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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4464 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 344 11 February 2014 at 4:36pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for that. I have downloaded the PDF for the Basic Spanish FSI and will give it a look.
Yesterday was an ok day in Spanish. I was able to practice simple words/ phrases with my wife for about 20 minutes. I listened to one half of her phone conversation with her mother on the phone for a few minutes. No Assimil today as work caused me to run out of time. I did spend one hour with ANKI and now have 4 decks I am working through. It remains the same though. Three decks are either simple words or pictures and they are easy to work through. However my "El Monstruo" deck makes me feel stretched to say the least. I do feel like I am getting the most out of it in the long run. I worry about the information being only short term and much to my surprise when it throws a phrase in from several lessons ago, I know all of it or the vast majority of it. I look forward to today. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4464 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 344 12 February 2014 at 5:22pm | IP Logged |
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I did the same as usual but added a couple of episodes of Destinos. I liked it very much and can see how the process will help me. Anki continues to be my favorite tool. I went for a walk and listened to the FSI drills and repeated them during the walk. I was enjoying the looks given to me by others. They figured out very quickly what I was doing.
I am very happy with the direction of my studies and look forward to learning something every day. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4464 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 344 13 February 2014 at 4:55pm | IP Logged |
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Assimil again today with a short burst (20 minutes or so) of ANKI. I have placed things around me at work such as Margarita Madrigal's "See It and Say it in Spanish" and also my Assimil book. Through the day I try to steal 5 minutes here and ten minutes there with my books.
While driving, I am listening to my Assimil lessons. This morning I listened to lessons 19 -22. Some of the vocabulary is beyond me. I long for the day of being able to read, speak and think in Spanish. I read a post by Iverson yesterday that got me thinking about translating. I find that it is my nature to hear the word, then make myself mentally see the word written in Spanish and then I translate the word mentally into English. It really is tiresome. I want to stop this and just hear the word understand and move on. Should I attach the words to images? How do you keep from translating everything or does it just change when you acquire a very large vocabulary?? As always, any help or criticism would be appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7044 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 12 of 344 13 February 2014 at 6:36pm | IP Logged |
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Well, some of that goes away when you speed it up. You just can't keep translating and
keep up. Since you've read Iverson's posts, look closer at the "bloodhound" listening. Don't try to hear the words at first, just try to hear the sounds. I'll pick places that are opaque and play them until I hear that one piece, and if I still can't do it I'll cheat and look. My experience is that if I listen to something I could read, it takes about 5 days (about an hour a day) to understand a dialogue from, for example, FSI. I don't know if I'm still "translating" at that point, but it's fast enough to not matter. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4464 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 344 14 February 2014 at 5:45pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks ElComadreja. I will look at the Bloodhound Listening.
Another good day. Spent a few minutes with Madrigals Magi Key to Spanish and I like the way things are explained. I should get a lot out of this book. I spent 15 minutes speaking with my wife in Spanish. Having her help me with some sentences and trying to produce some of the language. Reading something is easier than Listening and then producing. I am trying something different with Assimil. I have a desire to translate and I went back last night and did the ACTIVE phase of the first three lessons. Today I will complete 4-6 while continuing the passive portion. Actually, I think I want to do just one day off. Meaning that if today is lesson 10 passive, then I want to do lesson 9 Active. We will see how it goes. It "feels" better to me than just doing the passive lesson alone. Mi suegra y mi cunada vienen a visitar a mi familia este fin de semana. (I know I probably said that wrong). Muchos tiempos para a practicar mi espanol el fin de semana. Gracias por la ayuda! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5671 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 14 of 344 14 February 2014 at 6:54pm | IP Logged |
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Your first sentence is just fine, just the ñ is missing in cuñada. The second sentence, maybe "muchas oportunidades" and "para practicar". Or just "mucho tiempo". Great work!
As ElComadreja said, when you get more comfortable with the language you just naturally don't have to think as much about it. You'll get to a point where everything just stays in Spanish, it comes in as Spanish, you process it as Spanish, and you respond in Spanish. I found it was also easier to understand when my vocabulary was larger, when you don't have to spend so much time trying to recognize the words or pick out certain words from a sea of words you don't know, you have more time to process what you hear. Instead of "Ok, what did i hear? Oh yeah, hablo. Hablo, I speak, right, next word..." it turns into "Hablo, de hablar, ok.." and eventually just into "Hablo". 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4464 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 15 of 344 14 February 2014 at 8:54pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks Crush. You nailed it as far as what is going on inside my head with:
"Ok, what did i hear? Oh yeah, hablo. Hablo, I speak, right, next word..." I will keep moving along. Also, I knew that "cunada" had the ~ but for the life of me, I HAVE NO IDEA where it is or how to do it on my keyboard??????? Thanks again. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5671 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 16 of 344 14 February 2014 at 10:53pm | IP Logged |
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I personally use a Spanish keyboard layout as i got used to it when i was in Spain. Not all of the keys match up, for example the semi-colon is actually the ñ, ] is the + key, etc. While it's definitely much more convenient for typing Spanish (and French, Catalan, German, etc.), if you have to look at your keyboard while you type it's probably not the best choice. I don't know what OS you use, assuming it's Windows, you might try using the English International keyboard layout. It uses what are called "dead keys", essentially to type an accent over a letter you would first press the apostrophe key followed by the letter. So ' + a = á. To get the ñ, you would press the ~ key (usually you'd have to press [Shift] + [`], that key in the upper left of your keyboard). You can also use the right [alt] key (the one to the right of the space bar) to get accents. It's probably more convenient for the ñ, but i use the Spanish layout so i'm more used to using the apostrophe method.
Also, when you start to get a bit more vocabulary, i do recommend trying Iversen's listening technique as ElComadreja recommends. It focuses more on sounds than words, ie not trying to understand meaning but rather trying simply to listen and make out syllables. At first you don't understand anything but soon you realize you can make out tons of words, even ones you don't know. You might not know what the sentence means, but it becomes much easier to listen to actual native speakers. I was really surprised the first time i tried it when i was studying Spanish :) Anyway, keep it up! It sounds like you've already got a nice foundation, probably much better than you think! EDIT: I'm watching this thread, so feel free to post/ask if you have any questions. Edited by Crush on 14 February 2014 at 10:54pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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