NoManches - Spanish: B2-->C1 Log

[Chmury]

Acabo de buscar ese libro Las Batallas en el Desierto y me parece bastante interesante y es muy altamente considerado también parece. También me gusta el hecho de que consiste en menos de 70 páginas. Creo que lo voy a intentar cazar. Por cierto, el libro Correr o Morir que estás leyendo, ¿hablas de él de Kilian Journet? ¿El corredor de ultramaratones? Leí El Príncipe de la Niebla hace bastante tiempo y no me gustó tanto. Si sólo lo vas a leer con el fin de mejorar tu castellano, entonces, vale. Pero no me resultó muy interesante y sólo acabó siendo algo que tuve que terminar más que disfrutar. Si buscas algunos libros así, para adolescentes y de aventura, te puedo recomendar Memorias del Águila y del Jaguar de Isabel Allende. Es una serie de tres libros que cuenta las aventuras de dos chicos que viajan por el mundo descubriendo y conociendo poquito a poco culturas distintas y cosas así. Disfruté mucho más de ellos que los de Zafón. También hay el libro de cuentos de Allende que se llama Los Cuentos de Eva Luna. Hay un cuento allí dentro que me encanta un montón, me resulta muy precioso, bien escrito, respetuoso, y lleno de anhelo. Se llama Walimai. Creo que lo he leído como seis o siete veces. Fue uno de los cuentos, si no el primero, que leí nunca. Quizá ya sea hora de que vuelva a leerlo. Puedes encontrarlo abajo si te interesa.

Walimai de Isabel Allende

Y hombre, ¡Yo También! Qué no daría yo por poder leer cualquier libro en castellano sin esfuerzo y entender absolutamente todo. ¡Sería increíble! Bueno, !a lograr justamente eso!

[NoManches]

Acabo de buscar ese libro Las Batallas en el Desierto y me parece bastante interesante y es muy altamente considerado también parece. También me gusta el hecho de que consiste en menos de 70 páginas. Creo que lo voy a intentar cazar. Por cierto, el libro Correr o Morir que estás leyendo, ¿hablas de él de Kilian Journet? ¿El corredor de ultramaratones? Leí El Príncipe de la Niebla hace bastante tiempo y no me gustó tanto. Si sólo lo vas a leer con el fin de mejorar tu castellano, entonces, vale. Pero no me resultó muy interesante y sólo acabó siendo algo que tuve que terminar más que disfrutar. Si buscas algunos libros así, para adolescentes y de aventura, te puedo recomendar Memorias del Águila y del Jaguar de Isabel Allende. Es una serie de tres libros que cuenta las aventuras de dos chicos que viajan por el mundo descubriendo y conociendo poquito a poco culturas distintas y cosas así. Disfruté mucho más de ellos que los de Zafón. También hay el libro de cuentos de Allende que se llama Los Cuentos de Eva Luna. Hay un cuento allí dentro que me encanta un montón, me resulta muy precioso, bien escrito, respetuoso, y lleno de anhelo. Se llama Walimai. Creo que lo he leído como seis o siete veces. Fue uno de los cuentos, si no el primero, que leí nunca. Quizá ya sea hora de que vuelva a leerlo. Puedes encontrarlo abajo si te interesa.

Walimai de Isabel Allende

Y hombre, ¡Yo También! Qué no daría yo por poder leer cualquier libro en castellano sin esfuerzo y entender absolutamente todo. ¡Sería increíble! Bueno, !a lograr justamente eso!

Me refiero el libro escrito por James Dashner. En inglés es conocido como "The Maze Runner". Ye he visto la película y elegí leer el libro es español porque es relativamente fácil (suelo leer libros en español que no han sido traducidos de otro idioma, pero hice una exception porque estoy muy ocupado últimamente y no puedo enfocarme en un libro difícil).


Hace unos meses leí los tres libros de Allende en la serie de Águila y Jaguar. Algún día vuelvo a leerlos porque cuando los leí mi nivel de leer era intermedio u no entendí todo. Men encante el estilo de Allende y voy a echar un ojo a su libro Los Cuentos de Eva Luna. ¡Muchas gracias por la recomendación! De echo, estaba a punto de leer so otra novela "La casa de los espíritus" pero me distraje con otos libros jaja.

Ya lo sabes, pero stu nivel de español es muy avanzado....te felicito. Quiero alcanzar el nivel que posees, y comenzaré por leyendo tu blog "un cielo claro". Buena suerte y gracias para las recomendaciones!

[NoManches]

As many of you already know, this log is updated randomly. Sometimes I'll go a while without touching it, and other times (like now) I'll make a few updates within a week or two. I think a part of this is so I can keep track of observations that I've made that I would otherwise forget to write about.

Here are some of my most recent observations:

My overall listening comprehension is definitely improving, but I am constantly put into situations that reminds me of how much work I still have ahead of me. I can go to class and understand 99% of what my professors say (since I have grown accustomed to their way of speaking), but I do have problems when guest speakers come into class. We have lots of guest speakers which I think makes the class very interesting, but some lectures I don't understand a whole lot of what is being said or miss out on important details. This is very frustrating and I wish I had the ability to speak with these same people over the course of a few weeks in order to get used tot heir accents. After realizing this I searched the forums here and came across this great post from nuncapense:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3549

I think the best option I have now is to listen frequently to a variety of podcasts, meaning I choose a handful that I really like and grow accustomed to the speaker of each one. This is something mentioned very often around here and I plan on following this advice.

One podcast I have really enjoyed lately is called "los testigos del crimen" and is about famous serial killers (it's close to Haloween so why not, right? )

My comprehension of this material is pretty good, but I may have overestimated myself. The other day I decided to sit down with this podcast and do some intensive listening. I took out a notebook, wrote down: who, when, where,why, how, what and began listening. This forced me to really listen, and to take notes on the material. I was surprised at how much I took out of this one episode because I was forcing myself to listen for certain materials. I also wrote down a bunch of words that I didn't know (or that I liked and want to add to anki so they become part of my active vocabulary). Even though I thought my comprehension of the material was pretty good, I wrote down about 31 unknown words during a 25 minute podcast (when you take away commercials). There are a few more words that I probably missed as well. I plan on reviewing all of these words, adding the useful ones to anki, and then re-listening to this podcast once I'm done. I hope to find a few more podcasts that I like which have different speakers so I can grow used toa wider variety of accents, speakers, etc. I think I could make some noticeable improvements if I were to do this for 5 episodes of 4 different podcasts where I am listening to a total of 20 podcasts which would average out to about 10 hours. Of course I would also relisten to each podcast after reviewing vocabulary, so that comes out to about 20 hours of listening. Not really a lot but when you consider that it is intensive listening I think it holds more weight.


That is all for now. Good luck to all and thanks for any advice people have given me!

[NoManches]

Since my last update:

I have found little time to read a significant amount.
I have found time to do a lot of "extensive" listening.
Also, I spent 2 days in Mexico this weekend where I was able to use my Spanish.

I continue to keep track of how many hours I've logged in for reading, speaking, and class time in Spanish. Another really cool thing I just discovered is that the app I use to find podcasts has a feature that keeps track of hours spent listeing to each podcast.

Here are my numbers so far:

Classes in Spanish: 21 hours, 15 minutes
1 on 1 conversation: 9 hours
Reading: 13 hours 38 minutes
Telenovelas: 3 hours
YouTube videos: 2 hours
Podcasts: 13 hours, 8 minutes

This comes out to roughly 62 hours of Spanish. Not much in the grand scheme of things, but it's more than I was doing a year ago!

I'd like very much to reach the following numbers by the end of the month:

classes: 30 hours
conversation: 15 hours
Telenovelas: 8 hours
YouTube: 10 hours
Podcasts: 21 hours

For a total of: 84 hours.....but we'll see

Some people are against keeping track of numbers like this, but for me, they hold me accountable. A year ago I would have told you that I watch a ton of TV in Spanish and listen to a ton of podcasts. But, if you were to actually look at the numbers it would be a lot less than what I had imagined. Keeping track of numbers like this is incredibly easy to do and is a good way of making me realize how little I am actually doing, even though I think I spend a lot of time trying to perfect my Spanish.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Some people are against keeping track of numbers like this, but for me, they hold me accountable. A year ago I would have told you that I watch a ton of TV in Spanish and listen to a ton of podcasts. But, if you were to actually look at the numbers it would be a lot less than what I had imagined. Keeping track of numbers like this is incredibly easy to do and is a good way of making me realize how little I actually doing, even though I think I spend a lot of time trying to perfect my Spanish.

I understand exactly what you mean. When everything is summed up at the end of the year I find that I really haven't done much - but in some rare cases, I've made significant progress in fewer hours that I would have believed.

[NoManches]

Since my last post:

Listening: I am somewhat satisfied with the amount of listening I have been logging in on a daily basis. Without podcasts I have no clue what I would do and can only imagine how bad my Spanish would be. Of the many podcasts I subscribe too, only a few are very interesting to me. I tend to listen to those ones for many hours, and I use the others for smaller lengths of time just to expose myself to different voices and accents. The biggest problem for me though is finding a podcast with a "normal speaker". That is, people on the radio tend to speak very clearly and with a limited amount of slang. When you go to a Spanish speaking country it can be difficult to find a person who speaks in this manner. I'm still looking for a podcast where the speaker has a very heavy accent, speaks super fast, etc. The closest I've come to is podcasts that interview people on the streets as part of the news.

Reading: I have to read a non-fiction book for one of my classes, which means no time for "pleasure reading of extensive materials". I'm fine with that though. The fact that I have to read in Spanish is exciting, and doing some intensive style reading is definitely a good thing. That being said, I am pressed on time so I don't have time to analyze every detail of the book. What I have been doing is this: Reading and understanding as much as I can without looking up words, but occasionally taking a difficult to understand paragraph and really breaking it down and understanding all of it. I have been doing this with my listening too (especially in movies). I will watch the entire movie or read the entire book, and occasionally take a small section to "master". My hope is that doing this periodically will translate to decent understanding of other material.

The biggest piece of the puzzle that I'm missing right now is interaction with native speakers. Skype can be okay, podcasts work, movies and TV get the job done, but nothing compares with face to face time with a native speaker. Since it has been hard to find some language partners in my city, I think I will start looking for volunteer opportunities in the Spanish speaking parts of town.


My goals for this week are as follows:

Finish reading the book for my class and write an essay about that book.
LISTEN to as many podcasts as I can and try to interact with as many native speakers as I can.

[NoManches]

Time for my weekly update!

Listening: This past week listening has been my main concern. Lots, and lots, of listening. Things I have noticed:

-My comprehension has been improving, slowly but surely...I haven't had any breakthroughs, but it is getting better.

-My concentration and "endurance" are still my weaknesses. I think this is due to the fact that the material I'm exposed to is not that interesting to me. Let me elaborate: I listen to a bunch of podcasts, some interesting, some are somewhat interesting, the others are not so interesting. The only reason I listen to "not so interesting" podcasts is because I desperately need the variety (different accents, vocabulary, male and female speakers, etc.). Also, in some of my foreign language classes the lectures are not that interesting and I find it very difficult to pay attention.

What I need is more interaction with native speakers. I need to be put in situations where I have to interact in Spanish and have to listen to what is said to me. The trouble is seeking out this interaction considering how busy I am with work and school. I have looked into volunteering with Spanish speaking members of my community.

Reading: I've been reading almost every day, and try to squeeze in as much reading as I can. Knowing that reading is improving my vocab and helping with my listening comprehension is a motivator. I just finished a non-fiction book that was relatively easy to read, although some of the technical terms in it were a bit of a speed bump. I finished this book and started to read a teen fiction book I abandoned a month ago, only to discover that the book was somewhat difficult to read. Perhaps this is because fiction often involves lots of descriptive vocabulary that might not be so common compared to non-fiction.

Television: I've watched a few telenovelas, a stand up comedy segment, and started a documentary the other night. I feel bad for not watching more, but as long as I'm getting a lot of podcasts in on a daily basis I think I'm making progress.



Some things I'd like to try in the upcoming weeks

1. I have a book along with the accompanying audiobook that I want to work with. I think I've mentioned this before but have never gotten around to it. Maybe I'll listen to a chapter, read a chapter, look up words, learn those words, etc.

2. Intensive work with telenovelas and movies. Since I don't have time to "binge watch" a ton of novelas, I might as well intensively watch a few and really focus on close to 100% comprehension and picking up new vocab. If Iguanamon is reading this I can picture him saying "I've been telling you to do this for months!!"

3. I want to do some more listening with transcripts...trying to fill in missing words and become very comfortable with certain materials.

4. Extensive listening. I have a few podcasts that are basically like extensive material for me, although from time to time I'll have bits that are tough to understand. My short term goal is to bring my comprehension up another 5% or so in order to really benefit from extensive listening.


That is all for now. I hope everybody is making progress in their respective languages!

[NoManches]

A good idea that I just have to share with anybody reading this....


I decided that instead of intensively watching an ENTIRE telenovela, that I would just watch the novela and only intensively watch scenes involving characters that I have trouble understanding.

Then it occurred to me: if these characters give me so much trouble, then maybe I should watch other shows & movies that they star in. This give me another idea....why don't I search their names on youtube to see what comes up.

Sure enough, I found 3, 45 minute long interviews with some of the characters from the show! I'm going to watch the interviews, and then download the audio from the interviews so I can intensively work with them for a while.

I think this might be the trick to improving my comprehension for this one particular show.

[NoManches]

A few odds and ends:

Yesterday in another post I mentioned that I would share the books I use for learning slang & idioms in Spanish. They are as follows:

Breaking Out of Beginners Spanish
The Street-Wise Spanish Survival Guide
Quick Guide to Mexican Spanish
Quick Guide to MORE Mexican Spanish
Cabo Bobs Definitive Guide: Mexican Slang 101
Cabo Bobs Definitive Guide: Mexican Humor 201

In my opinion, these books are AN ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE when it comes to learning Spanish, especially Mexican Spanish. I own all of them in Kindle format (and 5 of them in paper format) so I can easily search for a word and instantly have a list of matches. The Street-Wise Spanish Survival Guide is incredible, and lately has been my companion as I make my way from a low advanced learner to a hopefully a person who has a C2 level in the language (one day I hope).


Today I have no work, so I will spend the time catching up on school work and watching the interviews that I mentioned in my last post.

Right now I am watching this interview with Fernanda Castillo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-at-23YqiHw

I have about 4 more interviews waiting to be watched. The plan is to watch them throughout the week, while throwing in as many episodes of El Señor de los Cielos that I can. I plan on downloading the audio from each interview to my ipod and listening to them one more time to really extract some of the language that I may have missed on the first listen.

[westminstress]

I'm just curious, what podcasts do you like the best? I used to listen regularly to Radio Ambulente but the show has been on hiatus (though coming back soon, I hope!). I also listen to the VOA news podcast (which I like most for the segments on Latin America where they feature the voices of real people from different parts of the Spanish-speaking world). But I would love to learn about other good shows.