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Gatsby’s Spanish Log [The Romantics] | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Gatsby42 Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4642 days ago 55 posts - 72 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 22 31 March 2012 at 9:23am | IP Logged | ||
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3/30/12
The downside to this website is that I've spent the last two days putting more work into the setup of techniques than I have with the actual execution of them. Had two mishaps where I purchased Spanish texts or audiobooks for L-R and found that the recordings didn't even sink. Been looking all over for an affordable copy of Assimil's Spanish with Ease; the search goes on and on and on. On the plus side, been able to secure Michel Thomas and the aforementioned Pimsleur. Right now I'm on Pimsleur's 7th unit. While I haven't encountered a piece of vocab that I didn't already know, I feel like the pure exposure and demand that you speak back is already improving my listening comprehension and sentence formulation. The sentences I think of are growing more and more complex, and I've kind of learned how to play around with certain verbs a little more. Aside from that, started the super slow process of taking my old flashcards and turning them into Anki decks. It took 3+ hours to transfers two chapters worth of flashcards, I shudder to think of how long it'll take to throw in the remaining 6 or so chapters worth. Because of the earlier trouble, L-R has taken the backseat, but with the help of some fellow forumers, I found a good link that I plan to practice off of tomorrow. I had a weird moment today where I looked over all my old flashcards. Piled together my flashcards so far from the last two years number in the high hundreds. I'm completely humbled by the fact that even were I to perfectly know all those cards, my knowledge of of the language is still insignificant. It's easy to see why learning a language is so addicting for people here. It's the ultimate battle of wit, it requires so many different intelligence and you can note every gain you make with every baby step closer you get towards being able to use the thing. I learned about the verb "chinga" today, so I used the classic "chinga tu madre" against my friend who's fluent and he countered back with this excellent rant that I could barely follow, but I could only smile over hearing such an awesome demonstration of lingual flexibility. It's something you overlook in your native tongue, but something you learn to appreciate when you struggle to grasp sentences. Just goes to show, have a lot of hard work ahead of me before I learn inventive new ways to make fun of my friend's mom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| camdo2 Newbie United States Joined 4676 days ago 26 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 22 31 March 2012 at 11:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi there!
I noticed you work in the medical field when reading through your blog. There's this great podcast on iTunes in language learning called "Medical Spanish" and it goes over lots of medical Spanish terms. I've heard great things about it, and it might be worth a check out. As for anki, it's totally worth it. Being able to have flash cards everywhere is awesome, and it's really really useful. Good luck, and continue doing good. I'll eventually find time to hit you up on skype soon haha. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gatsby42 Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4642 days ago 55 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 22 31 March 2012 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the podcast recommendation. My school actually offers a course done over a
weekend where they try and stuff as much into your head about Spanish medical terminology and needed cultural know how as possible; but I'm not sure I want to pay for it, so the podcast may be a good alternative. I actually haven't paid for Anki's mobile app yet; though I imagine that's the largest strength of having Anki. $25 just seems steep for such a program. Either way, thanks for the comment. Look forward to the chance to show just how poor my Spanish is. =P Edited by Gatsby42 on 31 March 2012 at 6:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gatsby42 Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4642 days ago 55 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 22 02 April 2012 at 8:50am | IP Logged | ||
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4-2-12
Going to start logging my amount of hours invested in various Spanish learning related exercises. Active Learning Pimsleur: Unit 10 completed; Total time invested: 10 hours Michel Thomas Foundation: Disc 1 completed; Total time invested: 1 hour L-R for Oscar Wilde's "The Faithful Friend/El Amigo Fiel: 40 minutes Total Amount of Spanish Learning: 11.8 hours. Passive Learning Destinos: Episode 4 watched, total time: 2 hours Madrid Talk Radio: 2 hours Total Amount of Passive Learning: 6 hours The Spanish frenzy has kept hold of me these last few days. Been keeping up with Pimsleur while also finally beginning The Michel Thomas Foundation. I have to say that I enjoy Michel Thomas far more than Pimsleur and am already more excited to see how well I can learn with them. So far, I still haven't really broken out of what amounts to review in these courses. However, I feel like it's worth going over material I know just to get an excuse in practicing speaking with them. Meanwhile, took my second serious attempt at the L-R method with Oscar Wilde's short story "The Faithful Friend". Following along was really easy until it wasn't. It's kinda hard to see how this method can teach you how to speak at this point, but I'm gonna repeat the story a few times tomorrow in an effort to learn it. On top of that, watched another episode of Destinos. It's surprising just how entertaining this show manages to be. For those unfamiliar with it, it's a video learning course thinly disguised as a telenovella. If nothing else, it provides lots of opportunities to hear Spanish being spoken while also offering insight into Spanish culture. It's very enjoyable and I'd recommend it to fellow Spanish beginners. And lastly, I've been reviewing my class vocab for Anki. Haven't made any new decks since last time, so I still have the task of transcribing half a year's worth of study material into six different decks. After that I imagine I'll begin to make new decks in an effort to start ramping my vocab up. Until then, adios. Edited by Gatsby42 on 04 April 2012 at 1:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gatsby42 Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4642 days ago 55 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 22 05 April 2012 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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4-5-12
Active Learning Pimsleur: Unit 14 done, Unit 12 and 13 repeated twice; Total time invested: 12.5 hours Michel Thomas Foundation: Disc 3 completed, Disc 2 and 3 (x2); Total time invested: 5 hours L-R for Oscar Wilde's "The Faithful Friend/El Amigo Fiel: 40 minutes Anki flashcards: Chapter 7+8 review x2: 1 hour Total Amount of Spanish Learning: 18+ hours. Passive Learning Destinos: Episode 4 watched, total time: 2 hours Madrid Talk Radio: 2 hours Mexican Music(Los Cuates de Sinloa's Puro Cartel): 1 hour Total Amount of Passive Learning: 5 hours Not a whole lot to report today. Still going strong with Pimsleur and Michel Thomas. Now that I've begun to get into the thick of both courses, I'm finally having some difficulty with them. It's one thing to know all the conjugations, it's another to quickly draw on them. My Spanish teacher has been out sick all week, so I haven't gotten a chance to practice my new speaking skills with him yet, but I did get in touch with a new friend who has C1 fluency in Spanish. He tutors students in Spanish and taught me a lot of cool facts about context in Mexico and how that context reflected language. One particularly cool thing he told me was about the verb llamar and why it's used in contrast to flat out asking "Cual es tu nombre?", because in Hispanic culture, names are longer; asking what people call you is easier. Things like this don't seem like they're vital to learning the language, but I wish I got to hear more of this stuff in class. I hate the flat "that's just the way it is" when you want to know why a certain something works the way it does. Anywho, gonna try and see if I can't set up a tutoring gig with this guy. I already have one fluent friend who I can at least bounce my phrases off. I know when I'm being understood, but saying anything that comes to my mind is obviously harder. That's why I need to start practicing now and ironing my mistakes out. Es todo para hoy, hasta pronto! 1 person has 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 14 of 22 09 April 2012 at 12:51am | IP Logged | ||
Are you from Albania? Or your parents? I have a bunch of friends from the Balkans, and I've really gotten interested in the history and cultures of the area. My interest originally stemmed from making Bosnian friends at my last job, and then deciding to learn their language. It goes beyond that now, though. There seems to be so much history and so many cultures in such a (relatively) small area. It's really fascinating. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gatsby42 Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4642 days ago 55 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 15 of 22 09 April 2012 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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My parents were from Albania, or more specifically, they're Albanians from
Macedonia. I can't speak for anybody other than Albanians, but Albanians in particular do have a very rich history that they happen to be very proud of. As far as cultural diversity, I have been able to travel to both Macedonia and Albania and did see a lot of interesting things; met interesting people. I'm not too interested in my heritage or it's history though. I learned Albanian as a kid, I can't even read or write with it. I just have around B2ish listening comprehension and B1ish speaking level. I only want to learn it just because I already know so much, seems like I wouldn't need to study too long to reach speaking fluency. 2 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 16 of 22 09 April 2012 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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That's kind of how I feel about my French right now. It's at a decent enough level that I should put that "little extra effort" into it so I can claim that I speak it without embarrassing myself.
My heritage is all Dutch, but it's a few generations back, and I don't have a lot of interest in it, either. I think my fascination with the Balkans has more to do with the fact that it's exotic (to me). And anything exotic is fun to me. =) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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