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TAC 2009 - DaraghM | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 33 of 177 27 January 2009 at 5:14am | IP Logged | ||
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26/01/09
Spanish (Active ~2 hours, Passive ~1.5 hours) I did it. I completed my "Teach yourself Spanish" challenge. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but it came together in the end. I'll probably set myself other challenges, and in other languages, at some point soon. One of the problems with doing the challenge was the temptation to rush towards the end. I also spent some time reading more El País articles on the recent conflict in the Gaza strip. The articles were about the Iranian influence, and an analysis of the conflict. Some of the words have multiple meanings, and the translations are those in the context of the articles. Los asesinatos – The murders Bazas – Tricks\Trump cards (This word cropped up a couple of times.) Cisjordania – West Bank Denostado – Reviled El apoyo – the support Añadir – to add Alcance – reach\range (relates to rockets-cohotes) Contracarro – Anti-tank Contrarrestar – to counteract El envite – the bet Un futuro cercano – near future (I'm not sure why they used "un" and not "el") Atreverse – to dare Garantizar – To guarantee Cuerpo a cuerpo – hand to hand Desbordar– to overwhelm\exceed\overflow Autodenomidado – calling itself (self named) Inquilino – tenant\resident (de La Casa Blanca – of the white house) Desencadenar – to trigger\unleash (to unchain from cadena – chain) Lazos diplomáticos – Diplomatic ties Malestar – discomfort\unease Las matanzas – the slaughter Martirio – Martyrdom La Prensa – The Press Optado – Opted for\chose Piadoso – devouted Pese a – despite\in spite of Pistoletazo – first shot\starting shot\opening shot Químico – Chemical Puñado – handful Previsible – foreseeable Teórica – Theoretical Tibio(-a) – Lukewarm\tepid\half hearted. Ungir – To anoint \ elect I forgot to add that I've also been doing Assimil during my lunch, and my evening walks. I'm currently on lección 93, an amusing unit about Abelardo, a butcher (carnicero), inviting his friends to view his new bookcase (biblioteca). The oddest sentence is, 10. La semana pasada compré dos metros y medio de Voltaire. 10. Last week I bought two and a half metres of Voltaire. The notes exlain that some antique dealers sell books based on physical length of the books. The lección didn't have much new vocabulary, and most of the sentences were as basic as the one above. Edited by DaraghM on 27 January 2009 at 6:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 34 of 177 28 January 2009 at 2:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Congratulations!
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 35 of 177 28 January 2009 at 3:10am | IP Logged | ||
EP: Gracias. Es bueno saber alguien siga leyendo mi hilo. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 36 of 177 28 January 2009 at 3:33am | IP Logged | ||
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27/01/09
Spanish (Active ~1 hour, Passive ~1.5 hours) Just a quick update. I completed all the main units in the B1 Gramática. There's a revision test at the end, in a similar format to DELE exams. I'll go through the whole book again, before completing this test. I want to concentrate on the subtle differences between the preterito and imperfecto tenses. Hopefully, I'll be adding it to my completed list soon. Russian (Active ~15 minutes, Passive ~15 minutes) I finished lesson 4 (урок 4) yesterday, and gave it one final glance this morning. I wish there were more exercises at the end of each unit. They introduce a lot of grammar in each lesson, but don't test it at the end. On an upcoming Russian week, I'll probably do some grammar exercises from "Teach yourself Russian Grammar". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 37 of 177 29 January 2009 at 5:06am | IP Logged | ||
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28/01/09
Spanish (Active ~3 hours, Passive ~0.5 hours) Quite a good day for Spanish. I've completed the B1 Gramática test, after going through the whole book. I was happy with my result getting just one wrong out of 25 questions. After listening to a couple of Assimil lessons, I headed to the Cervante's Institute for a placement test. I have to admit I was very nervous. All my Spanish study has been by myself, with no help or correction from tutors or Spanish friends. The only speaking practice I get is when I've been to Spain on holidays, and my only writing practise was completing exercises in the various books I have. I was concerned they'd ask me to write a letter, or something similar. When I arrived, there was a large crowd of older people signing up for their conversation course. They were happily chatting away in Spanish to the girls behind the administration desk. At this point, my mind just when blank, and I started to get even more nervous. Would I be able to anwser even the most basic Spanish questions ? Then the teacher came out for my assessment, a pleasant girl named Antonia. As I feared, she started out in rapid Spanish, on our way to the room. Thankfully, the questions started basic, "¿Cómo te llamas", "¿A qué te dedicas?" before she asked me how long I'd been studying Spanish. This was a question I'd asked in here in the Spanish forum, so I replied "Llevo dos años estudiando el español de vez en cuando". Thanks again folks for your replies. They saved me on this one. We then discussed how I'd studied Spanish, and I mentioned alone, and I'd never had a tutor. She asked me did I have a lot of Spanish friends, and I told her I'd none. She seemed very surprised, and said my accent was very good, and wondered how I got it. I didn't quite know how to explain shadowing in Spanish, so I said a lot of listening. She said I didn't stall when speaking, and was comfortable discussing in different tenses. Thank you Michel Thomas. Then she produced the test, which consisted of a number of grammar questions and a written piece. My worst fears had come through. The grammar questions were ranged from 1 to 150, but I'd to answer the subset 60 to 80. They weren't easy, and different from the questions in the Gramática. The written piece was to describe an amusing trip abroad, and why it was amusing. I've never written any long pieces before, so I had to improvise and wrote about a trip to Cuba. After about an hour, she returned to correct my paper. While waiting in the reception area, I thought I've blown it. The Spanish written piece would be my downfall, and I'd probably made a lot of mistakes in the grammar section. She returned with the results. On the grammar section I scored 80%. Yeah. :-). However, she said the letter had a number of mistakes, especially with gender. She placed me at Threshold 2, which was a bit higher than I expected, but said if it was over my head I should tell the tutor. I then signed up for classes. Edited by DaraghM on 29 January 2009 at 5:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Flarioca Heptaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5884 days ago 635 posts - 816 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Catalan, Mandarin | Message 38 of 177 29 January 2009 at 7:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Felicitaciones! Nice story :-)
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| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6448 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 39 of 177 29 January 2009 at 7:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Congratulations on doing well on your test!
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 magister Pro Member United States Joined 6605 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 40 of 177 29 January 2009 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for sharing this story. It was an interesting read.
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