SunnyDD Groupie United States levelsolutions. Joined 6538 days ago 77 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English Studies: Spanish
| Message 1 of 38 07 September 2007 at 3:18pm | IP Logged |
It was my new year's goal to learn Spanish this year. I'm not as far along as I would like, but I feel like I'm making progress.
I finished Pimsleur several months ago. I then moved to Michel Thomas and Destinos Nuevos. I am now using Platiquemos.
I am on Lesson 17, and I find this one to be difficult. I have read some of the posts from other members, and I agree that it is best to read through the unit first and get comfortable with it. I also do not progress to the drills until I have a good feel for the basic conversation.
I read on the Platiquemos web site that it generally takes 6-8 hours to go through a unit, and I'm finding that to be true. Some are easier than others.
I'm hoping that by the time I complete the course, I will be at a level where I understand the structure of the language, can read and understand most of what is spoken. I'm not sure if my expectations are realistic or not.
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glossa.passion Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6313 days ago 267 posts - 349 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, EnglishC1, Danish Studies: Spanish, Dutch
| Message 2 of 38 08 September 2007 at 4:50am | IP Logged |
Good luck! And keep posting, I'm interested in your Spanish journey.
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SunnyDD Groupie United States levelsolutions. Joined 6538 days ago 77 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English Studies: Spanish
| Message 3 of 38 13 September 2007 at 9:53am | IP Logged |
I finally learned lesson 17. This was the most difficult one for me so far. I tracked my time and then tested my responses. I spent a total of 8 hours and my response rate for the drills was 95%.
Now it's on to imperfect past tense for regular verbs in lesson 18. I watched a tv show in Spanish last night and was pleased with what I was able to understand. I had tried this previously, and was really disappointed with what I was able to understand. I think I've learned alot with Platiquemos, much more than Pimsleur and Michel Thomas.
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SunnyDD Groupie United States levelsolutions. Joined 6538 days ago 77 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English Studies: Spanish
| Message 4 of 38 20 September 2007 at 8:21pm | IP Logged |
Well, Unit 18 was pretty smooth sailing except that the audio was so bad in the narrative at the end it was not usable. 4 hours and tested at 95%. Now, I'm in Unit 19, and this one is hard. It combines the Past 1 and Past 2 tenses. The unit says this is difficult for english speaking people, and I believe it.
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SunnyDD Groupie United States levelsolutions. Joined 6538 days ago 77 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English Studies: Spanish
| Message 5 of 38 26 September 2007 at 10:59am | IP Logged |
Moving past the past tenses for now, I'm on unit 20. This unit deals with direct and indirect clitics. I have to say that I'm confused because I had thought that you are supposed to use les and le in this type of construction, and it clearly says lo, la, los, and las. I guess I must have confused this with a reflexive clitic. Now I'm not sure about the reflexive. I guess I need to go back and review this so that I have a really good understanding.
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joan.carles Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6325 days ago 332 posts - 342 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, French, EnglishC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Hungarian, Russian, Georgian
| Message 6 of 38 26 September 2007 at 12:17pm | IP Logged |
For direct clitics, you must use LO/LA/LOS/LAS, for indirect clitics, LE/LES.
Encontré el llavero -> object -> LO encontré.
Encontré la casa -> object -> LA encontré.
Encontré los libros -> object -> LOS encontré.
Encontré las hojas -> object -> LAS encontré.
Regalé el llavero a Pedro -> indirect object -> LE regalé el llavero.
Regalé el llavero a Ana -> indirect object -> LE regalé el llavero.
Regalé el llavero a los García -> indirect object -> LES regalé el llavero.
Regalé los llaveros a las niñas -> indirect object -> LES regalé los llaveros.
But...when you use both pronouns in a phrase with direct and indirect objects, then LE/LES that correspond to the indirect object turn into SE (no matter the number).
Regalé el llavero a Pedro -> SE (ind) LO (dir) regalé.
Regalé el llavero a Ana -> SE (ind) LO (dir) regalé.
Regalé la cabra a Pedro -> SE (ind) LA (dir) regalé.
Regalé el llavero a los García -> SE (ind) LO (dir) regalé.
Regalé los llaveros a Pedro -> SE (ind) LOS (dir) regalé.
Regalé los llaveros a los García -> SE (ind) LOS (dir) regalé.
Regalé las cabras a Pedro -> SE (ind) LAS (dir) regalé.
Regalé las cabras a los García -> SE (ind) LAS (dir) regalé.
For the reflexive clitic, simply use SE for third person sing and plural.
Yo me baño , Tu te bañas, Él se baña, Ella se baña, nosotros nos bañamos, vosotros os bañáis, ellos se bañan.
I hope this helps.
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SunnyDD Groupie United States levelsolutions. Joined 6538 days ago 77 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English Studies: Spanish
| Message 7 of 38 26 September 2007 at 5:20pm | IP Logged |
Ahora, lo entiendo. Muchas gracias.
That is the clearest explanation I have seen so far.
Many thanks!
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S4Real Newbie United States Joined 6261 days ago 25 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 8 of 38 26 September 2007 at 6:45pm | IP Logged |
Seems SunnyDD is definitely on the road to fluency. Are you using MT Advanced including the review CD? I find it very good with Platiquemos, it helps explain some grammar not yet touched at certain lessons of Platiquemos. You said you're up to lesson 20, how good is your comprehension and speaking ability now?
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