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Spanish Log (TAC 2014 Team Lobo) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4822 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 145 of 271 21 August 2012 at 9:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey, thanks guys! Yep, the good thing is I will be meeting up with the Chilian girls I
met in Budapest, and my time there coincides with Chile's "fiestas patrias" so I will get 5 days of festivities in shortly after I arrive. I'm going to start listening to lots of radio from Chile, and especially Argentina, instead of RTVE, to get used to the accents, and I'm going to try and get my head around the Voseo. Tibbles, did you find the Voseo was used much in Chile? BTW, I've been meaning to congratulate you on your progress for some time- you've done fantastically well! I've learned a lot from your log. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4991 days ago 245 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 146 of 271 22 August 2012 at 8:37am | IP Logged | ||
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No, I didn't encounter any voseo in the situations I was in when I was there. The people on one of the podcasts that I listen to use the vos a lot, so I understand it but have no inclination to use it myself.
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5175 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 147 of 271 22 August 2012 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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This sounds like an amazing trip... more than a month?!?!? Wow, how motivating! I have spoken to some guys from Chile and I have always had a very hard time understanding the accent... so, it is good that you are going to practice with some audio. What do you have planned for the trip other than festivals? Are you going to take Spanish courses? I have surfed the net for Spanish courses many times and some schools have very inexpensive rates for 1 on 1 instruction. Will you be updating your log while you are there? I would be very interested in following it if you do. Enjoy your travels.
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| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4822 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 148 of 271 24 August 2012 at 12:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Yep, I think in total I will be in South America for about 7 weeks. I've been planning
to go on a big trip for a long time now, but until recently I was thinking more of spending 2 or 3 months in South-East Asia. I still want to do that, but at the moment it seems to make more sense to spend time in South-American countries. Chile and Argentina seem far less daunting for solo travel than some of the other countries in the region, although they are more expensive. To be honest, I'm not really sure exactly what I'm going to do after I leave Santiago. It seems like the big dilemma with Chile is whether to go North or South. It would be great to check out the Atacama dessert in the North but I doubt I will,it seems there is more to do in the South, and a lot to check out on the way back up Argentina. I'm not sure how far south I will go either. Distances are big in both these places so I will need to take that into account. In fact part of the appeal of Chile to me, is the fact that I know of very few people who have been there, which is not something that can be said for the rest of the region. I also like the fact that speaking Spanish will mean that I don't have to stick to tourist areas. I like going with the flow though really, I'm very open to just seeing what happens. Strangely, I've not thought much about Spanish courses. I will have a look though and see what they cost. I've always liked the idea of doing what Prof. Arguelles did- get to a high level in Spanish and then spend something like 6 weeks somewhere like Ecuador, living in a home-stay and receiving intense 1-on-1 lessons at the same time. Maybe 1 day. I guess with this trip, I've got a lot of ground to cover in a short period of time, so I may not get the chance. I will be trying to learn as much as possible while I'm over there though. I'm guessing theres going to be less English spoken than in Spain, so I'm going to HAVE to speak as much as possible. I think my Spanish study NEEDS something like this at the moment. There aren't many native speakers around here, and skype wont work on any of my devices. I think theres only really a certain point you can get to in language study without speaking regularly. At the minute it feels like I could do drills and shadow to kingdom come, and not get much more tangible benefit. Passive skills of course could always be improved. I will definitely be updating my log while I am away. I want to get as much out of the trip as possible, then when I get back see how things stand and what I can do to take things to the next level. Edited by dbag on 24 August 2012 at 12:37am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5175 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 149 of 271 26 August 2012 at 2:01am | IP Logged | ||
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When I went to the Dominican Republic I was very surprised at how productive my one on one lessons were. I also absolutely LOVED the homestay I did with a local family. I still keep in touch with the family on skype and I will never forget the cooking. Even if it is for just a week or two, I would think doing a homestay and classes would be a great thing to do. If you surf around on the web you can find schools with homestays in South America quite cheap. In fact, with three meals included a homestay could easily be the cheapest route to go. I have sometimes thought it would be cool to just bounce place to place doing a one week homestay/course in a different place each week. Unfortunately, I will never be able to take more than two weeks of vacation at one time.
I am glad to hear you will be updating your log. I am interested to hear how you like that part of South America. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5583 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 150 of 271 31 August 2012 at 1:37am | IP Logged | ||
What podcast is that? Edit: in order not to further hijack this log I'll express my thanks to tibbles for his answer below in this edit: cheers. Edited by Random review on 02 September 2012 at 5:51am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4991 days ago 245 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 151 of 271 31 August 2012 at 9:00am | IP Logged | ||
It's called PuroMac. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4822 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 152 of 271 09 September 2012 at 2:47am | IP Logged | ||
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I have just had my copy of "Using Spanish" repaired. I don't know if I mentioned
before, but my copy was in a terrible state and I hardly dared open it, for fear that it would fall apart. The book is damn hard to track down as well, I had to have mine shipped from America at a cost of £30 + postage for the book only. Apparently the problem was that it was bound too tight. So I sucked up the expense and spent £8 having the thing repaired. Its great, now I can use it properly! I think you need to carry an Assimil book around with you a little, really make it a part of your life. I am absolutely enamored with Assimil as a method and as a company. I just love the look and feel of Assimil courses, and it is a really , really effective method for learning a lot in a short period of time. I will definitely be working through several Assimil courses in the future, just for the fun of it and to see how other languages work. I won't be participating in the "Assimil challenge" though, I really feel that Spanish deserves at least another year of my full attentions. I have been buying up Linguaphone courses just in case though, and have recently bought 2 french courses, a German and a portugese. I have also bought the arabic course cheap on Ebay, although for some reason the payment hasn't processed. I certainly don't plan on thoroughly learning all these! But I think I want Spanish to be my serious language, something I'm nearly bilingual in, and after that point playing with a few different languages as a semi-serious hobby. I have never really understood why people give up with Assimil, you really couldn't ask for a lower hassle method of study. In fact, at its best I think it shouldn't really be like "study" at all, and I think that "studying" a language is perhaps a concept people should let go off. I have found that learning Spanish has been more about making lifestyle changes, and making a habit of fun and productive activities. I really believe that learning a language is such a big task, that if you don't really enjoy what your doing, then you are doomed to failure unless someone is forcing you. Edited by dbag on 09 September 2012 at 2:48am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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