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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 385 of 668 09 March 2014 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks again for the input. I definitely need to do exercises and "studying" like this. The site is particularly useful because it divides the lessons into fairly specific levels (B2, C1, etc). I think this is helpful because using grammar books and courses at an intermediate level often requires too much review or working through things that are below the studier's level.
What is your take on an "advanced" grammar book? Do you have any recommendations for someone at the B2/C1 level? I have been looking at the Practice Makes Perfect Advanced Spanish Grammar (. here). and Advanced Spanish Step by Step here. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5260 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 386 of 668 09 March 2014 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Both are good, James, but I would also look at Gramática de uso del español B1-B2 . You can search around for a used copy cheaper somewhere else- like abe books, ebay or schoenhoffs. The advantage is it is geared to second language-learners of Spanish and uses Spanish to explain Spanish. This series of books (there's also a C-1 book) would be a great addition to what you already have. I hesitate in recommending the RAE's resources to you at this stage because they're so dense that I think it might overwhelm you. At some point, when you are ready, the RAE is the way to go.
Keep reading even though it isn't so comfortable for you right now. I know you like economics but the vocabulary in these books isn't what you need to master right now. If you can somehow overcome your aversion to fiction and find a non-translated book, or series of books you like, that will be a big help. Now that you have a child and are running your own business, I know your time is quite limited. My advice is to change things up a bit in your routine. Why not try, say for a month, to get all of your news via Spanish. For example, you have to pay to read the Wall Street Journal online in English, but the general business articles are free on their WSJ en Español (and Portuguese) sites. For US news, I read El Nuevo Herald from Miami and for a more local perspective I like El Nuevo Día from San Juan, PR. My favorite Spanish newspaper is El País from Madrid, this is the NYT of the Spanish-speaking world and keeps me up on all the goings on in Europe, Spain and Latin America. All have free apps for iPhone and android. I download Democracy Now's newscasts in Spanish and listen every day, but you're somewhat to the right and I don't think you would appreciate it. I also have the free RTVE app on my phone and watch the four minute newscast at some point during the day. The Associated Press has free news in Spanish- AP en español. Voice of America- VOA Noticias has some US oriented podcasts with an emphasis on Latin America for download. Buenos Días América is quite good. I usually listen to at least an hour's worth of podcasts throughout the day. Ittakes me about 5 minutes to download and install what I want. There's always some down time during the day, even when I'm extremely busy. Happy to help, James. Keep up the good work. Don't get discouraged. It just seems like it wil take years right now. The more you do, the better you will be. Edited by iguanamon on 09 March 2014 at 5:43pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4142 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 387 of 668 09 March 2014 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | ||
Very useful! Thank you for sharing! James, have you decided whether or not you're going to shadow a novel? I have to admit that it sounds boring to do the entire thing…although I think that shadowing just a few passages could be very useful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5863 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 388 of 668 09 March 2014 at 5:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the link, iguanamon. I've tried some of the C1 lessons and they seem a bit basic, but it's probably still worth my while to go through them :)
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 389 of 668 09 March 2014 at 6:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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This forum really is amazing. I ask a total stranger for some free advice and I get a treasure trove of info. Thank you. That grammar book for B1-B2 looks PERFECT. I think I will buy it. I have been searching and searching and nothing seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.
I have tried in the past to do news in Spanish, but I just could not get into the habit. There is a city with a Univision channel a few hours away and I was going to watch their nightly news online. It just did not work for me. I also got that city's Spanish language newspaper which would have been perfect because it had the articles in both English and Spanish. I just never read it. I don't know why, but some things just don't go well in Spanish with me. You are right about reading books. I need to do more of that. I can see how it will help. I am going to stick with translated books for now because I am simply not going to be able to get motivated to read anything else and I don't like very many things. I know I like Grisham and I can stick with his books for a while. He has 20+ translated into Spanish and I have four of the audio books in Spanish. I like Dan Brown's books too and have three more of those audio books. I figure I have plenty of material to work with. Unlike many learners I am much more interested in actually learning the language than I am in getting into cultural issues, etc. I am very interested in the Latino culture in the US, but not so much in other countries. I understand that is somewhat paradoxical due to the fact that so many US Latinos have heritage from other countries. The economics stuff is interesting and educational, but it is actually quite easy to read and not really challenging my Spanish. The Simpsons seems good and if I can get up to reading real adult novels I think that will be helpful too. I decided not to shadow a novel. At least for now. I want to keep improving my speaking while I am doing all this passive learning and I don't know exactly what to do. I am not too worried about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5260 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 390 of 668 09 March 2014 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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You're welcome, always happy to help. I understand your position vis-a-vis translated vs authentic, and that you're just not that into the culture per-se. The only issue with the translations is the nature of English sentences and their structure as translated into other languages. It is, somehow, not quite natural, no matter how good the translation. That being said, it's better than nothing, and you have, through dint of hard work, consistency and persistence become a Spanish-speaker. That's an accomplishment to be very proud of, indeed! I use your example as a counterpoint to my own advice to people. You have proven that it can work.
Once you feel that you are ready, there is a world of literature, fiction and non-fiction, available in authentic Spanish for you. I'm sure there will be something of interest for you written by someone who speaks Spanish, somewhere. For example, search for "Carlos Slim libro". He'll tell you how he made his millions in México. In the meantime, enjoy! Edited by iguanamon on 09 March 2014 at 6:43pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 391 of 668 09 March 2014 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I just bought Gramática de uso del español B1-B2. I just could not resist. I'll try to do it this summer.
I totally understand the translated v. native issue. I read the English translation of Perez-Reverte's La Reina del Sur and it seemed... well... unnatural. It was noticeable. I am sure the books I read are similar in Spanish. That being said, this morning I got up early and just kept reading the Grisham book because I really like it. If I was reading something mediocre I definitely would have stopped half an hour earlier. Same thing with the Simpsons... it has nothing to do with Latin culture, but it is enjoyable for me to just sit down and watch an episode. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 392 of 668 16 March 2014 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't have much time for today's update. It was a pretty good week. Goals for 2014:
Read any 15 books in Spanish. -> 4.5 done (Anthem, Joven Abogado #1 and #2, Narnia #1 and more than half of Man, Economy and State) Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes in Spanish -> more than 73 done Re-read Cassell's Colloquial Spanish -> finished the "E" section. Re-read Practice Makes Perfect "Subjunctive Up Close." -> No progress yet. Discussion: I finished the John Grisham book today. I read quite a bit yesterday. Very easy to read. Some words that I did not know, but did not interfere at all with my understanding. I note that I screwed up on my Cassell's update last time. I actually finished the "E" section yesterday. I am only working out once or twice a week now so I am not making much progress on that. I did a lesson of Spanishpodcast.org this week. That is a great site. I may do more of those podcasts. It is quite slow spoken Spanish, but I like it. It is a 45-ish minute podcast that has a 10-ish minute conversation and then the narrator talks about the vocabulary and idioms and grammar. It is all in Spanish and it is quite easy to understand for me. I do learn grammar and vocab from it so I am thinking about doing it later this year. I feel like listening/reading a Spanishpodcast.org lesson for 45 minutes is going to be more helpful than listening/reading a book if for nothing less than it is an interesting conversation. Plus, the podcasts hold my interest quite well. I'd like to do a full assessment of my abilities here, but that will have to wait. I'll think about it a bit. When I look at the definitions I am definitely closer to B2 than B1, but I seem miles a way from C1. Not much else new in the world of Spanish. Edit: how could I forget that I watched the first episode of "My Name is Earl" in Spanish this week. The first season is on youtube. What a hilarious show. I wish all seasons were available. I see that they are in Europe in Castellano, but not available anywhere online. I must say that I could understand the show in Spanish just as easily as if it was in English. It was the first time I think the change in language really made no difference in my understanding. Edited by James29 on 16 March 2014 at 12:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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