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Bolio’s Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5376 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 337 of 344 21 June 2015 at 2:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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173 words out of 47 pages is really great!! I hope you are enjoying the story. The series is really good. I've read the first four now (and I'll warn you that I thought the second was the worst... but still a good read). Books three and four are cool... and book five looks like it will be the best.
I tried and tried to do what you are doing. I remember marking words in the first Theodore Boone book with hopes of going back and learning the unknown words, but I was never able to. I ended up just looking them up as I went. You know... kindle has a tool that does almost exactly what you are doing. If you touch an unknown word it will put it into a vocabulary list and make flashcards out of the words. The flashcards automatically pull the sentence or phrase from the book. So, it gives you the context right on the flashcard. I looked long and hard for audio of the Alex Rider series in Spanish and I don't believe it exists. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4659 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 338 of 344 30 June 2015 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks to all of you for stopping in.
James, I was happy about the word count but a few days later I found a page that had 19 unknown words. I was confused. I thought maybe they had printed that page in Italian or something. :) I am liking the book and it won't be long until I am done with it. I will read the entire series for sure. Thanks again for the idea. Nancy, I remember reading that book as a kid. I am wanting you to continue your log. I have a vested interest in seeing you do well in Arabic as well as Spanish. I find it interesting that you and others have the ability to progress in multiple languages. As for me, I keep peeking at Russian. I have mildly read throught the first 3 chapters of New Penguin's Russian book. I am not really studying it per se but just enjoying it. It is very carefree and I have learned how to pronounce the words and have a little understanding of the stresses and such. One day I will dive head first and attack it...just not today. Crush, if this exercise resembles anything you have done then that is good enough for me. I hope your Mandarin is going well. Ode to Iversen: Your list method is really good. However, I have determined an undeniable fact. I am lazy to the core of my being. It takes a great deal of time making the lists. But it has been a good investment. I am trying a little adjustment for the remaining pages of my book. I am leaving the Iversen list out (for shame I know). A review of what I was doing. 1) Read chapter and highlight unknown words. 2) Create L2, L1, L2 wordlist of all words (Using an entire phrase of the book that the words were associated to help with context). 3) Then write the meaning above the unknown words in the book, creating an interlinear text. 4) Re-read chapters again with said interlinear text. I am going to try leaving out step 2 and see if my vocabulary retention is similar. If not, then back to the list I go. My thought process is that it will be more time in front of the text vs the time needed to create the word lists. We shall see. I more than accomplished my goal of watching video with subtitles (60 hrs in 30 days). I finished with more than 66. I am still looking for new content. I read where someone had changed their NETFLIX account to French. I would have interest in doing it for Spanish. Maybe I can figure out how to do it one day. It has been a good exercise and I will continue using it. Anyway, all the best in your studies, BOLIO Edited by BOLIO on 30 June 2015 at 6:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 339 of 344 30 June 2015 at 7:44pm | IP Logged | ||
As James29 says, it can be awfully difficult to do that with a whole book. I'm lazy too, so here's what I do: I read another book, and then another one, and then another one. I don't use srs or lists, so my srs comes from consistent exposure to the language. That means, usually from multiple sources. Books, newspaper (online), twitter, television, radio, music. For me, it's about keeping my momentum going and building on it. Of course, if one can't do that, then some sort of artificial exposure can be helpful. I find, for me, that building critical mass is very important, and fun. Telemundo's scripted shows on their website all have subtitles in Spanish (and sometimes English too) using "CC" or "Closed Captions" (CC1 for Spanish, CC3 for English, though I'd avoid those). Caso Cerrado would be a good show to watch for learning- lots of colloquial speech and ridiculous situations. I watch Telemundo on cable TV and the same is true for the broadcast version. I don't use the subtitles. Of course, the old bugaboo with TV is as Mick Jagger sang "you can't always get what you want"... "but if you try sometimes you just might find- you get what you need... wooo hooo". Good to see you are still plugging away and "showing up". Keep up the good work. It's a pleasure to watch your progress. Edit: My five year forum anniversary was yesterday! Edited by iguanamon on 01 July 2015 at 12:42am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4659 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 340 of 344 10 July 2015 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I-Mon, Congrats on the 5 year mark! Doing the whole book would have been a bit of a chore. By using Google Translate, it keeps a record for me and I can "re-learn" the words on the second ,third,fourth,etc time I look them up. It speeds up the process.
Thanks for the telemundo scripted shows. Caso Cerrado with Spanish Subtitles will come in handy. It is not my favorite show but it is a good tool. I am looking at the other programs as well. I am getting closer to finishing the first book of the Alex Rider series. I am still enjoying it and I think the dropping of the L2 L1 L2 has not hurt my retention. I think this is "my" process for the next book or two and then I may take a bit more relaxed style for reading as my vocabulary improves. I still listen to LL Beyond the Basics everyday to and from work. I think when it is all said and done I may know that dialogue like Prof. Arguelles knows an Assimil course. :) Last week I averaged only one hour per day with the Subtitle project. Caso Cerrado has had the most views with Netflix Documentaries coming in second. I still like it and I do think it is helping a little. It is worth doing for me because I love TV and movies. I have bought a couple DVDs of older movies that have Spanish dubbing. I know the movies VERY well so I think they qualify for Krashen's theory of 'i + 1'. I will be out of town for a few days without much chance of checking in but I will keep up my studies and I wish the best for your studies as well. BOLIO 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4659 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 341 of 344 21 July 2015 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I took a very nice trip to Greece. It was an amazing experience and I was surprised how much English was spoken there. It seems as if it was spoken everywhere. My Greek was limited to Good Morning and Thank You. However, it was appreciated every time we used it. While on the Subway, I was trying to make out the letters in Greek and it was pretty easy since they gave us the English word underneath the Greek. I loved the food in the country. The fresh fruit and of course the Greek Yogurt was wonderful. Also, the seafood was as good as I have eaten. It was a very nice place with very nice people. I would go back but I think I would spend more time in the Islands than the city.
I was able to read a lot and listen quite a bit in Spanish (audiobooks). My family and I spoke quite a bit of Spanish while we were there. I would say we spoke much more Spanish to each other there than we do at home. I am hoping the trend continues at home. The log seems to have become a little boring because I am not working through any courses and such. I just read, listen, speak and write a little each day. Nothing too exciting. I will keep at the log and of course Spanish will be a very big part of my life moving forward... In a few months I will start to study Russian as well. I flirt with her now. I learned the alphabet, I listened a little to Pimsleur, maybe a poem here or there online. Like I said...nothing serious, just flirting. All the Best, BOLIO 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nancydowns Senior Member United States Joined 3923 days ago 184 posts - 288 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 342 of 344 22 July 2015 at 3:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey BOLIO!!! Great to see you back. I am super jealous of a trip to Greece! : ) Not really, I'm glad you got to go! I would love to learn Greek... but only one
exotic at a time for me, so I am working really hard on Arabic now. I will try to soon post about what I have been learning. It's funny how we talk about languages like women. you as a man talk about flirting with her, and me as a woman, I talk about her like a woman that I've just met in a social setting, and we are kind of sizing each other up. When it ccomes to Arabic, I'd like to be her friend, but she knows she intimidates me, and she kind of likes it! : ) But I am calling her bluff this month and really getting in there and getting to know her, and it is so fun! Have fun with your Spanish! I am still doing some reading and posting on Lang-8, even though I'm not doing any dedicated stuying this month. Spanish is like an old friend now who I feel very comfortable with and enjoy spending time with, just relaxing. : ) Nancy 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4659 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 343 of 344 07 August 2015 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Nancy, good to see you. I think I would have picked Arabic over Greek too. The Greek people were very nice but from a language "footprint" if you will, I think Arabic makes a lot of sense.
For the first time in 17 months, I took a break from studying. I went five straight days without ANY study. I did not read, speak or listen to anything. I wish I could say it was a designed break. In fact, it was from total frustration and I was in a very bad place one afternoon. I had just met a person in a business and I had such a hard time understanding him that I was embarrassed. I was ashamed when I told him that I had studied for over a year. It was very bad. Then, I tried to understand 30 minutes of a show called Acacias 38 on RTVE... almost Nothing. They might as well have been speaking Farsi. I really just walked away from it and did not have a set time when I would return to my studies. I questioned myself over and over about the time I had invested and what results I am seeing. To say I had hit a low point is an understatement. But, I eventually read something. Then I watched something. Then I said something and got back on track. I am still VERY upset with my lack of listening skills, to the point of being ANGRY. It just makes me furious that I am so weak after all this time that I really question my abilities and or processes to the point that I could never recommend to anyone to take the same path I have in trying to learn Spanish. Of course I will never actually quit. I have travelled too far and deeply want to be able to speak Spanish. But, when I do learn another language I have decided to make listening an everyday part of my learning from DAY ONE. Reading will be put off for a while and it will be audio focused programs in the early stages. Heck, I might even commit to doing 50 hours of L-R (Listen L2, Read L1) over a short amount of time as possible. BOLIO 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 344 of 344 07 August 2015 at 8:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bolio, we all have good days and bad days with the language, for sure. I know I do. Like falling off of a bike or a horse, you have to dust yourself off, get back up and keep riding.
Developing listening skills has to be worked on as diligently as your other studies. What worked for me in Portuguese, and is working for me in Haitian Creole, is regular daily listening. At first with a transcript, and then, gradually weaning yourself off of it, or, just go cold turkey at some point. The other necessary component is conversation, which is very dependent on listening in order for you to participate. You can fake it for a little while but the truth will eventually be know both by you and your conversation partner. Listening is work, but it's work that will pay off. Is LR the answer? Not necessarily, but it will help. The real answer lies in building momentum and keeping that momentum going, daily. Try a half an hour tv show or news program like VOA's "Buenos Dias América" and/or The Simpsons/Futurama/Avatar/Telenovela. Audio you can do anywhere watching TV will give you clues and context. Listening and reading can be done at the VeinteMundos site link I gave you which is clearly enunciated Spanish along with a transcript. Each episode is about 10 minutes long and the articles are quite varied and topical from across the Spanish-speaking world. Put your frustration into action. As an aside, the forum is in turmoil at present. If you haven't yet done so, I advise you to read this thread Fate of HTLAL. Good luck, and as always, if you feel I can help you more, please pm me. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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