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Stelle Speaks Spanish and Tagalog

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Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 4145 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 9 of 384
02 August 2013 at 11:08pm | IP Logged 
JCTranslator wrote:
I used Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Verb Tenses and I found it
great! The explanations were particularly good.

It looks like you're making great progress, you have much more gumption than I when it
comes to speaking! I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on over the coming year.

¡Buena suerte!

I actually quite like them too! I just find that I'm getting a bit bogged down in the
present tense. I need to get past all of this irregular verb review so that I can get
into other tenses. I'm definitely being held back by my lack of verb tenses.
1 person has voted this message useful



casamata
Senior Member
Joined 4263 days ago

237 posts - 377 votes 
Studies: Portuguese

 
 Message 10 of 384
02 August 2013 at 11:27pm | IP Logged 
Stelle wrote:
Hello!

I'm new to this forum. While I've been teaching languages for years, I never even
thought about looking for online language learning communities. Then when I dove into
learning Spanish, I stumbled upon one blog, which led me to another, which led me to
another, which led me to a forum, which led me to create a blog of my own, which led me
to another forum, which...well, I'm sure you understand.

Anyway, my goal is to be fluent in Spanish by March 2014, when I'll be heading to Spain
for six weeks to walk the Camino de Santiago. Today marks the two-month point since I
started studying, so I figured I may as well start a video log - even if seeing/hearing
myself on video makes me cringe a bit.

I wish I could start over and make videos on day one, and at the end of month one!
I'll have to remember to do that when I start learning my next language.

Anyway, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeVAxybAtNk


For two months, I am very impressed! And I don't just hand out praise like hotcakes. Your accent is better than a lot of Americans (I know you are French Canadian) that I know. :)

Some helpful pointers. And sorry if you didn't want them: hace quince *años* (the "ñ" wasn't pronounced correctly) estudié el español EN la universidad POR un año.

Con mi padre *A* españa.

Vamos a caminar POR el camino de Santiago.

Tengo cinco amigas *de* skype. (although "en" is "ok")

*para que* los dos podamos practicar.

trabajo con Audi LOS lunes y con Mati LOS jueves.

(In Spanish you only use the definite article "El" with the days of the week when there is an event. For example, "El martes tengo una cita." You use "los" with the days of the week when you are describing something you routinely do. For example, "Los lunes voy al instituto para estudiar francés, los martes trabajo en la oficina que está al lado, y los miércoles almuerzo con mi amigo australiano." Kind of a weird sentence, but you get the drift!

Hoy ES el 26 de junio.

Gracias POR escucharme.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 4145 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 11 of 384
03 August 2013 at 12:45am | IP Logged 
casamata wrote:


For two months, I am very impressed! And I don't just hand out praise like hotcakes.
Your accent is better than a lot of Americans (I know you are French Canadian) that I
know. :)

Some helpful pointers. And sorry if you didn't want them: hace quince *años* (the "ñ"
wasn't pronounced correctly) estudié el español EN la universidad POR un año.

Con mi padre *A* españa.

Vamos a caminar POR el camino de Santiago.

Tengo cinco amigas *de* skype. (although "en" is "ok")

*para que* los dos podamos practicar.

trabajo con Audi LOS lunes y con Mati LOS jueves.

(In Spanish you only use the definite article "El" with the days of the week when there
is an event. For example, "El martes tengo una cita." You use "los" with the days of
the week when you are describing something you routinely do. For example, "Los lunes
voy al instituto para estudiar francés, los martes trabajo en la oficina que está al
lado, y los miércoles almuerzo con mi amigo australiano." Kind of a weird sentence, but
you get the drift!

Hoy ES el 26 de junio.

Gracias POR escucharme.


Muchas muchas gracias! I really, sincerely appreciate the feedback. Prepositions are
killing me. Ha! I struggle a lot with en/a/para/de/por - I tend to use French as a
crutch, and it doesn't always work. I also notice in the video that I keep saying EL
español. It's a hard habit to break!

re: accent, I'm working on it! I'd like it to - eventually - sound as natural as
possible. Right now I'm over-rolling my Rs, but I practiced them so much since they're
rolled on a different part of the tongue than in French. Again - it's a hard habit to
break! :)

Anyway, thanks for taking the time. Much appreciated.
1 person has voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 4145 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 12 of 384
03 August 2013 at 12:53am | IP Logged 
Day two of the six-week Spanish challenge:

talk to someone: nada!
- I had to cancel my Skype intercambio and go to the mechanic instead. Bah. Took most
of the morning. I tried "shadowing" a podcast, which I read about (briefly), but I
found it awful. I was probably doing it wrong...will do more research tomorrow.
- I did talk to my dog and narrate my actions to myself, but those don't really count

listen to something: 61 minutes
- three intermediate-level podcasts on Notes in Spanish
- song of the week twice
- episode 20 of Destinos

read something: 20 minutes
- Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate

write something: 43 minutes
- finished chapter 8 of Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Verb Tenses (stem-changing
verbs, present tense)
- wrote and posted a short notebook entry on italki

practice vocabulary: 57 minutes
- both Anki decks
- inputted vocabulary Skype sessions into Anki
- worked on Duolingo

TOTAL MINUTES: 181 minutes (but I logged it as 185, because yesterday I accidentally
tweeted 180 instead of 184)

I wish I could find some sort of "drop-in" Spanish tutor on Skype for days like today,
when I have 20 minutes here and there during the day. I'd love to get some speaking
practice in every day during the challenge, but it's hard sometimes.

I'd also like to find some more interesting Spanish-language podcasts about culture,
art, society, science. I like Notes in Spanish, but once my listening skills improve,
I'd like to move on to native-language materials.


Edited by Stelle on 03 August 2013 at 1:00am

1 person has voted this message useful



casamata
Senior Member
Joined 4263 days ago

237 posts - 377 votes 
Studies: Portuguese

 
 Message 13 of 384
03 August 2013 at 1:08am | IP Logged 
Stelle wrote:
casamata wrote:


For two months, I am very impressed! And I don't just hand out praise like hotcakes.
Your accent is better than a lot of Americans (I know you are French Canadian) that I
know. :)

Some helpful pointers. And sorry if you didn't want them: hace quince *años* (the "ñ"
wasn't pronounced correctly) estudié el español EN la universidad POR un año.

Con mi padre *A* españa.

Vamos a caminar POR el camino de Santiago.

Tengo cinco amigas *de* skype. (although "en" is "ok")

*para que* los dos podamos practicar.

trabajo con Audi LOS lunes y con Mati LOS jueves.

(In Spanish you only use the definite article "El" with the days of the week when there
is an event. For example, "El martes tengo una cita." You use "los" with the days of
the week when you are describing something you routinely do. For example, "Los lunes
voy al instituto para estudiar francés, los martes trabajo en la oficina que está al
lado, y los miércoles almuerzo con mi amigo australiano." Kind of a weird sentence, but
you get the drift!

Hoy ES el 26 de junio.

Gracias POR escucharme.


Muchas muchas gracias! I really, sincerely appreciate the feedback. Prepositions are
killing me. Ha! I struggle a lot with en/a/para/de/por - I tend to use French as a
crutch, and it doesn't always work. I also notice in the video that I keep saying EL
español. It's a hard habit to break!

re: accent, I'm working on it! I'd like it to - eventually - sound as natural as
possible. Right now I'm over-rolling my Rs, but I practiced them so much since they're
rolled on a different part of the tongue than in French. Again - it's a hard habit to
break! :)

Anyway, thanks for taking the time. Much appreciated.


It's not incorrect to include the definite article (el/la) in Spanish. In fact, in Spanish the definite articles are preferentially used. Sometimes you have the "option" of using the articles or not and it is true that it is more efficient to not say the articles at times. However, I prefer using articles...you can always just imitate the native speakers.
1 person has voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 4145 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 14 of 384
03 August 2013 at 1:17pm | IP Logged 
casamata wrote:
It's not incorrect to include the definite article (el/la) in Spanish.
In fact, in Spanish the definite articles are preferentially used. Sometimes you have the
"option" of using the articles or not and it is true that it is more efficient to not say
the articles at times. However, I prefer using articles...you can always just imitate the
native speakers.


Hmmmm...but my conversation partners and my tutors all correct me when I say "aprendo el
espanoñol". It was my understanding that Spanish doesn't generally use the definite
article before a language.

Again, thanks for the feedback!
1 person has voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 4145 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 15 of 384
04 August 2013 at 1:56pm | IP Logged 
I have my parents and my 10-year-old niece visiting from far (1100 km by car, plus a 3-
hour ferry ride), so I'll be putting in fewer hours this week. Today, tomorrow and
Tuesday, we'll be at a campsite, so I'll update on Tuesday night.

Yesterday's minutes:

talk to someone: nope

listen to something: 38 minutes
- 3 intermediate podcasts on Notes in Spanish
- 3 Spanish songs

read something: 5 minutes
- ONLY five minutes. Terrible.

write something: nothing

practice vocabulary: 13 minutes
- anki decks

TOTAL: 56 minutes

Not great, but not bad considering my guests arrived yesterday.
1 person has voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 4145 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 16 of 384
07 August 2013 at 12:40am | IP Logged 
Back from camping! Nothing like coffee from a tin cup...

I found time for about an hour each on Sunday and Monday (yesterday). I'll update
today's minutes later this evening, but I expect it to be about the same.

SUNDAY: 50 minutes

read something: 14 minutes
- finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

write something: 17 minutes
- started chapter 4 of Practice Makes Perfect Pronouns and Prepositions (possessive
pronouns)

practice vocabulary: 19 minutes
- Anki

MONDAY: 61 minutes

read something: 32 minutes
- started reading The Tale of Despereaux - what a great book! It's a kids' book, but I
love the poetry of it.

write something: 29 minutes
- finished up chapter 4 of Practice Makes Perfect (possessive pronouns)


1 person has voted this message useful



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