Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

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jeff_lindqvist
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Tue Feb 15, 2022 4:57 pm

luke wrote:By the way, English is not Latin. It's okay to end a sentence with "with". It can even be doubled at the end, under special circumstances. ;) For some though, it may feel more comfortable to express that idea with, I'm using the course with which the Foreign Service Institute used to train diplomats.


In re dangling prepositions, there are versions of a quote attributed to Winston Churchill. This is one of them:
This is the type of errant pedantry up with which I will not put. (Source. https://www.irmi.com/articles/expert-co ... ut-writing )
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Le Baron
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby Le Baron » Tue Feb 15, 2022 4:59 pm

Christopher Hitchens liked to quote that one so much people thought it was his!
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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Feb 15, 2022 5:53 pm

Le Baron wrote:¿Me puede dirigir a una de estas pruebas/exámenes MBTI?

Luke wrote:I test into the Diplomat types. I thought it was neat, considering I'm using the Foreign Service Institute course they used to train diplomats with.

By the way, English is not Latin. It's okay to end a sentence with "with". It can even be doubled at the end, under special circumstances

Having also been part of the school generation who were (wrongly) picked up on this thing of 'not ending with a preposition', it ended up sitting in the back of my head for a very long time. So I would write sentences such as yours above as:

"I thought it was neat, considering I'm using the Foreign Service Institute course used to train diplomats." Or went with the: "with which they..." construction. Now I just don't care. I wouldn't use 'neat' though, it only means 'tidy' in my head.

Thank you. Apropos would have been a better choice. I appreciate you bringing the internationality - even among native speakers -back to my attention.

Le Baron wrote:Even worse, one of my former neighbours once laughed at me because I said: 'If I were you..' Having the temerity to 'correct' me to 'if I was you..' I said "no sir, it's an example of the subjunctive in English. You clearly haven't reached this level yet." And as a consequence I think he told his girlfriend to do her saxophone practise that little bit longer and louder, in order to annoy me.

I don't have a particular MBTI test to direct you towards. I've taken it at least three times through the years and remember the result and have always thought the MBTI framework is useful for informally discussing personality types.

I too, like hear the subjunctive in English where it belongs.

And take comfort that your neighbor's girlfriend was thinking of you as she blew the saxophone. Once again, you get the last laugh.
Last edited by luke on Tue Feb 15, 2022 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby Le Baron » Tue Feb 15, 2022 6:00 pm

Luke wrote:And take comfort that your neighbor's girlfriend was thinking of you as she blew the saxophone. Once again, you get the last laugh.

Now that is the sentence of the day! :lol: Time to go into stand-up sir!
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby Caromarlyse » Tue Feb 15, 2022 7:00 pm

I haven't looked into the personality testing in the language learning sphere, though I have been tested to death through work over the years, so am pretty accepting of my strengths and weaknesses and quirks! I do find that the teachers I end up gelling well with (;-)) tend to end up sharing the same traits in certain key areas. I don't seek it out; it tends to come out over the course of several lessons that we're similar in certain respects.
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Feb 16, 2022 10:49 pm

BeaP wrote:cherchez la femme

Speaking of which, today Soledad & Compañía has started a new section, "DC", Después de Cien años de soledad, as I heard it. And guess what? One of the early chapters in the "DC" section is about how Mr. Gabo was recognized as a lady's man as his obra maestra carried him into superstardom.

Soledad & Compañía has become more pleasant to listen to. Not sure if it was the audio speed adjustment down to 90%, or that some magical part of the grammar has slipped into place, but Daniela Sierra (the narrator) is pleasurable to shadow. She's very good at putting attitude in her voice.

: 8 / 8 Los funerales de la Mamá Grande (2x)

The Los funerales set of short stories was more enjoyable the second time through.

I'm thinking of moving on to the third book of short stories in Todos los cuentos. There's at least one of those, the longest one - almost 2 hours - that also has some characters that have a place in, you know, that book I like.

Bouncing between the "reflections of friends" and "short stories" is keeping the listening interesting. Maybe it's this combo that gives me the feeling that my Spanish is improving.

I've been doing some extra work on the short stories at home. Listening to a YouTube narration with auto-translate to English subtitles turned on has been a good way to get up to speed on a story before I listen to it on the walk. I've also been reading along in my Spanish copy of Todos los cuentos with that YouTube auto-translate doing the narration and, with the font set to 400%, I can glance over and catch a word I want translated in an instant. That might be another thing that's helping.

For me, all of his stories get better with more listens.

Had breakfast in this nice French restaurant this morning. Read the first section of chapter 9, which Kepa calls, desilusión. It's fun reading his flowing sentences, his enormous reach, the relations that - and now it strikes me that Melquiades made the pronouncement in chapter one - Las cosas tienen vida propia.
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: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Feb 20, 2022 11:18 pm

luke wrote:
BeaP wrote:cherchez la femme
I never expect life to be so stereotypical, but usually it turns out that it is.

Chapter 38 in the audiobook, Soledad y Compañia is about the bout. I heard Gabo's cohorts giving the gossip at 135% audio speed this afternoon. Boom! It dropped. Well, I will be listening to it again tomorrow at 85%. Gabo had a devastating zinger for Vargas Llosa y su femme.

I just got up from a nap. I did listen to that section again. There was not complete consensus, and this is a little hazy now, but it was actually Mercedes, Gabo's wife, who made a comment about the time Gabo and Vargas Llosa's wife spent alone together. When this "alone time" came up, Mercedes said something to Vargas Llosa, whose wife was on the outs with him at the time, something like, "Yeah, Gabo likes good looking woman, ..., but only when they're very beautiful (so don't worry)".

So, seems like the zinger was from Mercedes.

But Vargas Llosa didn't like it either way.

In my hazy, I edited the original post, instead of quoting it, which was what I thought I was doing, up until the point I saw what I actually did.

But the post is probably better in this shorter style anyways. I had some clever stuff about unit 47 being tough, and using innovations and variations, like using Live Lingua FSI to go from mystery to mastery.
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: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Feb 22, 2022 3:40 am

the plot thickens
By the way, I edited the post above accidently. I had meant to post a follow-up. This plot started long ago.

Remember that Vargas Llosa wrote a book about Gabo's work, García Márquez: Historia de un deicidio (god-killer).

Also have in mind:
Teó = God
Filo = Love

Now check out this passage from la obra maestra del maestro:

El general Teófilo Vargas se adelantó a sus intenciones: en pocas horas desbarató la coalición de los comandantes mejor calificados y se apoderó del mando central.
General Teófilo Vargas put forward his intentions: in a few hours he disrupted the coalition of the best qualified commanders and took power of the main command.

«Es una fiera de cuidado -les dijo el coronel Aureliano Buendía a sus oficiales-. Para nosotros, ese hombre es más peligroso que el ministro de la Guerra.»
“He’s a beast to be careful of,” Colonel Aureliano Buendía told his officers. “For us, that man is more dangerous than the Minister of War.”

Entonces un capitán muy joven que siempre se había distinguido por su timidez levantó un índice cauteloso:
Then a very young captain who had always been outstanding for his timidity raised a cautious index finger:

-Es muy simple, coronel -propuso-: hay que matarlo.
“It’s very simple, colonel,” he proposed. “He has to be killed.”

El coronel Aureliano Buendía no se alarmó por la frialdad de la proposición, sino por la forma en que se anticipó una fracción de segundo a su propio pensamiento.
Colonel Aureliano Buendía was not alarmed by the coldness of the proposition, but by the way in which, by a fraction of a second, it had anticipated his own thoughts.

-No esperen que yo dé esa orden -dijo.
“Don’t expect me to give that order,” he said.

No la dio, en efecto.
He did not give it, in fact.

Pero quince días después el general Teófilo Vargas fue despedazado a machetazos en una emboscada y el coronel Aureliano Buendía asumió el mando central.
But fifteen days later General Teófilo Vargas was cut to pieces by machetes in an ambush and Colonel Aureliano Buendía assumed the central command.

That had to hurt. Vargas... Mommie.

Just one more stone in the arc of the story.

Oh, and I had neologized, "Gabosphere".
2 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Tue Feb 22, 2022 6:30 pm

luke wrote:Oh, and I had neologized, "Gabosphere".
Noted. Very felicitous coinage, and useful, too. Thanks.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:30 pm

while i'm thinking about it
It came on me today, as I finished my walk, I can poke in some FSI drills from Live Lingua.

There's a certain feel-good factor in completing a chapter or a short story in an audiobook. I like to do that in a single walk, when possible.

I'm nearing the end of Compañía y soledad. When La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuela desalmada set of short stories ended, I began listening to the Juan Pablo Raba narration of Cien años de soledad again, to support my Anki habit, which looks like the image below at the moment. I'll be starting chapter 5 in the audiobook and I'm in chapter 9 of 20 in the intensive read/Anki party.

I've been listening/shadowing Mr. Juan at 80-85% audio speed. He's a fast talker. He covers the book in just over 13 hours, whereas another Audible narrator does it in 17.5.

Anyway, FSI drills can be relatively short, and I'm thinking the additional supplementation will help keep my FSI on track, so I wanted to note that idea today.

: 45 / 124 Cien años de soledad (9x)
: 46 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish
: 52 / 55 FSI Illustrations
: 8 / 8 La increíble y triste historia (1x)

Here's an Anki card I made today. The mule on the left looks to have a nice set of aperos, like coronel Aureliano Buendia may have had at the time. The one on the right lets me know exactly what all we're talking about. The cards have two faces. Below you see them both:
anki100.png
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: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo


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