Hank's Adventure in Spanish (Now with 100% more Welsh!)

[Hank]

Thanks mitcht and M23.

I'll probably give it a try and see how it goes. I surely need to. I have text chatted on HelloTalk a time or two, but I've never had a spoken conversation in Spanish. It will be fun to see how it goes.

[klvik]

Hank, I used a Spanish tutor for 6 months to help me make the transition from only self-study to working with language exchange partners for conversation practice. Prior to my first Skype lesson I had only spoken Spanish to myself or to my computer. My tutor was not trained as a teacher of Spanish as a foreign language and he did not prepare formal lessons. All we did was talk. He corrected many, but not all, of my mistakes and helped me when I couldn’t remember or know the correct word in Spanish. At that point in my learning, I did not need a tutor to teach me more grammar. I can learn grammar on my own. I believe that being easy for foreign language learners to talk to is a learned skill and a good tutor should have this skill.

[Hank]

I have too many hobbies and interests. Sometimes it's hard to find time for all of them and still be a responsible adult.

Reading- Apparently I'm the only person on the forum that likes the Apocalipsis Z series judging by the comments on James29's log when I suggested it to him. I thought that was kind of strange so I was trying to figure out who wouldn't like stories about defeating zombies. Then it hit me. Zombies wouldn't like stories about defeating zombies. I'm a little concerned. Are forum members being replaced by zombies? I'm keeping my eye on you people!

Listening- I'm still working my way through La reina del sur. I'm getting kind of bored with it, but I'm far enough along that I want to finish and know how it ends. I have mentioned that my listening comprehension is hit and miss with the show but I discovered something kind of weird. When I watch on my iPad, with the cheap earbuds that came with it, my comprehension is much better than when I watch on my computer with the expensive-ish earbuds I bought. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm glad I know this. I guess I'll be watching on my iPad from now on. Overall my listening comprehension seems to be improving rapidly. More often than not I can follow along when I turn to a random Spanish language show on my TV. More and more often I'm understanding more than just the gist.

Output- I guess this is the big news of the week. I chatted with my HelloTalk buddy from Mexico almost every day. With my lack of experience it was a little intimidating and stressful at first, but I feel like I have settled down well. I have been worrying less about making mistakes and I feel like I'm doing very well. Most of the corrections have been minor, but he has also helped with the proper way to say some things like "¿Tu día va bien?" I felt like the big test for me was when I used the correction tools on one of his messages and he wanted me to explain how to do that. I had just barely figured it out myself and then he wants me to explain it in Spanish? I had never even thought about something like that. I guess I did a good job because he started using the correction tools.

I think the best part of the messaging is that it's putting my Spanish learning into perspective. I get most of my vocabulary from reading. It occurred to me that I'm likely never really going to need to know all the different adjectives that tend to be used in books for everyday talking. I'll get along just fine for a while, and maybe always, without knowing how to say "scared" or "tired" or "pretty" ten different ways. At least until I understand the different shades of meaning like the difference between "attractive" and "cute" in English.

[James29]

I think the best part of the messaging is that it's putting my Spanish learning into perspective. I get most of my vocabulary from reading. It occurred to me that I'm likely never really going to need to know all the different adjectives that tend to be used in books for everyday talking. I'll get along just fine for a while, and maybe always, without knowing how to say "scared" or "tired" or "pretty" ten different ways. At least until I understand the different shades of meaning like the difference between "attractive" and "cute" in English.

This is so true. It is amazing how many "useless" words we pick up from reading so much.

[Hank]

Once again, this was kind of a crazy week. I was thinking that I didn't get much studying done, but looking back on it I did ok.

Reading- I should finish Apocalipsis Z: La ira de los justos this week. When I read the reviews of the series on Amazon, some of them seemed to indicate that the third book appears to not be the final book. There's so much going on right now that I don't see how it can be decently wrapped up in less than 100 pages. I hope it's not the end because I'm really enjoying the series. I also hope what it seemed like just happened didn't really happen. I stopped reading at a serious cliffhanger last night. I would say (or gripe) more, but I don't want to give away any spoilers.

Listening- I was only able to bring myself to watch one episode of La reina del sur. I've just lost all interest in the story and even though I'm fairly close to the end, I don't see myself finishing the series. It's kind of disappointing but I don't see a point in continuing something that I don't enjoy. I think I have mentioned before that I have the attention span of a goldfish when it comes to TV shows, so it's a wonder I made it as far as I did. I looked for another native Spanish language show on Netflix last night, but I was on my iPad and the search function on the app isn't as good as on the website. All the Spanish serials that I found seemed to be the same theme as LRDS. So I'll see what I can find when I'm on the computer. I did take a look at The Walking Dead to see if it had Spanish overdubs. No it doesn't. It may be a good time to get the Hulu free trial. I did watch quite a bit of Mexican television on my satellite. There's a serial that's on around noon that I can follow very well.

Output- My Mexican, HelloTalk buddy quit responding. I don't know why. That stinks because I was really enjoying chatting with him. I did chat with a young lady from Colombia for a bit, but the conversations weren't terribly interesting and felt kind of forced. I'll have to try again to find an old guy to chat with. Maybe I would have better luck with another site? A tutor is looking much more attractive at this point.

Deutsch- I'm not where I want to be with Spanish, but I'm starting feel like I need practice (listening, output) more than study. So once again German is seeming very interesting. When I start I'm planning on getting Assimil, but I would also like a grammar. I think a grammar would have been terribly helpful at the beginning of my Spanish studies. Something like Gramática de uso del español except for German. Any suggestion?

[James29]

La Reina del Sur was my least favorite of the telenovelas I have watched. It is not bad, but I understand where you are coming from. If it were a longer series I probably would not have finished it either.

I've been thinking about getting neflix. Maybe I don't know how to search well on it, but all I'm finding are fairly old telenovelas. I've been thinking of Amazon prime. I can get it through my business and think it might be worth it. I'll have to check out what it has available.

Good luck with those exchange partners. I get the impression you have noticed that the old guys are not looking for a date like all those young women. The flip side of that is that the guys want to speak English half the time. I've often felt the single guys have a big advantage in finding language partners because they can just chat in Spanish as long as they want.

[Hank]

La Reina del Sur was my least favorite of the telenovelas I have watched. It is not bad, but I understand where you are coming from. If it were a longer series I probably would not have finished it either.

I've been thinking about getting neflix. Maybe I don't know how to search well on it, but all I'm finding are fairly old telenovelas. I've been thinking of Amazon prime. I can get it through my business and think it might be worth it. I'll have to check out what it has available.

Most of the telenovelas that I looked at on Netflix are from the early to mid 2000s. Mostly about narcos (I guess that's a very popular subject in Mexico), but there were a few other options. There are also quite a few movies. I saw one about Simon Bolivar that looked interesting. I couldn't find a way to show which non-Spanish language shows had overdubs except for clicking on the actual show and seeing if they were available. I think Netflix has a one month free trial if you want to check it out.

I haven't found a way to see what Amazon Prime has. If you wind up subscribing, let me know how it is. I order enough stuff from Amazon that it would probably be worth getting Amazon Prime for the free shipping if they have some good Spanish language TV.

Good luck with those exchange partners. I get the impression you have noticed that the old guys are not looking for a date like all those young women. The flip side of that is that the guys want to speak English half the time. I've often felt the single guys have a big advantage in finding language partners because they can just chat in Spanish as long as they want.

I kind of wonder if the whole using HelloTalk as a dating app doesn't go both ways for males and females. Maybe my Mexican buddy found a female to flirt with. Who knows. It seems like when I'm actively chatting with someone I tend to have people contact me. Maybe I just need to suffer through a few chats with 20-something latinas and hope an old guy contacts me.

[Hank]

¡Estoy de vacaciones! Casi 3 semanas de relajación, español, y videojuegos. Probablamente voy a ir a mi propiedad en el bosque. Mis vecinos han visto osos en mi propieadad. Quiero ver un oso. Pero no muy cerca. Es mejor si tengo una foto de un oso en mi cámara automática. También quiero comprar algo de tarjetas de Magic the Gathering. Quiero derrotar a mi amigo, y por eso necesito más tarjetas.

I have noticed a change in my relationship with Spanish. Lately it feels a lot more natural and less of a struggle. Kind of like it's an ally instead of an obstacle that must be overcome. It's a lot more fun this way. My confidence is also affected. I don't understand every word I hear, every word I read, and often I have to stop and think when I communicate, but I feel like the goal of fluency (whatever that entails) is in sight and I know I'm going to get there. I suspect that I'll be "good at Spanish" this time next year. It's a good feeling.

Reading- I finished Apocalipsis Z: La ira de los justos. The series wrapped up nicely. My only gripe with the ending is that it felt tacked on, like the author said "I don't really know how to finish this off, so I'll just write a quick chapter." It's a small gripe, though. Next up is De amor y de sombra by Isabel Allende. I have a couple of other Spanish language books already, but I'm not sure what I'm going to read after this one. One is a biography of Che Guevara that my wife bought me. She actually bought it as a Christmas present several years ago but didn't realize it was in Spanish. That worked out well. Leaving politics aside, I think Che is an interesting character, but the book is mostly interviews with people that knew him and news stories. The other is a knockoff of The DaVinci Code that doesn't seem terribly interesting. I'll probably read about Che but be on the lookout for something else.

Listening- Most of my listening this week was watching whatever was on Univision in the evenings. I found a show on Netflix that's kind of a mystery/suspense show that's set in a boarding school in Spain that seems interesting. The only trouble is that the episodes are an hour and 10 minutes long. I can't really concentrate on TV that long in one sitting. Since I'm on vacation I'll probably sign up for the Hulu free trial and see how that is. I know they have a bunch of Spanish language TV shows.

Output- My HelloTalk buddy reappeared. We chatted a little. I'm glad about that because I enjoy chatting with him. I probably ought to work on finding another partner, though.

Deutsch- I'm still thinking about it, but I'm just not ready to commit yet.

[Allison]

La Reina del Sur was my least favorite of the telenovelas I have watched. It is not bad, but I understand where you are coming from. If it were a longer series I probably would not have finished it either.

I've been thinking about getting neflix. Maybe I don't know how to search well on it, but all I'm finding are fairly old telenovelas. I've been thinking of Amazon prime. I can get it through my business and think it might be worth it. I'll have to check out what it has available.

Most of the telenovelas that I looked at on Netflix are from the early to mid 2000s. Mostly about narcos (I guess that's a very popular subject in Mexico), but there were a few other options. There are also quite a few movies. I saw one about Simon Bolivar that looked interesting. I couldn't find a way to show which non-Spanish language shows had overdubs except for clicking on the actual show and seeing if they were available. I think Netflix has a one month free trial if you want to check it out.

I haven't found a way to see what Amazon Prime has. If you wind up subscribing, let me know how it is. I order enough stuff from Amazon that it would probably be worth getting Amazon Prime for the free shipping if they have some good Spanish language TV.

Maybe I don't know how to search, but I haven't found Spanish TV on Amazon Prime (though I like it for non-language-learning reasons). Just so you know, this month Hulu changed its business strategy and is now entirely subscription-based, and Yahoo now has a site using Hulu's video player where you can watch stuff for free: view.yahoo.com. And I've linked this before, but I've found it to be so helpful in searching for what has Spanish audio on Netflix: instantwatcher.com search.

I have a little ways to go before I finish La reina del sur, but I'm starting to think beyond that to my next show, though I don't know what to do next. I'll be interested to see what you settle on, if anything. I'm having similar thoughts about all of the narco shows and the length of some other shows' episodes.

Enjoy your vacation!

[Hank]

Am I really out of bed this early when I don't have to be? That's just wrong!

I haven't been as active with Spanish this week. Being on vacation has broken my routine. I usually do a lot of reading and chatting at the fire station in the evenings. I also have a couple of video games that I'm playing. Pokémon Go is addictive. I blame my wife and stepdaughter for getting me into catching Pokémon. When I get into a video game I tend to spend way too much time playing. It has been a couple of years since I have done any serious video gaming. I was actually glad that there weren't any games out there that interested me. They're fun but they tend to take up too much of my hobby time.

Reading- I started on De amor y de sombra. It's an extremely hard read so far. It reminds me of reading La telaraña de Carlota which was the first chapter book I read after finishing Duolingo. There's sooooo much unknown vocabulary. It's frustrating but I'm not to the point of wanting to give up yet. I like her writing style so far.

Listening- I signed up for the one month, free trial of Hulu. One of the main reasons I was interested in Hulu was so I could watch El hotel de los secretos, but they don't have it any longer. They still have Pasión y poder. Other than having the most current Univision telenovelas it doesn't seem like much of an improvement over Netflix. You can watch the Univision shows on the Univision website for free, even though it's kind of laggy for me. I doubt I'll subscribe. Another issue is that I just don't like watching TV or movies on a computer. I have no clue what difference it makes, but it does.

I have been watching whatever happens to be on my satellite TV in the evenings, almost every evening, and Despierta América in the mornings. My listening comprehension seems to have regressed. I'm not sure why. The exceptions being Vecinos and La familia P. Luche which I can follow fairly well. Narcos has way too much English in it. I DVR'd J.J.'s Star Trek with Spanish overdubs. That's a great movie. It will be fun to watch. I've watched it multiple times in English so hopefully it will help get me back on track with my listening comprehension.

I checked out the DVDs at my local Wal Mart and saw that Game of Thrones has Spanish overdubs. I may give that a try. I tried to read the first book but I didn't get very far. It was horrible. Maybe the TV show is better. I know it was very popular.

Output- What's the deal with all the one word responses and short, one sentence responses on HelloTalk? Is that a cultural thing? It makes it difficult to carry on a conversation.

I chatted with my Mexican buddy a little bit. I also chatted with a guy from Peru, but he was asking for personal information that I wasn't comfortable giving to a total stranger. I ended that conversation pretty quickly.