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James29’s Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5184 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 169 of 668 24 September 2012 at 2:06am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the question sfuqua. I guess I forgot to mention that I did watch a couple episodes of La Reina del Sur last week. I have become busier in the evenings and it is going to be hard to keep up with it because I simply don't have as much time as I used to, but I will stick with it. I do like the show. I am not sure how much Spanish I am learning, but I like it.
Are you aware all the episodes are available for free on Telemundo's youtube channel? Another telenovela that looks good and is available for free on youtube is El Capo. Someone on this forum recommended it and it does look very good. Today I dove back into Atlas Shrugged and did the first chapter and a half L2/L2. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5184 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 170 of 668 01 October 2012 at 3:59am | IP Logged |
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I am working my way through Atlas Shrugged and noting my thoughts in a separate log.
I had a few really long skype talks this week with one of my regular partners. We seem to speak mostly in Spanish. I am feeling really comfortable in one on one conversations. I watched a couple more episodes of La Reina del Sur and really liking it. I really did not do too much more Spanish this week. I have been quite busy lately with other things, but maintaining some Spanish every day. I think that is the key... do a little bit every day. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Peregrinus Senior Member United States Joined 4301 days ago 149 posts - 273 votes Speaks: English* | Message 171 of 668 01 October 2012 at 8:29am | IP Logged |
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I have watched La Reina del Sur all the way through and enjoyed it as well, and understood most of it. But I don't think it has nearly as much everyday "chit-chat" type of conversation that is found in other telenovelas, which is to be expected given the subject matter and action pace of the series. Although not to my own taste, the telenovelas with more of a "slice of life" and/or romantic focus seem to have much more useful such daily conversation as more time is spent by friends sitting around talking casually.
You can find a wide variety at Tus Novelas and there are other similar sites. I also watch short news casts on Univision a lot and they also have telenovela episodes. But for the telenovelas sometimes you will get a country IP block (for which there are ways around of course although just deleting cookies and a browser restart sometimes does it for a while). Of course also most cable and satellite packages have at least Galvision and Univision included, so it is easy to set episodes to record. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5184 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 172 of 668 02 October 2012 at 2:56am | IP Logged |
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Peregrinus, thanks for the link to Tus Novelas. That is a great link. You are right about La Reina not having the conversations typical of telenovelas. I think after La Reina I will try to do a more typical telenovela. Unfortunately, we don't get any Spanish channels on cable where I live, but I did try watching nightly news a while back on Univision and I found it too hard to be enjoyable. Maybe now I could enjoy it. Anyway, thanks again for the suggestion.
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| Peregrinus Senior Member United States Joined 4301 days ago 149 posts - 273 votes Speaks: English* | Message 173 of 668 02 October 2012 at 4:35am | IP Logged |
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James, you are welcome. Univision's website has short news clips which will cycle from one to another after starting the first. So you get a variety and with different topics and announcers so you don't get stuck for a long period with something hard to understand. What is harder to understand more often is when they cut to a location and the volume of the people talking is not as high as the announcer or the speech is more dialectical.
Re no Spanish channels, that is surprising as most basic packages these days have Uni and Gal. You might inquire if they have a Spanish package for a little extra. The price varies and on my Dish satellite subscription they have a bonus package for $15/mo. and a full Spanish package for about twice that with a load of channels from various countries. But if you can evade a country ip block, an awful lot can be had free on the net. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5184 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 174 of 668 08 October 2012 at 2:20am | IP Logged |
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Peregrinus, thanks again for the suggestions... I have found the Univision news clips and watched them in the past. I recall not being able to understand enough to make it worthwhile, but my Spanish has improved very much since then. Maybe I will try it again. I do watch the news in English and if I could just switch and watch it in Spanish that would be great.
You are right about cable... I could get an upgrade or direct TV or Dish. As for now I have opted for watching things online because it suits my schedule better and my family appreciates that I am not watching Spanish on TV. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5184 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 175 of 668 08 October 2012 at 2:43am | IP Logged |
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It occurred to me that this week marks my three year anniversary of studying Spanish!
I did some thinking and I would say that I have averaged about one hour a day on Spanish. Some days are much more some days are much less. I could definitely be much more advanced if I was more disciplined and "studied" more instead of having "fun". Anyway, on to this week. This past week was actually kind of a stinker as far as Spanish is concerned. I have been busy with family things and also at work. I had one day that I skipped Spanish entirely. It has been a very long time since I had a day without Spanish. I also had a long drive where I listened to Using Spanish dialogues until my CD player started screwing up. I got in about 45 minutes of dialogues on that trip when I could have had a few hours. I also had another day where I only listened to about 20 minutes of Atlas Shrugged. I also had to skip the meetup. I did have a couple really good skype chats. The longer I speak to the same people the easier it is to speak and understand. I would basically say I am almost completely conversant with some of my longer standing partners. I have essentially no problems talking with some of them. That does not mean I don't understand some things or cannot say what I want, it simply means that it is very easy to notice that I don't understand a word and I can easily ask or clarify the meaning. Also, when I don't know a word I can pretty easily explain things in a short phrase or guess it. I have been thinking a lot about my level of Spanish and how the language functions. I am beginning to understand better how to think about my progress. I believe the framework of the language is critically important as well as the most common 1000-2000 words or so. If someone is very comfortable with the structure/grammar of the language and extremely comfortable using the most common words they can very easily speak and communicate most things. They can also fairly easily understand the general gist of most books and clearly spoken conversations. THEN, the process of picking up all the vocabulary, nuances and idioms takes time and more time and more time. The vocab, nuances and idioms fall into place quite nicely and simply come with time. I really don't know why I am writing this other than it really seems like there is a "wall" or inflection point where someone just needs to take in massive amounts of the language to progress. I think I am starting to get to that point. Anyway, I am hoping to get back on track this upcoming week and make my fourth year a good one. I will see how Ecuador goes first, but I am thinking I will make my 2013 goal to be to go through FSI again. For the rest of 2012 I will finish up Atlas Shrugged, La Reina del Sur and then just do so minor projects until the end of the year. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| MonoDeano Newbie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5018 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* | Message 176 of 668 09 October 2012 at 9:20pm | IP Logged |
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Hi James, congrats on the 3 year mark! I’ve followed this for a while now and have
really enjoyed it. Your dedication has been good motivation. I’ve really been thinking about starting a weekly log like this to keep track of my progess and keep myself honest with how/where I’m spending my time. I’m the one who asked you about the Living Language book a while back now. I ended up buying it and it’s on the pile at the moment. (I’ve promised myself no more books!) I’ve been through Assmil, Spanish Made Simple, Practice Makes Perfect and am reading a fair few side by side bilingual books just to pick up vocab and reinforce the grammar I’m picking up from PMP. Now I’m moving to reading interesting BBC Mundo articles and importing from there into lingq.com to review new vocab and reinforce those grammar points. It’s all pretty passive at the moment but reading the news seems to be getting easier every week. I definitely underestimated the amount of time all this was going to take, but it’s a really enjoyable and fulfilling hobby. Like you…I’m eyeing French…but not until much later on! I really like your idea of skype. Any suggestions or words of advice? Do you chose a specific topic or something you want to practice? I still struggle a lot with speaking and comprehending in real time but my vocabulary is getting bigger all the time. I’m also going to be in Mexico for a few weeks around Christmas. I am thinking about doing an intensive immersion for a week to force myself into speaking more and get out of my comfort zone. Keep up the great work – I’m sure I’m not the only one who reads your blog and comes away with a bit of inspiration to keep studying. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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