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TAC 2010 - Team F - DaraghM | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 18 of 74 25 February 2010 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes. That's the one I use, and I would recommend it. One thing to note is, this book references the two previous books in the series, but does cover the material again in the Repaso section. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 20 of 74 05 March 2010 at 10:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Over the Easter break, I'll be travelling to the capital of Majorca, Palma. I've been to the island a couple of times before, but I've never stayed in the capital. I was tempted to dabble in Catalan, but this isn't the actual language commonly spoken there. I've posted here before about a long conversation with a taxi driver concerning the language situation, and how he said the Catalan assumption has lead to tension.
As before, Platiquemos is my primary resource, and I've just started into Unit 49. This means I've completed Level VII, which just one level before I'm finished the whole course. The teaching order of the course is slightly strange, with the future tense only introduced in Unit 49. In most other courses this is taught much nearer the start. As has been noted by other members, the audio quality is very patchy in some of these lessons. I've also heavily relied on the Gramática Nivel Avanzado B2. This is not an easy course, as some of the Spanish explanations have moved up a register, and aren't as easy to follow. What makes most of the exercises difficult is not the grammar, but detecting the different shades of meaning in a sentence. E.g. Discerning the speakers feelings to decide between "esa chica" and "chica esa" Time to Spanish Target: 327 hours Edited by DaraghM on 05 March 2010 at 10:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 21 of 74 16 March 2010 at 10:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Just another quick update on my Spanish study. With Platiquemos, I'm just about finished Unit 50, and should be starting the next unit on St.Patricks Day. As I live in the centre of town, overlooking the parade route, I expect it'll be pretty noisy tomorrow.
In addition to the Gramática Nivel Avanzado B2, I've added another two Spanish grammar courses. Both are by the same publisher, Edelsa, and are entirely in Spanish. The first, Competencia Gramatical En Uso B2, is the more recent and close follows the DELE levels. It concentrates heavily on the verb tenses and their uses. The second, Uso de la Gramática Española Avanzado, is an earlier publication which covers a range of topics. I expected a lot of overlap between the two books but there isn't. Both are roughly at the the same level of difficulty. Apart from my trip to Majorca, in a couple of weeks, I've also booked flights for Bilbao in May. While I rely heavily on standard study to learn languages, it's when I travel to the target country that my efforts are rewarded. Time to Spanish Target: 303 hours Edited by DaraghM on 16 March 2010 at 10:25am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 22 of 74 26 March 2010 at 11:58am | IP Logged | ||
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While my time to study has remained about the same, my time to report on it has diminished a lot, so this will be a very quick update. Spanish is still the main language, as I'm cramming in as much study as possible before my Majorca trip. I've just completed Unit 51 of Platiquemos, which took a while. This covered a feature of Spanish I've never properly learnt before; the use of Spanish tenses for supposition and probability.
E.g. Present tense + probablemente -> Future. Estará lloviendo - It's probably raining (lit. It will be raining) Imperfect tense + probablemente -> Conditional Habría vino en la fiesta - There was probably wine at the party. (lit. There would be wine at the party) Preterite tense + probablemente -> Future Perfect. Habrá ido al cine ayer - He probably went to the cinema yesterday. (lit. He will gone to the cinema yesterday) Time to Spanish Target: 284 hours Edited by DaraghM on 26 March 2010 at 11:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 23 of 74 09 April 2010 at 10:24am | IP Logged | ||
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My trip to Palma was the perfect break for practicing my Spanish. While there are still a lot of tourists, we did manage to find a number of tapas bars where only Spanish was spoken. Tapas bars are a great way of interacting with locals, and they seem naturally conducive places to striking up a conversation. However, one tapas bar, La Boveda, famous for having great food was also a bit touristy. The waiter insisted on speaking English, even though it made matters more difficult, as his English wasn't that strong. Though my Spanish isn't incredible, eventually he realised it was a lot better than his English. Yes, language bandits can be overcome.
Apart from Platiquemos, I also returned to Harry Potter, and adopted yet another strategy. Apart from doing the standard L-R, I also made wordlists out of an entire chapter. I added words I already recognised passively, but included the prepositions with verbs. After listening to the chapter, and studying the wordlists simultaneously, I added about 200 words to my active vocabulary. As I've an odd tolerance for repetition, I listened to one chapter over 20 times while walking. This meant I could active wave the chapter as if it was a really long Assimil lesson. I think I remember doviende mentioning a similar technique, but I can't remember the originators name. Time to Spanish Target: 260 hours Edited by DaraghM on 09 April 2010 at 10:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 24 of 74 20 April 2010 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just a quick update to say I'm still heavily engaged with Spanish. I returned to Platiquemos, spent a huge amount of time with Unit 52, and I'm almost finished it. The dialogues are getting longer in these last units, and the units seem to be covering more ground nearing the end. Unfortunately, some of the audio quality is atrocious, and the written text contains a number of transcription errors. There are also a couple of mismatched translations in the section covering 'sino' and 'sino que'.
I've also relied heavily on the various grammar exercise books. One unit I found particularly tricky concerned the use of 'el que' as opposed to 'que'. I already knew the rule concerning prepositions, and starting sentences, but some of the exercises had answers I didn't fully understand. In addition to these grammar books, I revisited the Aula coursebook. I hadn't looked at this book since my Spanish lessons last year. Time to Spanish Target: 239 hours Edited by DaraghM on 20 April 2010 at 3:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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