Spanish Tapas log

[tungemål]

I have slacked the language studies lately, but I try to remember to do a little bit every day.

- I have reviewed some of the VideoEle videos.
- I have reached story 49 of the Lingq mini-stories.
- I sometimes listen to the news on spanish radio.
- I am reading a book. It is on history - Al-andalus, the period of muslim domination of Spain. Quite interesting as I knew nothing about this.
- I sometimes review words in Anki, but I stopped doing it every day. Haven't added new words the last month.

My goals going forward are merely to go through all the 60 mini-stories, and to finish reading the book.

[tungemål]

I noticed one thing that sometimes prevents me from understanding spoken spanish: intonation. Spanish intonation is sometimes (for me) strange and unexpected.

Listen to this simple example:
https://youtu.be/AQhm2sn-2ZQ?t=21

When she says "Estás pensando..." she starts low and go up in tone on the syllables "pen-san": estasPENSANdo. While I would naturally go up only on "san": estaspenSANdo - because that's the stressed syllable. This is enough to throw me off, allthough it shouldn't be.

Also listen to the second sentence. She ends with a tone going up, which to me sounds like a question. But it is a statement, not a question (I think, at least).

Any comment?

[jeff_lindqvist]

Interesting! I wonder if she does it consistently (for such a sentence) or if it's just something similar to a delay, where the pitch may be high but still the stress is somewhere else, e.g "Well... [with a high level tone], the thing is that blablablabla...".

That is, I don't hear it as a fully stressed pénsando. (Maybe it's just me?)

Do you have any more examples?

[tungemål]

After having listened a few times more, it sounds completely natural to me. This is why I need a lot of listening experience.

I think the intonation pattern reflects an emotional tone in the voice (maybe that is similar to what you meant). That is, intonation shows stress, but can also be varied based on what expression she gives the sentence.

[tungemål]

I am at story 57 of the Lingq ministories. I use the European Spanish version, and these are great for practicing natural speed listening comprehension.

I sometimes listen to the news bulletin of RTVE. It is fast and I really have to concentrate to understand anything of them.

Today I listened to a NÓMADAS podcast. Nice programme, and this time it was about the coffee farms of Colombia. The good thing is that after the news bulletins this programme is more relaxing and I don't think they speak fast anymore. I understand the main storyline, but don't get everything on the first listening. If I had the transcript or if I'd listened several times I would have understood all the sentences, I think. By the way, I think the Colombian accent is pleasant and it seems to be easier to understand than some other Latin American accents.

[tungemål]

I've gone through all the 60 ministories!
So now I'm going to listen to them on my ipod shuffle while running, playing in random order. I put story 20-60 on the ipod - it is more than 2 hours of audio. All 60 stories are probably at least 3 hours.

I've found a couple of podcasts for learners that I'll use as well for listening:
- Español Automático
- Unlimited Spanish Podcast

They are both based on the immersion principle - only spanish spoken during the entire podcast. They suit me well as they are aimed at my level.

[tungemål]

Casa de papel

I've never watched this series, but heard that it is good. I'm going to try to watch it in Spanish, without subtitles. I'll probably not understand everything, or even much at all. I don't know. I'd like to find a synopsis that I can read after having watched the episode, so that I'll understand what happened.

[iguanamon]

It always helps to search in Spanish. For a big internationally viewed series like "Casa de Papel" there is plenty available. You can search using the key words "Episódios; Capítulos; Resumen; Temporada / Episodes; Chapters; Summary; Season (Series)". Here's what I found in a quick search. Be careful of spoilers.:
Capítulos Casa de Papel This site has capsule summaries for episodes by season (series).
La casa de papel – Guía completa
Todo sobre Casa de Papel

When I use a series to learn, I like to read a summary before and after I watch in order to know what's going on so I can concentrate on the dialog. I know you said you don't want to watch with subtitles and that's great. You can also download the Spanish subtitle srt file for the episode, read first and watch; watch and read later; download the English or German subs and make your own parallel text... or not. To download the subtitle srt file click on the title of the series in blue DO NOT CLICK ON ANY DOWNLOAD LINKS ON THE PAGE! The download links are designed to trick you. Do not download or open ANY exe files! The subtitle files will be in a zipped archive on a normal download notification. Open the file within the zipped archive with the .srt extension. On a windows machine it will open the subtitles in "notebook".

As I said, you can watch without subtitles, but if you want to still take advantage of them and what they have to offer while reading them later or beforehand, what I have described is a good way to do this and still allow you to figure things out a little better as you watch if you have more knowledge going into it. It's also a way to test your comprehension. Think of it as having an answer key. At this stage, I like to take notes and compare my comprehension against what was said.

This is one way I use to "train" listening. Eventually, you won't need the crutch.

[tungemål]

Thanks for the links! Yes, using subtitles before and after would be beneficial. I watch it on Netflix, and they provide subtitles in Spanish and other languages, so it's perfect for language study.

I wanted to try extensive listening and just watch a lot of episodes, like some people here on the forum recommends (in this thread). In this way it doesn't feel like "study" but is merely entertainment.

After the first episode, I can say that I certainly didn't get everything they said, but I could understand enough to mostly follow the plot. A lot of quick speech in a breathy intimate voice - not the easiest for a learner. Reading a summary is helpful.

[tungemål]

I tested my vocabulary.

Dialang test:
Initial test 522 of 1000 points, which probably indicates B2
The main vocabulary test put me at B1, which was a bit disappointing.

The Leipzig test of passive knowledge of the 5000 most common words:
88%, which was good, but this test is easier since it measures passive understanding.