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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes  Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 94 08 June 2007 at 3:29pm | IP Logged |
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I am now finishing unit 33, which is quite discontinuous from the previous post, unit 31, since I have been negligent and not updating at regular intervals.
I guess I don't have to talk much about my difficulties in units 32-33 because I have none. "haya... -do" was surprisingly easy to pick up for me, and that was the main focus in unit 32. Unit 33 was mainly a review. I've already learned in school the temporal divisions (hora, mes, siglo, primavera, etc). A few days ago, I met a student who had just come to the US from Argentina the previous year, so she obviously speaks fluent Spanish. Because I see her with very little frequency, and since everytime I do see her it is in a classroom setting, I don't get to talk to her a lot, much less in Spanish. However, I have found out some things about education and life in Argentina. I can also count on her to answer my questions that I have from the programmatic course. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 18 of 94 09 June 2007 at 4:13pm | IP Logged |
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I can see how the introduction of unit 34 can kill, but luckily, I have extensive experience from using tener hambre, tener sueño, etc. so that it was easy (and probably the only thing that will be easy in this unit, so I have to cherish it).
Now I can see that future tense in the distance. Good, because I absolutely need the future to advance one year in Spanish (in school). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 94 10 June 2007 at 6:25pm | IP Logged |
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Oh, the future wasn't so hard to learn; just add the endings (which I had learned at some other time but had never practiced using them) to the infinitive, so that didn't take much time. The use of future in a conjecture sense, however, was new, but I can see how it can go both ways (conjecture and future sense) with little difference in meaning.
According to FSI, El avión saldrá mañana? would mean "do you suppose that the plane will leave tomorrow?", but it would be like the same thing to say "the plane will leave tomorrow." So 34 is just about out of the way. The fun will (hopefully) continue in unit 35. Final exams start this week! Boy am I excited! (¡Hombre, que animado estoy!) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 20 of 94 11 June 2007 at 2:59pm | IP Logged |
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Nothing really new with FSI, but I recieved the summer project for Spanish 4 next year. I'm in Spanish 2 right now, so I'm skipping one year (Spanish 3).
The assignment is easy: just a couple of readings, a short essay to write, and a worksheet on the past tenses, but some of the vocabulary is quite foreign and I'll have to look into that. Other than the final exams this and next week, today is the last day of school! Now I just have to study for the tests! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 21 of 94 12 June 2007 at 9:58am | IP Logged |
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I got through most of unit 35. It's funny how in teaching you to use the future tense, they focus almost exclusively on the irregulars... but they also have a point since those are the ones that give students the biggest headache (especially hacer -> har- )
I need some enlightenment from this monotonous routine of introduction (translations), dialogue, practice and grammar (mostly translations), listening to other dialogues, more exercises, questions, and translations. (What's with the translations?) Thus, I will take another look at my summer assignment. Hmmm... I wonder whether this a course to develop one's skill to speak Spanish fluently AND be a translator. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 22 of 94 13 June 2007 at 6:54pm | IP Logged |
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Because of some delays due to testing, I'm just finishing unit 35 (today I had a 2.55 hour test on global geography and history - it's sad that I couldn't write anything in Spanish :) )
Unit 36 finally introduces the "tú" form! I've been waiting for this for months (actually, days, but you get the idea). When I was speaking for my final exam in Spanish, I was purposely avoiding sentences with "you", since I was talking with my "friend" (the teacher was acting as a friend) and didn't want myself to slip and start using the "usted" conjugations, for excessive slips may result in point deduction, and I wouldn't want that. Now I don't have to do that anymore. Another bit of good news: my 4th quarter Spanish average is a 100.19%; what really helped was a test on which I got a 120%, which compensated for my 69% on a ... nah, I won't talk about it more. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 23 of 94 15 June 2007 at 8:09am | IP Logged |
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In unit 36, the dialog procedure changes again. I used to remember the first couple units when you repeated all the sentences in the previous dialogs 3 times, started taking these identification tests, worked syllable-by-syllable for pronunciation, and built your way up with repeating whole utterances until you would finally participate in the whole dialog.
And what now? Every sentence in the previous dialogs are read as a review, and you barely had time to repeat half the utterance. Then you proceeded straight to the pronunciation step of the new material, and then the fluency, where they read each sentence once. No participation step at all! Anyway, enough of that. "tú" is very easy to learn because I've have practice (although not adequate) on it for four years now. This is interesting: the difference between the "tú" and "usted" forms of verbs differs by a single "s" (except in the preterite), but that "s" always slips from me, even after so much exposure to tú, probably because I've grown so accustomed to the "usted" form. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 24 of 94 17 June 2007 at 6:19pm | IP Logged |
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Wow. Even the ejercicios de remplazo are not recorded anymore in unit 36. I don't know if FSI was running out of tapes or patience, but a sudden drop in content is quite surprising.
I'm also surprised that the course barely trained one's ability to produce "tú" forms except in the preterit. Don't they realize that adding the "s" isn't automatic for everyone? Unit 37, while being mostly review, was a great help. It solidified further my use of object pronouns and the present perfect construction (which is still shaky). And my Spanish written final is tomorrow. I'm not particularly worried about it, because it's only reading and writing (which I'm best at), and the vocabulary / grammar usually give me no problem. ¡Ojalá que el examen no sea muy difícil! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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