Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
SCMT
Orange Belt
Posts: 245
Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 6:32 pm
Languages: Engilsh (N)
Spanish (Learning)
French (Beginning)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10551
x 803

Re: Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Postby SCMT » Tue Mar 01, 2022 2:55 pm

I don't think there is any doubt about it--February was the least productive month in language learning I have had since I started this project sometime in 2019. Life and work got busy, I got distracted by other interests, and the result was a month that was mostly devoid of activities in any language but English.

Actually, the first few days were pretty good. I finished the Somos show (5 hours,) did my normal reading of the news, might have opened the novel, and finished episode 16 of FIA. Since then I've done no study at all. I had two brief (5 minutes each?) conversations with native Spanish speakers, but that's it. I'm far short of any goals I set for the month and am suddenly behind on my reading goal for the year. So I don't think February should count. It's a short, cold, dreary month, so much so that people break it up by celebrating the patron saint of beekeepers by hoping to get shot by a naked baby with a bow and arrow and venerate a large rodent who, in fairness, seems to be as good at predicting the weather as Jim Cantore.

The one thing I did realize is that I may have to break up my goals. 10 hours per month is too big of a chunk over too long of a time. I need weekly or daily targets, or it is too easy to cluster all of the language activities together rather than have regular practice. I will try to tweak that in March, a much better month of normal size, more sunshine, and no chocolate hearts.
6 x

User avatar
SCMT
Orange Belt
Posts: 245
Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 6:32 pm
Languages: Engilsh (N)
Spanish (Learning)
French (Beginning)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10551
x 803

Re: Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Postby SCMT » Tue Apr 19, 2022 8:11 pm

The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew.


Bobby Burns was right on. The schemes of this man (or mouse) have gone about as askew as possible, at least as far as language related study. I've spent a good portion of the 6 weeks or so since my last update traveling, some for work and some for pleasure, a part of it in the Spanish speaking world and a part in...well...the not Spanish speaking world. I've read the news irregularly in Spanish, I've had too many conversations that were more or less in Spanish to count, and I don't think I've done anything else. So rather than try to recount what I didn't do, I'm going to make a short list of random bullet points that come to mind.

--My conversational abilities don't seem to have deteriorated since my last trip to Mexico despite lack of use, but they haven't gotten any better, either. I really need to get back in the habit of regular conversation practice.

--I started a new TV show, Tijuana. I have to use subtitles. Maybe with enough input the listening comprehension magic will happen, but I still struggle mightily with TV and movies.

--I am having some hearing difficulties and am getting them checked out now. That certainly isn't the cause of my issues with audotiva comprehension--lack of listening time is--but it sure as hell doesn't help, either. Getting old sucks.

--I have heard that if you know Spanish, you can decipher enough Italian to get by. I now think this must have been invented by someone who knew neither language and, finding them similarly unintelligible, assumed the contrapositive: "I can't speak Spanish, so I don't understand anything in Italian. Therefore, if I did..."

--I heard a lot of languages in my travels. In one particularly touristy place, my son and I identified what we thought were 8 within earshot, which was kind of cool.

--Despite a couple of years of study in high school, 2nd year courses at University, and a renewed interest in awakening it, I don't speak French.

--Teenagers are the same all over the world, except German teenagers may be more so.

So I'm not sure what that means I am going to do from here. My skills in Spanish are not where I would like for them to be, and playing around with French is enjoyable but without clear purpose. This hasn't really been a conflict, as I haven't had time to study either one, but it's something I'm going to have to figure out.
11 x

User avatar
SCMT
Orange Belt
Posts: 245
Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 6:32 pm
Languages: Engilsh (N)
Spanish (Learning)
French (Beginning)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10551
x 803

Re: Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Postby SCMT » Wed May 25, 2022 7:37 pm

It seems like it should be about time for an update, so here it is.

Although i can't really say that I have again embraced language study, my daily habits have gotten better. In Spanish, I am reading my newspapers most of the time, particularly BBCmundo. El Pais changes the rules about accessing content for free about every 6 months--sometimes you have 5 or 10 free articles per month, sometimes there is unlimited free content and other pay only content, etc.--and whatever the new rules are, I seem to have reached their limit. I have also been listening fairly regularly to the bbc news videos, which i usually feel that I understand fully about the 2nd or 3rd time through.

I had a very interesting conversation in Spanish last night at a youth baseball game. The guy I was talking to is 11 years old, but I think I held my own fairly well. I also ran into the father of one of my son's friends, a native of Mexico, and he offered to get together some time so he could work on his English and I could work on my Spanish. We decided that two tequilas (each!) was probably the right dosage for proper language learning, but I will have to report back on that.

I rewatched lesson 16 from French in Action, watched 17 twice and studied the accompanying written materials, and have given 18 a first viewing. Listening comprehension is again starting to fall behind my reading ability as the difficulty level of the program increases.

Something I meant to post in my last update but forgot: as I was traveling this spring, I had the chance to spend a little time in Rome, where I found a phenomenon that I found curious. Evidently, pop and classic rock from the US is fairly popular for street musicians, yet many of the street musicians must not have a high enough level of English to understand the lyrics and repeat them back. So in multiple cases, I heard these players singing Bon Jovi, or the Temptations, or the Rolling Stones in complete gibberish that I suppose sounds something like English to people who don't speak it. Now, I would hate to have to learn a repertoire of Spanish songs without a transcript, and I would certainly enjoy a well sung hit in fake-Italian just as much as in actual Italian because I don't understand either, but I found it funny to hear "Knocking on Heaven's Door" belted out by a guy with a guitar who just made up things that sounded like English words to go along with the tune.
8 x

User avatar
SCMT
Orange Belt
Posts: 245
Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 6:32 pm
Languages: Engilsh (N)
Spanish (Learning)
French (Beginning)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10551
x 803

Re: Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Postby SCMT » Fri Jul 15, 2022 3:26 pm

6 weeks since the last update? I think in the new experiments they are conducting at the LHC at CERN, they are going to discover that time really does move faster as you get older.

I guess the highlight of my time since my last update was the week I spent working in Mexico. I felt like I held my own in conversation in general, and as long as the other party is the slightest bit patient, I feel pretty comfortable discussing a wide range of general topics. There is still a lot of switching back and forth to English, but I think that's just part of the modern world, and I don't like the difficulties of understandign through masks and plexiglass and ambient noise. I also need to brush up on some specialized industry vocabulary. Overall, though, I was pretty happy with my abilities.

I've started watching the Star Wars Saga in Spanish on Disney+. I finished Episodes II and III; I am of the opinion that there is no reason for anyone to ever watch Episode I. I think the project is going well, as I started out a little frustrated at my comprehension but am now feeling better about it. The dubbing is quite good, the dialogue is familiar, and whoever voiced the Spanish is much better than Hayden Christiensen; I don't think Christiensen is really that bad at acting if you replace his flat, monotone voice with someone who uses inflection! In fairness, I think I saw somewhere that much of the dialogue in the original English had to be added post production for the prequels and consequently came across as flat and unemotional, and I have always thought Natalie Portman and Samuel L Jackson were uninspiring. I think Padme and Mace Windu are better in Spanish, too.

I have continued to read the news in Spanish pretty regularly and have occasionally watched videos on BBCmundo. I have taken the additional step of starting to record unknown vocabulary again, but that's pretty much all of the activity I am doing in Spanish It probably isn't enough to advance my abilities, but hopefully it is enough to maintain until more focused study finds a place in my day again.

I finished Episode 21 in French in Action, and I'm concerned that Robert is about to blow it with Mireille. It's also possible that she's just toying with his emotions and will soon express her romantic intentions or, just as likely, crush his soul with a cruel rejection of his boyish affections. She seems pretty nice, but you never know. I am enjoying the show and even though my viewings and work in the materials are a bit erratic, I do think my French comprehension is improving.
6 x

User avatar
Carmody
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1747
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 4:00 am
Location: NYC, NY
Languages: English (N)
French (B1)
Language Log: http://tinyurl.com/zot7wrs
x 3395

Re: Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Postby Carmody » Fri Jul 15, 2022 7:10 pm

It's also possible that she's just toying with his emotions and will soon express her romantic intentions or, just as likely, crush his soul with a cruel rejection of his boyish affections. She seems pretty nice, but you never know.


It was my view that she was indeed truly beautiful, but yes indeed, a real bitch throughout and I identified with him through out. Some guys never learn.
1 x

User avatar
SCMT
Orange Belt
Posts: 245
Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 6:32 pm
Languages: Engilsh (N)
Spanish (Learning)
French (Beginning)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10551
x 803

Re: Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Postby SCMT » Tue Aug 23, 2022 3:00 pm

Another month, another update.

I have done a little bit of "study," since the last post, more than I realized before I started writing about it. I've been traveling, although not for fun, and it was all in the English speaking world, unless you count Los Angeles as something foreign. I have been keeping up with my newspapers in Spanish, and I started a new book, Viktor Frankl's El Hombre en Busca de Sentido. I've always wanted to read it, and since it's a translation anyway, I figured I would give it a shot. I think this makes 3 Spanish books I have started but not yet finished: Dan Brown's Origen, which I didn't really like; Isabel Allende's Casa de los Espiritus, which I like but became a slog, and now this. So at least if I'm going to meet my goal of reading 5 books this year, which I won't, then I have a head start on 60% of them. Frank's memoir is much easier to read than Allende's fiction (although on a much heavier subject,) and it's short, so I think I'll finish this one in fairly good time.

I have finished El Imperio Contraattaca, so I'm half way through the 8 films I'm going to watch. Where I thought the Spanish voice actor improved Hayden Christiansen's performance, the translators were not so kind to Luke, Leia, and Han. They are flat or with weird inflections that miss the original English iconic lines. I still get to watch Star Wars and pretend it's study, though. I have also tried to watch those good BBCmundo vids whenever I have a free 10 minutes or so.

I have finished Episode 24 of French in Action. I think I've finished it. I might watch it again. I'm pretty happy with my comprehension of both the spoken French and the written materials. I really haven't worked on production, other than the little bit of listen and repeat in the shows, but when I do try to create French, even in my head, a whole bunch of Spanish comes out, especially verbs. At least I haven't started speaking in Python.
4 x

User avatar
Dr Mack Rettosy
Orange Belt
Posts: 134
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:53 pm
Location: USA, The Great Lakes
Languages: English (N), Mandarin
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16180
x 729

Re: Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Postby Dr Mack Rettosy » Wed Aug 24, 2022 3:03 am

Really enjoyed reading through your log.

This might be a stretch, but I seem to recognize your profile picture.. are you a member on bogleheads? If not ignore me asking, Picasso is Picasso after all. Seems like you’re handling Spanish and French well, I think you’ll need to pick up a few more languages to keep things quixotic!
2 x
Mandarin goals:
Read: 2146000 / 10000000 /10,000,000 汉字
Study: 2006 / 5000 / 5000 hours

User avatar
SCMT
Orange Belt
Posts: 245
Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 6:32 pm
Languages: Engilsh (N)
Spanish (Learning)
French (Beginning)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10551
x 803

Re: Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Postby SCMT » Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:51 pm

Dr Mack Rettosy wrote:Really enjoyed reading through your log.

This might be a stretch, but I seem to recognize your profile picture.. are you a member on bogleheads? If not ignore me asking, Picasso is Picasso after all. Seems like you’re handling Spanish and French well, I think you’ll need to pick up a few more languages to keep things quixotic!


No, I'm not a boglehead, just a tilter at windmills.
3 x

User avatar
SCMT
Orange Belt
Posts: 245
Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 6:32 pm
Languages: Engilsh (N)
Spanish (Learning)
French (Beginning)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10551
x 803

Re: Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

Postby SCMT » Tue Jan 31, 2023 5:27 pm

Last January, as something like a New Year's resolution, I wrote:

SCMT wrote:
So this year I’d like to do more. I’d like to read more and listen more and watch more and converse more. I'm going to set a goal óf 10 hours per month of movies and tv in Spanish, plus the same amount in either youtube videos or podcasts. Written down, that doesn't sound like an overly ambitious goal, but I think practically, that may be all i can muster. I also will find a conversation partner again for at least a once a week discussion. I will continue my mostly daily reading of newspapers, but I also would like to finish at least 5 novels, including the one I'm dallying with now.



And, for the record, none of this happened.

I finished my 10 hours of media in January, and I'm fairly certain I never approached that number again. I did not restart my regular conversations on italki, and although I started 3 different books, I abandoned all of them somewhere around halfway through. I watched 4 Star Wars movies, as well as various other shows and youtubes, and I'm about halfway through French in Action, but I have done basically nothing since August to advance my languages. I haven't been lazy; other pursuits simply took up the time and energy I once devoted to Spanish. I'm also in that "fairly decent at it" point in the process where I can do most of the things I want in Spanish, knowing that how well I'm doing them is another question entirely, and there hasn't been a really compelling reason on the horizon to add urgency to the process. So I fizzled out.

For this year, I'd really like to finish the goals I set for last year: finish Star Wars, watch more shows in Spanish, finish my 5 books. My biggest need, IMO, is more practice producing, so a conversation partner or one of those writing submission sites is a good idea. And when I'm watching something mindless and uninteresting on TV, I will make a conscious effort to turn this into study, even if it is just watching something mindless and uninteresting in Spanish. And I want to finish FIA, if for no other reason than to see how it ends.

Happy '23, everybody!
7 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests