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Stelle Speaks Spanish and Tagalog

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Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3903 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 89 of 384
04 October 2013 at 11:14pm | IP Logged 
I just finished unit 13 of FSI.

John White is kind of a jerk. I roll my eyes every time they mention his "gordita" (translation: "little chubby girl"). And
now he's wanting to meet that hot secretary - but shhhh! Here comes the gordita! We don't want her to know that
he's planning on meeting another girl!

Meh.

I'm somewhat amused by the blatant 1960s sexism, but I hope they'll move on to a new storyline soon - because
the thought of countless more hours with that frat-boy-slash-diplomat isn't all that appealing.
3 persons have voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3903 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 90 of 384
04 October 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged 
I've been working a lot. I'm currently contracted for 35 contact hours per week at my teaching job - and any
teachers out there know that 35 contact hours means multiple additional hours spent in preparation, assessment
and feedback. On top of that, I have several private students, both face-to-face and over Skype.

It's a lot!

I'm still managing to spend at least an hour and a half on Spanish every day. Between 30 minutes of podcasts
during my commute and 45 minutes of FSI during my daily walk, I'm already up to a little over an hour. It's pretty
easy to bump that up to 90 or 120 minutes with nightly reading, anki practice, and infrequent grammar study.

Unfortunately, I'm spending way less time in conversation. While in the summer I spent between 60 and 90
minutes talking to native speakers every day, now I'm spending less than two hours per week. It's not enough.
But with my schedule right now, it's all that I can manage. I hope that I'll continue to progress despite my lack of
speaking practice.

Edited by Stelle on 04 October 2013 at 11:25pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3903 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 91 of 384
07 October 2013 at 10:42pm | IP Logged 
I finished watching Desaparecida this weekend.

Missing / Desaparecida

It was a great show!

While I started out tandem watching - watching a scene with subtitles and then without - I got a bit impatient
with the process because I got sucked into the story and wanted to know what happened next. I ended up leaving
the subtitles on and making a concerted effort not to read them unless I didn't understand.

I think that by leaving the subtitles on all the time, I'm missing out on an opportunity for simulated immersion.
I'm going to start a new show next weekend, except that I'll leave the subtitles off completely and only rewatch a
scene with subtitles if I get completely lost.
1 person has voted this message useful



Juаn
Senior Member
Colombia
Joined 5104 days ago

727 posts - 1830 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*

 
 Message 92 of 384
07 October 2013 at 10:59pm | IP Logged 
Stelle wrote:
I finished watching Desaparecida this weekend.

Missing / Desaparecida

It was a great show!

While I started out tandem watching - watching a scene with subtitles and then without - I got a bit impatient
with the process because I got sucked into the story and wanted to know what happened next. I ended up leaving
the subtitles on and making a concerted effort not to read them unless I didn't understand.

I think that by leaving the subtitles on all the time, I'm missing out on an opportunity for simulated immersion.
I'm going to start a new show next weekend, except that I'll leave the subtitles off completely and only rewatch a
scene with subtitles if I get completely lost.


Don't obsess over subtitles. When I got cable TV in the 90's and first watched English-language shows like Mad about You and Seinfeld I relied on subtitles for understanding most of the dialogue. Learning English was the last thing on my mind; what interested me was watching the shows. After about a year and through no deliberate effort of my own I found myself irritated at being unable to turn them off as by then I no longer needed them and found them distracting.

If you find you understand and better enjoy TV programs with subtitles on, don't renounce them.

Mucha suerte con los estudios.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3903 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 93 of 384
07 October 2013 at 11:59pm | IP Logged 
Juаn wrote:


If you find you understand and better enjoy TV programs with subtitles on, don't renounce them.

Mucha suerte con los estudios.


Gracias Juan! I think I'll try without just to see, and if I don't understand, then you're right - there's nothing
wrong with subtitles!
1 person has voted this message useful



sctroyenne
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5150 days ago

739 posts - 1312 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Spanish, Irish

 
 Message 94 of 384
08 October 2013 at 12:53am | IP Logged 
Stelle wrote:
I just finished unit 13 of FSI.

John White is kind of a jerk. I roll my eyes every time they mention his "gordita"
(translation: "little chubby girl"). And
now he's wanting to meet that hot secretary - but shhhh! Here comes the gordita! We
don't want her to know that
he's planning on meeting another girl!

Meh.

I'm somewhat amused by the blatant 1960s sexism, but I hope they'll move on to a new
storyline soon - because
the thought of countless more hours with that frat-boy-slash-diplomat isn't all that
appealing.


This lesson stuck out for me as well. I feel sorry for any women who managed to get
themselves in a position where they'd need an FSI course only to have to learn Spanish
locker room talk.
3 persons have voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3903 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 95 of 384
08 October 2013 at 12:16pm | IP Logged 
sctroyenne wrote:


This lesson stuck out for me as well. I feel sorry for any women who managed to get
themselves in a position where they'd need an FSI course only to have to learn Spanish
locker room talk.


Seriously. I wondered why no one's ever mentioned the sexism in any of the FSI Spanish reviews that I've read.
Considering the era, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.

I'm on lesson 15 now, and I'm glad to see that Señor White isn't in it at all. Of course, direct and indirect objects are.
It's a trade-off. And given the choice, I guess I'd take the pronouns over the jerk.

Edited by Stelle on 08 October 2013 at 12:17pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Stelle
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
tobefluent.com
Joined 3903 days ago

949 posts - 1686 votes 
Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 96 of 384
13 October 2013 at 12:09am | IP Logged 
Things are buzzing along. I've almost finished Las Brujas, by Roald Dahl - my fourth Spanish children's novel, and
the first one that I hadn't read in English first. Next on my list is The BFG, also by Dahl. After I finish that novel,
I'll have to make a decision: either start the Harry Potter series, or else try my hand at some "grown-up books". I
have Como Agua Para Chocolate by Esquivel, and La Casa de los Espiritus by Allende.

I finished unit 17 of FSI Basic Spanish. I still haven't decided whether or not it's all that helpful. Still, it's "free"
Spanish, since I do it during my daily walk. I'll keep working through the units for now, repeating when necessary.

For the past few weeks, I've managed two hour-long tutoring sessions per week, and one or two 50/50 language
exchanges. Some of my language exchanges are starting to get a bit stagnant - we tend to talk about the same
things, over and over again. I have to find some ways to add a bit of life into our conversations.

I've been neglecting grammar. My time is kind of limited right now, and I'd rather read or talk over Skype than
open my grammar workbook. I'm starting to feel a gap in communication, though, because I don't know the
subjunctive yet. That's a sign that I should set some time aside to learn it.

With all of the time that I've been pouring into Spanish over the past few months, I feel that I'm really neglecting
my own languages. I love to read, but I haven't read very many English books lately. And I haven't read French
novels in *years*. I honestly don't even know any present-day French Canadian novelists - which is awful, seeing
as how I teach French. I think that I need to set aside some time every day to read in all three of my languages
- English, French and Spanish. Even 20 minutes per language per day will give me a better rounded reading
experience.

I started tonight with MaddAdam, the latest Margaret Atwood book. And next week I'm going to hit the French
library in town and see what looks interesting.



Edited by Stelle on 13 October 2013 at 12:12am



1 person has voted this message useful



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