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Book(s) for teaching/learning Spanish

  Tags: Textbooks | Spanish
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
17 messages over 3 pages: 13  Next >>
Chicken_Monster
Newbie
United States
Joined 3584 days ago

26 posts - 27 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 9 of 17
07 August 2014 at 4:33am | IP Logged 
BTW, where do you read and post these learning logs? I may consider that, but my time is limited.
However, years ago I started a blog and a lot of yahoos would make stoopid comments such as Please
stop. please. This blog sucks. etc. Maybe it will be better on this site. My initial question still stands,
however. I am afraid it will be lost in all the gibber jabber though.


1 person has voted this message useful



Speakeasy
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 3847 days ago

507 posts - 1098 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 10 of 17
07 August 2014 at 3:11pm | IP Logged 
PLEASE DON’T FEED THE TROLLS

I first noticed Chicken Monster’s superficially innocuous posts a few days ago. To me, even the first post was immediately suspicious. However, I decided not to comment. Then, the posts started to form a familiar pattern, one that has been increasingly observed in online chat rooms, in forums and blogs, in the comment sections of newspapers and the like. The primary actor in these cases is commonly referred to as an Internet TROLL.

While definitions abound, I have cobbled together a brief description, drawn from Wikipedia and other sources: a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community. Some readers may characterize a post as trolling, while others may regard the same post as a legitimate contribution to the discussion, even if controversial. Two studies published in 2013 and 2014 have found that people who are identified as trolls tend to have dark personality traits and show signs of sadism, antisocial behavior, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. The studies concluded that trolling appears "to be an Internet manifestation of everyday sadism."

It seems to me that, in this case, the primary actor has forged questions that are designed to invite opposing opinions, that he will challenge endlessly, and to provoke fruitless debate. Chicken Monster does not want information on language-learning methods, recommendations for the best materials, or anything else that most forum members would be pleased to share. He wants to have FUN! And, when “called out” by Stelle, James29, and Iguanamon, he quickly assumed the role of the very reasonable, but sadly misunderstood, misjudged, aggrieved and harshly-treated victim who, regrettably, must now “retaliate” with more posts. My advice would be IGNORE him. He may very well desist and reappear under a new name. In the meantime, PLEASE DON’T FEED THE TROLLS.



Edited by Speakeasy on 07 August 2014 at 4:12pm

6 persons have voted this message useful



AlexTG
Diglot
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 4433 days ago

178 posts - 354 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 11 of 17
07 August 2014 at 4:50pm | IP Logged 
I think it's far too early to call this a troll. Let's assume good faith, not everyone
is hip to correct forum etiquette.

Chicken, it's more common to spread these sorts of basic questions over a single
thread. If you had just a single thread (use this one since we're all already here
asking) which described your goals, preferred learning
methods, what resources you've already used etc, people could give better advice on
your individual questions.

For generic stuff like "what is the best..." it's better to just search the forum using
google site search.

Really useful is doing a search for a specific resource to find out more about it. If
there's a resource that's not got a thread yet, then by golly, give us that thread.
(you won't find such a resource)

Edited by AlexTG on 07 August 2014 at 4:58pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



Doitsujin
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5115 days ago

1256 posts - 2363 votes 
Speaks: German*, English

 
 Message 12 of 17
07 August 2014 at 5:26pm | IP Logged 
AlexTG wrote:
I think it's far too early to call this a troll. Let's assume good faith, not everyone is hip to correct forum etiquette.

I agree, it's more likely that Chicken Monster is a maximizer.
1 person has voted this message useful



Chicken_Monster
Newbie
United States
Joined 3584 days ago

26 posts - 27 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 13 of 17
07 August 2014 at 5:33pm | IP Logged 
I'm certainly not a troll. I'm asking what I believe to be legitimate questions related to language learning. I
believe that is the purpose of this site. I am going to continue asking questions, if I have them. If people
don't like the question or don't have an answer, they are free to move on without comment. Thanks for
your attention to this.

1 person has voted this message useful



Speakeasy
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 3847 days ago

507 posts - 1098 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 14 of 17
07 August 2014 at 5:38pm | IP Logged 
Alex, you are generous to a fault. I believe that I have already made the acquaintance of Chicken Monster in another forum ... his writing style is encoded in his DNA.   All the same, you're welcome to your opinion and, while I do not wish to debate your assumption of good faith, I would suggest a quick reading of The Scorpion and the Frog

Edited by Speakeasy on 07 August 2014 at 6:00pm

2 persons have voted this message useful





emk
Diglot
Moderator
United States
Joined 5327 days ago

2615 posts - 8806 votes 
Speaks: English*, FrenchB2
Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 15 of 17
07 August 2014 at 10:55pm | IP Logged 
Speakeasy, if you have outside knowledge, please share it with me or another moderator via PM. Otherwise, please assume good will until doing so becomes clearly implausible. Thank you.

Chicken_Monster wrote:
I am going to continue asking questions, if I have them. If people don't like the question or don't have an answer, they are free to move on without comment.

As Stelle very gently pointed out, you've started over half-a-dozen nearly identical threads, asking slight variations of the question, "What's the best resource of type X for learning Spanish?"

This is annoying people for two reasons:

- Posting lots of highly similar threads is rude, and it wastes everybody's time.
- Searching for the "perfect" resource is a well-known form of procrastination, and it will not help you.

If you feel you must keep asking these questions, please confine them to a single thread in the Advice Center. (Just to be clear, this is an official moderator request.)

If you want to learn Spanish, then just go ahead and pick any halfway decent course, and work hard on it for the next month. Good choices include Assimil, Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, FSI and Destinos, but really, some very impressive polyglots just grab the first tourist phrasebook they find and go with it.
7 persons have voted this message useful



Chicken_Monster
Newbie
United States
Joined 3584 days ago

26 posts - 27 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 16 of 17
08 August 2014 at 1:23am | IP Logged 
emk wrote:
Speakeasy, if you have outside knowledge, please share it with me or another moderator
via PM. Otherwise, please assume good will until doing so becomes clearly implausible. Thank you.

Chicken_Monster wrote:
I am going to continue asking questions, if I have them. If people don't like
the question or don't have an answer, they are free to move on without comment.

As Stelle very gently pointed out, you've started over half-a-dozen nearly identical threads, asking
slight variations of the question, "What's the best resource of type X for learning Spanish?"

This is annoying people for two reasons:

- Posting lots of highly similar threads is rude, and it wastes everybody's time.
- Searching for the "perfect" resource is a well-known form of procrastination, and it will not help you.

If you feel you must keep asking these questions, please confine them to a single thread in the
Advice Center. (Just to be clear, this is an official moderator request.)

If you want to learn Spanish, then just go ahead and pick any halfway decent course, and work hard on
it for the next month. Good choices include Assimil, Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, FSI and Destinos, but
really, some very impressive polyglots just grab the first tourist phrasebook they find and go with it.


No problem. This newbie has nothing but good will. I do feel that there were unwarranted attacks made
against me (primarily by Speakeasy -- others have been pretty nice and helpful for the most part). I
haven't attacked anyone, and Speakeasy has not encountered me in another forum. If he says otherwise,
please let me know.

I'll try to ask question(s) similar to the ones people are complaining about in the Advice Center in a
thread or threads (depending), per official moderator request. You run the site so I will abide by your
rules. I did ask some similar questions that contained some differences. However, I do think the
accusations of my being a troll (with a wikipedia entry), etc., are melodramatic, rude, out-of-line, a
waste of time, and were instantiated in an attempt to lure me into an argument. Thanks for trying to be
fair and put an end to this.





1 person has voted this message useful



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