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Bolio’s Spanish Log | ||
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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 49 of 344 25 March 2014 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Esta manana, yo tengo una cita con mi amigo. El es mi cliente tambien. Pero, espanol es su lengua primera. Mi amigo ayudarme con mi espanol. Escribo en espanol porque mi amigos nuevos, Crush y Nancy, me ha inspiro. Lo siento para mi mal escribe.
Sorry for the lack of accents but I cannot find my numeric key that enables me to write the appropriate letters. I will have it next time. P.S. I know I butchered it but please help with corrections. Thanks Edited by BOLIO on 25 March 2014 at 2:11pm 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 50 of 344 25 March 2014 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Esta manaña, yo tengo una cita con mi amigo. (Él) es mi cliente también. Pero, español es su lengua materna. Mi amigo me ayuda con mi español. Escribo en espanol porque mis nuevos amigos, Crush y Nancy, me han inspirado. Lo siento por mis errores.
¡Muy bien! Ahora algunas explicaciones: -¿Tienes una cita? o ¿tuviste una cita? "Esta mañana tengo una cita" quiere decir que todavía no has tenido esa cita. Está bien dicho, pero no sé si es lo que quisiste escribir. -Creo que se suele decir "lengua materna" en vez de "lengua primera", pero se entiende. -Cuando hablas de lo que hace tu amigo, tienes que conjugar el verbo para la tercera persona singular (para acordar con "mi amigo"), aquí: me ayuda -La verdad no sé por qué, pero a mí me suena mucho mejor "mis nuevos amigos" que "mis amigos nuevos" (y no te olvides de poner la "s" con "mi") -El pretérito perfecto se forma con el verbo "haber" conjugado más el participio pasado del verbo principal: (ellos) me han inspirado. -Se dice "lo siento POR algo" o "siento hacer algo" Ya lo haces muy bien, ¡ánimo! Y como PointsDotsLines mencionó en el log de Nancy, si quieres practicar escribiendo en castellano, puedes subir tus textos a lang-8 o italki donde hablantes nativos te corregirán los textos. Y, por supuesto, puedes seguir escribiendo en castellano aquí :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5181 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 51 of 344 25 March 2014 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hey Bolio. Nice log. I just skimmed through the whole thing. It sounds like you have been bitten by the same Spanish bug that I got bitten by.
Thanks again to Crush for posting how to write accents in the English-international keyboard. I have finally set up my computer to do it. I hope to read about your trips to Mexico. I have been looking at various spots in Mexico for a short trip. Did you really find that the resort was a decent place to practice Spanish? I have always assumed that resorts like that would be filled with English and very isolated from the "real" Mexico. I may actually be able to convince my wife to go to Mexico with me if we can stay at a place like that! I did not know there were so many former military types on this forum. I have the old DLI Spanish video course on VHS tapes. I only watched the first tape so I do not know how good it is... but it will definitely bring back military memories. It is taught by instructors in uniform and it is almost comical how military-ish they teach Spanish. One other thing... How much do you get to practice with your wife? I have always wondered how much of an advantage it really is to have a native speaking spouse. I get so jealous when I see logs of people with native speaking spouses. If my wife spoke Spanish I would drive her absolutely insane because I would talk with her in Spanish constantly. Actually, I do drive her insane because I speak Spanish to her all the time (and she has no clue what I am saying). The posters are right... just keep up the consistent work and you will get to your goal. It just happens. Enjoy the ride. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5068 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 52 of 344 25 March 2014 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Good advice from Crush and James29. I also believe that you will succeed.
The forum is a great place for advice and help with problems, but it's not a one-stop shop. HTLAL isn't really setup very well to offer corrections to learners. The text interface is clunky and it takes more effort to bold, add color and italicize words. The HTLAL text interface doesn't have the ability to put a line through a word or a letter. The lang8 text interface, however, is set up quite well for this. Besides the clunky text interface we have here, the nature of HTLAL doesn't jibe well for learners to receive corrections. The forum language is English, native TL speakers tend to have at a minimum, at least adequate English. Most have no desire or need for correction themselves. In addition to the time and effort involved, many second language speaker members just don't feel comfortable correcting learners. Sometimes, there may be no alternative when a native-speaker doesn't offer. A regular diet of postings on a site like lang8 can be quite effective for a learner. I think the key to that is cultivating a group of people who will provide useful and good corrections. I would start by doing a good job correcting Spanish-speaker's English by going beyond the minimum. The lang8 text correction interface is well designed. It makes it easy to correct a piece of writing, but don't just stop there. Try to provide explanations as to why the corrections were made that will be helpful to the Spanish-speaker. Those who are serious about improving will flock to your door and will generally reciprocate because you are providing them with value added. Lang8 postings, alongside your study, can be a huge boost in your learning and can lead to the opportunity for speaking exchanges outside the site, if you have a good group. After a while, when you reach an advanced level, the corrections from amateurs become less useful as the law of diminishing returns kicks in. Then the corrections start to become more of a style preference and have less to do with grammar and wrong word choice. That's when a good, private tutor works best. Edited by iguanamon on 25 March 2014 at 5:32pm 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 53 of 344 25 March 2014 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks Crush and for time I will respond in English: - Yes, I was saying "Esta mañana tengo una cita." I just returned from it in fact. It is interesting that when I read your"tuviste", this is a perfect example of a word that I immediately know what it means when I read it but would not be able to produce it. - I have never heard the term "lengua materna" but it does sound better. I will use it moving forward. - There are so many parts of the structure of Spanish I still do not understand but this is a big one for me. "Me ayuda vs ayudarme" will take much more practice. I still do not understand when and why. So, one is saying, "He/she/it helps me" (me ayuda) and the other is saying "Help me"????? - I should have put the s in MIS and I agree about which is more acceptable to my ear. - So we conjugate the Haber and have the "ado" for the action of the second verb. So If I were talking about just you, it would have been "me ha inspirado". Right? - I am still trying to come to the understanding of when to use PARA vs POR. Little things like this are very important to me and I know I will learn it over time. I want to be more than understood. I know that you and others have been where I am and with time and work I can get where you are now. Thanks so much. 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 54 of 344 25 March 2014 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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James,
As far as the resort and speaking Spanish, I was surprised how much the meseros would work with me in Spanish. There were several guest there who were wealthy Mexican Nationals and they only spoke Spanish to the staff of course. My wife never said a single word in English to any employee for the entire week. I was shocked. I will say this. Because I tried to speak Spanish and showed interest and my wife spoke only Spanish, we received better service than the others. Of this, I am convinced! When we left the resort, it was even better for Spanish. We got far enough from the beaten path that I never heard a single word in English that was not part of our extended group (about 8 of us). It was really nice. I was so upset years ago when I was denied twice from going to the language school. Now, I will complete it without getting up at 4am. :) Now as far as my wife. I drive her nuts. She really thought this time would be like many other times over the course of our marriage where I would study a few days and then I would let life get in the way. Not this time. I heard her tell a friend the other day that she believes that one day, in the not so distant future, that I will be able to speak Spanish better than her. She says that I will have a very nice accent and it will come across in a very professional manor...which is my ultimate goal. She does grow very weary of my drills and constant questions. She has no idea what preterite, imperfect or subjunctive is and has no desire to ever know. She, like most native speakers in any language, know if it sounds right or wrong. Once my Spanish increases to a certain level, where she is making slight adjustments to what I am saying vs filling in the gaps, answering very basic questions, etc.,I think it will be wonderful. I hope to make a huge jump in my abilities by the end of the year! I think you are right about it happening with steady work. I have established that I have zero "abilities" or "gifts" for picking up languages. And yet, I will be able to speak Spanish very well one day. And then, who knows, maybe French or Russian. My area has many people who speak both of these languages. Who knows? For now, all Spanish all the time. Thanks for your posts and log. They have helped me more than you know. 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 55 of 344 25 March 2014 at 6:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Iguanamon,
I will look into the Lang8 site. It seems like once a person gets to a certain point that it could expedite the learning process. It looks very interesting! I appreciate the fact that you list so many resources to this site concerning many things but reading and listening materials. I watch and listen to a station out of Spain in my office, telemadrid.es. It was mentioned among many links you provided. Thanks for that. 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 56 of 344 26 March 2014 at 1:52am | IP Logged | ||||||||
And i agree with Iguanamon that writing on lang-8 can be a great exercise. I've found that i tend to get quite a few corrections from people in my languages, but perhaps due to the number of people writing English entries, often times English learners won't get any corrections or will only get 1 correction (that is more of a comment, often from another English learner). So from time to time i like to look through my "friends" list and make sure they've got decent corrections to their entries. It's also nice to look back on later and embarrass yourself seeing all your mistakes. Also, if you didn't have a native speaker in your house, i'd suggest trying to find a conversation partner (it can take a while to find someone else who is serious about learning, but they are out there!). Still, if your wife gets tired of you speaking to her in Spanish, it might be something to consider. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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