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Kuji’s Krazy Log II

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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kraemder
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4944 days ago

1497 posts - 1648 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 337 of 706
01 December 2013 at 12:39am | IP Logged 
I was thinking the Portuguese you already know will serve you well.
That said I've been told Portuguese friends in the past that often
they understand Spanish but not the other way around. I guess
Spanish is easier? Anyway, enjoy your trip.

Edited by kraemder on 01 December 2013 at 10:15am

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Serpent
Octoglot
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Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
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Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
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 Message 338 of 706
01 December 2013 at 3:02am | IP Logged 
Well, it's easier to interpret puerta as porta than the opposite. And then there's also the Portuguese pronunciation of s and vowel reduction.

I think most of the time it's really due to exposure, though. Spanish is a bigger language, especially in Europe. As far as I understand, South Americans do a bit better, especially those living near Brazil.
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Expugnator
Hexaglot
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Brazil
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3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 339 of 706
01 December 2013 at 11:56am | IP Logged 
Iguanamon, it's café da manhã (morning) and not café *de amanhã, which would be tomorrow's coffee ;)
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iguanamon
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Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
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2237 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

 
 Message 340 of 706
01 December 2013 at 12:01pm | IP Logged 
Expugnator wrote:
Iguanamon, it's café da manhã (morning) and not café *de amanhã, which would be tomorrow's coffee ;)


Ooops, I'm so embarrassed, LOL!!! Corrected! Desculpe pelo erro. A culpada foi a falta de café naquela manhã! Obrigado como sempre, Expugnator.

Edited by iguanamon on 01 December 2013 at 12:23pm

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kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4607 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 341 of 706
02 December 2013 at 2:19am | IP Logged 
g-bod wrote:
Well...to a certain extent you've got a very genuine reason to flirt with Spanish for a few weeks. A trip to the country is the perfect reason to learn a language. Just keep it in context, limit your expectations to stuff that will be genuinely useful for your trip, and have fun!

iguanamon wrote:
Nothing wrong with trying some basic phrases. The mistake I see that a lot of people make with learning for traveling is trying to learn the whole language, starting at the beginning. That's a recipe for ending up with 10 languages under your name as "studies" and none under "speaks" except for English.

Yeah, that's the thing - resisting the urge to dive in and start learning the whole language in a month when I don't have to. It's quite crazy, and yet that is what I have to fight. Loving languages is a tough thing.

There is no shortage of websites online where I can get some handy Spanish travel phrases, so I'm planning to print some out or download them and make a PDF or EPUB. (The only problem would be distinguishing between Iberian and South American Spanish phrases.) Then I can study them at odd times during the next month, or at least on the flight over to Europe.

iguanamon wrote:
I think you may be surprised by how many Spanish people will understand a lot of what you'll say when you speak it. You will also be surprised at how much you will be able to understand yourself...
...speaking Portuguese, people may even think you're Brazilian, instead of just another gringo! It's not that big a leap from "café com leite" to "café con leche", "sem" to "sin", "sim" to "sí", "não" to "no", "sou" to "soy", "cerveja" to "cerveza". On the other hand, "frango" to "pollo", "peixe" to "pescado", "jantar" to "cenar", "café da manhã" to "desayuno" and "gosto de algo" to "me gusta algo" is a bigger leap and part of why they are two separate, though similar, languages.

Yep, they are definitely distinct languages, but I am amazed at how much I can pick up when I'm listening online to, say, a salsa radio station from Puerto Rico. I remember a handful of words from my high school Spanish classes, but I'm sure that most of what I could pick up is thanks to my Portuguese studies. It will be really interesting to see how that goes in Spain.
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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
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 Message 342 of 706
02 December 2013 at 3:10am | IP Logged 
In your situation, I don't think there's any need to worry about the Iberian/South American differences.
You can also get a phrasebook with audio, btw.
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kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
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1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 343 of 706
02 December 2013 at 3:17am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
You can also get a phrasebook with audio, btw.

That sounds good, but I'm not sure yet if I'm willing to pay the money for one for this trip. If it's free, by all means.

Yes, I am cheap. :)
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kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4607 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 344 of 706
02 December 2013 at 3:19am | IP Logged 
ANKI THOUGHTS
Some of you may remember that back in the summer, I had some frustration with Anki. Since then I have done some experimenting, tweaking and searching, and I believe I have found a routine that is effective for me and keeps me motivated to keep working with Anki. I'll list below some things I am doing in my Anki routine.

* First of all, I used to put all new words I came across into Anki. I read a lot of Anki-related websites, and many of them say something like, "When you do a lesson, read a book, watch a movie, etc., put all new words/phrases into Anki." NO, NO, NO! How crazy I was for even trying to do that. Basically, some words are seen and used more than others. When I put all the words I saw into Anki, I was giving them equal attention. So, "duck-billed platypus" got as much attention as "to talk", for example. No wonder it was boring. I was studying words that I hardly see in native material.

So now what I'm doing is being selective in what I put into Anki. Currently I'm using what I call the ABC system. I jot down unknown words in my notebook as I come across them. Later on, I look them up, then I determine if it is an "A" word, a "B" word, or a "C" word. "A" words are words that I feel I could put to use right away. "B" words are words that could be useful for me now, but I'm not totally sure. "C" words are words I don't need right now. All "C" words get immediately crossed out of my notebook.

During the week, I'll add up to 35 new words a week into Anki for each of my two decks. This will make 70 new cards for each deck each week, as I am doing recognition and cloze cards (although I'm seriously considering doing only cloze for Portuguese, since I already know how to read the alphabet). "A" words go into Anki first, up to 35. Then I don't add any more words that week. If all I have in my notebook are, say, 28 "A" words, then I'll look to my "stash" of "B" words for the remaining 7 Anki notes.

All "A" words will stay in my notebook until I put them into Anki. "B" words, however, have a "shelf life" of two weeks. If a "B" word has not been put into Anki after two weeks, I will erase it.

This system has been good for me, as it keeps a cap on the number of Anki cards I add, and it also filters out words that are unlikely to be useful to me right away, but it is not completely fail-proof. Whether a word is "A", "B" or "C" is often determined by the English translation. That is not always good. For example, the Japanese word for "infatuation" is used more often in Japanese than its counterpart is in English. (We would probably use "obsessed" or "really into" more often than "infatuated with".) So the ABC system is probably not the best system for me, but it is way better than what I was doing before, and I will continue to use it until I find a better way.

* I think it is important to constantly delete cards from my Anki decks, to keep them trim, neat, and interesting. If I answer a card, and I see that the next interval is going to be six months or more, I suspend it immediately. Later on, I'll look at my list of suspended cards. If any of those cards have a sibling card that is still in circulation, I'll leave it alone. (This is because you can't delete a single card from a note that has two or more cards. You can only delete the note and all cards with it.) Otherwise, I'll delete it.

Why six months? I figure that if I'm going to remember a card after six months, I probably don't need to keep it in Anki. If I forget it after six months, then I'm not seeing it often enough in my native material to keep it around. Plus, deleting a card is a great feeling. It gives me the sense of, "Hey, this card is D.O.N.E., man! I can move on to something else."

* I've set my leech threshold to 5. Leeches are treated the same as cards scheduled to be deleted.

* I do 10 new cards and 100 reviews daily per deck, except for my Kanji deck with is 5/20. But I do make the limit lower during busy times at the school where I work. (I never make it higher than that.)


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