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Merv’s language learning log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5264 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes  Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 9 of 18 04 January 2011 at 8:02am | IP Logged | ||
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It's just been great how much I've learned over the past few days, it's almost become an addiction. On Saturday,
Sunday, and Monday (tonight), I must have spent a total of 15 hours or more on livechat (SharedTalk) with Spanish speakers. I've become so much freer and quicker in expressing myself, acquired many new words, and have had a number of grammatical points clarified by my language partners. I think I need to curb this practice, at least for a few weeks, so I can focus on my work (the real work, not this hobby), and wrapping up with the Assimil 2nd wave. But I sense a growing enthusiasm within me, a feeling that in some way I am understanding the foundations of the language and am really able to work with it, and that what remains to be done is to learn more vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sjheiss Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5675 days ago 100 posts - 174 votes Speaks: English*, Basque | Message 10 of 18 04 January 2011 at 8:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Great job with learning Spanish, you seem to be doing great. :D
Where do you people find Assimil Spanish with Ease? I assume you have audio with it. I'd love to have a good quality version (that is, not a tourist, phrasebook course like I've heard that the current editions are) with audio. I have been thinking about learning Spanish, but there is little quality material out there to learn it with. I know it's on Amazon, but $200 is extremely overpriced. It's strange that less spoken/learned languages have better learning materials... I believe it's because most companies assume you're going to learn Spanish or French or Chinese or Japanese to visit as a tourist somewhere, and thus dumb everything down so the average person can understand it, which ruins the course for us linguists. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5264 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 11 of 18 04 January 2011 at 9:19am | IP Logged | ||
I got this edition: http://www.amazon.com/Assimil-Language-Courses-Spanish- Compact/dp/0828843198/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1294128747&sr=8 -3 More like $142, still overpriced, but well worth it in the end. It is a 1987 edition, but Spanish hasn't really changed substantially in those years. My only other expenses have been a Spanish Bible (~$10) and a Spanish CoN (~$13). For Spanish literary classics (if/when I get there), I can borrow them from my local university library. You may be able to borrow university library books even as an outside member of the community (at some places you don't have to be a student). The websites are completely free. Btw, on that website, one of the reviews says that the files cannot be downloaded. I'm not sure about downloading and burning, but I have them downloaded onto my iTunes and I play them from the computer without any need for plugging in the CD every time. I'll PM you with some additional info. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5366 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 12 of 18 06 January 2011 at 1:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Amazon has a $32 version of Assimil's Spanish with Ease (search for the day by day method). I bought it with the CDs and it was great. Merv, I enjoy your log.
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| sjheiss Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5675 days ago 100 posts - 174 votes Speaks: English*, Basque | Message 13 of 18 06 January 2011 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Is this what you mean? It does come with the book and audio?
Is the book actually any good though? Professor Argüelles shows in his video that the new versions have a ton of empty space on each page, and crappy exercises. Is this true? It doesn't seem worth the money if it is true. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5264 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 14 of 18 09 January 2011 at 11:03am | IP Logged | ||
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I had a good study evening today. I'm currently on Assimil lesson 80/109, second wave, and hope to be done
with the whole thing by February. I don't think I'll learn a huge amount (mostly idiomatic phrases will be refreshed), but I like to be able to say that I undertook something and completed it. I'm reading at least one chapter of Luke almost every day, picking up vocabulary as I go, but most of the constructions have already been absorbed pretty well. Tonight I conversed for nearly 4 hours on SharedTalk with a Chilean girl my age. At first we did the obligatory exchange (she writing in English and I in Spanish): what do you do? why are you learning language X? what countries have you visited? etc. But as time progressed, we went from discussing whom we live with to whom we'd like to marry, to life after death, agonisticism, the scientific method, and other matters. In the last hour or so, we were writing so fast (and paragraphs of it) that she switched entirely to Spanish, which was a confidence-inspiring move for me, since it meant that I was able to hold my own in the language. We exchanged MSN addresses, so perhaps I'll converse with her some more in the future. Some general conclusions I have drawn tonight on language learning: the more advanced or abstract the subject, the less irregular the means of expression becomes. This is because we become more analytical and take up more objective/argumentative positions. The rarer vocabulary has been less subjected through history to the bending and twisting and mauling of common use that would render it irregular. The advanced vocabulary seems closer to the original Latin, as the cognate shines far more brilliantly than those slutty words of everyday use, which are often Germanic in English and heavily vulgarized in the daughters of Latin. The more casual, everyday language is where it's really hard. This is the day-to-day language, full of the most irregular verbs and idiomatic expressions. Well, I'll probably keep myself away for a bit from SharedTalk, I need some time to have this settle in my mind. Edited by Merv on 09 January 2011 at 11:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5264 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 15 of 18 27 January 2011 at 6:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, it's official: I just completed the entire With Ease book of Assimil Spanish, 1st and 2nd waves, and it feels
great. In the end, it was more of a psychological thing of "finishing something" although I realize that I am by no means done in the learning process. That's something that lasts a lifetime, but certainly I'll need to do a lot more reading, writing, speaking, and listening before reaching fluency. First step, I need to sink my teeth into a few exciting novels, start reading online native material, and then go from there. Also official: I'm learning French. I wasn't sure I wanted to, because I have a love-hate relationship with this language (as with German). On the one hand, I respect the cultural significance of French and German, while disliking the rather arrogant attitudes both cultures have demonstrated vis-a-vis the rest of Europe and the world. Perhaps the Brits and Americans are the same, and I'm just blind to it because I've absorbed it, but somehow the French seem to think they are the pinnacle of culture. I'll give them their due, but not that kind of recognition. I can't deny, however, how pervasive the language is in European cultural history, and the added benefit of getting more learning materials access (especially the Assimil series!) if I were to learn French cannot be denied. On the one hand French is close to Spanish, but on the other hand so very different. For one, the sound is so radically different and in a way that doesn't work well for me. I like a language with consonants, consonant clusters, and simple open vowels (like Spanish, and Serbian). Should I take up Italian and Polish? In a way, knowing English, with its very complex vowel structure, is a blessing of sorts. Well, French is rich with vowels (not all of which I find pleasing to my ears, particularly those front-ended round ones and nasal ones) and that presents problems for me. As I pointed out in a thread in specific languages, I find that reading the words in French completely biases me and sets up mental tracks towards mispronunciation along the rules of the other languages I know. So I've decided to try an experimental approach: cover the first 15 or so lessons with just audio, not looking at any text. I'm hoping that will help me internalize the silent consonants, the complex vowels, and the liason. I'm going over each of them twice, poring over each sentence and word repetitiously and trying to get the pronunciation just right. Hopefully this will bear some fruit. After having this "audio intro," I'll go back to the beginning and work with the text as well. Currently I'm on first wave Assimil French with Ease, lesson 2. I hope to get through it in the next half year and build up a good foundation towards attaining fluency. Edited by Merv on 30 March 2011 at 2:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Matty Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5285 days ago 31 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 16 of 18 28 January 2011 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Good job finishing Assimil! Good luck with French as well.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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