James29's Spanish and French Log

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tastyonions
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Re: James29's Spanish and French Log

Postby tastyonions » Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:32 am

Vivo en Texas y trabajo en una empresa que fabrica alcoholímetros para automóviles. Hace unos meses fui a uno de los "centros de instalación" donde se ponen los aparatos en los carros. Hubo cuatro o cinco empleados trabajando en este centro y noté que eran todos bilingües sin excepción. Cambiaron facilmente del inglés al español y viceversa según el deseo del cliente.
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James29
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Re: James29's Spanish and French Log

Postby James29 » Sun Nov 13, 2016 12:04 pm

Tati wrote:
I was having a look at the last pages of your log and it did surprise me a bit that you were reading translated works instead of books written originally in Spanish. May I ask you if there's a learning reason in your choices?


I only read translations because I know that I'll like the books I read. There is little chance I'm not going to want to finish a Grisham or Connelly book. If there were an author who wrote in Spanish that I knew and really liked I'd be more than happy to read books originally written in Spanish. I don't mind translations at all in terms of the Spanish. The book I just finished that was originally written in Spanish seemed just the same (likely easier) than the translations I read. I guess the only real reason I read translations is that I want to enjoy the story and I am too lazy to find an author I'd like in Spanish.
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Re: James29's Spanish and French Log

Postby James29 » Sun Nov 13, 2016 12:19 pm

tastyonions wrote:Vivo en Texas y trabajo en una empresa que fabrica alcoholímetros para automóviles. Hace unos meses fui a uno de los "centros de instalación" donde se ponen los aparatos en los carros. Hubo cuatro o cinco empleados trabajando en este centro y noté que eran todos bilingües sin excepción. Cambiaron facilmente del inglés al español y viceversa según el deseo del cliente.


Yes, that's the goal.... change between English and Spanish at will. It is not hard for me to just pick up the phone and call a Spanish speaker or take a call in Spanish. I would certainly not say my Spanish is perfect, but it is definitely good enough to get the job done and my customers really appreciate being able to communicate in Spanish. Often times my customers speak English fairly well and they prefer my Spanish. That makes me feel good. I think a big part of the future of the US is the Spanish speaking market. It amazes me how so many people completely ignore the part of the market that is growing so much.

Well, in terms of Spanish this week, I finished the book about the Caribbean island. It was not bad, but I certainly would not highly recommend it. I'd say it was a good, simple and easy read. Kind of "ho-hum-ish" in many ways. I did not realize that it was part of a series and the villain apparently has been in many previous books. Maybe reading the series from the start would have made it better. I don't have any desires to go back and read the other books in the series. The one thing I really liked about it was that it was quite easy to just blast through quickly. Most books I read take me about 20-25 hours. This book I was able to read in 6-7 hours, max. It was pretty short.

So, I'm back to Harry Bosh. I started Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. There is something about this character that makes me feel like there coouldn't be a bad story. It is really a simple concept. LA cop investigates murders and there are always some twists, turns and excitement. I'm picking up vocabulary, but it is quite easy to read. I don't think I'll get sick of Bosch for a while. There are something like 20+ Bosch books so I've got plenty of reading if I want to read them all. That said, I won't want to read them all in a row. That would be tough.

I'm listening to the news every morning. Tons of stuff about the election. Pretty interesting to get a change of stories. I've always liked listening to the news on the way to work so this is great. There is not much I don't understand in the broadcast. Also, I don't really need to even concentrate anymore to listen. It really feels like second nature.

I went to a meetup, as usual. Nothing new there.

I met a friend for a quick beer at a Mexican restaurant. We sat at the bar. There was a drunk Guatemalan guy sitting next to me on the other side. He about fell off his stool when I started speaking with him in Spanish. We had a nice chat. That was fun. He was a nice guy.

I've officially quit French again. It is just not something I want to do now. I still want to advance my Spanish and have so many things I'd like to do with Spanish. My time always seems to be more limited in the winter too.
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Re: James29's Spanish (and sometimes French) Log

Postby James29 » Sun Nov 20, 2016 7:59 pm

I've had a pretty good week in Spanish. Nothing too exciting, but I'm plugging along. I'm reading Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly. Reading Harry Bosch novels is just so comfortable. I was only able to read 20-30 minutes a day during the week, but made up for it a bit this weekend where I had a few free hours.

I, of course, am listening to VOA news every morning and going to my weekly meetup. Nothing new there.

I'm hoping to get started on watching Celia, the telenovela. I'll probably start after Thanksgiving. I need things like that and watching through the winter will be much easier than during the summer. Reading is great, but I'm not sure how much it is really doing for my conversational Spanish.

For about two weeks I've been teaching Spanish to my son. We are primarily focusing on doing the language transfer course. I like it so far. It is pretty good and I think it will work. I don't think he'd be able to it without me helping explain things to him. I also introduced him to duolingo. I never did either of these resources so it is kind of fun for me to see how they work.
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Re: James29's Spanish (and sometimes French) Log

Postby Fatih » Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:18 pm

James29 wrote:I.
For about two weeks I've been teaching Spanish to my son. We are primarily focusing on doing the language transfer course. I like it so far. It is pretty good and I think it will work. I don't think he'd be able to it without me helping explain things to him. I also introduced him to duolingo. I never did either of these resources so it is kind of fun for me to see how they work.


Congratulations on you and your son on the Spanish studies! I think it's wonderful! I wonder how old your son is? I have a little daughter and not now but in the future I may also consider teaching her Spanish, too.
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Re: James29's Spanish (and sometimes French) Log

Postby Tomás » Tue Nov 22, 2016 7:34 pm

James29, are you the guy who recommended "Angeles y Demonios" for Raul Amundaray's voice earlier this year? I just started listening to it. He is fantastic. It's not something I would ever read in English, but the way Raul reads it makes it feel like a movie inside my head while I am in the car commuting. It's at about the right level for me. I understand at least 80% of the language and 90% of the plot, which feels about right. Thanks for the rec!
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Re: James29's Spanish (and sometimes French) Log

Postby James29 » Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:58 pm

Fatih wrote:
James29 wrote:I.
For about two weeks I've been teaching Spanish to my son. We are primarily focusing on doing the language transfer course. I like it so far. It is pretty good and I think it will work. I don't think he'd be able to it without me helping explain things to him. I also introduced him to duolingo. I never did either of these resources so it is kind of fun for me to see how they work.


Congratulations on you and your son on the Spanish studies! I think it's wonderful! I wonder how old your son is? I have a little daughter and not now but in the future I may also consider teaching her Spanish, too.


He is 12. I do not pressure him with anything so I am quite pleased that he is now interested in Spanish. He really likes it so far. He seems more interested in Duolingo, but at least it is something. It is a fun thing we can do together.
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Re: James29's Spanish (and sometimes French) Log

Postby James29 » Wed Nov 23, 2016 9:00 pm

Tomás wrote:James29, are you the guy who recommended "Angeles y Demonios" for Raul Amundaray's voice earlier this year? I just started listening to it. He is fantastic. It's not something I would ever read in English, but the way Raul reads it makes it feel like a movie inside my head while I am in the car commuting. It's at about the right level for me. I understand at least 80% of the language and 90% of the plot, which feels about right. Thanks for the rec!


Yup, I love his voice. That's what I want to sound like. I am glad you are liking it. He also does the da Vinci Code's Spanish audio book. Those are the only two books I am aware of with him as the narrator.
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Re: James29's Spanish (and sometimes French) Log

Postby James29 » Sun Dec 04, 2016 12:35 pm

Last week I was traveling but I kept up with my Spanish. I feel like I've already started on my Spanish goals for 2017. I really want/need to boost my Spanish up a level. I am quite pleased with my Spanish and never really dreamed of being able to use the language for so many things. For the first few years of my Spanish journey my goals were to be able to read adult level books and have meaningful conversations at what would roughly be the B2-ish level. I can say I have definitely met and exceeded those goals.

My Spanish is acceptable for what I need. I want to use my Spanish for business purposes and be able to feel like I can completely dominate the language in the sphere of my business. I don't think I can do that right now. I can certainly conduct all aspects of business in Spanish, but I'd say I am at the lowest level of dominating Spanish for business purposes. I have quit French because improving my Spanish is really my top priority and will really be beneficial for me in the long-term. So, manos a la obra!

What do I need? Well, I need to get from what I guess is a low C1-ish level to a comfortable level where I can dominate the language and have little difficulty when I speak with a new customer. My customers often have little education and they often have terrible cell phone connections. They are emotional and excited. They can be from any part of the Spanish speaking world so the accents are often very new to me. All of these things creates a perfect storm of difficulty for understanding them.

This past week I had a number of conversations with some of my current Spanish speaking customers. I definitely miss some things in the conversations. This is not good. I need to improve my receptive skills for these types of conversations. I also sometimes struggle with saying things I have never said before. Talking through hypothetical situations with new vocabulary is difficult. I need to use my "study" time to get a ton of input and simply get more comfortable with the language so it becomes second nature. The more advanced I get I am noticing something of a "sixth sense" that allows me to understand things even when I don't "understand" them. It is hard to explain. Somehow I have been able to pick up on patterns or uses of the language in my subconscious brain and I am able to understand just by feel.

For the first time I am feeling like my speaking skills need some focused work. I've always felt if I really focus on the receptive skills that the output skills would naturally follow. I think that is true, but I need to help the active skills along. I am getting tongue tied too often. My Spanish flows wonderfully when I am having a one on one conversation or if I am at the weekly meetup. But, if I am speaking about a new topic or with a new customer I often get tongue tied and have to "talk around" subjects in ways that are a bit cumbersome. I have not worked actively on producing Spanish for years.

My top priorities in life do not include Spanish. Family, work and my health are much more important. I see Spanish as a sub-set of of my work right now. It is a long-term investment. It also helps me stay sane... especially when I am stressed out... so it helps with my health side of things.

I am going to try to fit Spanish into my life as best as possible so my goals for 2017 are not really set in stone. I am going to be doing quite a bit of treadmill running for the next few months and I am going to take advantage of that to watch TV in Spanish. My hope is that I can easily get through 100 hours of watching TV in Spanish while running on the treadmill. Right now it is working fine. I am just watching TV shows I have on DVD. Soon I'll probably get netflix and start in on a telenovela. Celia is on my short list as I really want to focus on the Caribbean accents, if possible.

Reading is doing wonders for my comfort in the language. I read quite a bit in Spanish. The kindle is great. My speed is improving too. Right now I'm working on the first Jack Reacher book. I'm about 27% done and that is just in the last several days. I think I can read 2 million words before the end of 2017. When possible I'm going to "read" books with audio as I think that is helping more than just reading on my kindle. 2 million words is pretty ambitious for me and it will require me to improve my reading speed. I'll really start focusing on reading during the summer. For some reason I read much more in the summer.

I have the wonderful habit of listening to the VOA news every morning on the way to work. I have probably been doing that for a year and a half or so now. It is not going to stop. I really like it and it is super easy. I will keep doing this through 2017.

I definitely need to do some active out put and grammar studying. I have the C level grammar book that I have been eyeing for quite a while. I absolutely loved the B level book and the C level book is set up the same. I'll get it done in 2017. I'll probably start in on it when I am done with treadmill running. We'll see. Maybe I'll just work through it periodically as I feel like it. I definitely need to do it. I think it will really help boost my Spanish.

I will continue to go to meetups too. That is just for fun now.

I thought about hiring an online tutor. I have decided not to. There is something appealing about studying at an advanced level and not spending any money to do so. Eventually I'd like to hire a tutor, but I'd like to press my level a bit more. A tutor might be in store for 2018. We'll see.

So, my goals for 2017 are:

1) Watch 100 one hour TV episodes in Spanish (45 minutes without commercials)
2) Read 2 million words in Spanish novels
3) Complete the C level Spanish grammar book
4) Listen to the news (or something) every day on the way to work

In terms of this past week or so, I've been doing ok. I've been watching TV while running and I've been reading Jack Reacher. I am happy I found the Reacher series. He seems like a good character that I'll be able to read for a while. It only looks like there are five books translated into Spanish.

Well, I am motivated to push my Spanish to the next level. Here comes 2017.
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Re: James29's Spanish (and sometimes French) Log

Postby DaveBee » Sun Dec 04, 2016 12:43 pm

James29 wrote:I definitely need to do some active out put and grammar studying. I have the C level grammar book that I have been eyeing for quite a while. I absolutely loved the B level book and the C level book is set up the same. I'll get it done in 2017. I'll probably start in on it when I am done with treadmill running. We'll see. Maybe I'll just work through it periodically as I feel like it. I definitely need to do it. I think it will really help boost my Spanish.
On another thread Cavesa posted links to a Reddit thread from someone who had just taken the DELE C1 exam. You might find that useful.

EDIT
James29 wrote:I am happy I found the Reacher series. He seems like a good character that I'll be able to read for a while. It only looks like there are five books translated into Spanish.
If you've not yet read them, you might enjoy Conn Iggulden's books. I like his Ghengis Khan (Conquistador) series best.
Last edited by DaveBee on Sun Dec 04, 2016 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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