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Major Motivation: The Spanish Table | ||
Tags: Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Principiante Senior Member United States lucasgentry.com Joined 6250 days ago 130 posts - 138 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 3 04 October 2008 at 8:26pm | IP Logged |
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Oh my, so I've just got a hold of the best motivating factor ever, other than a Latin-American girlfriend.
Even though I'm not in college, I live in a college town (3 Universities and 2 community colleges), and I'm close enough to college age that most of my friends are college folk. Anyway, several of them are learning Spanish in classes, and know that I am trying on my own to learn as well. A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine asked if I wanted to join her and some other people for lunch on Friday. She said that every week, she, another friend of mine, and several other students (most of whom are Latin-American) get together and have lunch at what they declared to be "The Spanish Table". Basically, the only rule is, if you talk, it has to be in Spanish. I told her that I would probably be asleep around that time, because I work nights. This week, however, I decided to move my sleep schedule around a bit so I could go. Let me tell you, it was awesome. It wasn't anything fancy -- just some people hanging around talking, but my friend asked if it was alright if I just sat down and listened, because most of my studying has been with tapes and flashcards, and I hadn't really had much (any) practice in real live Spanish conversation. They said it was fine, so I sat down. It was horrid, because they'd ask me a question, and I'd have to have them say it multiple times, even for the simplest questions, like "What's your name?" and "Where are you from?" but eventually, I'd catch it and respond in a haltering, unconfident, and sporadic Spanish. Oh my, it was gross. But after I had sat down for a while, I stopped giving everyone the deer in the headlights look and started forming sentences. I felt like a stupid, but they were so patient with me. Somewhere along the line, however, when I appologized because I felt like I knew so few words, the girl I was talking to said that even if I didn't know many words, my accent was really good. I know she meant it as just an off-hand side remark, but I'll tell you that comment was enough to make my whole day and inspire me like nothing has in months. It's sorta' neat, because I've been involved in a thing called "Conversational English" which is hosted by a College Ministry that I'm a part of, and we basically go and talk to international students. The host gives us conversation starters or topics to discuss, or games (I love Upwords), and also have a time where we discuss English idioms and American culture. Anyway, so I've been on the "giving" side with that, but now I get to see how amazing it is to be on the receiving side as well. I can see why the internation students are so appriciative (and why some of them are so amazed that it's free to attend). Yeah. So my plan is: 1) Go to The Spanish Table 2) When it's over, write down everything I wish I could have said 3) Try to figure out the translation 4) Learn it 5) Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Edited by Principiante on 04 October 2008 at 8:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6042 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 2 of 3 09 October 2008 at 4:23am | IP Logged |
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Great story! I think we can all relate here to this goal and it is definitely inspiring isn't it?
Here is some other food for thought; learning on your own is WAY faster than school. If you relly want to, you can dominate the other students at the Spanish Table in little time. What program are you using to learn? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Principiante Senior Member United States lucasgentry.com Joined 6250 days ago 130 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 3 09 October 2008 at 6:50am | IP Logged |
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They've got quite a head start on me, though :-)
My main things recently have been learn in your car Spanish and flashcards. I have Assimil, but I'm having trouble sitting still long enough for it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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