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¡Gracias guapa! (TAC 2013) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ninska Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 4439 days ago 20 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Spanish Studies: Catalan | Message 1 of 20 17 December 2012 at 7:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So this will be my TAC 2013 log for Spanish. I really hope that at some point I would have time also for Català, but we will see about that later. As there seems to be 2 weeks until the official start of the challenge, I will try to write something about myself and get the content of my head organized somehow. I think it is a nice soft start for having learning log. I am kind of shy or “slow to warm up” (It took me 81 days after registering to this forum to write my first post and even then, I prefer staying in my own log instead of writing “in public”).
I have been living in Barcelona since August. Obviously, it should be pretty easy to pick up Spanish while living in here, but it is not, really. The main reason for me to have problems is that I do not have enough connections to Spanish language. I have Finnish husband, I work in English/Finnish/(Swedish), I study in English and my 4-years-old daughter goes to school in Catalan.. No Spanish anywhere. Another huge problem is time. Of course I know I am not always using my time as effectively as I could, but then again, I also think I deserve to have a break sometimes. I work full time, I study professional qualification and have 2 kids (2y4m old son and 4y7m old daughter). It is hard to find enough time for language studies. This is also why I have not started with Catalan even though I would love to learn it and it would be very useful in my daily life. I have no idea, what is my current level in Spanish. Sometimes, mostly when reading, I think I know quite a bit. But then it comes to speaking and I just feel myself an idiot. Probably my level is somewhere around A2..? I went through all the paperwork and bureaucracy, I even got my car registered here, all in Spanish. I listened Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal and followed easily. I understand some articles from newspapers, but not all of them, it depends on subject. I understand pretty much at work when people are talking to each other in Spanish. But I cannot speak too much myself. My TAC 2013 target is to be fluent enough to be able to read and speak freely and spontaneously. Edit. I added Catalan, this is my TAC 2013 log for both Spanish and Catalan. I start Catalan pretty much from zero, so it is really hard to say, how long will I get during 2013. Hopefully I can at least manage daily things also in Catalan by the end of the year. METHODS & MATERIALS Reading & Listening (es, cat) In all possible forms; Intensive reading, extensive reading, reading aloud, listening audiobooks, listening and reading simultaneously. I have only a few hundred meters to the nearest library. I can also use all the other BCN libraries or get their materials delivered to my home library. So I have more books available in my TLs than one can read in a lifetime. The problem is that, I have no access to my native materials :D I would love to try “the official L-R method”, but I lack my native materials. For some reason, I do not like using English in learning other languages. Maybe the antipathy is because I associate English to my “real studies” and work environment, but whatever the reason is, I hope to keep English as minimum as possible and get as far as possible by using only TL materials. Assimil (es, cat) I happened to find "Catalán sin esfuerzo" and "Using Spanish" in library, so of course I took them both. I will try to have Catalan in the evenings and Spanish in the mornings. Catalan might be a bit difficult to go through in Spanish, but then again; "nothing ventured, nothing gained". It does not cost me anything to try :) Shadowing (cat) In Catalan, there are many sounds I have never needed or used before, so I think it is better to pay enough attention in pronunciation already in the beginning. Language classes (es) One hour, twice a week, at lunch time. This is provided by my employer and mostly we have been going through loads and loads of grammar, but sometimes we also chat a while or write compositions as homework. Parla.cat (cat) Free online courses and other materials for Catalan students. You can also pay for tutor, but I do not see the point, because there is “voluntary language help” –Scheme available in all towns so you can have native person voluntary helping you. (There are also Easy Reading Clubs and Conversation Groups in Catalan. They are really encouraging people to use and study Catalan in Catalunya. I will check these out, if ever getting good enough in Cat to speak with someone.) Other input/output (es, cat) Radio, newspapers, fairytale/singing hours in library (kids are perfect excuse). I will also try to start using bits of es and/or cat at work and write some short texts on my own, even when not forced to do so by my Spanish teacher. I have account in Lang8 but I have never used it so far. I will also try to update my log sometimes in Spanish. I know my writing is not good, sometimes probably even not understandable, but I have the (Finnish?) shy and perfectionist attitude in using the languages I am studying and I really believe that any kind of output will help me to free my mental blocks. (Half) SUPER CHALLENGE (es) I registered to Half Super Challenge with only books. I have read already one, so I have only 99 books (or 9900 pages) to go. In order to keep record of what I am doing, I will start a book list. Unfortunately I did not realize to post a few starting posts, I think the reading list I will update in some later posts. Otherwise this first post gets reeeeeally long. (I should also have marked the "original" starting post somehow . I don't want to delete anything, but I suppose this post starts already look like I have bibolar disorder.) Edited by ninska on 04 January 2013 at 5:21pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4679 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 2 of 20 17 December 2012 at 10:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Wow, si trabajas, estudias y además tienes dos niños, es normal que tengas poco tiempo
para aprender idiomas. ¡Lo raro es que todavía te queden energías! ¡Ánimo! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ninska Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 4439 days ago 20 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Spanish Studies: Catalan | Message 3 of 20 18 December 2012 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Pues normalmente me encanta a estudiar y trabajar, pero claro que a veces estoy muy cansada con todos mis asuntos. También estoy pensando si sería más efectivo a estudiar solo una cosa en tiempo, pero bueno, vivo en España y tengo que aprender el idioma. Y porque quiero mejor trabajo (y mejor sueldo), tengo que estudiar también buen titulo..
I have been thinking about the log and realized that I have no idea, what kind of posts should I write here. I will probably have to take a look at old TAC logs and do some planning for next year. Hopefully at some point I can look back and see some progress. It feels important for me to see that I am getting somewhere. That is the nice point when studying a qualification; the goal and the progress is so easy to measure, while in language studies development is more difficult to see and you will never be really finished. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ninska Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 4439 days ago 20 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Spanish Studies: Catalan | Message 4 of 20 20 December 2012 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ahora me voy a biblioteca a ver si hay algo para leer en Navidad :)
El Tió cagaba hoy en la escuela de mi hija. Ella recibió una muñeca de papel princesa muy chula. (Pero para mí "Caga Tió" es una tradición un poco extraña) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4679 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 5 of 20 20 December 2012 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
¿El cuento de Navidad de Auggie Wren? Ok, es una traducción, pero es un buen libro.
He tenido que buscar en Google qué era el "Caga Tió". En mi zona se llama Tronca (de Nadal). Esta tradición solamente se da en los territorios de la antigua Corona de Aragón, no en el resto de España ni, por supuesto, en Latinoamérica. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ninska Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 4439 days ago 20 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Spanish Studies: Catalan | Message 6 of 20 21 December 2012 at 6:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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Quique, si tu tuviste que buscar en Google, creo que puedes imaginar como estaba para mí a recibir la información de la escuela.. Nunca antes había oído de Tió y de repente tenía un mensaje de la escuela que los niños tienen que llevar pan duro y piel de frutas al cole para hacer Tió a cagar :D
Adémas, toda la comunicación desde el cole siempre está en catalán, y nunca puedo ser seguro sí he entendido correctamente. Con Tió Cagando (y con "Moniatos Decorats per Castanyada" también) estaba seguro que Google traductor me está engañando. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ninska Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 4439 days ago 20 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Spanish Studies: Catalan | Message 7 of 20 29 December 2012 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Es casi la hora para TAC a comenzar y todavía no tengo ni plano ni método. Creo que voy a empezar mi año leyendo. Ahora tengo algunos libros infantiles (para niños a partir de 9-12 años) en préstamo de biblioteca, pero espero que podré a cambiar a literatura juvenil y adulta casi pronto. Quizá que aún la próxima vez puedo tomar algo “más difícil”.
Ya he escuchado audiolibro de la primera parte de “El señor de los anillos” leyendo el texto simultáneamente y voy a continuar las otras dos partes igualmente. Lo he leído también en finlandés e inglés por lo que “entiendo” casi todo. Lo sé que tendría también intentar a hablar mucho, pero no sé si voy a tener tiempo a estar nada más social que hasta ahora, porque también tengo que continuar con mis estudios “reales”. Y me gusta tan mucho a leer que es un modo muy cómodo para mí a familiarizarme más con la lengua. Espero que sea más fácil a comenzar a hablar cuándo el conocimiento pasivo es mejor, pero creo que también es posible que nunca puedo hablar español, solo leer.. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ninska Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 4439 days ago 20 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Spanish Studies: Catalan | Message 8 of 20 31 December 2012 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I added Catalan.. No idea how to get started with it, it has been years since I started a new language from zero. I downloaded one audiollibre from library and started to listen it in car when driving to work. It is "Kafka i la nina que se'n va anar de viatge". I just read in Spanish, so I already know the story. I noticed that I am able to spot some words and sentences so I have a rough idea, what is happening. I will try to listen loads of Catalan to get familiar with its sounds. It will be more difficult to pronounce anyway than Spanish and even though I feel more surrounded by Catalan than Spanish now here in Catalunya, it is mostly written language I have been in contact with and I really feel lacking audio input.
On Wed or Thu I will go to library again to check Catalan materials and borrow some new books in Spanish also. I am so excited (and horrified) waiting for next year! :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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