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Which course took you furthest? (B1+) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5864 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 41 of 51 22 June 2013 at 3:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm pretty sure that DevonAero didn't use Google Translate. For these types of sentences Google Translate generally does a decent job. "How long did it take you to reach your level in Spanish?" gets translated into "¿Cuánto tiempo le tomó para llegar a su nivel de español?", which is certainly much less literal than DevonAero's post. It just looks like a direct dictionary translation.
Here's a literal translation and then how i'd say it in Spanish: "Gala, si usted no molesta me pregunte;" = Gala, if you don't bother, I asked myself (assuming pregunté) -Gala, si no te molesta que pregunte, "Como largo hizo es tomar por tu a conseguir a tu nivel en espanol?" = As long (largo = distance, not time) did, it's taking for your to to achieve to your level in Spanish (i understand "en español" as you used Spanish to reach your level). -¿cuánto tiempo te tomó/llevó (o "tardaste en") conseguir tu nivel (actual) de español? "Que cursa hizo usted usar?" = That studies, you had used? -¿Qué curso utilizaste? "Jaja, Yo probado. Lo siento si no es prefecto." Haha, I tried ("tried" as in a tried method, here it's not a verb. It's like saying "I happy"). Sorry if it's not prefect (should be "perfecto" ;)) -Jaja, lo intenté. Lo siento si no es perfecto. In English a lot of tenses and especially questions are formed by using multiple words. In Spanish a lot of times the same idea is expressed in one word with an ending. You need to learn how to conjugate verbs and then Spanish speakers will also be able to understand what you say/write. As it is, only people who can speak both Spanish and English can understand it, as they've got to translate everything literally back into English to understand the Spanish ;) Another thing to keep in mind is that online especially you'll generally use the informal "tú" forms. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 42 of 51 22 June 2013 at 3:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Also, there's a rule that non-English posts should be limited to the multilingual lounge and personal logs.
I've heard a joke that's mostly popular photographers tired of newbies asking them which camera you need to take the best pictures: -Hey, you cook so well, what kitchenware do you use and where did you buy it? ... I'd say language courses' importance is somewhere in between a good camera for photographing and good kitchenware for cooking :) But certainly less important than a good pair of boots for a footballer. Edited by Serpent on 22 June 2013 at 3:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 43 of 51 22 June 2013 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Also unlike, say, naming your child or choosing a dog, this is not a lifetime decision. Don't dwell too much on it. Try something available for free (like http://www.languagetransfer.org or whatever you can get in your library), and you'll have a better idea of what you need. There's an abundance of Spanish and Portuguese materials so you can find anything... as long as you accept that no course will do the learning on your behalf.
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| simonov Senior Member Portugal Joined 5588 days ago 222 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English | Message 44 of 51 22 June 2013 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | ||
You're right, I fed his Spanish into Google Translate and Google gave me a good English version (complete with the misspelled 'perfect'). I have now fed the English version into Google, and the result is a much more satisfactory, easily understandable Spanish one. So, yes, I got it wrong, DevonAero did not use Google. And this taught me that one should always check both ways, in this case "foreign - English - foreign" before deciding that Google Translate is total rubbish. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. But it should also teach the OP that there is much more to language learning than just grabbing hold of a dictionary, an online one I suppose, because you'd never find "hizo" and "probado" in a traditional one. Well, yes, you would, but you would have to know where to look for it, and be familiar with at least some basic grammar. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| simonov Senior Member Portugal Joined 5588 days ago 222 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English | Message 45 of 51 22 June 2013 at 9:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I forgot to tell the OP that, as this is his first foray into foreign territory, no course is too slow, rather the opposite. A first foreign language is always difficult.
MT would be perfect to allow him to get acquainted with some aspects of the Spanish language that are quite alien to him. And in 2 week and a half he could have gone through MT (foundation and advanced) and would have had no problem writing a little post in simple, but reasonable Spanish. Edited by simonov on 22 June 2013 at 9:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 46 of 51 22 June 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Given the World Cup plans, I would say Pimsleur or Rosetta stone would be too slow. Unless the OP does pick Portuguese that is.
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| Gala Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4549 days ago 229 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 47 of 51 22 June 2013 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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DevonAero,(I'll reply to your question in English, because Serpent's right about
posting in languages other than English being reserved for another area of the forum,) it has taken me almost 5 years to get to my current level, which I would estimate to be C1 for everything but speaking, and B2 for that. There is a lot that I would do differently now if I were able to go back in time and start over, which might have sped-up the process. For the first 2 years especially I relied too much on class instruction/methods (I just graduated with a BA in Spanish [had a 1 year gap in the middle],) until I realized that they were insufficient & slowing me down. One thing I did right was to watch Spanish TV from the very beginning, and a good ear is probably my strongest skill. As for courses, of course I was assigned many textbooks (for the last 2 years many of them literary, cultural, or linguistic), the only one of which I would recommend for self-study for non-academic learners is Destinos (along with the rest of its components, of course.) On my own, I've used all kinds of self-study materials and courses (mainly intermediate or advanced) because I'm obsessive. The only courses that I did that were intended for beginners that I would recommend are Destinos and FSI (which is the same as Platiquemos.) But, although they were intended for beginners, some feel they may not be the ideal starting-place for many absolute beginners that are 1st-time language learners. I have no personal experience with the Michel Thomas courses (which simonov referred to as MT) or the first 2 levels of Pimsleur, as I was well beyond them by the time I heard about them. Many seem to consider them ideal for the very beginning. Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish (a book) is another possibility (that I never used) for that purpose, and would give you the text that MT & Pimsleur lack. I also began to use some written native materials (in addition to music, TV, and films, which I used from the beginning) and to have simple, broken conversations with native speakers within 6 months or so, and to read short stories and occasional novels (with heavy dictionary use) after a year. You may be able to do some of this quicker if you follow a more efficient path than mine:) EDIT: Also, keep in mind that people tend to move more quickly along the path from 0 knowledge to B1, after which the process of getting to the next level seems to slow way down. This is often said around here, and it has certainly been true for me. Edited by Gala on 23 June 2013 at 12:47am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DevonAero Newbie United States Joined 4181 days ago 34 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* | Message 48 of 51 23 June 2013 at 12:27am | IP Logged | ||
Just realized how right you are. I'll do MT this week and next, along with Assimil and go from there. As you guys probably can tell I have some decision issues. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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