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Spanish in Seven Months | ||
Tags: Linguaphone | Flash cards | Michel Thomas | Listening-Reading (L-R) | Audiobook | Pimsleur | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes  Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 62 04 May 2010 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
I am using FSI Programmatic. Here is the link: http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Spanish%20P rogrammatic
I am afraid not. Never heard of Spanish FAST. Do you have a link I can check out? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 18 of 62 05 May 2010 at 12:38am | IP Logged | |||||
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Today:
Michel Thomas Foundation Disc 6 - Tracks 1 to 3 Pimsleur 1 - Unit 7 Harry Potter Book 1 - Chapter 6, Read and Listen I understand a lot more words now than I did just last week. The programmes I am using are clearly doing their work. Linguaphone - DISC 2, Tracks 1 to 10 I am really enjoying this too. It compliments MT and Pimsleur. In fact, so far from all the programmes I have tried, I have found these 3 to be most enjoyable and hopefully useful. They compliment one another nicely, and I can do them on the go, which is quite essential as a lot of my learning takes place during my commute to and from work. I am not too sure about LanguageNow from Living Language. It's okay, and I think I might carry on with it, but at least on the ON THE GO cds, there isn't much teaching as dialogue doesn't explain anything and barely gives a chance to respond. I will try to use the AT HOME version and see if it's any better. TV: CHARMED I have been watching Episodes of Charmed in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. Have them running in the background, and I found it quite surprising that again I am picking up so many words and understand bits and pieces even when I am not looking at subtitles. When I do look at subtitles, it is much easier and I understand most of it. I don't think I will necessarily be able to speak all the new words I pick up from watching TV, at least not without practice. But understanding and recognizing is an important first step. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 62 06 May 2010 at 12:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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May 5 - LOG
Michel Thomas Foundation - DISC 6, Tracks 4 to 8 Linguaphone DISC 2 - Tracks 11 to 27 Harry Potter Book 1, Chapter 7 - Audio and Text Pimsleur 1 - Unit 8 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 20 of 62 07 May 2010 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yesterday when I went to the library, I couldn't resist picking up a few books in
Spanish. The problem is that I have no audio for these books, which has come in handy before when I have "read" Harry Potter in Spanish. One of the books is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, for which I have got a copy in English. Now I am wondering what would be the best way to do this? Should I read it in English and Spanish at the same time - as in a sentence in English, and sentence in Spanish? I thought about scriptorium. Writing sentence in English, writing sentence in Spanish. That's going to take a long time. I don't mind writing Spanish, but English gets rather tedious. Any suggestions? What might be the best way? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7094 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 21 of 62 07 May 2010 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
That depends on what you're hoping to get out of the books. I read to improve my reading comprehension (sounds obvious I know) and personally don't like having a translated copy of the text of a novel. I prefer to work out my own translation via a dictionary where necessary and in the latter stages, of course, not translate at all but just read the target language - looking up the odd word I don't know. To avoid constant reference to a dictionary, it helps to have texts appropriate to your level. If you're attempting to improve your written Spanish, then certainly writing out sentences from the book in Spanish will help (not sure if you actually need to write out the English as well). However, what I used to do for that was to listen to the audio (in Spanish) from whatever course I happened to using, pause and then type the text on my PC in Notepad - sort of like a dictation exercise - helped no end with spelling, accents etc**. Andy. ** Edit: also was useful as a reinforcement exercise for the learnt material Edited by Andy E on 07 May 2010 at 3:22pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 22 of 62 08 May 2010 at 2:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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Andy,
Thanks. I am still at beginner level, so if I were to use a dictionary I would be looking up every other word, which is why I generally use books I know to get reading practice. Seeing as I do not have audio for these books, I think I might just use them as reading and writing practice for now. O Alquimista is portugese - I guess I had too much faith in Library Filing system. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 23 of 62 11 May 2010 at 11:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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I haven't updated the log for a few days, but Spanish hasn't stopped. Thanks to annoying Internet problems at home, Internet access is bit iffy.
Anyway, got some great advice about improving reading skills on this forum, so I am going to think about that as I plan further studies. MT Foundation is nearing an end. Once I finish the audio course of MT Foundation, I am going to use Prof's scriptorium method, and write down the course transcript while reading it out loud. That should help embedding spelling, and also hopefully structure, as I do believe that for all the complains I hear about Michel Thomas' accents, his courses are worth using just for the structure. Still working through Pimsleur 1 and Linguaphone. I haven't decided yet whether to start MT Advance straight after MT Foundation, or whether to finish Pimsleur 1 first. I am also going to start working on FSI workbook. I have decided against the course as I found it too boring, and also too restricting, having to use both audio and text at the same time. But I like the workbook's school-like exercises, so they should help with the grammer. Harry Potter Book 1 Audio and Text going well. Finished Chapter 9 this morning. Once I go through the whole book with Audio and Text in Spanish, I am thinking of reading the Spanish out loud along side English version, to grasp more vocabulary. I haven't done that before, so worth a try I think, though it will be slow. I was thinking of doing Paragraph in English and then Paragraph in Spanish. But, we will see how it goes after some experimentation. Also started learning some basic vocabulary alongside it at odd moments. At some point, conscious effort to learn basic vocab has to be made - at least it does, for accelerated learning, and because I want to be able to read books ASAP, this is more important. I ordered Practice Makes Perfect Verb Tense books, as well as three novels in Spanish -Harry Potter Book 3, Agatha Christie's Body in the Library, and Princess Diaries Book 1. I have deliberately chosen quite easy-going and light books and the stories I already know as they should help in getting into reading Spanish. I also borrowed couple of picture dictionaries from a local library - and they are handy making basic vocab lists. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 24 of 62 13 May 2010 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT: Spanish VERB TENSE
I received PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT: Spanish VERB TENSE book yesterday from Amazon. So far I have read first couple of pages of Unit 1, and completed first exercise, and I already love this book. This is a perfect supplement to audio courses I am using. The practice exercises are just my style too - repetition without being dull. I am doing the exercises in a notebook instead of the workbook so I can use it again if necessary. As I continue to work with several courses, my intention is to work through the whole book. There are other books in this series, and I am wondering if they are worth getting. I know Grammer had mixed reviews on here. But for now, this is a good start. ** Michel Thomas Foundation I finished Michel Thomas Foundation course this morning. I am certainly glad I did it. I wouldn't claim that I remember everything he taught, because I didn't always go back to the lessons even if I didn't have a complete grasp over the topic, but I learned enough, and more importantly I recognize it whenever I see it. I do feel I have got some sense of sentence structure. And as mentioned before, I am certainly in favour of MT courses. Before starting the advanced course, I am going to do Professor's scriptorium exercise with MT Foundation Script. That should provide writing practice, spelling knowledge, and a good review of the course before moving on. I will read out loud the sentence in Spanish. Then read it in English. Then write it in Spanish while reading it out loud. My intention is to do it with the whole course. It will take time, and no doubt there will be times when I find it tedious, but I think it will be worth it. ** PIMSLEUR & LINGUAPHONE While I put MT advance audio on hold, I am contiuning with Pimsleur I and Linguaphone. I need audio courses to make the best use of my commute time, whereas scriptorium and reading exercises have to be done at home. Both Pimsleur and Linguaphone are good courses, and of course better for pronunciation comapred to MT; I find them useful for reviewing concepts/vocab I have already learned, as well learning new vocab and concepts that have not been covered in MT, or perhaps covered in a different manner. ** READING Harry Potter Book 1 10 Chapters finished : audio and text. I am pleased to say that I certainly understood many more words and sentences in Chapter 10 than I did in Chapter 1. I am continuing with the whole book in the same manner. ** VOCAB PRACTICE I am also doing Vocab practice for basic vocabulary. Not killing myself over memorizing, but making a good effort, so I remember a lot of words and the ones that I don't remember, I recognize. This helps considerably when reading something new, because once words starts making sense, sentences start making sense too. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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