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Stelle Speaks Spanish and Tagalog | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4146 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 89 of 384 04 October 2013 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just finished unit 13 of FSI.
John White is kind of a jerk. I roll my eyes every time they mention his "gordita" (translation: "little chubby girl"). And now he's wanting to meet that hot secretary - but shhhh! Here comes the gordita! We don't want her to know that he's planning on meeting another girl! Meh. I'm somewhat amused by the blatant 1960s sexism, but I hope they'll move on to a new storyline soon - because the thought of countless more hours with that frat-boy-slash-diplomat isn't all that appealing. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4146 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 90 of 384 04 October 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been working a lot. I'm currently contracted for 35 contact hours per week at my teaching job - and any
teachers out there know that 35 contact hours means multiple additional hours spent in preparation, assessment and feedback. On top of that, I have several private students, both face-to-face and over Skype. It's a lot! I'm still managing to spend at least an hour and a half on Spanish every day. Between 30 minutes of podcasts during my commute and 45 minutes of FSI during my daily walk, I'm already up to a little over an hour. It's pretty easy to bump that up to 90 or 120 minutes with nightly reading, anki practice, and infrequent grammar study. Unfortunately, I'm spending way less time in conversation. While in the summer I spent between 60 and 90 minutes talking to native speakers every day, now I'm spending less than two hours per week. It's not enough. But with my schedule right now, it's all that I can manage. I hope that I'll continue to progress despite my lack of speaking practice. Edited by Stelle on 04 October 2013 at 11:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4146 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 91 of 384 07 October 2013 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I finished watching Desaparecida this weekend.
Missing / Desaparecida It was a great show! While I started out tandem watching - watching a scene with subtitles and then without - I got a bit impatient with the process because I got sucked into the story and wanted to know what happened next. I ended up leaving the subtitles on and making a concerted effort not to read them unless I didn't understand. I think that by leaving the subtitles on all the time, I'm missing out on an opportunity for simulated immersion. I'm going to start a new show next weekend, except that I'll leave the subtitles off completely and only rewatch a scene with subtitles if I get completely lost. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5347 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 92 of 384 07 October 2013 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Don't obsess over subtitles. When I got cable TV in the 90's and first watched English-language shows like Mad about You and Seinfeld I relied on subtitles for understanding most of the dialogue. Learning English was the last thing on my mind; what interested me was watching the shows. After about a year and through no deliberate effort of my own I found myself irritated at being unable to turn them off as by then I no longer needed them and found them distracting. If you find you understand and better enjoy TV programs with subtitles on, don't renounce them. Mucha suerte con los estudios. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4146 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 93 of 384 07 October 2013 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Gracias Juan! I think I'll try without just to see, and if I don't understand, then you're right - there's nothing wrong with subtitles! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5393 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 94 of 384 08 October 2013 at 12:53am | IP Logged | ||
This lesson stuck out for me as well. I feel sorry for any women who managed to get themselves in a position where they'd need an FSI course only to have to learn Spanish locker room talk. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4146 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 95 of 384 08 October 2013 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | ||
Seriously. I wondered why no one's ever mentioned the sexism in any of the FSI Spanish reviews that I've read. Considering the era, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it. I'm on lesson 15 now, and I'm glad to see that Señor White isn't in it at all. Of course, direct and indirect objects are. It's a trade-off. And given the choice, I guess I'd take the pronouns over the jerk. Edited by Stelle on 08 October 2013 at 12:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4146 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 96 of 384 13 October 2013 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Things are buzzing along. I've almost finished Las Brujas, by Roald Dahl - my fourth Spanish children's novel, and
the first one that I hadn't read in English first. Next on my list is The BFG, also by Dahl. After I finish that novel, I'll have to make a decision: either start the Harry Potter series, or else try my hand at some "grown-up books". I have Como Agua Para Chocolate by Esquivel, and La Casa de los Espiritus by Allende. I finished unit 17 of FSI Basic Spanish. I still haven't decided whether or not it's all that helpful. Still, it's "free" Spanish, since I do it during my daily walk. I'll keep working through the units for now, repeating when necessary. For the past few weeks, I've managed two hour-long tutoring sessions per week, and one or two 50/50 language exchanges. Some of my language exchanges are starting to get a bit stagnant - we tend to talk about the same things, over and over again. I have to find some ways to add a bit of life into our conversations. I've been neglecting grammar. My time is kind of limited right now, and I'd rather read or talk over Skype than open my grammar workbook. I'm starting to feel a gap in communication, though, because I don't know the subjunctive yet. That's a sign that I should set some time aside to learn it. With all of the time that I've been pouring into Spanish over the past few months, I feel that I'm really neglecting my own languages. I love to read, but I haven't read very many English books lately. And I haven't read French novels in *years*. I honestly don't even know any present-day French Canadian novelists - which is awful, seeing as how I teach French. I think that I need to set aside some time every day to read in all three of my languages - English, French and Spanish. Even 20 minutes per language per day will give me a better rounded reading experience. I started tonight with MaddAdam, the latest Margaret Atwood book. And next week I'm going to hit the French library in town and see what looks interesting. Edited by Stelle on 13 October 2013 at 12:12am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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