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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4819 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 65 of 83 09 May 2015 at 7:09pm | IP Logged |
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If you keep doing FSI on workdays, it is still lots of time and you are sure to get to
the end. And when you're there, you'll get a htlal log version of fireworks here! There is nothing wrong in trying books that are supposedly too hard for you. I'd say an interesting (for you) and too hard book beats an easier yet less interesting most times. If you make larger jumps in level between your books, you will always have a bit harder time during the first few dozens pages but you'll improve faster as well, in my opinion. And there is so much original Spanish literature to choose from! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4575 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 66 of 83 12 May 2015 at 12:31am | IP Logged |
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I've started Unit 34. The past few Units have seemed easier; I understand there are some really hard ones coming in the IV book, but so far, so good.
I found the por/para through/to distinction to be useful to get a handle on these similar words. For me, knowing the grammar can be a confidence builder, even if I know that the rule has exceptions. It's better to have a rule that I know works 90% of the time than to simply know that something is complicated and that I may get it wrong. I feel similarly about the dIONza lonersMA rule for gender in Spanish; there are many exceptions, but dionza/lonersma will make you right 90% of the time. I've been reading some subtitle files lately; it can be difficult to follow what is going on in a movie without the visual cues, but if you are already familiar with the film, it's pretty easy. Subtitle files tend to be very simple Spanish, and they use the usual spoken tenses. With opensubtitles.com, it is pretty straightforward to assemble a set of subtitles from your favorite movies. With a little text editor editing, openoffice calc, and google translate, you can quickly assemble a bilingual text if you like. I may shadow some of this later when I'm done with FSI. I read some of _Detectives Salvajes and was shocked to find that it was a pretty easy read, at least at the surface level. It is full on, high powered literature, so there are probably many aspects of the book that I would miss. Maybe I'll give it a try. I fed the top 6 books from Semana's "best Spanish novels of the past 25 years" list through some simple text complexity software, and Detectives came out as easiest. Detectives is a pretty crazy book, however. Edited by sfuqua on 12 May 2015 at 12:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Clarity Groupie United States Joined 3332 days ago 85 posts - 107 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 67 of 83 12 May 2015 at 1:50am | IP Logged |
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I'm glad to hear that they're going to be going into the por/para distinction more thoroughly! I still muck it up all the time! Also, Detectives Salvajes sounds like a good book for a beginner. And what a great idea to put it through text complexity software. That probably saved you a lot of trouble.
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| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4575 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 68 of 83 28 May 2015 at 6:17am | IP Logged |
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Well, I'm going to start unit 37 tomorrow. I've been moving along through missing a day or two along the way, but trying to keep moving forward.
I've had a couple of times where FSI lessons have had immediate effect. I think I understand why. Like many people who don't practice speaking their language every day, my passive skills are ahead of my active skills. Like any language, there are some features of Spanish where two tenses (or more) map into one tense in English. Depending on the exact meaning there are several Spanish tenses that can map into the past tense in English. If you are just trying to understand the gist of Spanish, you can ignore the real semantic differences in these Spanish tenses. After doing FSI drills, the differences become salient, and all of a sudden you see these difference everywhere, and the meanings of sentences become much clearer. I'm also experiencing steady improvement in my general Spanish. I took one of the online placement tests, and I scored a B1. I take this result more seriously than I take the usual bogus online test, since the test is actually used for placement into a program for cefr tests. It had a grammar section, a reading section, and a listening section. I'll find the link somewhere... I think I still make way too many mistakes when I speak Spanish and that my use of the subjunctive is so often wrong that I sound like and idiot frequently. I hope that the rest of the FSI course will help me get more of these tenses under accurate control. I had to use my Spanish at a formal meeting with a parent at my school the other day, and I survived. I think that I did OK because because the people were nice, but the non Spanish speakers at the meeting thought I was great. People who don't speak a language can be impressed by fluency, even if your accuracy stinks. I just have to take a trip to a Spanish speaking country this summer... Our trip to the Philippines this summer has fallen through, so there may be time and money... Edited by sfuqua on 28 May 2015 at 6:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Clarity Groupie United States Joined 3332 days ago 85 posts - 107 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 69 of 83 31 May 2015 at 6:15am | IP Logged |
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It's funny that you mention how the non-Spanish speakers were impressed. I don't speak that well at all but I have to correct people around me when they say I speak Spanish fluently. (I've had co-workers ask me to translate at meetings.) Intermediate must look pretty good from the outside. ;)
Looking forward to your post about your summer plans! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4575 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 70 of 83 09 June 2015 at 12:39am | IP Logged |
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My schedule is getting hectic just before summer vacation here in California. I kept getting my FSI squeezed out by other things. I am not finished with Unit 37 yet, maybe in the next couple of days. This unit covers the subjunctive, something I really lack automaticity in.
I have been getting in some extensive reading. Maybe because of the hour or so of reading I'm going each day, my reading comprehension is improving very rapidly. It is very satisfying. One thing about extensive reading that bugs me is passing over the words I don't know without looking them up. I've experimented with _Detectives Salvajes_ and I find that looking up every word doesn't really improve my global comprehension. In fact I think I comprehend better when I just keep going. I suppose I should just continue reading and hope that I will eventually know all the words. That must be how I learned most of my English vocabulary. It still feels wrong to pass over an unknown word. I'm going to really concentrate on finishing FSI over the next 10 weeks. I can't wait until extensive reading and studying Spanish language grammars are my next activities. Edited by sfuqua on 11 June 2015 at 4:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4575 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 71 of 83 11 June 2015 at 4:58am | IP Logged |
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Unit 37 is almost done. At last we are charging into the subjunctive. I really need this. I am far from automatic on this in actual speech even if I know the forms and the rules. It doesn't roll off the tongue very easily. This is a definite weakness, and the FSI drills are aimed exactly at it.
There is no question that the the work I've done with FSI and SRS have put my Spanish right in the position of an arrow drawn back fully. Think Katniss zeroed in on a target. I read some more today, and I swear that I could feel more improvement. I listened to the first episode of Gran Hotel tonight, and it may have passed the dual test. It was challenging, but not impossible to understand, and it had subtitles so my wife likes it sufficiently to put it into our rotation of Tagalog soaps. I think I'm at the point where I desperately need a bunch of movies and 10000 pages of extensive reading. Also, I could use a trip with native speakers at this point. I suspect that a lot of the mystery of the subjunctive goes away when you have and ear for it, which you can only get from a lot of exposure. I also have a copy of (I think) the book James29 has been using, _Gramática de uso del español_ B1 B2. I got a cheap used copy of an earlier edition which claims to cover A1-B2. There is a lot of overlap, but maybe I'll do both since none of the lessons I've checked is completely identical. Maybe I'll get the C1-C2 book also. If I add in some reading aloud (something I found very useful in Samoan), or shadowing, maybe I'll be able to get myself a little further through the long intermediate grind. The first grind is to get through FSI over the next few weeks... updated to clarify somethinng. Edited by sfuqua on 11 June 2015 at 5:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4575 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 72 of 83 11 June 2015 at 5:22am | IP Logged |
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I used the word grind 2 times (at least) in the last post. I love the "grind". I love Spanish. Studying Spanish keeps me sort of sane.
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