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Stelle Speaks Spanish and Tagalog | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 241 of 384 16 March 2014 at 6:58am | IP Logged | ||
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And some Spanish books ;)
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| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4060 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 242 of 384 02 May 2014 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Stelle,
I really enjoyed reading your log (however I just read from page 16 due to time..) It's really motivating how you track your progress. I'm still at the beginning of self- teaching and I just can't motivate myself to any structured learing and stick to it ^^ I hope that the SC and 6WC will motivate me, because I can compare and compete with others. I really liked you recommendations and links to your blog.. I defenitely have to go and read that :D I'm looking forward to continue reading what you update here :) 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 243 of 384 09 May 2014 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been home from Spain for 10 days now. I figured that I'd have put up several log entries and blog posts by
now, but the truth is that I'm still processing everything! Did I love Spain? Yes, yes, a million times yes! We walked nearly 800 kilometres through stunning landscapes and beautiful old villages. I met dozens of interesting people, ate amazing food (free tapas in Leon! Be still my heart!), and was surrounded by at least a half-dozen different languages every day. Was my Spanish good enough for my trip? Yes, absolutely. I was able to chat with local bar owners and hospitaleros. The more I chatted, the more my confidence increased, until I no longer hesitated at all before jumping into conversations with strangers. In the beginning, I felt shy. By the end, I just wanted to talk and talk and talk to everyone! Even better, I was able to forge friendships with Spanish peregrinos. While walking the camino de Santiago, strong friendships can take hold very quickly. I was pleased to find that I could talk about just about anything, both simple and more complex. My listening comprehension improved to the point that I felt comfortable following along during rapid-fire conversations between 5+ Spaniards at a time (although of course there were times when I wasn't quite sure what was going on. Ha!). The biggest compliment to my language was when I asked Spanish-speakers to slow down, and they told me that they forgot that I'm not Spanish. (I also like Spanish people because they're shocked when they find out that I'm 35. I choose to believe that they actually do believe that I'm a decade younger than I am, rather than finding out if it's a cultural thing in Spain to tell people that they look young. Haha!) It took some work to get used to the way that Spaniards interrupt each other! Conversations are very loud and boisterous - even more so than they are in my loud and boisterous family. I took it as a compliment when my new friends interrupted and talked over me - I figured that it meant that they accepted me as "one of them". My best language experience: Twice we stayed in albergues with communal meals and sharing circles in the evenings. Both times, the hospitalero grabbed me by the hand, pulled me up to the front, and had me translate everyone's stories. I repeated French-speakers' stories in Spanish and English; English-speakers' in French and Spanish; and French- speakers' in English and Spanish. I just apologized to the German-speakers. Haha! (Nah, all but a few of the dozens of German-speakers that I met spoke beautiful English, and the few who didn't had plenty of willing translators.) But sharing people's stories like that, seeing them smile at each other, knowing that I was helping people communicate across language barriers…it was one of the coolest moments that I've experienced in my life. I acted as a translator in some capacity almost every day, sometimes during large noisy multi-lingual communal meals, other times when someone needed help finding supplies in a pharmacy. I had to talk on the phone in Spanish a few times - now THAT was hard! But I managed! Did my Spanish improve? Nope. I really don't think that it did, at least not technically speaking. The experience of the camino is such that you find yourself talking about the same things over and over again. I didn't improve my grammar, that's for sure. After the steep adjustment of the first few weeks, I'd say that I coasted during the last month. But in other ways, I guess that I did improve! My confidence sky-rocketed, so that I jumped into loud group conversations without any hesitation. When asking for very simple things that I asked for over and over again (a bed in an albergue; directions to the next town; a beer at a bar), I was mistaken at times for a Spaniard. Of course, a few more sentence, and that fell to pieces! But still, I guess my accent, speed and rhythm improved. So what now? Good question. I joined the SuperChallenge, but I have yet to really jump in. I came home with a terrible flu, and spent the first week in bed. Then, before I was quite recovered, I went back to work full-time on Monday. Teaching takes a lot out of me at the best of times; when I'm tired, it takes pretty much everything that I have. I still haven't processed my trip, looked at my photos, or even unpacked. (Of course the reason I haven't unpacked is because my backpack is triple-bagged in the shed due to a harrowing encounter with bed bugs, but that's another story…) I've started learning Tagalog at the rhythm of half an hour a day, but because I'm an absolute beginner, it doesn't take much energy. I have to figure out how to balance my time so that I have enough mental energy to learn some basic Tagalog, continue improving my Spanish, and also read in English. The next week or two will be about finding that balance! I also hope to put up some new blog posts in the next few weeks, both about language learning and about the Camino de Santiago. edited because typos hurt my eyes Edited by Stelle on 09 May 2014 at 10:28pm 14 persons have 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 244 of 384 09 May 2014 at 10:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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¡Maravilloso! Well done, indeed, Stelle! What an amazing experience you had! Thanks for taking the time to write about it for us. I wonder, would it have been as much fun for you if you could only speak English? Somehow, I doubt it. It seems being able to speak Spanish enriched it for you. That's why I learn languages, for experiences like that. No one can ever take those away from you.
I'm looking forward to continuing to follow your progress- not only in Spanish, but in Tagalog as well. Edited by iguanamon on 10 May 2014 at 12:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5376 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 245 of 384 10 May 2014 at 1:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for posting such a great summary of what sounds like such a great experience.
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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 246 of 384 11 May 2014 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Komma, Iguanamon, James29 - thanks for the encouragement!
Yes, Spanish *definitely* improved my trip. Now, my challenge is to keep improving my Spanish without a travel goal to work towards. Today, for the first time since coming home, I felt the urge to do stuff in Spanish. I'm glad, because I was a little bit worried that my motivation was disappearing! I think that I just needed a bit of a break, and now I'll be able to hit my stride again. Today I read for 40 minutes, watched an episode of Los Simpsons and caught up with my italki tutor (who I now count as a friend). That said, I think that I will only be doing authentic real world stuff: reading books, watching TV, chatting with my tutor on Skype. I tried to pick up where I left off with FSI Basic Spanish, and it was physically painful. I just… couldn't do it. No way. It's hard to explain, but it wasn't only unfun, it actually made me cringe. Every step of my walk was a struggle, until - after only 15 minutes - I shut it off, and then the spring returned to my step. Maybe I'll go back to formal study again someday, but for the foreseeable future, I think I'll just do stuff in Spanish and trust that the grammar will follow. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5396 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 247 of 384 11 May 2014 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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It sounds like you had a wonderful trip!
I've gotten to the point where authentic stuff is what I use with Spanish, too. Even if it is translated or dubbed (like the Simpsons). It is using the language, instead of studying it. I think that was one of the ideas behind the Super Challenge, too. There comes a point where it is more effective to *use* the language than to "study" it. 4 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 248 of 384 11 May 2014 at 10:08pm | IP Logged | ||
I absolutely agree with this. And really, it's my goal with language learning: to be able to use Spanish. I don't really care how well I "know" it, so long as I can use it. That said, I do know that I'll need some explicit grammar study at some point, since I'm struggling with complex verbal forms in the past tense when speaking: If I'd known… It would have been… If I hadn't walked so far... etc. I have absolutely no issue understanding them when listening or reading, but I can't produce them myself. While my tutor corrects me and helps me formulate my thoughts when I ask her, those tricky structures don't seem to be sinking in. A few exercises and SRS follow-up will certainly help, but I don't think I'll be going back to FSI. I suspect that in the nearish future I'll dust off my Practice Makes Perfect Verb Tenses book, which got put away halfway through the chapter on past subjunctive. (Of course, I forget where I put it, so I'll have to find it first!) Not yet, though. For now, I'll just play! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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