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Spanish: cutting my teeth on languages! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4799 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 9 of 25 24 October 2014 at 2:49pm | IP Logged |
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I don't agree, I found Futurama quite fast and difficult but everyone can view it differently. From dubbed shows, I found Once upon a Time very accessible and I am about to start something originally in Spanish so I'll let you know if I happen to find something totally awesome.
But watching lots of tv series and movies will help with activating your Spanish as well, by immersion. It is much easier speaking having thought in Spanish for tens and hundreds of hours than without the exposure and I find listening and speaking skills quite intertwined. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| epictetus Groupie Canada Joined 3672 days ago 54 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 25 25 October 2014 at 8:37am | IP Logged |
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There are some really good suggestions here.
Structured Courses: I've already found that even just skimming through Linguaphone is just not going to work at this point. Too tedious, even if I come across grammar or vocab worth writing down. The Living Language course is a little better so I'll keep with it. I've edited all the Assimil material into about 90 minutes of continuous dialogue - I am listening and reading with that occasionally. I hadn't heard of Platiquemos before but it seems pretty intense. I'll look into it. With regards to native content: I don't watch many films and I rarely watch TV so these typical recommendations aren't as useful for me. I do enjoy documentaries, panel shows (is this just a British thing?), and political satire but any form of comedy will be pretty demanding! Perhaps in a good way :) If you know of anything, share! I use El País for news now, but if anyone knows of a weekly publication with more analysis I would be very interested to subscribe to that! El Nuevo Yorker? jaja... I've been slowly building up a collection of música with lyrics as I've tended towards instrumental in the past. I've read an embarrassingly few number of books in English so I'm going to get some more under my belt before reading Spanish translations. Lastly... I've signed up for a language exchange service called Babelvillage. I hope to try it out next week. I'm unsure how to do my language log. Do I keep replying in this topic or do I create a new post every time? For example... my post about Guatemala? I'll have a look at some of the others in the meantime. ¡Muchas gracias a todos! Edited by epictetus on 25 October 2014 at 8:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4799 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 11 of 25 25 October 2014 at 12:49pm | IP Logged |
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A log is where you can keep all those thoughts, progress, frustrations, experience tidily in one thread where
everyone knows to reach you. What you put in it is entirely up to you but I personally find it great and motivational to scroll back and see how much have I progressed since a few months old post reflecting on my struggles :-) I find it especially useful to monitor the slow progress during plateau phases. Documentaries are great! I recommend rtve.es, which is webiste of the state television so you can watch their content from anywhere for free. They've got nice tv shows, often historical, and widely appraised for their quality if that is what usually drives you away, but I noticed there some documentaries as well, if I remember correctly. Well, you can as well start reading in Spanish right away and make the Spanish practice the motivational force behind widening your horizons. Spanish is language not only of art and authors like Borges, there are many non fiction works being published, Spanish wikipedia is a great start for some non fiction online reading. Music. Has noone recommended lyricstraining.com yet? What kind of world do we live in... No, really, it is an awesome tool. Plenty of songs more or less divided in difficulty levels, lyrics and fill in the gaps exercises. A great tool. I don't know about el nuevo yorker. But Stelle, if I rmember correctly, used to read Spanish version of the National Geographic and was pretty excited about it. As you appear to be more into documentaries and non fiction, I think you might find some inspiration in Iversen's log and threads as he is inclined in the same direction, if I am not mistaken. Lastly, I totally understand you don't wish to go through a typical course. An alternative I love is to use whatever I like and study grammar aside from a specialized source. I really like Gramática de uso del Español and Gramática Anaya. Both series give explanations, exemples and exercises but they don't tie your hands and decide the pace and order of things for you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5655 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 12 of 25 25 October 2014 at 4:25pm | IP Logged |
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There are plenty of Spanish documentaries, there's the Spanish History Channel for example and then there are shows like Españoles en el mundo/Madrileños por el mundo. You might enjoy something like El intermedio (la página en castellano es un poco más descriptiva). I really like documentaries, too, and have watched probably hundreds of them in Spanish, in large part on the Spanish Civil War. There are also Spanish dubs of many BBC documentaries (like Planet Earth). A quick search for "documentales" (or "ver documentales online" ;)) will bring up a ton of stuff. Or if there's anything in particular you're interested in, there's sure to be something out there in Spanish on it.
I don't care much for El País, i tend to read more "alternative" sources like zines and websites de "contrainformación", so i can't really recommend anything in particular. There are tons of Spanish newspapers, though, so it shouldn't be too hard to find something you like. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| epictetus Groupie Canada Joined 3672 days ago 54 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 25 27 October 2014 at 7:43am | IP Logged |
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It's Sunday and I'm excited to report back!
I have found a graphic novel series called Blacksad that looks really interesting. 
I'm also going to try and watch El Internado to hear more colloquial Spanish. I'm not particularly fond of telenovelas which is unfortunate since they're (apparently) a very particular Latin American thing. I'm willing to make a concession for the Breaking Bad remake when I can source it (with bilingual subtitles). For now, I'm going to just relax with El Internado and see how much I can glean from it. If I like it, I can watch it again and notice things I couldn't on the first/nth pass. I will check out Radio y Televisión Española along with another cool resource: SquidTV. I'm finding new music with Songza. All of the above will provide me with plenty of content for the next couple months leading up to my trip. James, I do like the Beyond the Basics course but it's not the right time for it. I'm in a bit of a time crunch and that's something I'd feel more comfortable using casually rather than intensively. It works well as a follow-up to Assimil's active wave. I have an Advanced course (no audio) that I would use as reference as well if I ever get to that stage! Platiquemos - building my conversational ability? I'm not sure how, but I seem to have given the impression that I'm averse to grammar in some way. Not at all! One of the reasons I have put off actually learning a language is that it was easier to procrastinate by learning about the language: vocabulary and etymology; grammatical structures; how languages affect thinking. I will buying an Essential Grammar by Routledge once I return from travelling. After an exchange of messages with Crush and some enthusiastic googling, I've decided to attempt the Platiquemos program with vigour. I never considered FSI or its derivations to be something I'd be interested in but having tried it a little and having read some experiences of others here, I'm going to try and do one unit every day. It will be a real effort. I'm in a unique position to be able to spend 4+ hours on it every day while "on the clock" along with two hours spent commuting. I'd like to give it a real effort so that I'll know for future language learning whether or not the hours are well-spent or not. I really hope I report back positively! :) The Trip I'm going to travel to Guatemala in January and expect to spend at least 4 weeks in a small language school in Quetzaltenango. Years ago, when dreaming of a motorcycle trip, I envisioned going to Oaxaca but due to budget concerns, I wanted to ensure I could do a homestay and have 1-1 lessons. There is some very interesting socio-political issues that are on-going with the Zapatistas as well as relations with indigenous cultures. For some reason I'm attracted to areas that are recovering from civil wars or other sort-of-recent conflicts. I was fascinated by the Balkans and the history there. I would love to travel extensively through the "-stans" including Iran, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Central America is just as intriguing and I'm looking forward to spending 4+ weeks in a single city along with 6-8 weeks travelling as far as my budget will permit, consuming the language and culture and voraciously as I can. I haven't planned anything. I haven't booked anything. I still haven't even gotten my vaccines. With regards to my travel style, this is par for the course. Want to test your listening comprehension? Watch this music video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9q_ao91Now I've noticed that music I'd never listen to if it were in English is suddenly interesting in Spanish. Edited by epictetus on 27 October 2014 at 11:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4448 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 25 27 October 2014 at 3:46pm | IP Logged |
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You mention the areas of the Zapatistas and indigenous cultures. After spending some time in Chiapas, Mexico, I have fallen in love with that region. San Cristobal de Las Casas is my favorite city in Mexico to date. The native people, along with the proximity to Guatemala, add a different flavor and value that I have not experienced in other parts of Mexico. We plan to return in March/ April of next year. We will also dip across the boarder into Guatemala when we return and it should be a nice adventure. One FSI unit per day??? Wow. Good for you! That will be a massive amount of structure for your learning. I am jealous! Please continue to Log your studies for the rest of us. All the best, BOLIO 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4041 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 15 of 25 28 October 2014 at 10:03pm | IP Logged |
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Wait... there's a History Channel in Spanish?
I love the History Channel... they don't have it where I am right now, but they do have it where I'm moving to next month... woo hoo! It looks like you're finding some good stuff. Finding media that interests you, to me, is important because otherwise it's not fun. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| epictetus Groupie Canada Joined 3672 days ago 54 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 25 03 November 2014 at 10:20am | IP Logged |
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Platiquemos
I've noticed the power of the drill. Hay and Estar The substitution drill literally trained me to use 'estar' with the definite article only. I had never noticed how infrequently I might use 'hay'. Now I've noticed that even in English it seems weird/declarative to say things like "The table is there. The cars are here" since "There's a table. Here are some cars." feels so natural. When should 'aqui' and 'ahi' go at the beginning or at the end? 
I've been going through one unit per day and slowly adjusting how I use it as the units progress. There has only been a few drills now that required more than a few passes. Some of them I was able to do correctly the first time and without reading anything. I mostly ignore the Response drills and only go through the dialogue once without audio, and then again with (which includes 2 or 3 passes). Even if it's simple, it gives me an opportunity to work on my phrasal intonation since my word pronunciation is actually quite good (especially my b/v sounds and my d sounds). They speak very quickly and often mumble which makes it a challenge. I also ignore the conversation sections which feel way too artificial for what they're supposed to do (bridge the gap between drills and actual conversation). I'm going to finish Unit 9 right now. Writing and Speaking I have noticed that my writing skills and speaking skills are equally stunted when it comes to producing the language. Is writing a decent way to build active skills in absence of a speaking partner? Bold words are uncertain ones: Cuando escribe en español tengo tiempo construir mis pensados. Pero, cuando (yo) hable tomaría mucho más tiempo a comunicar. Estas palabras toman demasiados minutos para escribir. Si hay (¿subjuntivo?) la otra personal sea aburrido. I've finished all 5000 new vocabulary words. It wasn't very exciting but perhaps 100+ hours and 50,903 reviews will have paid off in some way. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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