Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

TAC 2009 - DaraghM

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
177 messages over 23 pages: 1 2 3 46 7 ... 5 ... 22 23 Next >>
DaraghM
Diglot
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5911 days ago

1947 posts - 2923 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian

 
 Message 33 of 177
27 January 2009 at 5:14am | IP Logged 
26/01/09

Spanish (Active ~2 hours, Passive ~1.5 hours)

I did it. I completed my "Teach yourself Spanish" challenge. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but it came together in the end. I'll probably set myself other challenges, and in other languages, at some point soon. One of the problems with doing the challenge was the temptation to rush towards the end. I also spent some time reading more El País articles on the recent conflict in the Gaza strip. The articles were about the Iranian influence, and an analysis of the conflict. Some of the words have multiple meanings, and the translations are those in the context of the articles.

Los asesinatos – The murders
Bazas – Tricks\Trump cards (This word cropped up a couple of times.)
Cisjordania – West Bank
Denostado – Reviled
El apoyo – the support
Añadir – to add
Alcance – reach\range (relates to rockets-cohotes)
Contracarro – Anti-tank
Contrarrestar – to counteract
El envite – the bet
Un futuro cercano – near future (I'm not sure why they used "un" and not "el")
Atreverse – to dare
Garantizar – To guarantee
Cuerpo a cuerpo – hand to hand
Desbordar– to overwhelm\exceed\overflow
Autodenomidado – calling itself (self named)
Inquilino – tenant\resident (de La Casa Blanca – of the white house)
Desencadenar – to trigger\unleash (to unchain from cadena – chain)
Lazos diplomáticos – Diplomatic ties
Malestar – discomfort\unease
Las matanzas – the slaughter
Martirio – Martyrdom
La Prensa – The Press
Optado – Opted for\chose
Piadoso – devouted
Pese a – despite\in spite of
Pistoletazo – first shot\starting shot\opening shot
Químico – Chemical
Puñado – handful
Previsible – foreseeable
Teórica – Theoretical
Tibio(-a) – Lukewarm\tepid\half hearted.
Ungir – To anoint \ elect

I forgot to add that I've also been doing Assimil during my lunch, and my evening walks. I'm currently on lección 93, an amusing unit about Abelardo, a butcher (carnicero), inviting his friends to view his new bookcase (biblioteca). The oddest sentence is,

10. La semana pasada compré dos metros y medio de Voltaire.
10. Last week I bought two and a half metres of Voltaire.

The notes exlain that some antique dealers sell books based on physical length of the books. The lección didn't have much new vocabulary, and most of the sentences were as basic as the one above.


Edited by DaraghM on 27 January 2009 at 6:11am

1 person has voted this message useful





Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6463 days ago

9078 posts - 16473 votes 
Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan
Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 34 of 177
28 January 2009 at 2:51am | IP Logged 
Congratulations!
1 person has voted this message useful



DaraghM
Diglot
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5911 days ago

1947 posts - 2923 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian

 
 Message 35 of 177
28 January 2009 at 3:10am | IP Logged 
Iversen wrote:
Congratulations!


EP: Gracias. Es bueno saber alguien siga leyendo mi hilo.
1 person has voted this message useful



DaraghM
Diglot
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5911 days ago

1947 posts - 2923 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian

 
 Message 36 of 177
28 January 2009 at 3:33am | IP Logged 
27/01/09

Spanish (Active ~1 hour, Passive ~1.5 hours)

Just a quick update. I completed all the main units in the B1 Gramática. There's a revision test at the end, in a similar format to DELE exams. I'll go through the whole book again, before completing this test. I want to concentrate on the subtle differences between the preterito and imperfecto tenses. Hopefully, I'll be adding it to my completed list soon.

Russian (Active ~15 minutes, Passive ~15 minutes)

I finished lesson 4 (урок 4) yesterday, and gave it one final glance this morning. I wish there were more exercises at the end of each unit. They introduce a lot of grammar in each lesson, but don't test it at the end. On an upcoming Russian week, I'll probably do some grammar exercises from "Teach yourself Russian Grammar".
1 person has voted this message useful



DaraghM
Diglot
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5911 days ago

1947 posts - 2923 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian

 
 Message 37 of 177
29 January 2009 at 5:06am | IP Logged 
28/01/09

Spanish (Active ~3 hours, Passive ~0.5 hours)

Quite a good day for Spanish. I've completed the B1 Gramática test, after going through the whole book. I was happy with my result getting just one wrong out of 25 questions. After listening to a couple of Assimil lessons, I headed to the Cervante's Institute for a placement test. I have to admit I was very nervous. All my Spanish study has been by myself, with no help or correction from tutors or Spanish friends. The only speaking practice I get is when I've been to Spain on holidays, and my only writing practise was completing exercises in the various books I have. I was concerned they'd ask me to write a letter, or something similar.

When I arrived, there was a large crowd of older people signing up for their conversation course. They were happily chatting away in Spanish to the girls behind the administration desk. At this point, my mind just when blank, and I started to get even more nervous. Would I be able to anwser even the most basic Spanish questions ? Then the teacher came out for my assessment, a pleasant girl named Antonia. As I feared, she started out in rapid Spanish, on our way to the room. Thankfully, the questions started basic, "¿Cómo te llamas", "¿A qué te dedicas?" before she asked me how long I'd been studying Spanish. This was a question I'd asked in here in the Spanish forum, so I replied "Llevo dos años estudiando el español de vez en cuando". Thanks again folks for your replies. They saved me on this one.

We then discussed how I'd studied Spanish, and I mentioned alone, and I'd never had a tutor. She asked me did I have a lot of Spanish friends, and I told her I'd none. She seemed very surprised, and said my accent was very good, and wondered how I got it. I didn't quite know how to explain shadowing in Spanish, so I said a lot of listening. She said I didn't stall when speaking, and was comfortable discussing in different tenses. Thank you Michel Thomas. Then she produced the test, which consisted of a number of grammar questions and a written piece. My worst fears had come through. The grammar questions were ranged from 1 to 150, but I'd to answer the subset 60 to 80. They weren't easy, and different from the questions in the Gramática. The written piece was to describe an amusing trip abroad, and why it was amusing. I've never written any long pieces before, so I had to improvise and wrote about a trip to Cuba.

After about an hour, she returned to correct my paper. While waiting in the reception area, I thought I've blown it. The Spanish written piece would be my downfall, and I'd probably made a lot of mistakes in the grammar section. She returned with the results. On the grammar section I scored 80%. Yeah. :-). However, she said the letter had a number of mistakes, especially with gender. She placed me at Threshold 2, which was a bit higher than I expected, but said if it was over my head I should tell the tutor. I then signed up for classes.





Edited by DaraghM on 29 January 2009 at 5:08am

1 person has voted this message useful



Flarioca
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5642 days ago

635 posts - 816 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Mandarin

 
 Message 38 of 177
29 January 2009 at 7:21am | IP Logged 
Felicitaciones! Nice story :-)
1 person has voted this message useful



josht
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6206 days ago

635 posts - 857 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch

 
 Message 39 of 177
29 January 2009 at 7:24am | IP Logged 
Congratulations on doing well on your test!
1 person has voted this message useful





magister
Pro Member
United States
Joined 6363 days ago

346 posts - 421 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Turkish, Irish
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 40 of 177
29 January 2009 at 4:34pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for sharing this story. It was an interesting read.


1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 177 messages over 23 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 46 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.3281 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.