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Bolio’s Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4089 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 225 of 344 15 August 2014 at 2:10pm | IP Logged |
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What a great update! Your trip sounds wonderful! That's the real magic of language-learning, isn't it...
I'm loving Spanish just for its own sake right now, but I think that I'm going to need to plan a trip in the next few years. What better motivation? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4603 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 226 of 344 15 August 2014 at 8:04pm | IP Logged |
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Vos, Gracias por sus comentarios. Yo creo que estoy creciendo en español.
Lorren, James, Stelle thanks for the kind words. The travel has made the learning more exciting. I was able to go to Mexico three times this year and each time was a learning experience and each time I could see a measurable growth in my abilities. The travel has allowed me to taste the culture that I am becoming more and more obsessed with. I spent the last two days here: http://www.novelas.rodriguezalvarez.com/index.php/listado-no velas I am almost sure I-Mon gave me this site. If not, you get the credit anyway. :) I had La Sombra del Viento in English and Spanish side by side and read the whole thing in Spanish and English. I don't know if I believe in the L-R thing for true beginners (Maybe) but I do know I had a lot of QUALITY imput over a two day period by having the English version to look at when something was incomprehensible for me. It was a beneficial exercise and I do feel as if I learned something. However, the most important thing is that it was fun and enjoyable. Sometimes FSI is very enjoyable. Sometimes Assimil was like pulling teeth and other times it was very nice. I am learning when something starts to wear on me, put it down and go to something else. Then, after taking a breath of new air (so to speak)go back to whatever it was you were doing. I think viewing language learning as a "to do" list is a flaw of mine that makes me different than those who can learn languages easily. They seem to just hear it and breath it and it enters them and they just start speaking and understanding. I have grown convinced that it is their relaxed attitude that helps their advancement. And yet, without having any of their abilities, I am still learning and learning and learning. I will never be like the artists on this site who learned a dozen languages. That's ok. This whole long winded post is for people who are starting their journey. All courses work. Also, every one of them does NOT work 100% of the time if you do not actually do them. There is no perfect way to learn a language. More than likely you are not some sort of language savant but just a regular person who has to put in a certain amount of time to see progress. Just don't quit and you will learn. A person close to me asked me yesterday what has helped me move forward in my studies this time. They asked what I would do different. The first thing I mentioned was this site. The next thing I mentioned is how I would approach the different courses and which ones I would use (MT, Assimil, FSI etc). But the biggest thing I told him is to have a very firm reason as to why you want to learn it and remain focused on it. For me it is very simple. I want to read great literature in Spanish, travel freely in Spanish speaking countries, retire in a Spanish speaking country, and most of all, I want to interact with people in the language of their heart (spanish) instead of them having to communicate in mine (Especially my wife's family). This time I remind myself daily of what I want to do. Take steps towards learning, no matter how small, EVERY day. Sorry it was so long but my friend's question got me thinking. All the best, BOLIO 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4196 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 227 of 344 16 August 2014 at 4:59am | IP Logged |
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I would agree that you can pick nearly any course, but you have to do it to get it to work. I'm sure that some fit people's personalities better than others though.
I also don't think that there is a course (other than immersion environments) that will prepare someone to work in an environment where they have to speak a language fluently. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5320 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 228 of 344 16 August 2014 at 3:17pm | IP Logged |
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During my first two years or so of studying Spanish there was a factor that I felt was really important. That was the feeling when I was done studying for the day. I recall that every day when I put the book down for the day and was finished, I'd walk down to get a cup of coffee and I'd always say to myself "wow, I really like studying Spanish" and I had a bit of a feeling that I wanted to continue or a feeling that I had just learned something. I always tried to stop studying for the day at a point where I wanted a little more. Then, the next morning, I'd wake up and I'd immediately think... yippee... it is time to pick up Spanish again and learn some more. I always had that desire that I never quite got enough. To me, that made all the difference in the world because I never got up and dreaded studying... ever.
If you are seriously thinking of retiring somewhere, I'd look at Cuenca, Ecuador. I visited there for two weeks. There are a lot of retired Americans because it is a great place to retire. Things are cheap, they use our dollar as the official currency, it is safe, the weather is great. My only complaint was that it was a bit of a drive from the beach. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4603 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 229 of 344 16 August 2014 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
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James, Cuenca is number one on my bucket list of places to "Interview" for retirement. I first read about it a little over two years ago. I want to say it was an article in Travel Magazine or some sort and they combined Cost of Living, Quality of Life (I am guessing entertainment), and quality/ cost of medical care. Ecuador finished as the top country and Cuenca finished as the top city.
When we traveled to San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico, we met a lady who had lived in Cuenca for years and said it was nicer than San Cristobal and even less expensive. I plan to visit in the next two years if all goes well. Lorren, I too agree that some courses are better suited for peoples' personalities. As far as taking someone to fluency, FSI (full disclosure that I am no where near finishing it) would be the most complete but it would be very difficult for someone with zero understanding to start in my opinion. But if someone were to ask me for a language track to run on it would be; 1) Michele Thomas or Pimsleur 2) Assimil 3) Learn in your car (the entire series) 4) FSI 5 Native material Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I am stuck at work. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5810 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 230 of 344 17 August 2014 at 5:33am | IP Logged |
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I think FSI (at least Platiquemos) would be fine with someone with even a basic understanding of Spanish. I did Michel Thomas, the first level or two of Pimsleur, and then jumped straight into Platiquemos. That's also what the user irrationale did (i highly recommend their log here on HTLAL) and we both had pretty similar results (though they had Spanish speakers at work to practice with). Your vocabulary will be a bit lacking if that's the only course you use (maybe around a couple thousand words), but you'll have great grammar and be able to conjugate verbs naturally without really having to think about them.
On a slightly related note, Language Transfer just released the next set of the Complete Spanish course yesterday (tracks 1-50, about 8 hours of audio). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4603 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 231 of 344 18 August 2014 at 3:27pm | IP Logged |
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I don't think I could have started from scratch with FSI. Also, after spending several hours with the Language transfer this weekend, I think I would just direct someone through it first and then jump into FSI. They could do Assimil if they really like it but I am really impressed with Language Transfer. I will complete it. It is so good that it may need its own thread on the main page if one is not there.
Our friends from Mexico arrived here this week. Yesterday we were able to get together with them. I did not speak as much in Spanish as I would have liked, but I spoke some. I was able to listen to a couple hours of Spanish. It is still most difficult to listen to multiple Spanish speakers talking really quickly. To the point where I usually catch the first or last words being spoken. I did try Iversen's Bloodhound listening to the conversations the last half of the evening and just focused on trying to notice where the words ended and began during the conversations and less on understanding what was said. It was a good time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5810 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 232 of 344 18 August 2014 at 5:54pm | IP Logged |
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Esa "técnica" de Iversen es lo que me ayudó a mí a empezar a poder entender la tele en castellano, antes me perdía un poco como dices tú, entendía las primeras palabras, un par de palabras en el medio y el final. Estaba intentando procesar todo y lo procesaba a un ritmo demasiado lento para la conversación. Ahora lo hago con el chino mandarín y sigue siéndome útil. Parece muy simple o incluso un poco tonto, pero me asombra cuánto puedo entender haciéndolo, aunque es claro que si no tienes el vocabulario y la gramática no vas a entender todo.
Me alegra mucho oír que te está gustando el curso de Language Transfer, yo he hecho el curso de griego (bueno las tres primeras partes de las cinco en total, ya que sigue incompleto) y me ha gustado muchísimo. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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