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Stelle Speaks Spanish and Tagalog | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| PointsDotsLines Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4008 days ago 76 posts - 110 votes  Speaks: Mandarin*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 121 of 384 15 December 2013 at 7:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi, Stelle,
It's amazing to read how fast you've progressed in such a short period of time! Had you had any prior knowledge in Spanish before partaking in the study? ¡Que tengas buenas tardes! -Charles 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 122 of 384 15 December 2013 at 8:53pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the comment! I took an introductory Spanish course over 15 years ago when I was 18, but I didn't work very hard and I didn't retain any of it. I suspect that my knowledge of French (and of French grammar) gave me a huge advantage when learning Spanish. I'm also very motivated - I can get a bit obsessed when learning something new, and I'd say that I've put in an average of 2-3 hours per day since May. 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 123 of 384 15 December 2013 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Inspired by James29's goals for next year, I've decided to set some hard numbers for 2014. After 6+ months of
studying Spanish, I'm having a hard time committing to counting minutes. It was motivating at the beginning, but now that I'm using more native materials, it seems a bit silly to time myself reading a novel every day. When I did the six-week challenge, I really liked tracking my study using the four points of focus (reading, writing, speaking, listening). I'd like to go back to those four categories, but track my work a bit differently. So here are my goals: Speaking: hold 100 conversations over Skype * mix of paid tutors and language exchange partners Listening: watch 100 TV episodes * currently watching Isabel (original Spanish series), but we'll be finished with that soon * I'll keep watching Buffy in Spanish * I might watch the Simpsons now and then as well (again, thanks to James29 for the suggestion) Reading: read 14 novels * I think I'll keep focusing on children's novels, so that I can read extensively in series * finish the Harry Potter series (I've read the first one, so there are 6 left) * read the Percy Jackson series (5 books) * read the Hunger Games trilogy Writing: write 100 short texts * short = as few as 100 words. The goal is not length, but quality. * post a text for correction by natives at least once a week * write in my journal in Spanish during my trip to Spain For tracking, I've made up a simple sheet with four tables with numbered cells, one for each skill. The only tracking I'll need to do is colour in a square every time I work on something. I think that focusing on balanced input and output will help me get over my current plateau. And I should be able to meet all of my goals in as little as an hour a day, which is the absolute minimum amount of time that I would like to put into Spanish. If I finish early, I can just reevaluate my goals. A very conservative goal of an hour a day will also come in handy when I start learning Tagalog in May, since I definitely want to maintain my Spanish actively for the long term. I don't want to let Tagalog push Spanish out of my schedule. The hardest for me will be writing. I honestly don't like writing in Spanish very much. But I know that it's really the best way for me to deepen my understanding of Spanish grammar and syntax - especially if I get feedback from natives. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5377 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 124 of 384 16 December 2013 at 1:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Great goals... they are quite motivating. Your post makes me realize that I have a Percy Jackson book somewhere and maybe I will try to read it. I also had not thought of the Hunger Games books... that might be interesting.
I see a lot of people on this forum talk about this show called "Buffy." I am going to have to check it out to see why people are so crazy about it. Are you watching it online somewhere? 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 125 of 384 16 December 2013 at 11:20am | IP Logged | ||
Nope, I have all of the seasons on DVD. My DVDs include Spanish dubbing from season 3 on up. Buffy has become something of a cult classic (if something can be a "classic" after 20 years). I loved it when I was a teenager, and I love it now - just like I love pretty much anything that Joss Whedon had a hand in. Whedon is a writer/director with quite the geek following. He also wrote/directed some very well-known "mainstream" movies - Toy Story and The Avengers come to mind. He's known for snappy dialogue. Check out Buffy - I doubt you'll regret it! 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 126 of 384 17 December 2013 at 2:35am | IP Logged | ||
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When I finished with Notes in Spanish advanced, I was a bit disappointed. I've really enjoyed following along with
Ben and Marina - they talk about a wide variety of topics, and they're very easy to listen to. I've been planning to find a new (preferably native) podcast, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I don't expect to have time to find something new before the Christmas holidays, so I downloaded a few episodes of Notes in Spanish Gold: Notes in Spanish Gold I honestly wasn't expecting much. The fact that half of each podcast was in English really bothered me. But I'm glad that I was too lazy to find something else to work with before the end of the year, because as it turns out - I love it! I listen to the first half of the podcast in the car. It's about 10-12 minutes long, all in Spanish. I'll listen to it two or three times, going back to the beginning and skipping the English explanation altogether. Then, when I get home, I listen to the English analysis. I jot down notes about interesting turns of phrase, vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. Then I listen to the Spanish again. At this point, it's my third run-through of the audio, and I've got the English analysis to help me out with any idiomatic usages. Not to mention the fact that my attention is fully on the audio - not the road! I'll jot down a few more interesting words, and then add all of the new vocab that I want to retain to anki. I'm getting *so much* out of these podcasts! While the English analysis is helpful at times, its real value lays in the fact that I actually bother listening to the podcast once more at home, without distractions and with pen in hand. So I'm getting my extensive listening by simply enjoying the podcasts in the car, followed by some intensive work at home. It's the best of both worlds. Here are some interesting new-to-me turns of phrase that I picked out of today's podcast, which was about wildlife in Spain: - da mucha pena (it's a shame, it makes me sad) - estoy atada (I'm tied down) - por lo cual (therefore; consequently) - arriba a abajo (top to bottom) - va de moda (follows the current fashion) - concienciado (socially aware) There are over 50 episodes of Notes in Spanish Gold available for free online. Highly, highly recommended! I'm still on the lookout for a topically diverse podcast for native speakers, but I plan on working my way through NiS Gold before switching over. Edited by Stelle on 17 December 2013 at 2:37am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4292 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 127 of 384 17 December 2013 at 2:52am | IP Logged | ||
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I was thinking that to supplement your podcasts, listening/watching Spanish television
not constructed for learning, such as news at real speaking speed, would help to ease thre transition from trying to listen to decipher native speech, to listen without effort authentic Spanish programmes (as if one were your native language). Like this: RTVE Informativo de Madrid I switched from audio learning materials in 2010 into only watching RTVE programmes and news, and the gap between worrying about what some aspects of the speech mean and listening to a programme as if it were English or French should be filled. But I suppose it depends on how advanced you are, and if learning expressions and syntax by context is appealing. But I think that you would be ready. For example, there is a circa six-minute clip for each day here. I am watching the episode for 16/12/13 Monday (Informativo 2), for example, here is what I hear for the first minute (around 00:17 to 1:01): El comercio madrileño ya tiene su propia guía de Navidad. Informato digital y bilingüe, ofrece información sobre los establecimientos, mercadillos, ferias, y campañas. Esta época es fundamental para su negocio. Concentran hasta el 400% de las ventas anuales. En la comunidad hay cerca de 70.000 comercios minoristas que aportan casi el 7,5% del PIB regional. En Navidades, prevén contratar a 20.000 personas. Buenas tardes, el Senado apobará la ley de Reforma de la Administración Local. El Gobierno Central afirma que esta norma pretende lograr la sostenibilidad y modernización de los ayuntamientos. También busca una mayor transparencia y eliminar las competencias duplicadas. If you can pick this up clearly, I think that Spanish television could help tremendously. Edited by 1e4e6 on 17 December 2013 at 4:32am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5537 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 128 of 384 17 December 2013 at 3:23am | IP Logged | ||
I have some of that series on DVD as well (I started watching Buffy while it was still airing (around season 2 I believe) and watched both it and Angel (the spin-off) religiously until they ended, but never got around to buying all the DVD sets for them). So the Spanish dubbing only starts on season 3? That's a bit disappointing. Edited by Warp3 on 17 December 2013 at 3:24am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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