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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4631 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes  Studies: Spanish | Message 89 of 154 13 August 2013 at 3:21pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the post James,
I agree with you in terms of using the language and not just having a piece of paper. My main purpose for doing it is that I have to get some training/certification every year and it could make the different in getting a call for an interview. It is pretty exciting. I'm axiously awaiting getting my book in the mail. I'm gonna kill the test. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4631 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 90 of 154 20 August 2013 at 6:40pm | IP Logged |
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Hey everyone,
I'm still working on my Spanish. I've finished my audio collection of newsinslowspanish and now am listening to Univision news radio on my phone during my 1hr daily commute. I'm able to follow most of it but sometimes they go into a rapid-fire mode and I get a little lost. That's ok though, gotta push yourself to get better. I've begun studying for the DELE exam. Through the council of a few buddies I have chosen to take the B1 test. I purchased the B2 e-book with the thought of being super prepared and getting a better deal by being able to use the same book twice. (I will probably take the B2 test in April). I took a practice exam last night. 70 minutes of rushing and I'm kind of nervous to check my scores. I think I failed, there were just too many words that I didn't know. It's ok though. I need to know where I am at the moment and I'll just build from there. I've also struck a deal with the English instructor in Mexico. I will write a short story everyday (around 400) words and she will correct it. Her English is pretty good but she still has some areas that need improvement so she will send me stories to correct as well. She invited me to attend her class again the next time I'm in Mexico. I'm kind of surprised at how fast and far news has traveled about me attending the English classes. I'm really starting to make a name for myself. I had something funny happen the other day. I read about 20 process change reports per day and they are all in Spanish. One of them had a verb I had never seen and I couldn't find it with google translate. I asked a buddy and he told me, "Ohh that is Spanglish." The verb was beepando. I guess the folks make up a verb beepar which means "to beep" as in checking a circuit with a voltmeter. I was cracking up at that. I'm still reading the free Spanish language newspapers. It's a trip how almost every ad is for an immigration lawyer. Learning Spanish has really opened my eyes to the plight of the migrant worker. This last edition detailed the living conditions in a migrant camp and the people were washing their clothes on a wash board. Not that there's anything shameful in that, but they work all day breaking their backs and then have to wash that down with doing laundry the hard/expensive way. Each load is cheaper than paying at a laundromat but the washboard is very hard on clothes and they will need to be replaced much sooner. I like to daydream inventions and I have an idea for a device that could really help out migrant workers. After my exam in November I'll have some more time to put some serious thought into it. Ohh yea, dancing is going well. I went to my first dance a few weeks ago. Everyone was friendly and there were more women than men so I danced all night. They taught me 2 new dances. Many of the people are from Latin/South America. I was going to drop some of my Spanish on them but I didn't want to tax them to the point where they are thinking, "I have to teach this fool how to dance and speak Spanish!" I have a Spanish meetup tonight and I'll check the results of my practice exam. Cya 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4631 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 91 of 154 22 August 2013 at 6:48pm | IP Logged |
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Well, the results are in... I passed the first quarter of the B2 practice exam. Hooray for me!! I passed by the skin of my teeth 66% and a 60% is needed to pass each section. I think I could have done better but I was interrupted for a minute or two during the exam by a wife that wanted a hug. (Who am I to say no to that). That short while made a difference in the end where I just had to guess because I was running out of time. I'm thinking I could have gotten a few of the last questions right if I had the time to think about them. Last night I downloaded the audio files for the next section of the exam which I'll take on Saturday. If I have time tonight, I'm going to review the first section of the test and see if I can figure out where I went wrong. The e-book I purchased is very thorough. I think I will be more than prepared when I'm done with it. It's set up with 4 exams in the beginning and then explanations/instruction. I may just finish the first exam, do some of the appendix, and then try the second to see if my new knowledge helped me out. There's a huge list of vocab words that will really take my speaking/writing to a new level if I get them all in my active vocabulary. This may sound like a nerd thing to say, but I'm enjoying prepping for the exam.
Last Tuesday was my Spanish meet up. It was very fun as usual. My language wasn't flowing like I wanted but I could still be understood. There was a new Mexican guy who has been in the States for 14 years. He's looking to improve his English in group settings. He's like me in that he can talk when it's one on one but when multiple people speak he gets lost. I had a good conversation with a Colombian lady who just returned from a vacation in Spain. I asked her how she felt when the Spanish tour guides were talking about past glory that came at her ancestor's expense. Her answer surprised me. Before her trip she wrote a long letter explaining her feelings and she was able to let it all go, sort of like therapy. She had no problem enjoying Spain for what it was, an interesting/beautiful country. The leader of the group gave me some really helpful constructive criticism. I tend to start talking and then pause and fill the space with uhh ummm while I'm conjugating in my head. He told me to try to take more time before I start talking to work things out and then stay the whole sentence with fluidity. He said that he used to do the same thing when he was first learning. Cya 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4631 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 92 of 154 30 August 2013 at 7:49am | IP Logged |
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Hey Everybody,
I had some computer problems and had to reformat the hard drive and lost some documents. I need to rebuild my Spanish tracking sheet so I know how many hours I've logged. It's not so much for me but I feel obligated to help out the language learning community as a whole because I know that everyone won't have as easy of a row to hoe as I've had. (that's a good idiom for people who are learning English). To give a basic glimpse into my language learning life: I have about 30 native Spanish Speakers as my buddies in my company’s instant messenger. At any point I can ask anyone of them a question. The reason I can do this is that I've put the time/effort into befriending them in real life. I know when their birthday's are, how many kids they have, their wives/husbands names, been to their houses, had too much to drink with them before, been in car accidents with them, made them laugh, or just simply shot the shit (another good idiom) with them at some point in time. For instance, IMed a buddy this week and asked, "How do you say 'to burp.'" This is a valid question and something that you probably wouldn't find on any vocabulary list. In case you're wondering, it's eructar. Also I have a buddy who's English isn't that good, (she also has a bit of a learning disability (she told me herself)) who doesn't know how to swim. To be 100% clear on engineering concerns we email in Spanish. Last week we were shooting the shit and somehow swimming came up. I pushed her hard ( in a friendly manner) to learn how to swim. This week I had to work with her to solve several problems and I wanted to start the email off by saying, " Good morning Mermaid." The problem was that I didn't know how to say mermaid, again, this is not something that's on a regular vocab list. I IM'ed my buddy and he told me. Then the joke could continue. I think the key is to take a genuine interest in people's lives. This lady isn't my best friend in the world, and when I move on, I will probably lose contact with her, but in the meantime, I really would like for her to learn how to swim. #1 it's a valuable skill to have that may save her life someday, but #2, not knowing really limits your life. You have to stay on the shore while everyone else is playing in the water, or you never get to enjoy your time on a boat because you're worried that if the boat sinks, you're dead meat. I think she gets a kick out of my gentle teasing and hopefully it inspires her to put some effort into getting some swimming lessons. I guess what I'm trying to say is be Rudolph. I would say 90+ percent of Americans know the song about Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. I'm weird and like economics so I try to apply it to most things in life. (don't borrow this from me without citing me) If you really think about it, the moral of the Rudolph's story is: BE USEFUL. The other reindeer didn't care about him until he proved his worth through Santa Claus. If you want to get help from someone, be useful to them in some sort of way. I'm the go-to guy for all the Mexicans who know me for English help. I had a guy ask me today, "What does “whataya” and “Sup” mean." It only took me 30 seconds to explain and give examples, but now he, or more less, owes me some free Spanish lessons. I can ask if there a difference between burp and belch in Spanish, what's the word for "to dig," and what's the difference between chest, breast, and breast of a chicken. These little things matter. I would hate to be giving a presentation and people forget what I'm talking about because I used the wrong word and they were laughing in their minds... I wrote another story for the English instructor in Mexico to correct. It was about 500 words and it was a true story from my childhood. If you want to learn a bunch of vocab, just try to write a short story from your childhood. I bet you have to look up about more than 5 words. She hasn't had time to correct my story yet, but she told me about an embarrassing situation that happened this week. There were many visitors to the plant and one of my Mexican colleagues was trying hard to remember their English so they could speak to the visitors. Being the helpful person that she is, the instructor volunteered to translate from English to Spanish. One visitor replied, " Ohh I'm sorry, but we are German." The instructor was very embarrassed by the situation. I tried to downplay it by relating a few stories where I assumed wrongly. I passed the B2 practice exam audio portion with 63% correct. I'm kind of disappointed in the test. I'm starting to realize that instead of having possible answers that are substantially right or wrong, they are looking to trick people. I don't think this way of testing writing is complete. I really felt like, " Ok, so you're gonna trick me... I've got something for you on the next practice exam!!!" What purpose does that mentality serve??? So what if I can beat the hell out of the exam come November??? When in real life will someone try to trick me in a complex listening/writing experience; in a setting where I can't just walk away??? Never! If I'm in Mexico and I feel that someone is talking fast with the intention of tricking me, I can and will tell them to f-off. Tests are so unrealistic. Anyone with half a brain can figure out what types of questions will be asked and learn how to just regurgitate the answer on the exam. But does that mean I know Spanish??? Nope! It just means that on that day, I could answer all the irrelevant questions that were asked of me... One day I will have my own business and here's how my interviews will go. "So, I've reviewed your resume and it's very impressive. What can you do?" "Well, uh, I've studied at..." " What can you do?" " I'm certified, in Spanish." " De veras? Cuantas años has estudiado? Dónde has viajado? Digame a tu experience favorite con la idioma." (crickets chirping)... "Thank you very much for your time." Ohhhhh! lol Last but not least, more preaching about the wheel and the grease. I recently was contacted by an old work buddy. He told me about a conference and said that I really need to attend. (this was last Friday) The idea stuck in my mind for some reason and I did some research on the conference. It turns out that it's really something that I should attend. So then I started thinking, "How can I justify this as a business expense." Long story short, I made a proposal including all the seminars that I wanted to attend and presented to my supervisor as, "I'm willing to travel to this conference, attend and take notes at these umpteen technical presentations, and write a report to share with the rest of the team." Today my supervisor said, "I agree," and I booked my hotel, flight, and registered for the convention. I was pretty sure that he would say yes because I knew that no one else was crazy enough to sign up for 3 days worth of lectures by people who have English as their second (at best) language. It's a win-win situation. I get more experience interacting in an industry conference environment (plus the knowledge I gain) and the company gets the information that I will learn by interacting with the presenters at the conference. Weeeee! Please note that by no means do I think that I'm the greatest guy in the universe. I'm just saying this to give younger people some sort of guidelines on the type of hustle you need you have to move up in a company. I wish someone would have told me these things when I was an early 20s guy graduating from college. Next week is another meetup. I know I will have fun and learn a bunch. I haven't been to dance class in two weeks. The instructor texted me right before tonight's class asking, "So have you quit or what?" Thursday is a busy night for me now that football season has started again, so I was hanging out with some friends at a bar. However, I assured her that I'm not ready to be a Lord of the Dance and I would be back for more lessons. If I were King of the Universe, I would encourage everyone to learn how to dance something. It's very fun, you meet a lot of interesting people, and it's great exercise. Take it easy. -Herm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4631 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 93 of 154 20 September 2013 at 3:33am | IP Logged |
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Hey everybody,
It’s been a while since my last post. I’m still alive and still studying El Espanol. I’ve been really busy lately so I haven’t had time to read newspapers like I want to, although that hasn’t stopped me from picking them up. I have about 7 newspapers that I still have to read. I’m becoming a Spanish paper hoarder. I’m still talking to my co-workers as much as possible in Spanish and I have about 3300 words in my anki. I’m learning about 15 a day so that I can have all the vocab words in the index of my B2 exam study book memorized before the exam. I know that they won’t all stay in my active memory , but if I can just have a feel for what the word is supposed to mean I can probably get the right answer on the exam. During my first practice test I was getting clobbered because I didn’t know the main word, like groundwater, and I was completely confused for the whole paragraph. I had a Spanish meetup on Tuesday and it was a blast as usual. I was asking people what they planned on being for Halloween. That started some really interesting conversations. There were two new ladies who joined the group. One was from Spain and the other from Peru. I got a chance to speak to the Peruvian lady for about 30mins and I had to try my hardest to keep up. She told us that the speed at which she was talking was nothing, her family back home speaks twice as fast and they have multiple conversations at the same time. Her mother is here in the states and she’s very scared to use her English. All the regulars encouraged her to bring her mom to the next meeting. We are fun people and very polite/playful so there’s no reason for anyone to be afraid. I felt bad for the mom because all she does is sit in the house. She’s too scared/embarrassed to take a walk for fear that she may have to speak with someone. I’m going to be super busy in the near future because I signed up for first year MBA classes that are being offered for free by the Wharton business school. I would like to get my MBA some day but I don’t what to pay for it. The online classes can be taken for a certificate for $50. No one really knows yet what the certs are worth but I’m going to take them anyway. I’ve always been interested in the market and finance and I figure that it will at least show employers that I’m a self starter. Besides I really just want the knowledge. I have a few inventions that I want to develop and know more about business couldn’t hurt. My wife is going to be taking the classes as well. It should be a fun project to take on together. At this point I can write just about anything I want in Spanish. I blow my own mind almost everyday thinking, “ Whoa man, that’s some serious Spanish.” I thanked my buddies who chat with me regularly because talking crazy with them helps me improve my speed with the language. Oh yea, we went to a dinner party last weekend with our Columbian friends. It was a great time and made me very thankful to have the opportunity to hang out with people from all over the world. The food was great as well as the conversation. The husband and wife were asking me all kinds of unrelated words and I knew what they meant. I heard some stories that were so funny that I started crying. The wife works as an admin at a dental office. She said that people come in and try to explain what’s wrong with their dentures and they just pop them right out and try to hand them to her (yuck!!). We had a great conversation about politicians and drug laws. Also they explained some Colombian history. I guess when they won their independence there was a fight between the people who wanted a Colombian king and the others who wanted a representative government. I’ve continued to talk to every person who looks friendly. I will be going to the Chicago area at the end of the month for a conference and I will make it a point to mingle with as many people as possible in Spanish. There’s a large Hispanic population there so it should be easy/fun. I still need to work on my speaking, but as I said before, if I had to choose. I would rather be able to read and write than speak. I read an email from a coworker today and I couldn’t understand what he was talking about. I had to rewrite it completely and that was after asking him what he was trying to say. I’m having more dreams in Spanish and the last few days I’ve been waking up singing Spanish songs. I’m still listening to 2-3 hours of Spanish radio while I’m at work. That’s about it. cya 3 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 94 of 154 22 September 2013 at 1:34am | IP Logged |
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FREE MBA AT WHARTON?!?!?!? Did you just stick that in there to see if anyone was reading?? You must explain this. How does it work?
You sound like a very outgoing person which seems like a good asset for Spanish learning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4631 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 95 of 154 22 September 2013 at 7:53pm | IP Logged |
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Hey James,
I have a tendency to leave out important details from time to time. So here's the deal. Wharton business school is offering their first year of their mba program on line for free. You can also pay $49 (I'm not sure if that's per class or for 4 classes) to get a certificate saying that you completed the first year course work. Here's a link to get you started. http://blog.coursera.org/post/60889088289/the-wharton-mba-fo undation-series You should probaby sign up soon for the accounting class. I think the deadline to sign up is end of this week coming up. This is a new offering so no one really knows what the cert will be worth. My plan is to take/pass the classes, slap the cert on my resume, and see what happens. At the very least I would expect an interviewer to ask me about it and then I can wow them with my knowledge/initiative and all that good stuff. Again, who knows what it will be worth, but the bottom line is that the information is valuable in and of itself. I've always been interested in business and might be inclined to going more that route than staying in engineering for my whole career. Either way I think it'll be a fun challenge. Since this post is already off topic I might as well list this too. I read an interesting article this morning titled "Mexico: The new land of opportunity for migrants." (http://www.cnbc.com/id/101052834) The article is about people migrating to Mexico because, ''There is this energy here, this feeling that anything can happen, it's hard to find that in the U.S." ( What a powerful quote. Times are a changing. The article mkes me really happy that I started studying when I did.) For people with talent, the “Mexican Dream” could be something worth pursuing. However, I would caution anyone thinking of taking their chances in Mexico to remember that opportunities are like surfing, you go out, catch a wave, ride it, and then you have to move on the next wave. When I was in highschool (94-98) I remember people telling me to go to Ireland because it was booming. That ship has sailed and now, 20 years later, check out the stats on Ireland: (source: http://theweek.com/article/index/212558/irelands-exodus-by-t he-numbers) Irish voters go to the polls today for a general election — but new evidence suggests that much of the electorate may not stick around for long. The severe financial crisis in Ireland is spurring a wave of emigration that threatens to decimate the country's population. Here, a look at the numbers behind Ireland's exodus: 13.4 percent The current unemployment rate in Ireland 32 percent Ireland's budget deficit as a percentage of GDP (approximately $227 billion). By comparison, the U.S. deficit this year stands at about 9 percent of its GDP. $15 billion Savings the Irish government hopes to make over the next four years, mainly by cutting state pensions and benefits, and raising taxes 100,000 The number of Irish citizens expected to leave the country in the next two years 1,000 The number of Irish citizens currently leaving the country every week. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who is set to become Ireland's next prime minister, called the figure a "national heartbreak." 60 percent The rise this year in visa applications by Irish citizens to Australia 30,000 Number of Irish citizens currently in Australia on a two-year "holiday" visa It's important to get while the getting is good and move on. Final note, I was in the grocery store shopping for microwave popcorn. I wanted to know the ingredients and was shocked to see that the ingredients/nutritional information are printed in English on one side of the box and Spanish on the other. Regardless of what will happen with immigration reform , the Hispanic population will continue to grow in the US and folks who can speak Spanish will have a distinct advantage over those who cannot. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4631 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 96 of 154 11 November 2013 at 7:45pm | IP Logged |
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Hello Everyone,
I’m still alive and still working on my Spanish. It has been quite a while since my last post. I’ve been reading, studying for my Dele exam in 2 weeks, reviewing my flash cards (3500 words on my list), and writing all my emails in Spanish. In addition I’m also IMing my co-workers in Spanish and asking them at least once a day for a little bit of Spanish lessons. One of my buddies in Mexico finally bought her own laptop and we are going to practice together through Skype. I think her English is pretty good but she is extremely shy. Yesterday she called me on the phone and I was very impressed that she worked up the nerve to do that. Later I spoke to the program manager and he said that he tricked her. He dialed my number and then ran away. She said a few words in English and then quickly switched to Spanish. It was pretty funny. My meet ups have been going really well and the group is growing every time. There are a few of us that always sit together and talk crazy. It’s a lot of fun. A new lady from Puerto Rico loves to cook and invited the whole group over to her house for a sampling of Puerto Rico cuisine. I’m really mad that I will be out of town and will have to miss it. There are many South Americans who have joined the group recently and I enjoy speaking with them and finding out about their culture. I was asking if there are stereotypes between the different countries and they said no, for the most part, only that people from poorer countries tend to be cold hearted. I guess I can understand that to a certain extent. One lady is from Spain and she’s somewhat difficult to understand but I think it’s more of her speed than me not knowing the language. She speaks fast even in English. My buddy, the photographer is getting more and more comfortable with English but when we are around he still prefers to speak in Spanish. It’s funny how much people from all over the whole look alike. There’s a new guy in the group who looks like he’s from Southern Mexico. I asked where he is from and he said, “India.” I’m thinking that I should just stop trying to guess. The other day I went to a book signing put on by the library. A lady in my meetup works at the library and a few of us came out to support her at her event. It was really cool. The book is, Rumbo Al Hermoso Norte.” The premise is that a border town doesn’t have any men because they all went up to the US to find work. The women bang together to go find the men and bring them all back home. It’s a very hard read for me because of all the slang. Getting through it will be a major accomplishment because I’m having to read with a dictionary open. I had a really good time hanging out w/ my meetup buddies and talking to new people. My buddy with the Dominican wife came with their daughter. I asked her if she had been to any yard sales and she had a big smile and said, “YES!!” I’m going to try to read a whole bunch more of the book in the next couple of days so I can go to a discussion group that’s being held at the library on Saturday. It will all be in Spanish so it will be a good opportunity to interact with a lot of people. Even if I don’t finish I may go just to listen and maybe just hang around afterwards and see if someone what’s to chat with me. Ohh yea, when the author signed my book he was so excited to see that it was in Spanish. That made me feel pretty good. I talk to my buddies on the instant messenger in Spanish so much that one of them joked, “you know that we speak English, right?!?” I type totally in Spanish to the people who already have perfect English. For the others, I do a 50/50 split. I have another meetup tomorrow that I’m sure will go well. I haven’t been to my dance class in about 2 months :-( I moved recently and I’m still trying to get situated before I can get back into my groove. This week I plan on at least getting in the garage and dancing by myself for a few songs. 2014 is going to be Year of the Dance. Rosetta Stone should win all the awards for the best marketing in the history of the universe. Almost everyone who knows I’m studying Spanish has said, “I’m thinking about starting, I need to get that Rosetta Stone.” Or they think that taking a class twice a week for 8 weeks will get them to fluency. I try to let them down gently by asking what their goals are and then giving my opinion on what they need to do to meet the goal. Most times their mouths drop when I tell them the time I have put in during the last 21months. I’m extremely happy that I started studying Spanish. I’ve had so much fun getting to know my co-workers and meeting interesting people. I actually enjoy reviewing my flash cards. I’ll never stop, maybe just slow down when I start to add another language in a couple more years. I was listening to NPR and they were running a special on migrant farmers’ rights. Man-O-Man some of them get treated so poorly. I know it’s a complicated issue, but I guess my little contribution to solving the problem is to be a friend to strangers and listen to their stories if they feel like talking. Also, in 2014 I will begin working on my invention for a piece of farm equipment that I hope will help lighten their load. My trip to Chicago was cool but I really didn’t get to use my Spanish. A lot of the people who were setting up and serving at the convention were Hispanic, but they were too busy doing their jobs to chat with me. The last thing I want to do is get someone in trouble for giving me some lessons. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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