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Spanish: cutting my teeth on languages! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| 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 17 of 25 04 November 2014 at 12:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Cuando ESCRIBO en español tengo tiempo PARA construir mis PENSAMIENTOS.
-se usa el subjuntivo con cuando (y el subjuntivo de escribir sería "cuando escriba") sólo cuando se trata de algo que sucede en el futuro. Aquí hablas de algo general, "cuando" aquí es más o menos sinónimo de "cada vez que". Pero cuando HABLO (ME) TOMA mucho más tiempo expresarme (tardo más en expresar/formar mis ideas, tomo mucho más tiempo en comunicarme, etc.). -tomar más tiempo en hacer algo muchas veces puede sustituirse por los verbos tardar y demorar. La tercera frase no estoy muy segurx de lo que quieres decir, ¿quieres decir que has tardado mucho en escribir ese texto? La cuarta frase tampoco entiendo muy bien, ¿quieres decir que si estuvieras conversando con otra persona esa persona se aburriría (porque te toma mucho tiempo formar tus frases)? Pues sí, yo creo que escribir es una forma de activar tus conocimientos, no es igual que hablar pero aún así estás pensando en castellano y tienes la oportunidad de practicar lo que has estudiado. Hoy en día es muy fácil buscarse una pareja de conversación para hacer un tandem, es decir, un intercambio de idiomas. En SharedTalk.com hay un montón de hispanohablantes nativxs estudiando el inglés, y hay otros sitios también donde puedes encontrar parejas de conversación (italki, busuu, etc.). Sólo necesitas una cuenta de Skype (o eskype, cómo se diría en castellano ;)). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| epictetus Groupie Canada Joined 3672 days ago 54 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 18 of 25 11 November 2014 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not a good update this week. I haven't been able to commit any hours to Platiquemos at work and I haven't
been able to listen during my commute either. With the hours I had left this week, I focused on native material rather than drills.
My internet connection is too unreliable to use Skype, unfortunately. A bit of a bummer. Hopefully I'll get my free hours back this week to get the drills going again! :) Crush: "porque te toma mucho tiempo formar tus frases"; "has tardado mucho en escribir ese texto" --- Sí, eso está el problema. Escribir toma tiempo y hablar toma más que...¿lo? ¿lo que más? ¿cuál que más? (cómo se dice:"more than it"?). What I wrote was off the cuff and full of all sorts of problems. As far as I can tell my speech can only be worse than that; though I can try more complex phrases than I would try in speech. Un camino largo adelante... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| epictetus Groupie Canada Joined 3672 days ago 54 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 25 30 January 2015 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've finished my first week in Guatemala. Mostly review and trying out different
methods for conversation (various word games, themed conversations to practice different tenses, going for walks through the city and talking about anything) as well as grammar instruction which I feel is the biggest waste of time to do in-class. At least once a day we'll go through the rules one-by-one and she'll write them on a whiteboard and then provide an example. It's tedious and would be much faster to do at home. I've also been given little assignments to do that are ineffective. For example, read a chapter of one of my books, write out new vocabulary, conjugate some new verbs, and then write a composition about it... It feels very odd and I don't think I'm learning anything from it. I'm trying to speak as much as possible whenever I can but there's still much grammar to work on. I'm returning to my flashcards and Platiquemos and I'll start doing some verb drills as well. I'm not getting as much out of the conversations as I could be without more grammar. Any experienced immersion students out there? I've got 5 more weeks after this! Edited by epictetus on 30 January 2015 at 9:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3934 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 20 of 25 30 January 2015 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm enjoying your log, and I look forward to following your adventures in Guatemala!
Talk to your teacher. Tell her what you'd like to work on, and then hold her to it. If I understand correctly, you have a one-on-one teacher, so there's no need for her to follow a set curriculum. As a teacher and a learner, I firmly believe that individual classes should be student-led and need-driven. If your teacher isn't open to change, or if she says that she's willing to change but she still keeps doing what feels safe for her, then ask for a new teacher. But most good teachers are flexible and will be very happy to modify their approach! I know that - as a teacher - I absolutely love it when a student knows what s/he wants and is willing to ask for it. I'm assuming that you're working with her for 3-4 hours per day. If I were in your situation, I'd look for some combination of the following activities: - unstructured conversation (preferably over a cup of coffee!). If you're not naturally a talker, then use thematic questions to get the conversation flowing. ex. Jobs past and present. Describing your home country. Talking about your favourite guilty pleasures. I made a list of questions for language exchange, if you're interested: questions by themes - role-plays. I think that this is one of the most fun ways to explicitly target verbs in oral practice. Of course, it's useful to role-play things you'll actually do - like ask for information, or explain to a doctor what you need. But it's also fun to get silly. Want to practice past preterite? Be an instructor explaining to someone why they failed their road test, or a parent telling the baby-sitter why they won't be using her services again. - reading an article and discussing it together. You can VeinteMundos for this, or a local newspaper or magazine. - correcting a text together. Write it as homework, since it's not a very good use of class time to do the actual writing on site. - watching TV clips together, preferably online so that you can stop and discuss often. Having a patient native speaker to pause the show, check for understanding, repeat something slowly and then play it again, or explain slang is invaluable! - going over any grammar or vocabulary questions that you have, based on work that you're doing at home, things that you've noticed in your reading, or things that you realize you can't say (and want to say). I would stay away from explicit teacher-led grammar instruction. With a one-on-one teacher, grammar instruction should be be very personalized. You certainly shouldn't be going over the same boring things every single day. - and peppered throughout everything - lots and lots and lots of talk! Have fun! I'm so envious of your immersion trip! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| epictetus Groupie Canada Joined 3672 days ago 54 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 21 of 25 31 January 2015 at 12:18am | IP Logged | ||
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It seems I have good teacher - she has tried most of those things with me. It's my first week so there will be a bit of trial and error with methods and
materials as well as getting to know each other. That list of themes is fantastic! It's exactly what I wished I had on my first few days. Thanks! She's also quite happy to work with whatever materials I have so I think my biggest challenge will be to avoid direct grammar instruction - if I can demonstrate that I understand it then there will be no reason for her to bother. For clarification: 4.5 hours per day, 5 days a week, and one-on-one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| epictetus Groupie Canada Joined 3672 days ago 54 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 22 of 25 04 February 2015 at 4:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Just a quick update: I'm increasingly frustrated at my inability to speak. I know I'm probably being too harsh on myself
but I have to think too much to say even the most basic things - I said "mas mejor" this evening... Maybe I'm getting worse at speaking?! Probably just because there's so much entering my head and it's getting a bit mixed up. My listening comprehension has improved substantially since I've been here and I suspect that's partly because I'm hearing the same people (the family and my teacher) speak daily so I'm familiar with their accents and vocabulary. I try and take my time to speak properly but some times I just give up an use an infinitive or mime to get my point across out of frustration. I've returned to my flashcards and I'm shocked how much I've forgotten. My reading comprehension is better than ever (5-10 words I had to look up per newspaper article) and I don't know if I should spend more time reading rather than trying to study grammar for the next day's lesson or writing short sentences to improve my use of various tenses... So much for a short update! Including time spent with the family and trying to participate in the topic de jour, I've spent 10 hours today doing something I could count for the 6 Week Challenge. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| epictetus Groupie Canada Joined 3672 days ago 54 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 23 of 25 08 February 2015 at 3:28am | IP Logged | ||
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I've finished my first two weeks and my teacher and I are both pleased with my progress. Earlier this week I was just swamped and over-working
myself as our daily regimen had shifted to be about an hour of grammar followed by an hour or more of semi-structured conversation... twice per day. We talked about rather complex topics as well such as abortion, drug policy and drug use in Central America, the structure of the education systems in our respective countries and so on. I get immediate feedback when I try and use some new grammar or if I'm misusing a preposition. Based on an assessment that I quickly went through, it seems I'm actually somewhere in the B1 area but I'd be hesitant to say so. I'd like be solidly in the B2 area. 5 weeks left here so hopefully I can get close. I'm averaging about 7 hours per day of direct activities, not including conversations at home and in the streets, nor TV/radio that I let fill the gaps when doing something else. --- I've discovered a new way of learning the verb forms (Practice Makes Perfect: Irregular Verbs) which re-purposes a method normally used for Latin (principle parts). It's quite intuitive. --- I've also found some "conversational connectors" that should help ease my conversations if I internalise the structures (I would agree with you, except... It's possible that is true... to what extent might that...) --- I'm aggressively suspending forgotten Anki cards from a frequency deck and to a new deck I am adding new words that I hear and read daily instead. --- I'll begin writing short commentaries on articles and my books for Lang-8 starting on Monday. I'm heading into the Guatemalan countryside tomorrow for a hike and to visit some hot springs! Rough life, eh? (To be fair, there was a gunshot outside my window early in la madruga at about 4am!) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3934 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 24 of 25 08 February 2015 at 2:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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What a great update! I'm glad that you've settled in and that you feel like you're getting a lot out of the sessions!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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