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Fighting Windmills: Spanish experiment 1 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6430 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 33 of 71 26 May 2010 at 8:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I find naps significantly under 40 minutes (15-25 seems best) work better for me. If I get just one sleep cycle, rather than two or more, I tend to end up groggy. That said, afternoon naps are wonderful. They're not an experiment to run in the middle of other experiments, though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5547 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 34 of 71 26 May 2010 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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"FIGHTING WINDMILLS", DAY 10/14
(un pequeño experimento en L&R española) SUMMARY L&R in Spanish today: 9 hours ("Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal") Background listening: 1 hour (music) ———————————————————— Total L&R in Spanish so far: 73 hours Sum total of Spanish immersion: 91 hours Today's reading test: 87% [-2%] ("La Sombra del Viento") [edit] NOTES It's amazing how many Spanish words I recognise from TV, but never knew their meanings until now. I learned today, for example, that the island of Tortuga mentioned in "Pirates of the Caribbean" refers to "turtles", and now understand what my childhood hero "Speedy Gonzales" was saying all those long years ago to "el pussygato". I also found out where chupa-chups got their strange name from today, the list just goes on and on...! Spanish words and phrases are really quite amazing in their own right too, and I particularly enjoy the little (and sometime enormous) nuances between the original text and translation. I can also work out the meaning of many words simply via a basic knowledge of other languages, and not only Romance languages either (e.g. "mojado" --> "mokryj" --> "wet"). Other words just make me smile when I find out what they mean, like "fofo" (flabby). :) Spanish is also very poetic, and I'm constantly having to refrain at this stage from trying to make up amusing phrases whilst reading and listening along, e.g. "Don Quijote con bigote". I also find that similar words can take on very different meanings depending upon the context or word class, such as "sobre" (noun: "envelope"; preposition: "on, about").
Absolutely, I'm picking up recurrent patterns and passively internalising grammar rules all the time without even realising it till later. For example, I've studied absolutely nothing of Spanish grammar yet (I haven't even read the Wikipedia page as planned for preparation), but I already notice little patterns like future and conditional tenses seem to include the infinitive plus an ending (so I just look out for an "r" here), or that verbs in the perfect tense can be recognised by the presence of the auxiliary "have" beforehand (in this case, I keep a look-out for words beginning with "h" before a verb). There are lots of other little things like this, and I look forward to finding out the whys and wherefores later. I find that starting off with an intuitive feel for declensions and conjugations, and spotting patterns on my own, is much more comfortable than jumping straight into verb tables and complex grammar tomes in the early stages. I'll certainly take time out to skim through a simple grammar book next week as part of my second experiment, from which I guess I'll benefit greatly, but for now I'm just really pleased that I'm already getting a natural feel for the grammatical structures without actually actively studying grammar. :)
This sounds like a plan, a short siesta at the right moment could really re-energise those batteries when I need it most. I'll keep this in mind tomorrow, and see how that goes. Edited by Teango on 26 May 2010 at 10:13pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7094 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 35 of 71 27 May 2010 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
It's possible to combine the two approaches somewhat. If you think you've spotted a pattern, it's worth looking it up because firstly you get to confirm that you were right (or not) and secondly you may end up furnishing yourself with some other interesting snippet of information. For instance, the Spanish future tense infinitive + ending. You're pretty much correct although there are obviously exceptions - another reason for checking the pattern, i.e. how far does it go? But, the interesting (or not!) snippet relates to the history via Latin of the tense in question. It's formed from the infinitive + present tense of haber - the exception (there are always exceptions) being the vosotros form where present tense haber has retained the 'b' sound whereas the future ending has not. hablar + he = hablaré hablar + has = hablarás hablar + ha = hablará etc. Originally separate, the two words have become one, the silent 'h' is dropped and we end up with the stress marker on the last syllable. I find information like this helps reinforce the gramnar. Edited by Andy E on 27 May 2010 at 12:48pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5547 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 36 of 71 27 May 2010 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Very interesting, thanks for that Andy. I've heard mention of this "vosotros" form before on the forum, but never actually knew what it was. It's a little advanced for me just yet, but good to know for the future. :)
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| Wise owl chick Senior Member Ecuador Joined 5309 days ago 122 posts - 137 votes Studies: English | Message 37 of 71 27 May 2010 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Vosotros = GER ihr But it's regionally limited, and you can find it only in Spain and Venezuela, I think but I'm not absolutely certain. It's another word : "vos" in some countries. Here's a nice song : De colores De colores de colores se visten los campos en la primavera. De colores, de colores son los pajaritos que vienen de afuera. De colores, de colores es el arcoiris que vemos lucir. Coro: Y por eso los grandes amores de muchos colores me gustan a mi. Canta el gallo canta el gallo con el kiri, kiri, kiri, kiri, kiri. La gallina. la gallina con el cara, cara, cara, cara, Los pollitos, los pollitos con el pio, pio, pio, pio, pi. Coro 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 38 of 71 27 May 2010 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I LOVE THE SONG :-) Thanks for sharing. I don't understand all the words, but understood many, so I will look up the rest now. 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 39 of 71 27 May 2010 at 8:36pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Good call linking it to the German ihr. I sometimes forget that not everyone who studies Spanish is familiar with (or needs to be for that matter) the vosotros forms. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5547 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 40 of 71 27 May 2010 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Gracias por la canción, buhita! :) Edited by Teango on 27 May 2010 at 8:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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