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Fighting Windmills: Spanish experiment 1

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Teango
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 Message 49 of 71
28 May 2010 at 11:40am | IP Logged 
My Spanish and Italian colleagues where I used to work would often start the day with a morning ritual of percolating coffee on the stove. They would constantly argue about the perfect technique and where to get the best coffee beans - sometimes even in Italian or Spanish when they (not the coffee beans) got a little over-heated - so amusing and wonderful to watch! They even brought their own special percolators everywhere with them, like favourite bowling bowls or lucky charms. Apparently a couple of seconds more or less before taking it off the heat makes a real difference... ;)

Edited by Teango on 28 May 2010 at 11:43am

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Wise owl chick
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 Message 50 of 71
28 May 2010 at 12:23pm | IP Logged 
My Spanish friend ( a lady who worked and studied here one year but is returned now to Spain for her studies) told me that they drink coffee or hot chcolate in a bowl (not a cup) and that bread or croissants are popular, but that the Spanish croissants are different as the croissants here, they've other consistency and some sugar.
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Kubelek
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 Message 51 of 71
28 May 2010 at 3:26pm | IP Logged 
I never got used to drinking tea, milk od cocoa in bowls in France. Or dipping food in my drinks, for that matter. It was easier to get used to not drinking hot beverages at all when I lived in Florida :)

But that's just one of the things that makes traveling all the more interesting.
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Wise owl chick
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 Message 52 of 71
28 May 2010 at 4:03pm | IP Logged 
Kubelek wrote:
I never got used to drinking tea, milk od cocoa in bowls in France. Or dipping food in my drinks, for that matter. It was easier to get used to not drinking hot beverages at all when I lived in Florida :)

But that's just one of the things that makes traveling all the more interesting.


I like to drink tea in a tea cup and from a teapot like in England and in some tearooms, and I've a pretty teapot with birds' pictures, although I havne't the cup with the same pattern. I like to drink hot chocolate in an enormous mug but not a bowl, for me, bowls are for soup or porridge. About the dipping food in drinks, I do this with biscuits but not other food. This conversation make hungry and thirsty haha!
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Teango
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 Message 53 of 71
28 May 2010 at 4:22pm | IP Logged 
A cup of real Yorkshire tea and some Irish Kimberley biscuits for dipping...mmm, well worth the waiting for... :P
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Emerald
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 Message 54 of 71
28 May 2010 at 5:26pm | IP Logged 
Teango wrote:


Wise owl chick wrote:
I haven't read the Harry Potter books, but I want to know, what did
the phoenix in this story?

I forget myself now, we'll have to read up and find out.



Order of the Phoenix was the original group of people who fought against Voldemort under
Dumbledore's leadership; the group in which Harry's parents fought. They still use the
name and fight against Voldemort in the 5th book.

Edited by Emerald on 28 May 2010 at 5:26pm

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Teango
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 Message 55 of 71
28 May 2010 at 10:54pm | IP Logged 
"FIGHTING WINDMILLS", DAY 12/14
(un pequeño experimento en L&R española)

SUMMARY

L&R in Spanish today: 7 hours ("Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal")
Background listening: 3 hours (music and L&R'd audiobooks)
————————————————————
Total L&R in Spanish so far: 86+ hours
Sum total of Spanish immersion: 107+ hours

Today's reading test: 92% [+1%] ("La Sombra del Viento") :)

NOTES

I started the day with far too much baguette for one human to consume so early. This must have affected me somehow, as I seemed to spend the rest of the day with my mind more on food and drink than on Spanish. First I hear about Hagrid's "salchichas calientes" (sizzling sausages), which sounded very tasty indeed, then I'm sent an email on fine Spanish wines, and finally I go down to check my post only to find some tunantes (scoundrels) have shoved a dozen or so fast-food leaflets into mi buzón (my letterbox) this evening. Even the phrase "sin embargo" (however) is starting to sound like a reclusive island for holy guacamole. I guess the only way now is to just give in and buy a bottle of Rioja to celebrate the start of the weekend. ;)

When I first began reading Harry Potter, I had my doubts. I've been far more used to the works of Kafka and Koestler recently, and needlessly worried about picking up lots of strange Potteresque words along the way too. But much to my surprise, the core vocabulary is spot on so far, and I'm really enjoying the story and laughing or smiling throughout every chapter.

I actually found myself at the desk today following a quick break, with a fresh cuppa in one hand, and a Spanish text in the other, and pondered in temporary bewilderment "how on earth did I get here?"...I guess my routine is starting to become much more second-nature these days and I'm drifting towards working on autopilot. I hope that's a good thing.

I tend to notice lots of interesting things I didn't know before I started learning Spanish. For example, did you know that the word "muggle" (aka mud-blood) is very similar to the word "mugre" (filth). And I could well imagine how that care-free phrase "hakuna matata" (Swahili: "there are no problems") from The Lion King could sound far more worrisome to a Spanish ear (matar means "to kill").

Spanish, as I've mentioned before, is also a spicy and romantic language. I just love the sounds of some of the terms of endearment, words like cariña, chiquita, corazonita (lots of words beginning with 'c'), they just roll off the tongue and seem so much more fun and intimate.

I've made a couple of small amendments to my study regime recently, inspired by advice from other members. The first is to make a quick note of any recurring grammar patterns I happen to notice during L&R, with a view to looking these up later in my handy grammar reference book "¡Búscalo!". The second is to play the audio files I've completed last thing at night whilst in bed (I'm using an iNano docking system that's ideal for this). I initially tried listening to these files last night whilst reading the text in English, but this wasn't much fun at all. So I just started to listen to the recordings on their own and found this much more relaxing and useful. Spanish is such a lovely language to listen to, and even when I don't understand what's being said, I still like listening to the undulating wholesome sounds.

Edited by Teango on 28 May 2010 at 10:54pm

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LangOfChildren
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 Message 56 of 71
28 May 2010 at 11:43pm | IP Logged 
Okay, I'm finally going to post here after following this log since day 1.
It's so exciting to follow your experiment and I can't wait to see the outcome.
I'm also very interested to see more serious testimonials of the L-R method, because I keep wondering whether I should try it or not.
Anyway, I got a question concerning your progress so far.
When you listen to Spanish, is it still too fast to really follow it?
Could you describe the way you experience listening?
And keep going, you are doing an awesome job.


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