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Stelle Speaks Spanish and Tagalog | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4624 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 193 of 384 09 February 2014 at 2:36am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thank you so very much for your link to your blog (great!) that linked to the FSI article, which has completely rocked my world. The section in that article on fluent non-beginners (my situation) was a revelation, and the direction is now clear, "take the machine apart and put it back together." As a beginner, you're told to avoid overmonitoring your grammar so you don't hesitate so much you end up not speaking, but at a later stage the monitor mode needs to be full on because speaking fluency isn't the problem, it's the careless mistakes creeping in.
I'm going to look at the FSI materials more closely to see what I can use from there. I never considered it before because I thought it was only for beginners, but of course, (duh!) you can pick out sections and don't have to go in order. I need to thank you again :) 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 194 of 384 09 February 2014 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
THanks for the kind words!
I live in Eastern Canada, and while we've had TONNES of snow this year, it hasn't been quite so cold. We did have a week or so of -25 (not including windchill), but for the most part the temperature's steady around -10 or -15. I lived in Central Canada for most of my life, so I guess I'm pretty used to the cold - even though you can never *really* get used to cold that intense. Anyway, I have a 120 pound dog. We walk every single day - even if it's -35. We just bundle up.
I'm glad you found it useful! I think I first read that article when someone linked to it on HTLAL, but I honestly can't remember. I do think that it's important to avoid over monitoring grammar when speaking. But the drills provide another tool that can help improve your overall correctness and automaticity - without over monitoring. I think that I started using the FSI lessons when I was somewhere around early B1 (although, honestly, I have no real idea of my level now or then). I skipped the first two lessons about pronunciation and phonology, and started at unit 3. I'm just working through them in order. I think that it would be too time-consuming to try to pick and choose the ones that are worth doing. The truth is that I probably wouldn't recommend FSI to complete beginners. It assumes a certain amount of knowledge. There's no way that someone without a word of Spanish would feel comfortable working their way through the units. Anyway, let me know whether or not you decide to use FSI! Happy learning! 1 person has 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 195 of 384 09 February 2014 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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The part that fascinates me the most about your use of FSI is that you use it audio-only. I
had never really considered that as a possibility as I had always viewed FSI as a language course that has audio available as a supplement (but I had still considered the PDFs to be the "main course"). However, if you are getting use out of it in audio-only form, then perhaps I should try using it on my commutes once I've completed my pass of Pimsleur. 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 196 of 384 09 February 2014 at 5:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
At first, I used the textbook. But the truth is that I really didn't enjoy it. I hated the phonetic spelling that seemed to take pages and pages. It was taking me way too long to get through each unit. Then, one day I decided I didn't feel like looking at the textbook - and I realized that my audio experience was exactly the same, despite not reading through any of the notes. That said, I'm already familiar with most of the grammar that is being introduced in FSI. I read and write about grammar using Practice Makes Perfect (I used Spanish Verb Tenses and Pronouns & Prepositions); I practice conjugations and translations using anki (sentences taken from Practice Makes Perfect workbooks); and I work on automaticity using FSI. Each has its uses, and they all complement one another. I take long breaks from the grammar workbooks, but up until now I've always managed to stay ahead of FSI, so that FSI is more about practice for me than about learning new concepts. 3 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 197 of 384 09 February 2014 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If you like Practise Makes Perfect books, the Spanish one (as well as the French)
series published last year a big grammar book: Perfect-Complete-Spanish-McGraw-Hill/dp/0071831355/ref=sr_1_ 6? ie=UTF8&qid=1391984188&sr=8-6&keywords=practice+makes+perfec t+spanish">Complete Spanish: All In One. I used the French one (blue book) for review, and it helped greatly. The All In One has more than 600 pages. I also skimmed the Spanish one in the store a few times to see how it would compare for the French one, and I think that both could help for A2-B2 with regards to grammar. In the UK, Canada, and USA, I have always found bookstores that sell these Practise Makes Perfect series books, so it should be quite accessible. -10 or -15 is not very cold, I would classify -35 and lower as "cold". It depends on the threshold of the person, but I myself was addicted to walking in Montréal and Québec City's -40. My dog, however, is only 12 kg, so I would not walk him in that weather. However, it never gets to -35 or -40 in England. Maybe in 15 years with the global warming.. Edited by 1e4e6 on 09 February 2014 at 11:29pm 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 198 of 384 09 February 2014 at 11:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks for the grammar book suggestion! I'll take a look at it. -15 can be surprisingly cold when you add in the windchill! But it's definitely not as cold as -30. (Just to clarify, we're both talking Celcius, right?) 1 person has 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 199 of 384 10 February 2014 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Absolutely, Celsius. But in any case if I remember, Fahrenheit in the negative
temperatures actually matches Celsius somewhat more than in the positive temperatures. Toronto was -20 C with something like a -47 C windchill several weeks ago, and apparently it froze everything. Several years ago I flew on Christmas day to Québec City and walked through the Plains of Abraham in -40 C until nightfall. Perhaps somewhat silly of me, and why my parents called me insane for doing that, but the cold never bothered me. If that book interests you, I would be confident that Indigo have it. The series is quite popular. It seems that you also have the specialised books--they also have an Irregular Verbs book, Subjunctive etc. It is true that French helps immensely with the subjunctive, since I did it in reverse--my Spanish was always the fastest and my French lagged, but my Spanish helped greatly to master the French subjonctif. In Spanish, the irregular verbs are probably most troublesome in the preterite. I remember in secondary school ten years ago memorising tables thereof, because quite often they defied logic. In French this is probably not as bad (although it can be troublesome), because the passé simple is where the irregularities truly become emphasised, and it is not used so often, definitely not as often as Spanish. «yo nací» from «nacer» perhaps makes some sense, but «je naquis» from «nacer» is not exactly obvious. Also, I am not sure whereat you would evaluate yourself at CEFR level, but you seem quite good to me, perhaps approaching B2 if not already in B2 therein itself. They also have the Spanish/dp/0071472681/ref=la_B001HD1210_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8& qid=1391988156&sr=1- 1">Advanced Spanish Grammar, which I found quite challenging when I used it several years ago because it also teaches nuances. Edited by 1e4e6 on 10 February 2014 at 12:28am 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 200 of 384 10 February 2014 at 2:00am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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2014 Spanish challenge, week six:
100 45-minute TV shows: 6 (25/100) 2 episodes of The Simpsons (2.11, 2.12) - counts as 1 for tracking purposes 6x Notes in Spanish Gold - counts as 1 for tracking purposes 4 episodes of Buffy la Cazavampiros (3.12, 3.13, 3.14, 3.15) As of today, I'm 25% finished with my TV show challenge. I was aiming for 100 45-minutes TV episodes in 2014, but I think that I'm going to try to double that. Watching is definitely the easiest thing that I do every day! I'm more than halfway through season 3 of Buffy (the first season that I have with Spanish dubbing), and it's getting easier and easier to understand. I still miss a few words here and there, but certainly not enough to impede understanding. That said, when I do miss something, it tends to be one of the witticisms that make Buffy so charming. It's the same with The Simpsons (which I don't enjoy as much as Buffy, but which is very short and easy to watch) - I don't get all of the jokes. But it's getting easier every week. 100 Skype conversations: 2 (13/100) 1 hour with Auri (italki tutor) 1/2 hour with Ana (italki tutor) This month I've been averaging one hour-long conversation and one half-hour conversation per week. I need to put in more of an effort and try to increase this to 3 times per week. Most of my language exchanges have fizzled out over the past few months, due to schedules rather than to lack of interest. I thought about trying to find some more partners, but the fact is that my free time is very limited right now. I've decided to focus on paid tutors instead. I might look for language partners again after I come home from Spain, but for now I'm going to aim for 3 tutoring sessions per week. I tried italki's instant tutoring once this week. Very cool and highly recommended! That said, I think I'm going to stick to scheduled sessions for now, since I don't want to risk missing my chance if there are no available Spanish tutors when I have time to talk. 100 short texts: 2 (8/100) text posted to italki for corrections email to language partner Every time I sit down to write, I run into a very serious problem: I DON'T WANNA! Ha! Once I get started it's not so bad, but I have a major procrastination problem, so a short text takes me about an hour and a half to write: 75 minutes to keep putting it off, and 15 minutes to actually get the words written. That said, I do really like getting corrections from native speakers. They're valuable and I love the feedback. I just have to commit and build a writing habit. 14 novels: 0 (1/14) up to page 228 in the first Percy Jackson book (43 pages this week) I should be finished with this book by next week. I like to read before bed, but I find that my stamina is much weaker when reading in Spanish. After just a few pages, my eyes start to droop. Today, I read right after supper instead, and a half hour passed by in a flash. I think that I'm going to try to rearrange my schedule, and read earlier in the evening rather than right before sleeping. I'm definitely going to have to pick up the pace a bit if I want to get through 14 books before the end of the year! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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