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James29’s Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 593 of 668 08 March 2015 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have to say that I'm very impressed with your diligence and work ethic. You've done a lot of work to get where you are, but importantly you've stuck with it everyday. Good job!
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 594 of 668 13 March 2015 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the vote of confidence. I appreciate it. I just really enjoy this habit.
I finished John Grisham's book Los Litigantes (The Litigators) so I'm going to update my goals for 2015. 1. Finish Gramatica de Uso del Espanol B1/B2. -> Finished Lesson 69. 2. Read novels totaling 1,000,000 words. -> Finished four novels totaling 364,000 words (En Llamas with 105,000; El Fiscal en el Candelero with 66,000; Diez Negritos with roughly 66,000; and Los Litigantes with roughly 127,000). 3. Listen to Spanish every morning on the way to work. -> So far, so good. 4. Watch any 100 30 minute TV episodes. -> So far have watched equivalent of roughly 14 episodes. No progress lately. 5. Write 12 letters or memos for correction. -> No progress. 6. Read the Spanish side of Assimil's New French With Ease (Spanish Base). -> 48 lessons done/read. Discussion: Finishing the book today was really a wonderful accomplishment. For the first time I had the feeling that I could be "done" with my Spanish "studies" and just use/enjoy the language. I'm not going to do that, but I really feel like I've accomplished something that I've always wanted to accomplish. I don't know how to count words on the Kindle so I had to count the words in my English translation of the book and use that for the estimate. I'll pretty easily reach my goal of one million words this year. The grammar book is getting very good now. All of a sudden every single lesson is a perfect challenge for me. They are teaching distinctions in the various command forms and now moving on to the subjunctive. There are a ton of lessons on the subjunctive. For some reason the VOA noticias website is not working well and is replaying the same newscast every day. I have switched to listening to Tres Patines episodes (La Tremenda Corte). The episodes are perfect length. I must say that it is pretty tricky to understand and if I space out I get lost. With the news it is great because you can space out for a few seconds and then get right back into it. Meetups are fine, but I'm noticing that my speaking seems to be suffering as I am doing much less speaking now than I used to. I'm, unfortunately, going to have to scale back in Spanish for a week or two as I am way behind in some other things in my life. I'll still do a bit every day, but probably just a grammar lesson and then get back to the real world. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| joshka Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3357 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 595 of 668 18 March 2015 at 2:45pm | IP Logged | ||
I second that! It's great to see a consistent, long-term log, particularly knowing how many false starts I've had haha. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4819 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 596 of 668 20 March 2015 at 4:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry about such a late answer, I kept your up to date log in my tables (my browser
windows tend to have too many tables open at once) and now I finally got back to it! Congratulations to your reading progress, that sounds awesome! And I really admire the consistency of your studies. Thanks for the grammarbook news, I am now looking forward to getting that far. But first, I need to complete the easiest tome to get close to where you are now. 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 597 of 668 21 March 2015 at 10:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, I like to accomplish things one step at a time... bit by bit.
This was a somewhat different week. Things at work have been overwhelming to the point where I almost cannot handle the work. It is quite stressful... and then an "emergency" or "crisis" gets thrown into the mix. On Tuesday morning I just about couldn't handle it and the fact that I start my day with a Spanish lesson just kept me going. I've got a great life, but, like everyone, I have some tough times. My morning Spanish habit seems to have really been a great constant in my life that keeps things moving on track. So, anyway, I, of course, managed to do some Spanish every day this week. However, it was a lot less than usual. For some reason the VOA noticias podcast just repeats the same podcast every day so I didn't listen to that. I did listen to a couple episodes of La Tremenda Corte, but I only have four episodes downloaded and that only lasted a couple days. I did manage to do a few more grammar lessons. They are easy again. It is odd how the lessons are so easy that I don't even need to check the answers in the back of the book... or they are quite challenging to the extent that I feel like I should re-do the lesson the next day. I'm doing the lessons on the subjunctive now. There is a ton of material on the subjunctive. I'm finding it quite easy, but I am definitely learning something. I knew about quisiera/pudiera as forms of (what I've always called the past subjunctive) that could be used in the present and future, but I never really knew that form could be used for present and future with any verb. I always just used the "regular" subjunctive for present and future things. That's a great example of the type of things I am picking up. Once they explain it, it is easy to "get" but I never really knew it before. I watched a couple episodes of the Simpsons. I have a new computer system that seems to want to block anything and everything related to Spanish Simpsons websites so I may not be able to watch those episodes anymore. I watched a couple episodes of La Corte del Pueblo. That's always fun. I had a wonderful skype talk with a brand new partner. It was undoubtedly the best Spanish I have ever spoken. It really felt completely fluent to me. It is easy to talk about "who are you?" "what do you do?" "why are you studying Spanish?" and those types of things... but nevertheless, this was an awesome conversation for my Spanish. Meetups are still pretty good. I'm getting to know the wait staff and management at a local Mexican restaurant pretty well. I had lunch there one day and had a very nice talk with a couple of the employees. I still bumble around with when to use usted/tu. I still don't have the greatest feeling for that in many situations. I got a call from a Spanish speaking customer. These calls are always the ultimate test for my Spanish. I was exhausted and it was the end of the day and, frankly, I was not in the mood to use my brain for anything. The call went great. It was about twenty minutes. I could understand most of the conversation with only a couple explanations for more information or an explanation. She was very appreciative because she could not speak English at all and had been having a hard time finding someone who could help her. I did realize, however, that my Spanish really is not sufficient to completely do my job. I'd need to have a native speaking assistant in order to really handle a lot of this type of work. I read a few lessons of the Spanish based Assimil French book. That's fun. I did not read anything from a novel. I wanted to take a break after finishing the Grisham book. I just bought six books from Michael Connely in Spanish. Kindle has a deal where you can buy six of his books in Spanish for $9.99. I could not pass up the deal. I hope I like his books. They seem like the type of book I will like. I think I will start the first one today. Well, I'll get my Spanish on track. If anyone has any suggestions for fairly easy to understand conversational daily podcasts that I can listen to while VOA noticias is down I'd appreciate it. I saw iguanamon's suggestion for a puerto rico radio station in a different post and I checked that out, but they do not have a mobile option on their website. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5593 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 598 of 668 22 March 2015 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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James, here is an edited version of that PM I sent you (in case it is useful for anyone
else): I had something similar a few years ago with German. My strong impression is that at the beginning stage of a language, you need to give that language your undivided attention. If you really want to get your French up and running, you may have to drop your Spanish for a while. I didn't do any Spanish for 2 years while concentrating on my German. As you know, I had the chance to go and work in Spain in September and so took it up again. I'm not going to lie to you, as common sense would suggest and contrary to some of what I had read, I had forgotten quite a lot of Spanish, mostly active vocabulary. My grammar, listening skills and passive vocabulary had not deteriorated in the slightest (if anything I think my grammar improved slightly from the break!). The thing is, 2 years is a bit extreme. German is my passion; but after 6 months I could easily have started my Spanish back up and studied both at the same time (I just didn't want to). So my suggestion to you is this: set aside a 6-month block devoted to getting French up and running. This is enough time to finish Paul Noble, Assimil and all 5 levels of Pimsleur. At that stage (if my German is anything to go by) your French should be robust enough for you to once again do a little bit of Spanish every day again, whilst (for example) working your way through FSI French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mitcht Newbie Australia Joined 3551 days ago 32 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English* | Message 599 of 668 22 March 2015 at 2:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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James,
Whilst i don't think i'll ever have the time to read through your log completely I just thought I'd let you know how impressed I am at your discipline and consistency - something i struggle with daily. Also, I was wondering if you had any recommendations as to which books you have found most useful from your grammar study. Also, what has your experience with meet ups been? I am thinking of starting to attend. I remember reading somewhere that you had more of an interest in caribbean Spanish (hence probably the suggestion for PR news). Most of the study I have done has been from castillian materials which I am relatively comfortable with. My girlfriend is from PR though and i find it a challenge understanding her and her family at times, the accent and slang can be tough. Where I am now in the US now (CT) I am surrounded by puerto rican and dominican Spanish - in the street, on the radio, etc. - so hopefully that will help. If you're in this part of the country I am sure you can find something similar. Congrats on the progess so far and all the best with french (i'd eventually like to start on french/portugese too but i've decided that won't be until i pass a B2 exam comfortably). Mitch 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 600 of 668 23 March 2015 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Mitch... thanks for the message. My preference is indeed Caribbean Spanish but I don't really make too much of a big deal about what resources I use. I'd say I am still best with Spain Spanish... without a doubt. That's basically just because more of my skype partners have been from Spain and I spent a lot of time with Assimil early on.
I wish there were more materials from the Caribbean, but the sad truth is that there are not. I searched high and low for a Telenovela and couldn't find one. I won't use "inferior" resources just to use the type of Spanish I prefer... It's all Spanish to me and it all helps. That being said, there are a lot of ways to practice Caribbean Spanish... "that's Dominican" has a website and a lot of videos. There are books directed at both Dominican and Puerto Rican Spanish (I believe the company is speakinglatino or talkinglatino... I'm in a bit of a rush now and cannot post a link). There are also the books by Esmeralda Santiago about Puerto Rico. She narrates the audio books herself. La Tremenda Corte is an old Cuban radio and widely available. For what it's worth, I suggest just trying to get your Spanish as good as you can get it and then the various accents will come easier after a little use/familiarity. In terms of well rounded grammar resources, certainly FSI was the most useful. I really like the Gramatica de Uso del Espanol books and really wish I had known about them earlier on. I'd definitely attend meetups. I just like them and it is my one night out to do my own thing. For me, it is more of a social thing where it is nice to just go out and have a beer and talk with friends... the fact that it is in Spanish is even better. We have a difficult time keeping native speakers for more than a few weeks so much of the conversations are just among intermediate and advanced learners. Edit: One additional resource I really liked was Stories from Puerto Rico. It is a nice/fairly easy to read bilingual book. The publisher has audio of the Spanish for many of the stories too. It is definitely worth it, especially if you have interest in Puerto Rican culture. Edited by James29 on 23 March 2015 at 1:15pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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