Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

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Le Baron
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby Le Baron » Mon Dec 06, 2021 1:34 am

Maybe the Hugo re-run you plan to do will be useful. I have always been sceptical about re-running courses (especially if I think they are 'basic'), but recently I've got to thinking that their barer bones content probably does a lot to plug any gaps in fundamental knowledge that was missed while you were getting your bearings. I also have Hugo Spanish, the dark blue book edition, and I've been running through it in an admittedly haphazard fashion, so I also thought about running through it again with solid focus this time.

I sort of trust the old dark blue versions of Hugo. I'll never forget that it - and the Hugo Taking Dutch further - absolutely rocketed me through the basics of Dutch all those years ago. I used the Taking German Further to similar effect. Somehow I'm much slower with Spanish, even though I'm proficient in another romance language (perhaps the wrong one!).

However I think I read a lot less than you do in Spanish.
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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Dec 07, 2021 5:50 pm

Recientemente encontré dos cosas que me divierto y estoy pensando que me ayuden bastante:

Primero, andar con libreta (cuaderno) para escribir palabras interesantes de Cien años de soledad. Después busco en el libro para encontrar la frase donde la escuché. Hago tarjetas en Anki de frases con las palabras destacadas en color por supuesto. A veces busco algun imagen para acompañarla. He hecho más de ciento setenta barajas en los ultimos días. Anki ha hecho la mitad del labor. :lol:

La otra es una canala muy popular:



Pero no solo esa. Miré también algunos videos sobre Gabriel García Marquez. Uno, en inglés fue este:



Y no digo que este me ayudó entender el libro, sino que aún autores destacados como ese han amorado el libro lo que a me también me encanta, a pesar de que ellos lo leen en traducción.

Bueno, que les vaya bien amigos!
3 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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Le Baron
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby Le Baron » Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:39 pm

luke wrote:He hecho más de ciento setenta barajas en los ultimos días. Anki ha hecho la mitad del labor. :lol:

Es pan comido ... ¡y de repente tienes 50.000 tarjetas en Anki! :shock:
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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Dec 07, 2021 8:06 pm

Le Baron wrote:
luke wrote:He hecho más de ciento setenta barajas en los ultimos días. Anki ha hecho la mitad del labor. :lol:
Es pan comido ... ¡y de repente tienes 50.000 tarjetas en Anki! :shock:

Aunque dije -he hecho-, en realidad, fue Anki y yo... Mejor dicho, 25 palabras cada capítulo, 20 capítulos, quizá quinientas.

Y otro:



Edited to remove link to a video that has become private.
Last edited by luke on Fri May 27, 2022 6:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
1 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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Le Baron
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby Le Baron » Tue Dec 07, 2021 8:44 pm

4% funding though. :(
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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Dec 08, 2021 1:12 am

A bit more on cards ...

Six chapters into Cien años de soledad, so 6 batches of words added to Anki.

216 cards, which means I did 108 of them and Anki did the others for me.

Some examples:
los manteles de Holanda
the tableclothes from Holland - with an image of a Holland tablecloth

sus nueve noches de velorio.
his nine nights of wake. - with an approriate image

un estanco inviolable del corazón
an inviolable seal of the heart - with an image of un estanco with a masculine shape which is helpful the gender

Pietro Crespi le regaló al templo un armonio alemán
Pietro Crespi gave the temple a German harmonium - with a picture of a German harmonium

Most of the cards don't have images.

un rescoldo áspero en la boca
a harsh ember in the mouth
(figurative: remnants of a feeling)

ya se habían reanudado las sesiones de punto de cruz
already had been resumed (renewed) the sessions of cross stitch

una sustancia de color apacible
a substance of pleasant (mild) color

aferrándose a un agotador esfuerzo de voluntad para no comer tierra
holding on to an exhausting force of will to not eat dirt

The cool thing I'm finding is the cards are not particularly difficult. They evoke new and stronger images of the story. I'm 5 days into it and have been through all the cards, except las enterradas (buried cards).

So, this is all making my walks with a notebook and pens listening to the Gustavo Bonfigli audible recording more pleasant. The walk is better. Anki's better. The story's better.
6 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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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Wed Dec 08, 2021 6:23 pm

luke wrote:Miré también algunos videos sobre Gabriel García Marquez. Uno, en inglés fue este:



Y no digo que este me ayudó entender el libro, sino que aún autores destacados como ese han amorado el libro lo que a me también me encanta, a pesar de que ellos lo leen en traducción.

I had a chance last night to watch this lecture by Rushdie, who brought back memories from my first reading (in English). My recommendation to Cien años came from a lady at work, who was Columbian and raving about the novel. Sceptical at first until I read that very first paragraph. The journalist in the author I suppose taught him the first sentence should be a hook, and these words rival the famous beginnings of other novels such as "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . ." and "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
1 x
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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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Thu Dec 09, 2021 1:17 am

MorkTheFiddle wrote:My recommendation to Cien años came from a lady at work, who was Columbian and raving about the novel. Sceptical at first until I read that very first paragraph. The journalist in the author I suppose taught him the first sentence should be a hook, and these words rival the famous beginnings of other novels such as "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . ." and "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

"Call me Ishmael".

Apparently Rushdi can tell a tale too.

Gabriel García Marquez recounts his story, unmoved as a journalist, weaving bits of this and traces of that, creating a world profoundly familiar to the reader, as if we'd shared the same past.

Mucho años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo.

Listening to capítulo 6 open this morning, El coronel Aureliano Buendía promovió treinta y dos levamientos armados y los perdió todos. Even though I've heard it many times now, continued to delight me with its boldness and style.
5 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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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Fri Dec 10, 2021 5:16 pm

Was glancing back at some previous logs and thought, "should have captured the progress bars, because you change what's in them pretty regular".

: 10 / 20 Cien años de soledad (7x)
: 37 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish
: 45 / 55 FSI Presentations of Pattern
: 3863 / 4000 Leyendo 4000 páginas desde junio 14, 2021

Finished up FSI unit 37 written exercises this morning. 2 1/2 pages of my scribllin's in Spanish.

I invited the old FSI CDs into el cuarto de baño a few days back. I'm using them as an informal preview. I started with unit 38. I've progressed to the CD for unit 40. This is low pressure, familiarization, sometimes putting a drill on repeat which will probably help when the unit rolls around in the "sequential" track.

I removed Hugo Spanish in 3 Months from the signature. I'll listen to the CDs again on my next road trip. I progress better when focused on fewer things.

: 43 / 257 Hugo Spanish in 3 Months (2nd time - 1st was overview with CDs and only a little book)

Cien años de soledad y Anki. Taking a walk with a notebook, hearing palabras mal conocidas, and finding them in book and making an Anki card for them is going well. Today, with capítulo 10, only captured 4 words - 8 naipes. Part of it was very well understood, part was mind wandering, part was, 'hm, guess I didn't hear that word right because I'm not finding it in the book'. No harm. For this trip through the story, I just want to build a life raft, not a space ship.

en una fragorosa parranda de veinte días
in a thunderous (noisy) spree of twenty days

One of the cool things with this is many of these words get used multiple times in the books and a variety of contexts. You may notice that I sometimes change the translation's word order to be closer literal. I find that helpful too.

In addition to a google translation, I use SpanishDict to see if we can improve on Google's choice. Sometimes that just makes it easier to remember. Example: frasco is used various times, google thought "bottle", but "flask" seems more appropriate in the context, which is aided by fact that frasco and "flask" sound more like each other. That card has (bottle ; jar) too, just to sort of round out what these things are. Here, things that can hold a liquid. Sometimes it's perfume. Sometimes it's mercury :)

The Anki stats show I'm caught up, created 140 cards for the first 10 chapters (of 20), have seen them all, except for the enterrados (buried for tomorrow). (Anki created the other 140).

■ Nuevas 0 0.0%
■ Aprendiendo 0 0.0%
■ Reaprendiendo 0 0.0%
■ Jóvenes 265 94.6%
■ Maduras 0 0.0%
■ Suspendidas 0 0.0%
■ Enterrados 15 5.4%
Tarjetas totales 280

Anki, direct quotes from the book, google translate with SpanishDict's helps and an occasional image have delighted me several times. Multiple meanings or connotations makes García Marquez choice le bon mot (the right word). Cervantes does that too. Maybe all good writers do.
4 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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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:26 am

Using my current progress bars as points of departure:
: 20 / 20 Cien años de soledad (7x)

It was nice listening through Cien años de soledad over the last week and a half. That's about 2 chapters per day, or about 100 minutes of audiobooking and walking. I pushed myself to see the Anki cards I added each day. I wanted to get through them all before the next road trip. 414 cards in total. Today was the biggest "bump" day. Almost 49 minutes just on the Anki deck. I won't be adding any more cards for quite some time though. The "minutes" will be down to 10-15 in a few days.

I'd reduced Anki "new cards per day" on the 5000 Frequency and FSI decks down to 7, then 3, now 1, both in preparation for the visit and to counteract the Cien años bump. A couple days this week I wasn't eager to do Anki first thing in the morning. That's a sign to back off on the new cards.

: 38 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish

Happily closed out FSI unit 38 yesterday.

I discovered something that worked for the 2 days I did those Reading/Writing exercises and the day after when I did the first reading/writing exercise for unit 39.

Do you want to know the secret?

No breakfast. Fun walk with audiobook. Cold shower. It's invigorating in an unheated home in December. With that prep, FSI Reading/Writing exercises are pleasant :lol:

: 45 / 55 FSI Presentations of Pattern

Looking to make progress on the illustrations during my family visit. Hasn't been much while I've been cramming the audiobook in the 2 week break between road trip/family visits.

: 3883 / 4000 Leyendo 4000 páginas desde junio 14, 2021

Keeping the reading tracker around. During the family visit I expect to count El Quijote, which now has a relatively mature Anki deck behind it.

Road Warrior Trip
I "double-compressed" the El Quijote audio with Audacity. That makes the quiet parts about as loud as the normal parts. 2 trips ago, the road noise and the dynamic range of the recording didn't go well together. Double-compressing the audio should take care of that. So, it's on the list for "going". So is the audio for Hugo Spanish in 3 Months.

FSI-wise, it's random replacement drills on the way there and random variations on the way back. Those are both decent reviews. There will also be FSI Sequential and FSI Presentation of Pattern (illustrations of grammatical points).

Audible audiobooks are on my phone and will be available, but aren't on my "todo" list.

Although I haven't left yet, I've been planning what to do when I get back. The dominating thoughts are:
* El amor en los tiempos de cólera in the house with Con Kepa Amuchastegui from youtube and reading it in English (or maybe watch the video with subtitles at 400% font size). I don't plan to make as many runs at it, so maybe a Spanish/English Listen-Read, then maybe just a Listen/Walk, and perhaps a Spanish/Spanish Listen-Read. (with some time between each).
* Vivir para contarla will be "Take a walk" book. Similar switch of approaches with listen-reading.
* Cien años after Amor and back into the new mix.

Speaking of Cien años on the side. I'm eager to do a slower, more analytical run. Things like finding cross references of varios acontecimientos. I'm interested in figuring out more clearly how and why he pairs certain things together. Some are obvious, some are less so. If a certain event is mentioned 5 times and was described in detail once, where are the preview and the back references? Even back references often bring in a detail that wasn't in the first "telling".

Frankly, I'm tempted just to go again at Cien años immediately, but thinking it is more balanced to slip those other books in before I do it. Never want to get sick of it.

I discovered a fun channel called Stupid Punks. It has a lot of South Park analysis:

5 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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