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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 449 of 668 15 June 2014 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I finished Think and Grow Rich yesterday so I will update my goals for 2014:
Read any 15 books in Spanish. -> 7 done (Anthem, Joven Abogado #1 and #2, Narnia #1, Harry Potter #2, Man, Economy and State, and Think and Grow Rich). Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes in Spanish -> COMPLETE (well over 100+ done) Re-read Cassell's Colloquial Spanish -> finished the "G" section. No progress in a long time. Re-read Practice Makes Perfect "Subjunctive Up Close." -> No progress yet. Discussion: I still like doing Spanish every day. In addition to reading I have developed a nice habit of listening to the VOA news every weekday morning on the way to work. My drive in the morning is about 20 minutes. It is a nice news broadcast. I have struggled for years to find something productive to do for those 20 minutes. Hopefully I can stick with this. I got invited to a different "meetup" group this week. It is actually a group that has been around a lot longer than meetup. It was very nice. There were six or seven native speakers and just about everyone else was at a pretty advanced level. I really feel my Spanish is much better in these types of situations. I had some wonderful conversations and I think this sort of thing really helps. The group does not get together too often, but I'll go whenever they meet. I went to the Mexican restaurant next door to work a few times this week. One of the times my regular waiter was there but not working. He was just hanging out so I chatted with him for quite a while. We were joking and talking about all sorts of things. He is a very social guy and very friendly so it was quite an animated conversation. I really felt like a very legitimate Spanish speaker. He has been hard to understand in the past due to his accent and his slurring/speed of talking, but after a bit I really did not have a problem understanding him. It is kind of cool now when I go into and leave the restaurant because I know all the employees quite well and they are always very friendly and talkative. They really seem to appreciate that I speak Spanish and have taken the time/effort to learn their language. I get the impression that ordinarily many of the employees are quite shy and reserved, but when they see me they brighten up a bit and speak to me in Spanish. I have been watching TV episodes of The Firm and The Simpsons. I really like The Firm. It is a cool show with a very suspenseful plot and well done characters. It is fairly simple, but very intriguing. I'm almost done with the entire series (there is only one season). I am almost done with the seventh season of The Simpsons. I would say I understand The Firm better than The Simpsons. There are so many jokes and innuendos in The Simpsons I think I miss things. I can very easily, however, follow the story and very much enjoy watching The Simpsons. I got a couple calls at work from Spanish speakers. I am frustrated because everything else I do in Spanish seems to work quite well. Unfortunately, when I get calls for work I sometimes struggle. This is not just because it is on the telephone, but it is also because my customers probably do not speak very well and use a lot of slang. They don't speak very clearly and they often will not speak slower when I ask them to. I still can make it through the conversation and, for the most part, accomplish what I need to do. They definitely appreciate the fact that I am available and speak Spanish with them. It amazes me how many people there are who really prefer to do business in Spanish. Frankly, I am surprised more businesses don't pursue business in Spanish. One little example of the "problems" I have on the phone for work that drive me crazy... I introduced myself and asked the guy how I could help him. He then asked me something that I did not understand. It was obviously a colloquial phrase where he was asking me to identify myself again (like "what did you say your name was again" or something similar, but it was done with some sort of colloquial phrase). I did not understand him. I felt silly because I hold myself out as a "Spanish speaker" and I did not understand the very first thing he asked me. Anyway, after that we made some good progress and I think he really appreciated talking with me. This week I have a meeting scheduled with a native Spanish speaker who does what I do in a different city and hopefully we can talk about doing some work together. I am pretty hopeful. He asked for the meeting and I don't know exactly what he has in mind. We'll see what happens. Hopefully it turns into a good opportunity for work. If not, no big deal. Luckily business is pretty good right now and developing the Spanish side of things is more of a hobby than anything else. I spoke to my website guy about pushing more Spanish speaking business and he had some ideas. We added Spanish key words to their abracadabra SEO and PPC things (it seems to me this internet advertising stuff is a scam - especially "SEO" -, but I am not smart enough to figure it out). I am actually now paying money to pursue Spanish speaking business. Regarding my goals for the year, I am glad I set them. It really helps me stay motivated and focused. I am also glad, however, that I don't set out really long term goals. My needs seem to change over time. For example, right now I don't really feel like I need to spend a ton more time on the subjunctive. Six months ago that was a priority. Things over the past six months seem to have "clicked" and I am unsure if I really need to do the PMP subjunctive book. I think I will still do it because I made the goal and I want to accomplish all goals. The "massive passive" input I have been doing over the past six months has helped tremendously. My comprehension has skyrocketed. My vocabulary is growing. I feel the weak parts of my Spanish have really caught up with the strong parts. Now I am thinking of doing a "massive active" six months where I really push hard on the intermediate/advanced grammar. I have the resources and I think it will really help. I still get confused on some fairly basic things. I feel silly admitting some of these things. For example, I use "tu" almost all the time. So when I use usted (with my customers for example) I get confused about some things. For me, it seems totally natural to substitute "le" for every situation when I would use "te" with tu. This seems to make perfect sense and I just do it naturally. I think, however, that in many situations it is probably wrong and I should be using lo/la in many of those situations. Using "lo" and "la" for "you" just seems wrong to my brain. I just have not put the time in to get it figured/sorted out. These sorts of "little" things don't impact conversations and nobody corrects me so it is really hard. Plus, I don't pick it up from reading/TV. Oh well. I still sometimes screw up the irregular commands... Ten, pon, etc. I think about commands as the same conjugation as the subjunctive... which most of the time it is... but when an irregular comes along my brain freezes. I also still sometimes mess up negative commands. Again, these things can easily be fixed if I just sucked it up and spent the time and effort to fix it. Another thing I am noticing is that my passive comprehension is really improving, but many things are not seeping into my active use. For example, I see "llevar a cabo" all over the place and I know exactly what it means, but I don't think I have EVER used it when speaking. It just does not jump into my mind. There are many examples like this where I have it 100% passively, but just don't use it actively. I think it is more often when it is a phrase or usage that is not really directly translated from/to English. I again thought about French a lot this week, but have decided I really need to improve my Spanish more. Frankly, I just don't see a practical/productive use of French for me other than the basic satisfaction of speaking to many family members in one of their native languages... but, of course, their other native language is English so it is not like learning French would really accomplish much. I don't really have too much of a desire to travel to French speaking countries other than Quebec. It would be cool to go to Quebec. Eventually I will do it. I'm just not ready yet to commit so much time to French when my Spanish still needs so much work. We are half way through June and I still don't have my next Spanish trip planned out. I really need to get on the ball and start thinking about it. November is looking like a good time. Edited by James29 on 15 June 2014 at 2:30pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 450 of 668 22 June 2014 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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It was a bit of a different week due to a business conference I had to attend. I'd still say it was a pretty good week. I did a wide variety of Spanish.
I started Cuando Era Puertorriquena. It seems like a good book. I'm still on the second chapter. The audio book is well done. I like it because it is read by the author herself and my preference is Puerto Rican/Dominican Spanish. There are definitely some words/vocab/idioms I don't understand but the book itself is not too hard to read. I'd say it is easier for me than Harry Potter. I read quite a bit out of the Cassell's book. I really like the book. I'll update my progress next week because I forget how far I got... maybe to letter M or N. It is just as good the second time through this book. It is so easy to just stick in my pocket and read for a few minutes when I have some free time. I took it to the beach last Sunday... I just love reading a book like that on the beach. I watched a few episodes of The Firm. One of them had a totally screwed up audio track that was off from the video by over a minute. I still watched it and essentially listened to it without paying attention to the video. I love the series. Only one episode left. I watched a bit of the Simpsons also. I'm almost done with the seventh season. I'll take a break when I finish the season. I watched an episode of Caso Cerrado also. I like that show for learning Spanish. You get all sorts of accents and speaking styles. People usually "tell a story" which is good and Dra Polo always summarizes the case half way through after the commercial break. That's nice. Also, on the Telemundo website they have good ver batim transcription/subtitles. That's nice for seeing words when I don't know what they are saying. I have noticed, however, that I don't like transcription/subtitles when watching TV. It seems to distract me and it makes me just focus on reading the Spanish. There was a Mexican American at my conference. We had a nice long (probably two hour) conversation in Spanish. I had absolutely no problems whatsoever. I really excel in one on one conversations... especially with highly educated bilingual speakers. I think my confidence makes my Spanish better. If I get used to someone else's Spanish it just makes me function much better in the language. This conversation was extremely encouraging. On a bad note, I don't recall doing any Spanish on Friday. It was a fully packed day at the conference. I was exhausted from Thursday and I slept in so I did not get to do any Spanish. I don't really mind missing a day, however, because I did quite a bit on Thursday and Saturday. Plus, this was really an unusual week due to all the travelling and conference issues. On a good note, my next conference is supposed to be in the Caribbean. I am not exactly sure, but it will likely be in one of the Virgin Isles or one of the independent countries south of Puerto Rico. If that's where it is I think I'll turn that trip into a Spanish trip and spend a week or so in Puerto Rico along the way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 451 of 668 29 June 2014 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I finished the seventh season of the Simpsons and I also finished the series of The Firm. I'd like to take a bit of a break from the Simpsons for a bit. I don't know why, but I do.
I have been watching Caso Cerrado. I probably watched three episodes this week. I like the ver batim transcription they have on the Telemundo website, but I simply cannot stand watching so many commercials. I think I will watch it on youtube and skip the commercials. It is much easier for me to understand than the Simpsons. I also feel like it is more "real" Spanish like I will encounter in real life. Unfortunately, the "fakeness" of the episodes is starting to annoy me. I'd rather watch something similar but real. I am now about 2/3 done with Cuando Era Puertorriquena. It is fine. I like the narration and I feel like I am learning something about Puerto Rico. It is not the most exciting book, but it is interesting. It makes me realize that books for kids are not necessarily easier to read than books for adults. It is fairly easy to understand, but still has some tricky vocabulary. I made a lot of progress this week on the Cassell's book. I am in the "P" section. The "P" section is huge... about 20 pages. I definitely like this book. I think I will move on to either a Dominican or Puerto Rico specific vocabulary book when I finish this. I'm already scoping out new resources. I went on a bit of a splurge and bought a bunch of new books... two Grisham books and a Dan Brown book. I have plenty of resources now that could last me a couple years. I need to stop. I have been going to the Mexican restaurant next door to watch the world cup games. That's pretty cool. Too bad Mexico lost today. I guess it was kind of a slow week for Spanish. I did some minor things like a short meetup and some Skype text chats, but not much exciting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3954 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 452 of 668 29 June 2014 at 9:45pm | IP Logged | ||
This is on my "to read" list. I saw that she wrote several other books as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 453 of 668 06 July 2014 at 3:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I finished Cuando Era Puertorriquena this morning so I will update my goals for 2014:
Read any 15 books in Spanish. -> 8 done (Anthem, Joven Abogado #1 and #2, Narnia #1, Harry Potter #2, Man, Economy and State, Think and Grow Rich and Cuando Era Puertorriquena). Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes in Spanish -> COMPLETE (well over 100+ done) Re-read Cassell's Colloquial Spanish -> finished the "O" section. Re-read Practice Makes Perfect "Subjunctive Up Close." -> No progress yet. Discussion: Cuando Era Puertorriquena was definitely worthwhile. It is certainly not an "exciting" or "entertaining" book, but it is quite interesting and gives the reader a view of Puerto Rico and NYC through the eyes of a young Puerto Rican girl. For my Spanish I think it was very good. It was obviously written in Puerto Rican Spanish and the audio was extremely high quality. I now see that there is a full audio book of her following book, Casi una Mujer. I would not mind reading that sometime this year. I do note that I have a strange way of classifying books. I had no problem reading this book, but I had a hard time reading more than a half hour at a time. Some books I can just keep reading for a couple hours. I'd really like to find more books that I simply "can't put down." I had a couple very good and long Skype talks in Spanish. I spoke with a Colombian and it was a wonderful conversation. With clearly spoken educated people I feel like I can effortlessly navigate the Spanish language. As I am writing this I don't recall any other Spanish I did this week. Edit: but I did start studying French this weekend. I started a log and hopefully it sticks this time. Edited by James29 on 06 July 2014 at 3:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 454 of 668 14 July 2014 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am now reading "Short Stories in Spanish" by New Penguin... it is a parallel text. I really like it a lot. The stories are a perfect length for my 30-40 minutes in the morning. One story I had to split between two days, but other than that it has been perfect. The stories are all very unique and different. If feel like Forrest Gump... I never know what I am going to get when I open the book. I mean... the stories are extremely different. It is cool.
While reading the book I don't really need the English. I find that I look at the English to clarify some tricky phrasing and also to understand the very endings of the story when there is a big twist. Often times when I look for a word I don't know I find that I don't know the word in English either. It seems like older British English. I definitely like it and highly recommend it. I am close to 3/4 of the way through it now. I went to some World Cup get togethers. Those were pretty fun. My Mexican restaurant seems to be becoming heavily patronized by Latinos. That is cool. I sneak over there for half an hour every now and then from work and grab some food and chat in Spanish with whoever is there. That's cool. I am also really getting to know the employees and watched a whole game chatting with one of them. I was invited to a friend's house who was celebrating the World Cup and the Peruvian independence day this weekend. That was cool. There was one spouse who was American, but everyone else was Peruvian. It was the first time I really felt totally immersed in Latin culture when here in the US. I am watching French In Action videos in the evenings instead of Los Simpson or Caso Cerrado. I am going to keep it up for a bit, but I often feel like I would prefer to put the extra time into Spanish. Going to the party with the Peruvians really made me want to advance my Spanish. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4468 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 455 of 668 14 July 2014 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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James., I really like the log. The World Cup was really great and provided me with opportunities like you described. There were several Mexican restaurants that really bought in and had several watching parties. It was nice to be surrounded by Spanish. However, I wish I was at your abilities. You were able to have your primary conversations in Spanish. I had bits and pieces in Spanish and had to fall back on English for too much of the conversations.
I am awaiting my Short Stories in Spanish to arrive and even though the stories are too advanced for me, I will spend time with them because the English text will make them comprehensible for me. I watch the Simpsons in English from time to time and will give it a shot. Also, I will follow your French log. I look forward to reading about your plan of action since you accomplished teaching yourself Spanish and if you use a different approach than you used for Spanish. My goal is to start French or another language after dedicating the next 12 months to Spanish (Most likely French as I have several clients from Paris who can help me use the language). Thanks for helping me with my journey, BOLIO 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 456 of 668 15 July 2014 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think you will like the Short Stories book. The story I read today was a bit harder than the previous ones. It is helpful to simply be able to read the English and then go over the Spanish again. I am seeing that some of the stories seem to have some older phrases and words... like reading from the Without Toil Assimil book.
The level of my Spanish is pretty satisfying. I can generally get by with whatever I do. The party with the Peruvians was good. In one on one conversations I have no problems at all, but when people are joking around with each other in Spanish I cannot follow it. I really have the desire to advance my Spanish to a new level. There are a lot of "little" things I really need to iron out. Things that are probably pretty basic that I just need to hammer with drills. I notice that I usually get screwed up with the irregular familiar commands... my mind tells me to put them into the subjunctive form and forgets that they are irregular... then, to make it worse, I get all confused when I have to think about if it is a negative command and if I am in the familiar. I am sure I can fix this, but I just don't do it. I also still probably screw up many pronouns and prepositions. When I speak with usted (not too often) my mind just tells me to substitute "le" everywhere I would use "te" when talking in the familiar form. This is wrong and I know it, but I just get screwed up. there are a lot of little things like that that don't really cause a problem in speaking and listening, but I really notice them when I am writing... I am forced to admit that I screw it up. I am considering getting the PMP book on prepositions and pronouns and really working these issues. I must say that it is difficult to continue with French. Yesterday I skipped French and this morning I would have much preferred to listen to the news in Spanish than French on the way to work. I did the French thing. I think I am going to have to transition into using Assimil for French pretty quickly... I need to "trick" myself into believing that my French studying is really studying Spanish. I figure I can use the Spanish based book and spend half the time reading the Spanish. If you don't mind me asking, Bolio, what types of clients do you have that come from Paris? That sounds cool. You can reply to me in a private message if you want. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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