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Learning Spanish with BBC Talk | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| matematikniels Tetraglot Groupie Denmark Joined 6195 days ago 78 posts - 84 votes  Speaks: Danish*, English, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 1 of 3 27 December 2007 at 10:13am | IP Logged |
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Why
I’ve never been to Latin America, and I’ve only been in Spain once. But that’s going to change, and then it’ll be nice to know some Spanish. I’d also like to understand songs, e.g. the words of Argentine Tango. I’ve also considered Portuguese. I like its sound, I’d like to understand the words of the Fado, but Spanish is easier for me, more generally useful and will perhaps give me some clue to Portuguese as well. I also have some work related motivation: I want to be able to read and use Spanish resources for my professional field of math education, e.g. the work of Pedro Gómez of the Universidad de Granada. I’ve written a few web pages using a web based program for coordinate systems called The Descartes applet. It's from Spain with documentation in Spanish. Even though I never learned any Spanish I was able to guess my way through the manual – that was one of the things that made me think learning Spanish could be within reach and worth the effort. And why right now? Well, for a couple of years I’ve planned to visit an international event on math education in Mexico 2008, either the PME 32 or the ICME 11. Now I’m not sure I can have it funded, since there’s a lot of reorganization going on in the institution I work for. But then I’ll go with my wife to Argentina, either this year or 2009. Why BBC Talk I found BBC Talk Spanish 1 and Talk Spanish 2 in London in October. The booklets and CD sets seemed to suit my needs well. It’s mostly based on listening and speaking to prompts in dialogues. There’s some reading to do in the textbook, a few quizzes – and supplementary material on the BBC Website. I don’t have much time to spend on this project, so I need something that gets you somewhere in an short time even if you can’t put in as much as half an hour a day. Goal This summer I want to be able to call myself an intermediate learner. I want to have a vocabulary and a basic knowledge of grammar that enables me to - do day-to-day tasks like ordering at a restaurant, buy at a shop, ask for directions etc. - learn from reading real world Spanish texts, using my knowledge of English, French and Latin to guess the meaning of most unknown words - understand web pages and short articles on math education in Spanish - learn from watching movies in Spanish. In Denmark, movies are not synchronized (except for children) so they come with Danish subtitles. It’s very hard to get DVDs with Spanish language and subtitles here. I might need to turn Danish subtitles on first time watching, but I hope to understand most of the dialogue second time. Anyway, having Penelope Cruz as my tutor will be great for motivation ;-) Plan I’ll do about one chapter per week of BBC Talk 1 and 2. Once in a while I’ll add a visit to the BBC website, but that’s about all I got time for. I work a little on my Russian, too, but it’s my job that doesn’t leave me time or energy for more. I’m a little behind my schedule, but anyway I should be able to finish Talk 2 around Easter, leaving a couple of months for learning from movies, reading and web browsing before summer. Edit: Misspelling. Specify Descartes is Spanish. Edited by matematikniels on 28 December 2007 at 5:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| matematikniels Tetraglot Groupie Denmark Joined 6195 days ago 78 posts - 84 votes Speaks: Danish*, English, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 2 of 3 27 December 2007 at 10:15am | IP Logged |
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November and December 2007
I've been working on chapter 1 – 6 till now. I mainly listen while commuting to work or doing laundry or the dishes. I only read the text once in a while, but I take care to go through the exercises and quizzes in the textbook before moving on to the next chapter. I like the book, even if it’s neither great literature nor rocket science. It’s not too fast paced – that suits me well, I have only limited time for this project. It’s not to slow either – I’m not really happy with FSI-style material. I like the voices – two of the speakers sound almost native English, and the other two have very charming Spanish accents. I think that makes it easier for me to get Spanish pronunciation right. You’re supposed to use the book first time you listen. I don’t always do that, and sometimes I get the words wrong. E.g. I heard “cerado” (closed) as “ferado”. No big problem, sooner or later I read the book and get it right – actually I might not have noticed the problem if I had followed the textbook first time listening. I work a lot on pronunciation; I believe you should try to get it right from the very start. I use the dialogues, repeat and shadow. For Danes, the tongue tip r is a problem, but I learned it when learning Russian, so I guess the “b” and “v” are the hardest sounds for me. I think I can produce them correctly in a single word, however, very soon I’m going to check with some resource on Spanish phonology to make sure. Speaking a whole sentence I often use the sharper “b” and “v” like in English. That needs practice. I also try to imitate prosody and think I’m not too bad. One day I might dare to record myself and face the results. I’m still working on the vocabulary of chapter 5 & 6. I’m going to move on to chapter 7 first thing in the new year. Edit: Misspelling Edited by matematikniels on 27 December 2007 at 6:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| matematikniels Tetraglot Groupie Denmark Joined 6195 days ago 78 posts - 84 votes Speaks: Danish*, English, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 3 of 3 03 January 2008 at 4:00pm | IP Logged |
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Spanish b and v
Found Puerta del Sol: The Spanish Pronunciation Guide. The rules, it says, are clear: (1) v and b are always pronounced the same (except perhaps some local variations) (2) in the beginning of a word / breath group / emphatically marked syllable, it's the same as the english b (3) between vowels it's a voiced bilabial fricative. I'm not scared about the technical terms, but the great thing about the site is that it gives a detailed, step-by-step description that gives meaning to the term and explains how to produce the sound. Something like this: It's voiced like v, not f Pronounce the sound lip to lip (like b), not lip to teeth (like v) You don't quite close your lips (like English w, but no rounding of the lips) Glad I found that, I didn't have it quite right after all. Good, that gives me something to do when I'm alone. I really don't practice pronunciation when somebody is listening. Edited by matematikniels on 03 January 2008 at 4:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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