Walt's Spanish log

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greatSchism
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby greatSchism » Mon Oct 11, 2021 7:32 pm

AllSubNoDub wrote:
greatSchism wrote:I finished unit 24 and started unit 25. Unit 25 is not very difficult, and I feel relatively comfortable with the material. But I am going to spend the next two days drilling the material. I also decided to drop two of the books that I had started because I was spending more time looking up words than I was reading. When I try to understand the gist sentences that are not straightforward, sometimes I create my own story and miss the meaning entirely. I like to look up words that I don't know and add them to my vocabulary list. I started adding Spanish Idioms to my vocab list. I am adding 10 new ones a day to my vocab list from:
Guide to Spanish Idioms
a practical guide to 2500 Spanish idioms


FSI Spanish Basic: 24 / 70
[progress= Spanishdict Advanced words and select Anki top 5000] 1041/4209[/progress]
Duolingo: 5 / 10
Anki Spanish FSI: 801 / 6128

*** I have the audiobook and Kindle book.
La cárcel by Alicia G. García: 5 / 35


I haven't seen that one. I have the Big Red Book of Spanish Idioms and the Spanish Phrase Finder. The Spanish Phrase Finder is indispensable, especially when writing; it doesn't contain just full fledged phrases, but little idiomatic expressions which can be hard to search for in spanishdict. Only bad part is not enough example sentences (quite a few though).

Those are references really though, too big to SRS through. I really like the idea of SRSing through a book of idioms. I worked through this book a couple of years back, but that was before I knew the power of SRS.


The Spanish Phrase Finder, from what I have been able to see, seems like it would be very useful. I have not been having a ton of success adding them to spanishdict, but I have been able to add some. On Memrise, there is a premade list that I started but never finished because they force typing tests. I am copying and pasting them into the Spanishdict using "Import Words". After I paste them I go through them one by one. https://app.memrise.com/course/1292/int ... e-venta-2/
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greatSchism
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby greatSchism » Sun Oct 17, 2021 9:58 am

I am working on unit 26, which covers reflexive and direct clitic pronouns in the same construction. I find that it is beneficial that they spend so much time on reflexives, indirect and direct pronouns. I was swamped with work this past week and did not spend as much time with Spanish as I would have liked.

Yesterday I had a conversation with two Dominicans: a father and a son. The son was in his 20s or 30s, and the father was in his 60s. I thought our conversation had been quite good. In fact, the younger guy said to me “Tu hablas Espanol muy bien.” It always makes you feel good when you get a compliment. In the back of my mind, I sometimes wonder if they're saying it to make me feel good or if they're really sincere. I still make a lot of mistakes.

My last conversation with a Dominican did not go very well. I think it was because the man was a mumbler, like the character Boomhauer from King of the Hill.
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greatSchism
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby greatSchism » Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:23 am

I am on to unit 27, which introduces the formal imperative. The present subjunctive is used in the formal imperative, and the negative, informal tú commands. This is good because it gives me more practice with the present subjunctive conjugation. In Lengalia, I had studied the present subjunctive form in the previous lesson, and I am currently studying the negative imperative. The subjunctive form is one that I really do not use frequently. Occasionally, I will use it in stock phrases such as "Que tengas un buen dia," but I have not ventured very far from this lane.

This week I have not had much time to read books for pleasure or watch TV/movies, but I still manage to read a few pages of my book every night before I go to bed. I will finish the book in one year at the rate I am going, but some incremental progress is better than no progress at all. I had to cancel my iTalki meeting this week because of a scheduling conflict.

FSI Spanish Basic: 27 / 70
Spanishdict Advanced words and select Anki top 5000: 1235 / 4283
Duolingo: 5 / 10
Lengalia B2: 7 / 14

*** I have the audiobook and Kindle book.
La cárcel by Alicia G. García: 6 / 35
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greatSchism
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby greatSchism » Thu Oct 28, 2021 10:12 am

I am on to unit 28, which introduces the "Indirect imperative forms and Hortatory (1st person) imperative forms." As I progress through FSI Spanish and language learning in general, I cannot help but notice how many technical terms related to language I don't know. FSI in this section defines as "Hortatory means exhorting. ", which is a straightforward way to define Hortatory. So, I ended up looking up both hortatory and exhorting to find their exact meanings.

I've been busy with work for the past few weeks, so I'm progressing through FSI at a slower pace, about one unit per week. On top of everything else, I'm doing. For the first pass, it is very helpful to do FSI on my computer to read the words to understand their intent when I listen to the audio. The audio, both English and Spanish, is sometimes difficult for me to understand when there is ambient noise, like a car engine. When I have noise-canceling AirPods on, it is a much better experience. After the first pass, I listen to the audio and repeat it while doing other things, such as driving, running, or housework.

Recently, I watched a few episodes (14) of a new Spanish TV series called La Venganza de las Juanas, which is entertaining and, for the most part, understandable without having to look at subtitles too much. While there is a certain amount of absurdity, if you can overlook it, the show is entertaining. The TV show was Mexican but, one of the Juanas has a Colombian accent (which I love).



FSI Spanish Basic: 28 / 70
Spanishdict Advanced words and select Anki top 5000: 1290 / 4298
Duolingo: 6 / 10
Lengalia B2: 7 / 14

*** I have the audiobook and Kindle book.
La cárcel by Alicia G. García: 6 / 35
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AllSubNoDub
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby AllSubNoDub » Thu Oct 28, 2021 11:44 am

jackb wrote:
Is Gordita supposed to be a term of endearment? There's an air of "chubby chaser" about them.

A number of people have mentioned this specific line in the past. It's clearly from a different time. There was nothing like this in the FSI French though.


Gordito/gordita is term of endearment and means something like "darling" or "sweetie" in LA Spanish and is often used between spouses. I actually thought this was only a Mexican thing until this comment caused me to look into it. Apparently, it's used throughout much (all?) of South America all the way down to the southern cone (checking specific countries of interest would be prudent) and carries a similar meaning.
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greatSchism
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby greatSchism » Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:41 am

AllSubNoDub wrote:
jackb wrote:
Is Gordita supposed to be a term of endearment? There's an air of "chubby chaser" about them.

A number of people have mentioned this specific line in the past. It's clearly from a different time. There was nothing like this in the FSI French though.


Gordito/gordita is term of endearment and means something like "darling" or "sweetie" in LA Spanish and is often used between spouses. I actually thought this was only a Mexican thing until this comment caused me to look into it. Apparently, it's used throughout much (all?) of South America all the way down to the southern cone (checking specific countries of interest would be prudent) and carries a similar meaning.

I thought it was just a Mexican thing too. I think it is a fun term of endearment, although it took me by surprise when I first heard it, as I was translating it directly as fatty or chubby. In English, there are many terms of endearment, such as Sugar-plum, that are not very common in movies or in everyday conversation, and would sound odd when it is used.
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AllSubNoDub
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby AllSubNoDub » Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:56 am

greatSchism wrote:
AllSubNoDub wrote:
jackb wrote:
Is Gordita supposed to be a term of endearment? There's an air of "chubby chaser" about them.

A number of people have mentioned this specific line in the past. It's clearly from a different time. There was nothing like this in the FSI French though.


Gordito/gordita is term of endearment and means something like "darling" or "sweetie" in LA Spanish and is often used between spouses. I actually thought this was only a Mexican thing until this comment caused me to look into it. Apparently, it's used throughout much (all?) of South America all the way down to the southern cone (checking specific countries of interest would be prudent) and carries a similar meaning.

I thought it was just a Mexican thing too. I think it is a fun term of endearment, although it took me by surprise when I first heard it, as I was translating it directly as fatty or chubby. In English, there are many terms of endearment, such as Sugar-plum, that are not very common in movies or in everyday conversation, and would sound odd when it is used.


It's just weird because we're not used to it. Like my Anatomy & Physiology prof used to say, "if someone calls you 'sweetie' that means they've tasted you with the tip of their tongue!" I don't think gordita/o is that uncommon.
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greatSchism
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby greatSchism » Sun Nov 07, 2021 1:51 am

I finished unit 30 today and will start 31 tomorrow which is part of volume three. I'm still using the https://books.apple.com/us/book/fsi-spa ... 1472931102 on Apple books when I have the opportunity to look at a screen. I think that the person who put together the books and audio for Apple books did a good job. I did not have an iTalki lesson this week because I was pretty busy. Fortunately, I have a lesson scheduled for next week and I'm looking forward to catching up.

I finally finished La Venganza de las Juanas on Netflix. It was not hich is good, although at times it was a bit over-the-top.

https://youtu.be/Ajc5oGYNF8E

They finally released the new season of Narcos Mexico season three. I watched two episodes of it last night and I'm going to watch tomorrow tonight. While it is not entirely in Spanish, there is enough of it that I feel like I am getting some exposure to it. I really love the series, so it is an added benefit that I can practice my listening skills.

https://youtu.be/hhZBDO0CKJo

FSI Spanish Basic: 30 / 70
Spanishdict Advanced words and select Anki top 5000: 1280 / 4283
Duolingo: 5 / 10
Lengalia B2: 7 / 14

*** I have the audiobook and Kindle book.
La cárcel by Alicia G. García: 14 / 35
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M23
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby M23 » Sun Nov 07, 2021 3:39 am

greatSchism wrote:I finally finished La Venganza de las Juanas on Netflix. It was not hich is good, although at times it was a bit over-the-top.


That one looked a little too over the top for me. It has that "women take on a patriarchal world" vibe that I find slightly nauseating. I understand that that's absolutely a problem in that culture, but they take it to what seems to me like unreal levels. It also looks like some of the characters are from Spain, so that was a downside for me as well. I am not sure what it is about the Spanish accent, but I cannot understand it and I need to turn subtitles on for it.

greatSchism wrote:They finally released the new season of Narcos Mexico season three. I watched two episodes of it last night and I'm going to watch tomorrow tonight. While it is not entirely in Spanish, there is enough of it that I feel like I am getting some exposure to it. I really love the series, so it is an added benefit that I can practice my listening skills.


I was pretty excited to see that a new season of Narcos was coming out, too. I like learning the slang from Mexico, so it is a good show for me to watch.
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greatSchism
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Re: Walt's Spanish log

Postby greatSchism » Mon Nov 08, 2021 1:34 am

M23 wrote:That one looked a little too over the top for me. It has that "women take on a patriarchal world" vibe that I find slightly nauseating. I understand that that's absolutely a problem in that culture, but they take it to what seems to me like unreal levels. It also looks like some of the characters are from Spain, so that was a downside for me as well. I am not sure what it is about the Spanish accent, but I cannot understand it and I need to turn subtitles on for it.


It is a weird show, and I am not sure that I would say that it is "women take on a patriarchal world." Do they have that movement yet in Latin America? Not to give too much away, one of Jaunas is a Mexican who grew up in Spain. She works as a stripper and is sometimes a lesbian. She is estranged from her mother, until she finds out her rich uncle is really her dad, and the dad of all of the other Juanas. Regarding the Spanish accent, for me it really depends whether or not it is intermediate or native content. I can understand intermediate Iberian Spanish, but native content so much more difficult. This iberian Spanish podcast is fairly easy to understand.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6nKzjB ... ef14984b18
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