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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 249 of 344 10 September 2014 at 2:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I love using twitter for language learning! Iguanamon suggested several interesting twitter accounts to me when I
first started following Spanish speakers. Here are a few twitter accounts that post interesting links and photos: muy interesante el país bbc mundo hay que saberlo comprension lectora I also follow several travel bloggers and humour posters, but I find that some of those tend to be "actively growing" their readership, so they retweet like crazy (retweet means reposting something that someone else says) and #totally #abuse #andoveruse #hashtags (hashtags link to categories on twitter so that you can find more tweets on a topic that you're interested in). Retweeting can be great if the person's sharing interesting content, but it's annoying sometimes. And #hashtags #always #drivemecrazy. Ha! I have a list of Spanish twitter users here, but it needs to be curated a bit: twitter en español edited to add: like you, I don't use social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) in my personal life. I only have social media accounts for language learning and language blogging. It can be an amazing resource! Edited by Stelle on 10 September 2014 at 2:30pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4603 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 250 of 344 10 September 2014 at 3:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Stelle, thank you VERY much for all the great info. I agree with you and I-Mon about the twitter and will use it. Thanks again.
Yesterday I was looking around HTLAL and found a post by LUKE. He linked the different Logs he has had. I started digging through them and he linked this website that had a proficiency exam for Spanish. I had just completed one a few days ago that was issued by a local company that teaches Spanish on a one on one basis. I scored as an Intermediate level student (there were several levels, Novice, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced). So, fresh over my domination of the local language schools exam, I jumped into LUKE's link. I knew I was in trouble about 60 seconds into the exam. Anyway, it was ugly. It had several different sections like reading, grammar, vocab, etc. My highest score on any section was a 58%. It was a big piece of humble pie and I was choking it down. It ruined my evening. On the study front, I need to get off my duff and focus more on getting FSI done. I find myself spending a ton of time on ANKI because I can pull out my phone and do it anywhere. It has gone from filler time to primary time and that needs to change. I am still spending time reading something in Spanish. Simple stuff. I have some harder stuff ready and waiting for me to get there so I can read it. I hope everyone is well. Take care...BOLIO 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5207 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 251 of 344 10 September 2014 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
You've hit on one of the subtle traps some learners can fall into when using SRS- overusing SRS. When SRS becomes an end to itself, it ceases to be a useful tool. When used judiciously in concert with a course and reading and speaking, it can be very useful. If you want an extensive reading with bilingual text, try what I recommended to you here a while ago in your log: Wayne Drop. I used it for Haitian Creole and learned a lot from it, both vocabulary and grammar. It can be a surprisingly good intensive reading exercise for a short 18 page pamphlet about a raindrop's journey to the Everglades and through the water cycle. If you continue with FSI and devote 15 minutes a day to working with Wayne Drop (intended for 5th graders) you'll start to see that synergy happen that I'm always talking about. The English is always there to tell you whether your context guesses are correct.
You'll notice that this isn't a one to one literal translation. Languages are not cipher codes. There are many variations to use with an exercise like this. I try to read in TL first and see how much I understand. I might look up a word or two in the dictionary or google images after glancing at the English. You can read the Spanish first, then the English, then back to the Spanish again. You'll see words repeated as you move further along through it. At the end, there's a real sense of accomplishment when you have finished it. Yeah, there's nothing gripping about the story. It may not be what you or I would want to read, but on the other hand it isn't odious. After finishing it you will have the pride of knowing that you have read something that has been used in the real-world Florida schools to teach Spanish-speaking kids about the Everglades. In a multi-track approach, exposure to the language is what helps to consolidate what you're learning in a course. Anki/SRS can be a part of that approach, but, you're right, it shouldn't be the main part. To make your own bilingual text (assuming the translation is a faithful one) open a word file and insert a 2 column, 1 row, table. Copy the TL text and paste on the left. Copy the English and paste on the right. Try to avoid copying images because of formatting issues. You should make both sides of the text have the same font and size. You may have to tweak font size on one side or the other a bit to have the paragraphs line up well. Print to pdf and put on your tablet or phone, or, print to paper. After Wayne Drop, I enjoyed working through Genesis and Exodus in Creole/English texts, but you have to be careful with the Bible to get a modern, everyday language, translation for both the TL and English. Fortunately, Spanish has a lot more texts available than Haitian Creole. A good source of short, contemporary, DIY bilingual texts is Global Voices.org Español at the top left of each article will be a link to translations. Almost every article will have an English translation. The news is progressively slanted and relies on bloggers and social media for added content which can give good examples of real-world language- like that used in tweets. GV texts are best copied and pasted from the print icon link. Edited by iguanamon on 11 September 2014 at 7:43pm 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 252 of 344 11 September 2014 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I-Mon, Thanks for the reminder about Wayne Drop. I downloaded it and will read it tonight. I do have several versions of the bible in English and Spanish.
As far as ANKI, I am taking a 2-3 day break to work on FSI and simple reading. Thanks again. 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 253 of 344 14 September 2014 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Another thing with the bilingual Bibles to watch out for is that one language is translated from the other. For example, I really like the DHH as my Spanish preference. It was written in Spanish from the original sources and not translated from an English version... but, that's the problem. The English version they put in the bilingual Bible is the Good News. So, you have the two Bibles in parallel, but they obviously don't match up in terms of translations because they were both separately translated from the original sources, etc. This is not a problem if you are merely occasionally looking for the meaning of a word or something, but if you are going to be relying on it a lot it is tougher.
The NIV/NVI is different and, in my opinion, more useful for language learning because the Spanish was translated directly from the English so you can really learn from comparing the two texts. It is a bit more challenging than the DHH. Another good option is the New Life if you are looking for something easy. It is very simple and you could read it very easily without relying much on the English. They only make the Spanish version in the New Testament. The bilingual version of the New Testament is really cheap too. 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 254 of 344 19 September 2014 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It has been shameful how little Spanish I have done in the last two weeks. My work has been crazy and I really have had such a frantic schedule that there were three days where I did ZERO in Spanish. Prior to this, I cannot remember a day, since last February, where I did not do anything towards my study. It is scary how one day can turn into two and etc. I halted that series of false steps and will not return.
I-Mon, Wayne Drop was fun. I really enjoyed it. James, Thanks for the Bible info. I have a couple editions in Spanish that were translated from English and one translated from the original Greek and Hebrew. You can see the difference. FSI and reading are the current flavors of the day and I have done very little ANKI. There is nothing very exciting going on. We are scheduling a trip back to San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico in the Spring. We decided against the trip to Switzerland this year. I don't want to give the image that we are some world travelers because we have traveled very little prior to this year. I would like to travel to Ecuador, CHile, Peru, Argentina and of course Spain in the near future. I hope all is well with everyone and I hope you have been more productive in your studies than I have. :) 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 255 of 344 01 October 2014 at 4:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Well, the last two weeks were better than the previous two weeks but still nothing to shout about. I wish I had some epiphany to share with you. But really I don't feel like there are any surprises for me. It is just a matter of doing the work. The more work I do and the quicker it gets done (Meaning study every day for at least one hour a day), the quicker I will be able to speak Spanish and speak it well.
My wife has been more helpful than ever and I am in debt to her for that. Our friends from Mexico are back here in the States and I have been spending quite a bit of time with them which is always a reminder of how far I have to go but also gives me a huge amount of exposure when I am around them. It has been FSI, reading children's books, Democracy now and little else as far as study. I have three good interactions per week with local workers at various restaurants and stores in the area. They are very helpful to the large Gringo who has continued to learn Spanish. One told me the other day that she thought I would have stopped learning by now but her and others there are rooting for me to continue. I will. All the best, 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4089 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 256 of 344 01 October 2014 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
It's all in how you word it! You mention it as though it were very little, but this sounds like a solid dose of Spanish to me! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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