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Learning Spanish Fast! My journey | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| olgahtml Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6309 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 19 08 November 2007 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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¡Hola Todos!
Great on-line library with good selection of classical literature in Spanish http://www.bibliotecasvirtuales.com/ Grimm Fairy Tales http://www.grimmstories.com/es/grimm_cuentos/index Pablo Neruda (with translations into English) http://boppin.com/poets/neruda.html http://www.bryantmcgill.com/World_Poetry/~P/Pablo_Neruda/ grammar/quizzes/flashcards http://www.drlemon.net/grammar/basics.html http://eleaston.com/Spanish-qz.html#grammar http://www.studySpanish.com/ http://www.bowdoin.edu/~eyepes/newgr/ats/index.html http://www.colby.edu/%7Ebknelson/exercises/ http://www.wordchamp.com/lingua2/HelpStudent.do Lately I really started to see some progress in my Spanish. I diligently watch my telenovela for 1-2 hours a day (on weekends more). I noticed I understand at least 40-50% of what is being said now. My company has Latin American accounts and we have couple representatives who speak Spanish all day long. I noticed I can understand almost everything when they talk on the phone with clients. On another note, I highly recommend “Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish.” Verb conjugations, subjunctive mood and pronouns don’t look so scary any more:) It seems I am having more success with Assimil than FSI. Probably, Assimil fits my learning style better. I do 1-2 lessons for 30-40 minutes and review previously learned 3-4 lessons every day. I love how much I can learn from a 2-minute dialog. I followed Fanatic’s approach and it seems to be working great. I have dialog phrases spinning in my head 24/7. I still do 2 lessons a week with Platiquemos but it’s getting harder and harder to keep myself from putting it aside as I can find many other ways to learn a language with more pleasure. I just want to see if it's as effective as many people say it is. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6935 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 10 of 19 08 November 2007 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Olga, Here are a couple of more links: http://www.librodot.com/ http://www.pidetulibro.cjb.net/ For classical literature the following Spanish site is probably the best there is: http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/ The 19th century authors' page there is: 19th century You can buy a lot of Spanish novels on Amazon.com, or get them at your public library, these links are more in case you want to use a pop-up electronic dictionary for speed. Edited by frenkeld on 09 November 2007 at 8:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6642 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 11 of 19 08 November 2007 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Wow, just over a month of studying and it looks like you've already got a great comprehension rate. Keep the momentum going by challenging yourself!
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| olgahtml Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6309 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 19 10 November 2007 at 11:38am | IP Logged | |||||
Great links, thanks! I do want to try reading online with electronic dictionary for speed. I want to dedicate more time to vocabulary acquisition at this point. Has anyone tried using wordchamp reader? I like the idea that you can automatically add unknown words to your flashcard database. Though I find the wordchamp system a little slow and I wonder if there are better programs out there that are more efficient but can do the same thing. I have lingvo dictionary but it’s Spanish-Russian. I would love to have something similar with English – Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6935 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 13 of 19 10 November 2007 at 12:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
I am not sure if your dictionary is integrated with Wordchamp, which I've never used, but for stand-alone Spanish-English dictionaries, here are some options I know of: - Vox through Babylon. There is a free trial. This is what they call "premium content" - you can also install a free Spanish dictionary once you have Babylon engine installed. - Oxford Concise through iFinger (Make "Spanish" lower case in both places in the link). There is a free trial. Oxford Concise is one step below their unabridged dictionary in size, but if you look at it in a bookstore, it's quite meaty and will serve you well while you are learning the language and beyond. I suspect that the Babylon's Vox may not be full-size either, but I don't own it, so I am not quite sure. Now, with iFinger dictionaries, you can get a remaindered older version of the search engine with what seems to be the same dictionary for peanuts through Amazon resellers: link. If you have a "Half-Price Books" used bookstore next to you, they often carry those as well. My impression is that iFinger would have to honor the license for a free upgrade to the current version, but I am not sure. I own several iFinger dictionaries, and I find their pop-up feature quite nice - the window _can_ be stretched, otherwise it may seem too narrow. (I am not sure what the reviewer there is talking about - I've had several iFinger dictionaries for years and had no problems with them.) I have Babylon for German, and it is also quite nice. I'd say try them both as far as the user interface goes. Content-wise, I would trust Oxford before Vox, but I am not saying that Vox is terrible, merely that I've heard some negative things about their dictionaries. - www.wordreference.com has free dictionaries, which are not commercial for the most part. I think they are not as good overall, but many people like them. On the bottom of the page there is a link to various toolbars, and at the bottom of the toolbar page there is information on "the old right-click menu customizations" and some "old toolbar buttons". Some of the old stuff may be better than the new, so try them all and see what works best. ADDED: The only unabridged electronic Spanish dictionary I have is monolingual, so I am not sure what full-size bilingual choices are out there. Collins, Oxford, and Larousse are probably the best bilingual Spanish-English dictionaries. You may want to look around to see if any of the unabridged dictionaries in these brands are available electronically. Edited by frenkeld on 10 November 2007 at 2:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| olgahtml Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6309 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 19 10 November 2007 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for your recommendation! I downloaded Babylon engine and several Spanish dictionaries. I tested it and it seems to be working great. It has a very user-friendly clean interface and seems to be easy on the computer memory. The free dictionaries have only 80-100k words but for right now it should be plenty for me :). It doesn’t seem to have an option to create your own words lists like Lingvo does (it has a built-in flashcard program). I decided to use Mnemosyne for that purpose. I usually never use online text translators but I was very surprised to see how well Babylon managed to translate several paragraphs.
I found Oxford dictionary on www.amazon.com for $10! I might as well buy it. I do use wordreference.com sometimes but I don’t find it as convenient as a single-click on-line dictionaries. I have a monolingual “Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española” but it’s over my head right now. Hopefully, I will be able to switch to it in a few months. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6935 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 15 of 19 10 November 2007 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
Babylon price structure is such that a package of one "premium content" dictionary and the engine is not much more than the engine alone. I doubt their free dictionary alone would be enough - I certainly found their free German dictionary rather awkward for a number of words, although OK for quite a few others. Maybe their Spanish one is better ...
The monolingual Spanish dictionary from Espasa Calpe available through wordreference.com often has simpler definitions than DRAE. It may be easier to start with when you feel ready to go monolingual, and each entry will contain a further link to "definición RAE" anyway. iFinger also has the Espasa Calpe monolingual - link (convert "Spanish" to lower case in the link) - but I never liked the price. Anyway, you seem to have enough options to work with now - let me know if you have further questions. Best of luck with your Spanish. Edited by frenkeld on 10 November 2007 at 4:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| olgahtml Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6309 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 19 11 November 2007 at 1:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What a pity a day has only 24 hours..lol I decided to make slight revisions to my study routine as I would like to add intensive reading for my vocabulary acquisition. With Frenkeld’s help I got a nice Babylon translator engine for fast translation look-up (thanks Frenkeld!). Here is the plan:
1-2 hours a day of Harry Potter mania ..lol I got the first Harry Potter book converted in word format (so I can get creative with highlighting and notes). Yesterday I got the first 10 pages down. It was not as hard as I imagined. I guess I already have a pretty good base to build on. At first I try to understand a paragraph without looking up words. Then I use dictionary for high frequency words (copy them in Mnemosyne for review). If I have to I consult the book in English. Then I listen to the audio while reading the text. 40 min-1 hr a day– Assimil. I do at least 1 lesson a day + review previous 3-4 lessons. 1-2 hr a day - telenovela time. At least I am certain I will be proficient with love related topics ... hehe I had to cut Platiquemos short. I am not going to do the drills as I physically don’t have enough time but I will be listening to the dialogs and reading grammar supplement mostly during breaks and lunch hours at work. Weekends - the same activities with double time. I also listen to lots of Spanish music and if I watch TV I try to find something with Spanish subtitles. That’s about it. And thanks all for your help and support. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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