CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

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CarlyD
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CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby CarlyD » Sat Jul 18, 2015 11:44 pm

I did save my old log, but I had nothing exciting there. If this will be our permanent home, I'll go though it and see what I want to re-post here.

My current plan: German until May or June, then Spanish for the rest of the year. Currently A0+ in German and maybe A2 in Spanish.

Current resources for Spanish: Advanced Spanish Step by Step, Verb Workbook, and various single-subject books. I also have the Spanish Now I and 2 books and the Spanish Power Basic and Intermediate that I want to go back through.

Once we get more set up here, I want to see if anyone wants some of my Level 1 fiction books. This was the Santillana series--I've finished Adios, Papa and most of La Sombra de un Fotografo and didn't really like them--too dark.

I'm currently reading El Crimen de la Ñ which is very fun, along with a Scooby Doo book and a Berenstein Bear Scouts book.
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2024 15,000 pages Reading Challenge--pages: 1180 / 15000

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CarlyD
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Location: California, USA
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Re: CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby CarlyD » Sun Jul 19, 2015 9:07 pm

From my old profile page:

Why I learned Spanish

I studied Spanish to be able to translate customer-submitted documents at work. Once I learned enough to do that, I never went any further, although I (2015) am now working on going further.

How I learned Spanish
I started Spanish in school, later at BilingualAmerica.

My plans to develop my Spanish skills
I would like to be able to comfortably read books, watch tv shows and read online newspapers in Spanish. I currently have several textbooks, a variety of resources and a good number of fiction books. Plus I'm using Duolingo and Babbel.

How I use Spanish
At work, translating complaints from the public. Edit: I’m no longer working at that job, so my daily use is currently nil. The plan for July-December 2015 is to find conversation groups for weekly (at least) practice.

My strong points in Spanish

Fairly good accent, thanks to a great tutor.

My weak points in Spanish

I have no fluency.


Why I learned German

I spoke a bit of German when I was a child, forgot almost all, but have always wanted to thoroughly learn it.

How I learned German
I'm doing self-study right now. Current plan is January to June for German.

My plans to develop my German skills
I have a plan that’s not really working. I need to either take a class or get a regular tutor to work on pronunciation before I go further.

How I use German
With my online knitting group--many native German people in the group. Before going further, I need to develop practice partners and find a conversation group.

My strong points in German
Strong desire to learn.

My weak points in German
All.
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CarlyD
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Location: California, USA
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Re: CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby CarlyD » Tue Jul 21, 2015 12:12 am

I've started the "1500 Words in Spanish" on Memrise. I probably already know about half of them, so it's going really fast. I saw a lot of other ones I'd like to do--verbs and such. I'd signed up there for German, but had never really gotten into it.

I'm already thinking about my plan for the 6WC starting August 1st--I think I'm going to try for 2 hours a day with a combination of grammar book, conversation book, and hopefully tv shows. I went through the listings a few weeks ago and almost all of the shows I used to watch in Spanish are gone now, so I need to find new ones. On the plus side, I have about 20 Spanish stations available now, as opposed to the 3 I used to have.
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Stelle
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Re: CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby Stelle » Tue Jul 21, 2015 2:54 am

What kind of TV shows do you like? There are lots available on DramaFever: http://www.dramafever.com/latino/
I really liked Frágiles and Isabel! Frágiles is a drama about a physiotherapist with slightly unconventional approaches. Very, very good! Unfortunately there's only one season available. Isabel is a period drama about Queen Isabel and King Fernando. What I like about DramaFever is that the English subtitles can be turned on and off.

I'm also watching (and absolutely loving) El Internado: http://www.dailymotion.com/RavenSubs - a very mysterious and addictive show about strange happenings at a boarding school.
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CarlyD
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Re: CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby CarlyD » Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:01 am

I'll probably just see what's available now on Univision and Telemundo on my regular tv. I know Discovery has a Spanish channel, but I'm not sure if I can get that one.

Ok, I just checked. They've pulled most of the stations, including Telemundo and Discovery to Latin add-on package. They've even split off the telenovelas that used to be on Univision to their own channel, which I also don't get. How irritating.
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CarlyD
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Re: CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby CarlyD » Tue Jul 21, 2015 5:05 pm

So the tv show I plan to follow is Comisario Rex, about a police dog. I've found that the actual show is Kommissar Rex, and all the original episodes are in German. The show comes on here every weekend, so I don't know if it's dubbed or what. But a bonus is that the original German episodes are available online, so when I return to German I can watch them all again.

The other show I'm going to try is Hermanos y Detectives, an Argentine series about a detective and his 10-year-old child prodigy brother.

As I'm wandering around the internet waiting for a repairman to get done I found:

50 Free Online Resources To Get You Learning Spanish RIGHT NOW!!! http://www.tellittomewalking.com/50-and ... right-now/

and it's sequel 60 Insanely Useful Resources To Get You Learning Spanish RIGHT NOW!!! http://www.tellittomewalking.com/60-use ... right-now/

Some I've seen before, some were new. I ended up bookmarking about 15 sites to go back and look at more in depth. News in Slow Spanish I will use right away, CNN en español I will look at later.
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CarlyD
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Re: CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby CarlyD » Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:29 pm

Hermanos y Detectives is an amazingly good show. They talk too fast for me right now, but the show is very well done and pulls you in from the start. I'm saving them on DVR so I hope to better understand them before the end of the year.

I found what seems to be a talk show in Spanish on the radio today. Only heard a snippet of it on the way to the store--and did understand some parts of it--but they spoke fairly clearly. That will be part of my listening plan during 6WC.
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CarlyD
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Re: CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby CarlyD » Fri Jul 24, 2015 12:08 am

I just finished the Cervantes placement test recommended by Stella. Hmmmm.....for some reason I thought my inability to translate past-tense verbs would magically create a higher score.

So I'll be putting in a lot of work on verb tenses during the 6 Week Challenge that starts on the 1st.

I did a lot better on the reading comprehension than I was expecting, and probably totally blew the listening comprehension. He talked too fast!! (Or he was talking normally and I was listening too slowly.) I did understand some towards the end.

Book Review:

Hippocrene Language Studies. Spanish Verbs: Ser and Estar. Key to Mastering the Language by Juan and Susan Serrano. 1992.

I found this book a long time ago, but never read it. It approaches the two verbs as HOW and WHAT.

Example:

Ser viejo vs. estar viejo.

Antonio está viejo.

HOW he appears to us--how he dresses, how he acts. Even though he may be young in physical years, in his mental or physical state, we are referring to HOW he appears to us, and he appears old.

Pedro es viejo.

Pedro is 92 years old. He's old. So we express this facts of WHAT--and WHAT Pedro truly is, is old. However, if Pedro happens to be a man who takes such good care of himself, dresses smartly, keeps fit, and has such a young mentality as to make him appear much younger than he actually is, you can say:

Aunque es viejo, Pedro está joven. Although he is old (in years), Pedro is young (for his age.)

The book goes through many explanations like this, plus giving all the idioms that use ser and estar. Since I'd previously really only thought of them as temporary/permanent this shows so many more shades of meaning.
Last edited by CarlyD on Sat Aug 01, 2015 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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CarlyD
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Posts: 608
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Location: California, USA
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Re: CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby CarlyD » Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:00 pm

For some reason, I was thinking that the 6WC started today. :( Next Saturday.

So far I'm using textbooks and the following online resources:

Duolingo
Memrise
Babbel
BBC Mi Vida Loca
Destinos
and a Youtube series Extra en Español
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James29
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Re: CarlyD's Spanish and German Log

Postby James29 » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:53 pm

CarlyD wrote: It approaches the two verbs as HOW and WHAT.



That's pretty cool. I never saw that type of explanation.

By the way, I absolutely love the photo in your profile. Your dog is a spitting image of my old beloved late best friend when she was a puppy. My dog was half basenji and half corgi.
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