of markets and a bunch of other cool things. I even found a used book market! I bought four books. I found used Perry Mason books for 5 pesos (about $0.40)! Again, one day a sketchy guy approached me and spoke in Spanish. He had just gotten released from jail and was asking for money to get back to his home in the country. He did freak me out a bit, but it would have been a whole heck of a lot worse if I did not know what he was saying. I just told him I could not understand him and walked away. I do note that my Spanish for ordering meals in restaurants had some distinct holes. I simply did not know what some of the stuff was on the menu (I did not know what it was in English either). If there was anything that was a bit more of a challenge on my trip it was ordering food. A few times the waiters would ask me things and I'd need them to repeat themselves. I also note that I often cannot understand two natives speaking. The last day I was there in Cabo I was sitting at the pool and two employees came out and were talking about something to do with work. I had absolutely no clue what they were talking about. There was no context and they were talking pretty fast. I hope someday I can understand those types of conversations. The part of Mexico City where I was would be a great place to spend some time to get immersed in Spanish. All things considered it was a wonderful trip. I needed the time off and I really loved it. Edited by James29 on 21 January 2015 at 10:59pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4663 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 580 of 668 21 January 2015 at 11:03pm | IP Logged |
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Sounds awesome! I remember that when I went to Paris my French also felt a bit lacking when it came to ordering food. Can't have helped that I only rarely eat French food in the first place. I'll definitely remember to brush up on food vocabulary before I go to Italy or Spain...
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| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4049 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 581 of 668 22 January 2015 at 5:59pm | IP Logged |
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Wow! That sounds like you had a wonderful trip. I have heard so many good things about DF and am dying to visit one day. (Especially since all my telenovelas are set in Mexico) I love that you created so many opportunities to speak Spanish. I'm very impressed!
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| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4142 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 582 of 668 22 January 2015 at 11:24pm | IP Logged |
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Loved the trip recap! Thanks for sharing!
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 583 of 668 27 January 2015 at 11:01pm | IP Logged |
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Yes, the trip was really amazing. I'd definitely like to visit more parts of Mexico. I feel really ignorant about Mexican history and Mexican heritage. I really enjoyed learning about the indigenous cultures. But, I had a hard time saying all those indigenous words! Unfortunately, I don't think I'll take another trip for a while.
I've been busier with work than I've been in more than eight years. This is partly because we are just busy and partly because I was gone for 12 days. Things are normalizing a bit now which is nice. In terms of Spanish I just keep on chugging. I really love it. In the mornings when I have my quiet time with Spanish I often just think about how much I really just like learning the language. So, I've been doing as planned. I'm doing a lesson of the Gramatica de uso del Espanol book every day. It seems like the lessons are getting easier. They are really almost like a review for me now. I'm going to continue with them because it is definitely helpful, but, I would not say the lessons are too challenging for me now. I still have about 75 lessons to go and I think they'll get back into some more challenging stuff soon. I REALLY like the setup of the book and I have definite plans to work through the C1 book. I'm also reading El Fiscal en el Candelero by Erle Stanley Gardner. It is pretty good so far. I like this sort of "who dunnit" book. It is easy reading and not too hard to follow. It really feels a lot like Agatha Christie. The chapters are a perfect length to read one each morning in about 20-30 minutes. I still listen to the Spanish news in the car every morning. It is pretty easy to understand now. I have been thinking of spending some of that time doing French. I'd like to do a bit more French. On the French front I read a few more of the Assimil lessons. That seems like it is a great course. Also, I forgot to mention that in the airport on my trip I listened to about fifteen of the Berlitz French lessons. I did a meetup last week. It was a great group... a bunch of native speakers and a bunch of very advanced Americans. I had an extended talk with some natives and they both commented that it just felt like a normal conversation in Spanish. I think they were being sincere. Obviously I have an accent and some issues, but I don't think it bothers native speakers at all to talk with me. So... now for the big news... I LOVE MY NEW KINDLE!!!! I cannot believe how awesome this is going to be for learning Spanish. That pop up dictionary translation is incredible. This is going to be amazing for reading books and learning vocabulary. The vocabulary builder function too... that's awesome! It creates a list of all the words I look up and can even do flashcards. Wow... now I'm just kicking myself for buying so many real books. I'm going to force myself not to buy a whole bunch of books for the kindle. 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 584 of 668 01 February 2015 at 3:03pm | IP Logged |
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OK, it is time for me to get back on track with my Sunday updates to my log. January was a really crazy month with my trip and an overwhelming amount of work when I returned. I finished Erle Stanley Gardner's El Fiscal en el Candelero today so I'm going to update my goals for 2015.
1. Finish Gramatica de Uso del Espanol B1/B2. -> Finished Lesson 44. 2. Read novels totaling 1,000,000 words. -> Finished two novels totaling 171,000 words (En Llamas with 105,000 and El Fiscal en el Candelero with 66,000). 3. Listen to Spanish every morning on the way to work. -> So far, so good. 4. Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes. -> So far have watched equivalent of 12 episodes. 5. Write 12 letters or memos for correction. -> No progress. 6. Read the Spanish side of Assimil's New French With Ease (Spanish Base). -> 37 lessons done/read. Discussion: I liked the Erle Stanley Gardner book. I was able to read it quite quickly. It was a good straightforward mystery. It kept my interest much more than the second Hunger Games book. I've got two more of Gardner's books and I'll keep them in the hopper for further reading. I'd really like trying out my kindle for my next book. I've got a ton of books to read on my bookshelf, but there is something about having a new toy that is drawing me to buying something for the kindle. I'll do some searching and see what I can find. I want to read something easy, quick and interesting at first. I really don't get much speaking practice anymore. I go to the local weekly meetup and that is decent, but that's it in terms of talking. This does not really bother me too much because my spoken Spanish did not give me any problems in Mexico. I'll keep on with the Assimil French book. It makes the Spanish seem simple to read. I'll also keep up with the morning Spanish during the commute to work. I might substitute French for the drive when I finish the Assimil book. We'll see. Nothing much else to report. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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