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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| nuriayasmin Senior Member Germany Joined 5244 days ago 155 posts - 210 votes  | Message 9 of 40 14 March 2011 at 10:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Vanillabean
I'm also impressed with what some people here have achieved but we're all different. As for me, I did my first Spanish course at the age of 13, then did some serious studies again in my early 20's. Some years later I had a Chilean boy-friend I mainly spoke Spanish with, followed by 10 years of almost no exposure to the language at all. Now I'm back to studying Spanish and it's my goal to speak Spanish as well as I speak English - knowing very well that my English is far from being perfect. I'm just not aiming for native-like fluency, I just want to be able to read books in my target languages, have conversations with native speakers without embarrassing gaps all the time because I'm struggling to find the right word or grammatical structure and watch tv or movies in Spanish. So I wish you good luck and I'm glad you chose such a beautiful language to study. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5376 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 10 of 40 14 March 2011 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Vanillabean - I second the suggestion to watch Destinos. I tried watching native materials early on and it certainly is not bad, but I found it really did not help very much at all because I really could not understand anything. If you can find a transcript for the native material, however, I think it can be quite helpful. Destinos is fairly basic and somewhat enjoyable... and free.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sash2619 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5004 days ago 13 posts - 14 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 40 17 March 2011 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Vanillabean
Good luck with your Spanish! I am a beginner in Spanish too but i listen to a lot of audio. Destinos is great but I found it boring and dropped it from my learning curriculum. But you may like it. I personally prefer to watch the actual TV programs or shows that are available online. Because I am interested in Argentina and love Argentinian accent I watch many shows from there. For example, you can find all episodes of the most recent/current shows produced by Trece channel here: http://www.eltrecetv.com.ar. And don't worry if you don't understand the majority of what you hear. Your listening comprehension will keep improving. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vanillabean Groupie Canada Joined 5009 days ago 53 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 40 21 March 2011 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hola todos,
This week went pretty well. I completed units 7-13 in Pimsleur and have done some flash cards/reviewing of all the vocabulary so far. I've also been reading as much Spanish news as I get through (BBC Mundo). Since the news is fairly basic (most times) understanding doesn't seem to be as challenging as my speed, or lack thereof. Sometimes I think I'm trying to jump ahead to fast - I'll look up something related to what I'm learning and then get distracted by other stuff I don't know. I'm having challenges with certain elements and surprisingly, it's not rolling the r's! For example, the most difficult sentence to me at the beginning of the week was, 'Pardone señor. ¿Se donde está el hotel de Americana?" It's a simple sentence yet I can't seem to string the words together quickly and seamlessly like I hear on the audio! My speaking sounds a bit disjointed and slow - hopefully this will come with time. :) I ordered some books online which will hopefully arrive soon. A couple of the Practice Makes Perfect series and some other reference books. Espero yo puede mejorar con tiempo. Yo aprecio ustedes corregirán mi escritura, me gustaría saber más. Voy a practicar más cada semana. Gracias de siguientes :) ----------- Tibbles - Thanks for the suggestion. I started watching Destinos and I really like it so far. It's been helpful. Solfrid Cristin - I found it really interesting what you said about opening up a whole new culture. So true... and definitely a benefit to learning a new language. Nuriayasmin - Great goal! Agreed, it is a beautiful language! James29 - Thanks again. Being free is definitely a benefit as well. I'll let you know how it goes... so far I've only watched one episode. Sash2619 - I appreciate the link... I'm always looking for new resources. Good to hear my listening comprehension will improve, because it's not very good right now! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vanillabean Groupie Canada Joined 5009 days ago 53 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 40 24 March 2011 at 4:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Still working at it... I'm only up to Unit 16 in Pimsleur which is just over one lesson per day. I've had to slow my pace a bit because it's obviously getting more difficult than the first few lessons. My vocabulary is coming along - I find that I can get so much more out of Pimsleur if I'm already familiar with the words they're using. I'm getting so impatient for my grammar books to arrive - I've used conjugation.org and spaleon.com a lot to practice conjugating. Some things are starting to sink in. It's really motivating to look back at things I wrote or read only a week(!) ago and see progress.
I found an awesome resource! LoMasTV -- it has Spanish videos from all over the world and allows you to sort by skill level, accent, pause the video, make it slower, etc. as well as Spanish and English subtitles. Even better, I can click any word and it adds it to a word list for me to study later - it's great so far. I also signed up for a site called conversationexchange.com - has anyone used this? You can find native speakers of your target language to exchange emails with. I'm not sure if this will help a lot, but it's worth a try. :) Hope everyone's having a good week! Edited by vanillabean on 24 March 2011 at 4:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 14 of 40 24 March 2011 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Vanillabean, you should also try Lenguajero. You can practice writing and be corrected by native speakers- you do the same for them in English. You'll also meet people for skype exchanges on the site. If you live in Ontario, there are plenty of Spanish speakers in Toronto and Hamilton. Canada is a very diverse country and I'm sure if you look around, you'll find someone to practice with near where you live.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5183 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 15 of 40 24 March 2011 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
Do you have to suggest me any other similar websites where I can find a language partner for an Italian-Spanish swap? I just had a quick look to "Lenguajero" and - please, correct me if I'm wrong - it's just for English and Spanish speaking people. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vanillabean Groupie Canada Joined 5009 days ago 53 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 40 24 March 2011 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Iguanamon, thanks for the suggestion! I will definitely check out that site. I am actually in Alberta, but I do have a few friends who speak Spanish (one of my really good friends is from Ecuador) so I have those resources for sure. I was just hoping to have a few online connections as well so that I'm not always burdening them with questions!
Fabrizio, have you seen lang-8.com? That might be along the lines of what you're looking for. Not necessarily a language partner, but people will correct your writing in exchange for you correcting other people in your native language. :) Edited by vanillabean on 24 March 2011 at 7:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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