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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4248 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 137 of 154 10 September 2014 at 10:30am | IP Logged |
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Nice how that worked out with you with the contract and knowing Spanish.
I did use Rosetta Stone (they go on sale for half of the listed price if you're willing to be patient) and I do say that it will work for certain people... however, I think that people (including myself) are under the impression that if you finish all five levels of RS (or pretty much any language program) that you'll be fluent. That's hardly the case. I finished RS level 5 about a year ago, and while I am well ahead of where I once was, I still wouldn't be able to read a contract, or even be able to fully translate a complicated paragraph in a book that I was unfamiliar with (although I can read a book that I am familiar with without help). That being said, there are much less expensive ways to learn the language if one is willing to put effort into it. Few people are. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4630 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 138 of 154 27 September 2014 at 7:33pm | IP Logged |
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Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone is doing well. I’ve been super busy learning my new position and getting used to living in the Southwest. I’ve been going to Spanish meetups and the last event was really cool. We went to dinner at a Greek restaurant and then to a small indie movie theater to watch La Sagrada familia. It’s a documentary about a cathedral in Spain that has been being built for the last 100+ years and it’s still not close to being finished. It was a very interesting movie and it was mostly in Spanish and Castilian. When the movie first started I was kind of depressed thinking, “ Man, I can’t really understand what they are saying.” Later I realized they were speaking Castilian because when a Spanish speaker was talking I could understand almost everything. After the movie a few of us went to a bar to have a few drinks and talk about the movie. It was a really fun night. I paid for it the next day as I’m training for a half marathon in December and you really shouldn’t drink a bunch the day before a long run. Everyday I’m able to talk to my co-workers in the office in Spanish. A few people come by and only talk to me in Spanish. It’s cool. People keep probing me to see how much I know and so far I’ve been surprising a lot of people. It’s weird how I’ve become a bit of a language snob. When people tell me that they want to learn, my first thought is pretty much, “ yea right. You’d like to know Spanish but you don’t want to learn.” It’s taken so much time and effort to get where I am that I don’t think most people would match my effort. (but I guess they’ve never really had the proper motivation like I did in Durango). I’m talking to more of my coworkers in Spanish over the phone. It’s still difficult for me to hear but I’m getting better. I write almost exclusively in Spanish for my emails down to the plant. Some days my brain just doesn’t work in Spanish, but I’m getting fewer of those. I’m beginning to speak/write a lot of Spanglish. It’s funny how Spanish words with just pop into a sentence from time to time or I’ll just switch to Spanish without thinking. I was entering receipts for my computer business and I was watching some telenovas. I don’t think they are supposed to be this funny, but I can’t help but to laugh out loud at the story lines, acting, and special effects. There’s one I’m watching where the nanny for a rich guy is also a stripper and the rich guy is in love with the stripper and doesn’t know that she’s also the nanny. The story is so ridiculous that it cracks me up I’m going to do something really cool next weekend. I’m going on my first pilgrimage. We are going to ride bikes from somewhere close to the boarder to Magdelena. It’s a big deal and it happens every year. I’m super excited to go. Several people have told me that after you go to the church and pray, there’s a big dance party/festival downtown. I’m hoping that someone there can teach me how to dance banda style so I can be ready for the wedding in November. I was bumped from a flight so I got a $400 voucher and I used it to buy a ticket out to see my babv for Halloween. That should be super fun and I’ll be able to practice a lot of Spanish in NYC. Today I watched a documentary called broken eggs. It’s a look at social security and how retirement as we know it is about to be a thing of the past. It made me glad that I don’t believe in retirement. I plan on working until the day I die if I’m able. Of course I’d scale back hours and slow down, but there’s no reason to take all a persons acquired knowledge and put it on the shelf to rot. The company is still trying to purchase a new plant in Mexico. Hopefully it will happen because it would be an awesome opportunity for me professionally and with my Spanish development. I’m still learning about 5-10 words per week. One of the things that keep me studying is daydreaming about how good I’ll be in a few more years. I’m kind of thinking of changing my mind regarding studying French. I’m not really seeing how it can improve my life when weighed against other possible pursuits. Plus I know the learning will come much slower than Spanish because I won’t have so many people to talk and instant message with every day. My buddy who applied for a program coordinator job didn’t get it. His English skills just aren’t up to par. I’m going to start calling him for 5 mins everyday so he can practice. One of the good things about training for this half marathon is that it gives my mind time to wander. A few days ago a conversation popped into my mind and I’m going to ask a coworker to build a prototype for an invention I have. He works with metal as a hobby and we can either trade services (I’d do some computer repair for him) or he can become my partner. I’m really proud of myself for staying active and improving myself during this time away from my wife. I have a lot of buddies who would have just watched tv and played tons of video games. You gotta get while the getting’s good. Peace 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4630 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 139 of 154 24 October 2014 at 7:51pm | IP Logged |
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Hello Everyone,
It’s been a while. I’ve been meaning to post for a while but every time I think about it I’m too tired. All this running makes me sleepy at 9:00pm. I’m attending the Spanish immersion meet up every week. The last meeting was pretty cool. We were just chatting up a storm then a guy from Spain said, “I’ll be back.” When he comes back he has a guitar and some binders with songs. We had our own little jam session at a bread shop. It was really cool. There’s starting to be more young people showing up, but I don’t mind that there are so many old people. There are all kinds of levels here from people with degrees in Spanish and years in Spanish speaking countries to one old dude who said Hola (Ho-la). I have a few buddies in the group and we always manage to sit together and have a good time talking. One guy brought his girlfriend that was visiting from Ecuador. She loved the group. I was happy that I could understand her pretty well. Last night I had a meetup and 15 people were there. It was an awesome time. We stayed for 2.5 hrs and people started singing again. It was funny. One older lady was from Mexico and she’s studying to be a tax preparer. Her English isn’t that good and I’m going to offer to do a language exchange with her. I don’t know why, but I have a sense of urgency for improving my Spanish. A few weeks ago I went to a co-worker’s birthday 55th b-day party and had a blast. She’s Mexican American and so were most of the people at the party. I was one of the first people to arrive so he family all got the chance to greet me as they came in. I was wearing a Jamaican soccer shirt and one guy who came in asked if I was from Hai-may-ca. I replied in Spanish and he then asked me, “How do you know I speak Spanish?” ( I think he was trying to catch me stereotyping him) and I replied, “No native English speaker says Jamaica, Hai-may-ca.” He laughed as said, “you’re right.” That guy and I ended up hanging out for most of the party and had a great time. We spoke in Spanish the whole time unless either one of us got stuck on a word. He works in the hospitality industry and we traded stories on the lengths companies will go to in apologizing for bad service/product. Later the mother in law showed up and some more cousins and we had a great time drinking and laughing. The mother in law used to have a bar back in the day and all of the cousins were talking about a knock down drag out party they had. One lady said, “Man even the dog was drunk!” I cracked up laughing at that. My co-worker and I share the same birthday so they sang happy birthday to both of us. It was really cool how they made an extra effort to make me feel welcome. The brother of the bday girl went to his car and came back with a present for me, a vase. It was so weird. He likes to go to garage sales and he had a lot of good “finds.” So for the rest of the party I’m walking around with this vase. It was funny. We were talking so much Spanish I felt bad for the Canadian co-worker who was there and did my best to include her. My adventure to Mexico for the Manda was an awesome time. Every year in Senora, Mx there’s a Manda, or pilgrimage from Nogales to Magdalena. It’s about 55miles. It’s called a Manda because you are kind of commanded by God to make the trip and many people do so in the hopes of getting enlightened or a miracle. The remains of San Francisco are supposed to be there (Not the same Saint that the city is named after. Also another church on the way from Arizona claims to have his remains) I was invited to ride bikes to Magdalena. I thought it would be a good time so I accepted. I began to try to recruit people in the office to go with me and I either got the response of, “are you crazy, I haven’t ridden a bike in years,” or “that’s not safe.” I actually heard the latter so often that I was getting a little nervous before the trip. As time trip got closer more and more people signed up until there was 6 of us with 2 additional supporters. We decided that we would start in Imurís which is only about 25 miles from Magdalena. A co-worker has family there and we could leave the cars and have a base to start from. The two ladies who rode with us aren’t in the best shape in the world and didn’t even own bikes. I was pressing them every day, “You need to get your bike, 25 miles is far to ride and you have to get used to your bike.” Well they didn’t listen to me and borrowed the bikes they were going to ride the day before the trip. The plan was for one lady to pick me up at 6:30am we’d get the other lady and then drive down to Mexico. We got off to a bad start. I got picked up about 35mins late and that kinda put me in a bad mood because I was waiting outside of the condo complex like a big dummy. At least she had a good excuse for being late. She couldn’t find her debit card and was trying to follow her tracks from the previous day. We pick up the other lady and start riding for the border. Everyone was in a good mood and chatting about nonsense. We made it to the last stop before Mexico and got a phone call. My buddy said, “Take your time. My car broke down.” I like thinking, “here we go…” Long story short, we don’t meet up with the other folks in Mexico until about 1pm. Not to mention that one of the ladies bike’s had a popped inner tube. I wanted to scream but just let it slide. “Well, I guess we have to find a new tube.” That added another hour on the trip and the bikes almost fell off of the car. Finally we made it to Imuris about 2pm met up with my buddy’s family, had one last bathroom break, and set off for Magdalena. Riding through the Mexican country-side was so beautiful and relaxing. It was so cool to see so many other people making the journey, although some of the walkers jokingly yelled at us, “You’re cheating!!” A van pulled up next to us and a guy offered us some sandwiches, fruit, and candy. I declined because I forgot to change my money. Later as we rode the guys explained to me that the food/drinks were free I was like, “why didn’t you tell me!!! Do you think they had whiskey?” lol Because it’s such an arduous trip a lot of people can’t complete it. The faithful who can’t travel feel that their Manda is to help the travelers so there are people all over the route doing what they can to make the pilgrim’s trip more comfortable. From feeding us to offering encouraging words or just playing some jams on their stereo, people did what they could. Some areas we rode though were fairly poor but the people were strong and proud. On lady was laying cinder blocks, building her own home. We traveling through a river (the water was about 3 feet deep), through stones, sand, and train tracks before we arrived at a large river with pretty fast rapids. I was thinking, “We can’t ride through this,” when a guy said, “we’ll take the bridge.” Now, I’m going to do my best to describe this “bridge.” It looked like two trees just happened to fall in the right place so you could walk about half way over the river. Then there was two smaller trees that were laid over the first two to span the rest of the way. The trees were covered with used wooden pallets and in places where the pallets had broken, someone put smaller tree branches. The railing was caution tape and a wire with a diameter a little bit smaller than a coat hanger. We had to cross THAT while carrying our bikes. I was thinking, “You’ve got to me S*%*ing me!!” Fortunately we all made it across and took some pretty cool pictures. (I’ll have to read the terms of this site to see if I can post a link for a picture of the bridge). On the other side of the bridge there were a lot of people hanging out and enjoying the shade. It was very peaceful there. People were playing with their kids, having a few beers, cooking on an open fire and everything. I thought, “This is living.” After we cooled out there for a bit we got back on our bikes minus one of our riders. She couldn’t go on any more so she rode in the car with our supporting cast. The other lady was riding super slow and she told us to go one without her. I protested at first but she urged me to open my eyes and look at how many women were traveling on the Manda by themselves or in small groups. That eased my mind and we said see you at the Saint. We push on and had a few run ins with angry dogs. My buddy almost got bit and when the dog circled back to get me I set him up. There was a car coming and I timed it perfectly so that the dog had to decide whether to try to get some Herm meat or avoid getting smashed by the car. The dog made the right decision. By this my legs are burning and my butt is sore. I have a racing seat on my bike and it’s unforgiving. Even with padded biker shorts on it was still painful. I tried to focus on the beauty of the ride and meditate on the trip/life/faith etc. The sun was setting as we got to the most dangerous part, riding on the highway. I was so scared, we had to be going about 35 miles an hour downhill and only a few feet of space between us and the cars. People like to party during this season in Magdalena so I was nervous that there would be a drunk driver. Fortunately we made it to the city safely. One thing that blew my mind in the final stretch was that people built their homes, really shacks, in the wash. The wash is where all the water flows when there’s a big storm. I couldn’t help but to wonder what the people did when it did rain. When we arrived at the city I was surprised to see that it was a huge market place set up around the church/chapel. We had to walk our bikes through the market where vendors was selling everything under the sun. It was cool. I think they probably didn’t like the sweaty, dirty, and exhausted guys walking through their booths, but we were on a mission. After about 10 minutes of dodging people we finally made it. We stacked our bikes and got in the short line to enter the chapel. Inside there were kneelers for people to pray on either side of the chapel and people filed through to see a wooden carving a San Francisco. Legend has it that if you are a bad person you won’t be able to lift the statue. The statue is of the saint lying down with his hands on his chest. If you lift from his head/shoulder area the statue will pivot at his feet and raise up about a foot or so. A lot of people were praying the rosary and hugging/kissing/rubbing the statue as they passed by. I said a quick prayer and tried to lift the statue. To my relief I could lift it so I am not a bad person. We leave the chapel and walk about to the front to watch our bikes and just cool out. Everything on my body was hurting. I was filthy and for some reason I wore a white workout shit and now it was brown. I took a poor man’s shower (poured the rest of my water bottle over my head) and plopped down on a bench with my buddies. We were just people watching and the line was growing longer to go in and see the saint. Some people were trying to crawl into the chapel on their knees. I have boney knees so I was in pain just watching them. My buddies told me that they’ve seen people flogging themselves while crawling into the chapel. While we were sitting there something crazy happened. A guy rides up on his horse with his girlfriend sitting in front of him. He’s drunk and holding a beer. He said that he wanted to go into the chapel on his horse. The usher lady said, “No, you can’t bring your horse in here.” He replied, “But my horse has a Manda!” Then he yelled, “YAH!!” and rode his horse in, having to duck to fit in the door. People were running to get out of the way and one lady dropped her toddler. It was wild. We were all sitting there with our mouths open. A minute or two later the guy was riding out the back yelling for everyone to get of his way. It was such a strange scene, like something out of a movie. I was laughing, mad, and confused all at the same time. After that episode we decided that it was time to get some grub. We had definitely earned it. We sat down in the food court and ate tons of carne asada tacos and drank beer. It was really cool to keep like a regular Mexican. I got a few stares but for the most part I just blended in. I wanted to learn how to dance banda style before the trip but now that people were dancing and the bands were playing I didn’t have the strength and I doubt any ladies wanted to dance with such a sweaty monster. We were hanging out for about 2 hours before the last lady in the group showed up. I was proud that she was able to make it. We all partied for a while then it was time to ride back to Imuris and get our stuff. My buddy’s family wanted us to stay the night at their place but we politely declined. When they kept pressing one lady made up a lie that I had to work the next day. Two bathrooms are pretty much unheard of there and to use the bathroom I had to walk through two bedrooms and one girl was lying in bed trying to sleep. That really weirded me out and I knew we couldn’t stay and inconvenience them like that. However I really do think that they would have been more than happy to put up with the trouble for the night. They were very good and friendly people. We struggled to stay awake on the ride back to Arizona but we made it in about 3am. I don’t think I’ve ever slept so well in my life. Our pictures were sent all over the assembly plant and now tons of people want to go on the trip next year. All of this is possible because I took the first step to try to learn in 2012. I’m having so much fun. Next week I’m going to New York to visit my wife. It should be a great time. We’re going to be in the Halloween parade (I still have to figure out what I’m going to be). I’m super excited because we haven’t seen each other in 2 months. I’m hoping that the airline overbooks the plane or something so I can get a voucher to pay for another flight. It’s expensive flying across the country to see each other. I’m also looking forward to testing out my Spanish skills in the city. cya 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4248 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 140 of 154 25 October 2014 at 6:56am | IP Logged |
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Sounds like you had a great time!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4630 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 141 of 154 15 December 2014 at 5:55pm | IP Logged |
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Hey everybody,
It’s been a while. I’m still here chipping away at that illusive thing called fluency. Since my last post I’ve had about 5 Spanish meetups, thanksgiving over a Spanish speaking co-workers house, 2 weddings in Mexico, a work trip out to Mexico, and my wife has finally moved out to Arizona. I’m still studying my flash cards and trying to talk as much as possible to as many people as possible. Spanish radio plays in my car and I have Univision radio playing in my office during the day. I still, after 2.75 years, have a long way to go but there’s no rush. I’ll be learning until the day I die, and I’m happy with that. Recently I listened to a speech given by Arnold Swartzeneggar. The guy has been in the states for about 40 years and still has his heavy accent. Hopefully I won’t sound as bad as he does when I have that many years in the Spanish game, but if I do, so what. My main goal is to understand and be understood. The two weddings in Mexico were awesome experiences. A buddy of mine who works in the plant was gracious enough to host me and another co-worker at his house. Our 4 hour drive down was pretty uneventful. We arrived at another guy’s house for a pre-party. There was about 25 people there drinking and eating ceviche (fish/shrimp that are cooked with citrus juice instead of heat). We were partying so hard that the running joke became, “Sorry Jesus, we tried.” (Jesus was the guy who was getting married). After a while I had to kind of focus everyone to start changing into their formal wear so we could make it at a reasonable time. I decided to cool out on the beers so I was good to drive and a Mexican buddy told me, “Have more, it’s Mexico!” I cracked up laughing at that, but passed. We arrived at the wedding reception at about 10:30pm and believe it or not, dinner was served at midnight! I couldn’t believe we were eating so late, but I was hungry so I gobbled the food up. It was fairly cold outside so much so that I could see my breath. After a few sips of moonshine I was out on the dance floor to celebrate with my friend and to move my body to keep from freezing. It’s always interesting to see your co-workers outside of work. We have to wear a bata (overcoat) in the plant so seeing people all dressed up was a surprise. There were a few people that I didn’t even recognize all dressed up. The following night was a big boxing match so my buddy threw a watch party. We had carne asada and moved all his furniture into the backyard and set up the tv. In Mexico all of the fights that would be pay per view in the US are shown on regular tv for free, just an hour later. We had an awesome time under the stars. As it got later we started getting cold. We threw the coals from the grill in front of the couch and added more charcoal and we were good to go. The whole time I was speaking in Spanish, making jokes, and being introduced to people. The common introduction was, “This is Herm, he speaks Spanish.” I wanted to go to church on Sunday because I thought it would be really interesting but I couldn’t wake up and I was going back the following weekend for another wedding that included a full mass. The second wedding was the Saturday after thanksgiving. I had Friday off so I decided to drive out on Friday so I could go to a co-worker’s birthday party. It was a great time. Carne asada tacos and tons of beer. There was a nice turnout of about 30 people throughout the night. We partied in the front of the house. I was able to hold my own in Spanish conversation and they were all laughing at my wording. You have to be able to take a joke in order to learn a language. Foreigners say hilarious stuff all the time without trying to, and I’m no exception. I have a co-worker who is deathly afraid of using her English and it’s going to hamper her career development. We’ve known each other for 3 years and she still is too shy to practice with me. On Saturday morning we ate breakfast and just lounged around and played with my buddy’s son. He’s 15 months is a ton of fun. He doesn’t talk much but he does yell, “Goyale” when kicking a soccerball. In the afternoon we went to see a movie titled “La Dictadura Perfecta.” I was really excited because I had never been to the movies in Mexico and it would be cool to people watch and see everyone in the natural environment. I’ve been to Mexico many times but it has mostly been in a work environment. I got a few stares and many people turned around to hear who was talking, but for the most part I kinda blended in. We all got the super tubs of popcorn and cokes. They had a type of burned caramel corn that was pretty good. At first I thought we had a bad batch but they explained to me that that was the way it’s supposed to taste. The movie was funny, entertaining, and sad at the same time. It basically made fun of the Mexican government, media, and popular cultural. The part was that the best, most ridiculous lines in the movie were direct quotes from previous presidents. My buddies told me that the fact that the movie was even allowed to run in Mexico is progress. In the past something like it would have been blocked. I could understand about 85% of what was being said in the movie but there were sometimes where I was completely lost. After the movie we had to hustle to get dressed for the mass. The ladies just did half of their makeup and we hopped in the car. The cathedral was beautiful! It was made out of huge stones and had a large dome over the alter. My co-worker looked very beautiful in her dress. I was surprised at how much of the homily I could understand. I was raised catholic so I’m sure that helped, but when the priest was talking about love and marriage I could follow along pretty well. I afterwards I saw some people who used to work in the plant. One guy now manages a pita restaurant ( Hermosillo is getting to be much more health conscious than before). We ran home so the ladies could finish with their make up and the guys picked up the baby sitter. We got the reception about 9:30pm and dinner was served pretty quickly. About 50 more people showed up than expected so the portions of the meal were pretty small. After a few whiskies I was ready to dance. I don’t know how to dance Banda style but I have some rhythm so I just improvised. It was a lot of fun. I didn’t know that a guy was taking video of me, so now I’m on youtube. I’m not really happy about that, but the funny part is that some ladies wanted to dance with me and I was ignoring them. I know that a dance is just a dance and so does my wife, but people tend to gossip about everything at the plant. I was invited to another wedding and I’m sad that I can’t make it. The guy is from such a small town that there’s no address for the reception, it just says “Plaza.” He’s a really good guy so I’ll send him a gift or some money. My last trip to the plant was to take a new sales analyst on a tour. It was pretty much just a half day in the plant. We drove down Monday and came back Tuesday. It was kind of strange because he’s of Hispanic decent and has a Spanish name but he doesn’t speak a lick. Everyone was walking up to him speaking Spanish. I offered to give him some of my learning tools, but he doesn’t seem all that interested at the moment. He was surprised at how many people I knew in the plant, but I explained that I’ve been with the company for over 7 years, I can speak their language, and I go to the English classes. Having my wife back with me is awesome. I missed her so much. She did pick up alittle Spanish while in New York and I’m looking forward to bringing her with me to my Spanish meet ups. She’s super friendly so I’m sure that she’ll have a lady to do a language exchange with in no time. My side business is taking a while to get up and running here. I’m doing some pro bono work for a Mexican co-worker in exchange for her singing my praises to her friends and family. That’s about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4630 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 142 of 154 04 March 2015 at 6:28pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone, this is a re-post because the last week or so of posts have been lost.
Happy 3 years of studying Spanish to me! It’s been a while since my last post but I’m still pounding away. I sometimes feel that I should be further along with so much time under my belt, but learning a language takes time, especially when you have to go out of your way to use it. I’m still reviewing my flash cards on my phone, writing in Spanish to my Mexican colleagues, listening to Spanish radio while at work and in the car, going to meet ups, talking to everyone who will listen when I’m in Mexico, and reading books. Speaking of books, I’m reading Querida Dra. Polo. Doctor Polo is basically a tv judge (for Americans: she’s like judge Judy) that deals with all kinds of crazy cases. Some of the people who come on her shows are actors and some aren’t. The show is wildly popular in the Hispanic community. Her book is about all of the stories that were too inappropriate for tv. It’s an interesting, funny, and sometimes sad book that makes me wonder if all the stories are real (I sure hope not). There’s a lot of sex in it so it’s definitely not for kids, however it’s entertaining. There have been several times where I’ve laughed out loud, gasped, and looked around thinking, “If these people only knew what I was reading..” I’m just about done with the book and have reserved a copy of the second. I’ve picked up about 150 new words and phrases which I’ll be adding to my flash cards. I’ve also been trying to read out loud as much as possible so I get more practice with my pronunciation. I haven’t really felt like learning Spanish was really hard until I started reading this book. Sometimes I have to read a sentence 3 or 4 times to try to understand and even then, sometimes I still don’t get it. It’s frustrating to think that after 3 years of work I’m having trouble with a simple book, but I know that I’m stretching my mind and eventually it will get easier. I think that I really need to bump up the quantity of reading that I’m doing. Right now, reading is the only other area where I can increase my effort without cutting into my free time. 20 pages a day is a very achievable goal. I missed a few sessions of the Spanish meet up because of business travel and one time I just didn’t feel like going. I attended last week and it was really fun. There were about 5 Americans, 2 cubans, and a Mexican lady. One of the Americans was a Spanish teacher and I was surprised that my Spanish was better than hers until I realized that you just have to be better than your students and maybe she just taught the 100 level class. One elderly Cuban lady brought her cousin. I went to their side of the table to chat and we had a good time talking nonsense. She’s going to move to Florida for a while (maybe forever) and I joked, “ Maybe you’ll find a young and handsome boyfriend.” She replied, “ No! I want a man that is old, rich, and sick!” I about fell out of my chair laughing. I spent most of the meet up talking to her. We did talk about some current events and also introductions for the new people. While an hour once a week of talking/listening is good, it’s not enough. I was in Mexico last week for a few days. It was a good trip. I went with 3 coworkers and they kept commenting on how many people I knew down there. “ Dang Herm, you’re like a celebrity.” I told them that it was nothing special. The people know me because I talk to them. I recently got into photography and I tried to take pictures of the “ Devil’s House.” There’s a legend in Hermosillo that the devil lives in a burned down dance hall. I was walking through some neighborhoods trying to get close and then reached a dead end. I had the chance to take a good shot of the house but I was right in front of a person’s window and figured that the last thing I needed was to be accused of being a peeping Tom. I did wander around and got some pictures of a few cool things. When I’m in the assembly plant everyone talks to me in Spanish. I’ve been going down pretty regularly so just about everyone there knows of /has seen me, but when I’m introduced to someone it’s always, “This is Herm, he speaks Spanish.” We had a big team dinner to celebrate 2014’s success and to talk about 2015’s goals. I asked a friend to set up the reservation and told her to pick the place closest to our hotel. Of course, the location that I knew of wasn’t the closest to the hotel. One of my co-workers is Mexican American and she told me, “ Stop worrying, they’ll be here on Mexican time.” After a half an hour I was getting worried that we were at the wrong place. I got a call from a buddy asking, “ Are you coming, we’re all here waiting.” When we arrived the group had been waiting for about 45mins. The really funny part is that the Mexican program manager told all the invitees. “Don’t be late, you have to show up on American time… This is important!” I felt like a big idiot for screwing that up, but the dinner ended up being a big success. I was able to work the table and make small talk with all the members of the team in Spanish. I make a few mistakes but they understood me well. I drove the whole time during the trip so I was responsible for talking to the police and boarder agents. It all went smoothly. I’m gaining more confidence. I learned something new while at lunch in Mexico. Their social security is more closely linked to their employment and they get an automatic severance payment when they retire. If I remember correctly, my buddy told me that he gets 20 days of pay for every year he’s at a company. He almost has 20 days at our company and it blew my mind that when he retires he’ll get over a year’s salary check. He couldn’t believe that it doesn’t work like that in the US. I told him that you might get a party and a cake when you retire, but definitely not a year’s salary bonus. Then I started joking with him that the company will make him work until he dies so they don’t have to pay. In January my wife came with me on a trip to Mexico and it worked out perfect that the wife of a friend had some time for lunch so the ladies were able to hang out. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but when I first asked if they guy’s wife spoke English he told me no. Then when I met her she spoke really well, I could understand everything. So I look at my buddy and asked why he told me she couldn’t speak. He replied, “ I didn’t know, we never speak to each other in English.” lol I think I’m going to find a place to volunteer in the community. I need more opportunities to speak with people about everyday stuff. I’m good with talking about technical topics but the day to day stuff is still hard for me. I don’t know how many years I’ll be in the southwest but I want to make the most of my time. If I stay on my original timeline, I only have one more year of actively studying Spanish and then I’ll switch to French. I’m not so sure if that will happen. I was pretty proud during my last visit to Mexico because I was shooting the breeze with a buddy and he paused and said, “Man you’re Spanish is a lot better.” Ohh yea, the guy who replaced me at my last position recently asked for some of my study materials, he’s going to start trying to learn. Really, having the American learn Spanish is the best way to go. We have so many more opportunities to speak/interact with Hispanic people than Mexican’s have with Americans. I’ve had many Mexican buddies crying the blues that they don’t have anyone to speak with. Also I’m thinking about maybe trying to do a Spanish immersion for Christmas break 2016. If I could find a cheap flight it would be fun to spend 10 days somewhere where I could get intense instruction and be forced to live every moment in Spanish. That’s one of the things I don’t like about being so close to the plant. Now I only go down to Mexico for a day- day in a half. I go more often than before, but having 5,6,7 days straight of Spanish seems to help more. Also with the Spanish immersion for Christmas, my wife would like to do it as well. She’s more of an immersion learner than a flash cards and putting in a few hours everyday person. I think the trip would kick start her desire to put in the effort. I have noticed that the more she’s around my Mexican American co-workers the more she wants to learn. If any young people are reading this, start studying a language now, while you have all the time in the world to practice and be somewhat serious about language opportunities. I was in the Spanish club in high school just because I wanted to eat tacos and talk to the girls. It was fun, but now I wish I had tried harder. Cya 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5372 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 143 of 154 04 March 2015 at 6:56pm | IP Logged |
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I'm going to check out Dra Polo's book. I've been trying to find a good change of pace from the mystery novels I've been reading.
On the immersion thing... it's great and really rewarding. You can do it super cheap if you plan right. My trip to the Dominican only cost me a few hundred dollars... i got a midnight flight and booked a week of tutoring that came with an all inclusive stay with a family (three meals). the whole thing door to door cost me probably $600ish. I did basically the same thing in Ecuador, but spent a bit more money. Spain was quite expensive. Unfortunately, I don't know how much help an "immersion" trip really is. Sure, it is nice, but I would not really expect to advance a huge amount. It is great for the cultural/fun aspect of things, but I think languages just take a lot of time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5204 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 144 of 154 05 March 2015 at 10:56am | IP Logged |
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Reading your log always makes me feel like taking up Spanish again! It must be nice learning a language that's so useful for travel, business and socialising, and your progress shows that if you just keep working on the language and using it you keep improving.
I've had a similar experience with meeting a couple of French teachers at meetups whose French was, well, not great. They taught in high schools, and I suppose that like you said, maybe you just need to be better than your students. I'm also curious about immersion trips: I think a week or two of immersion might benefit someone like me who already knows the language well but wants to give their speaking skills a boost. For my location and languages, a proper immersion trip with lessons and all tends to cost thousands. If I could do one for $600 I'd be all over it! On the other hand, I suppose I'm lucky to be so near mainland Europe, and a "DIY" immersion trip (cheap 2-hour flight, staying with native speakers through AirBnB/Couchsurfing, doing activities and meeting people in the language) is always an option. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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