Spanish

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dklinker
White Belt
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2020 6:26 pm
Languages: English (N), Turkish (maintaining) Spanish (learning)
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Spanish

Postby dklinker » Mon Dec 27, 2021 12:28 am

For the last week I've been trying to setup a program for studying Spanish. I may eventually choose to use a course, but there is so much material available on the internet that for the moment I am exploring while trying to decide how to proceed.

For now I've been learning 10 present tense verbs in context each day and have also been using this playlist from the youtube channel "The Language Tutor" :
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... nRE38cZZoy

I've also been watching videos on pronunciation, and for practice have been using this playlist from the Easy Spanish channel on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... r61c-Bq-tW

For listening practice I've found two sources with short, familiar stories and with very clear audio and and subtitles/transcript. These should keep me busy for at least the next three months as they are challenging and as I am mining the second one for practice with verbs and expressions.

Cuentos para dormir (the first 108 videos)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... T-OaXCZZbE

Lecciones que aprendo de la Biblia
https://www.jw.org/vsl/biblioteca/libro ... as-biblia/

Both of these sources were very helpful for Turkish so I hope they will work as well for Spanish.
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dklinker
White Belt
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2020 6:26 pm
Languages: English (N), Turkish (maintaining) Spanish (learning)
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Re: Spanish

Postby dklinker » Sat Jan 29, 2022 4:35 am

Below is the link to a youtube playlist that has very clear explanations of Spanish pronunciation. It's been really helpful.

Ten Minute Spanish
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 4D2zFlwdfX

Pronunciation has turned out to be more of a chore than I had expected, so I am using the Assimil Spanish with Ease course as my main resource as it provides pronunciation practice along with grammar. I'm also using a book called Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Spanish. It is very basic and moves slowly but provides lots of exercises to drill the grammar points and vocabulary into my head.

I'm spending most of my time on listening, still using the playlists listed in the last entry. Most of the other resources I've sampled on the internet are either still too difficult or just not the type of audio I'm looking for, but below are two youtube playlists that are are working out well.

Spanish Input
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 2YE_6eRk3d

Spanish Language Coach
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 4eB2zVphVM
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Kraut
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2599
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:37 pm
Languages: German (N)
French (C)
English (C)
Spanish (A2)
Lithuanian
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Re: Spanish

Postby Kraut » Sat Jan 29, 2022 12:20 pm

dklinker wrote:
Spanish Language Coach
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 4eB2zVphVM


Excellent, this one has man-made subtitles
Los españoles y los idiomas | Intermediate Spanish Podcast | Spanish Listening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEXl0uN ... VM&index=2
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dklinker
White Belt
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2020 6:26 pm
Languages: English (N), Turkish (maintaining) Spanish (learning)
x 81

Re: Spanish

Postby dklinker » Sat Mar 05, 2022 4:30 am

After a little more than two months of study I am a bit disappointed with my slow progress and a bit surprised at how many conceptual challenges there have been - ser and estar, por and para, when to use the various past tenses - but it has been an enjoyable journey so far nonetheless.

The Assimil Spanish with Ease course is moving along slowly. It's working well for pronunciation and basic grammar but it seems to leave a lot of gaps.

This past month I read the Spanish translation of six children's books by Beverly Clearly. There was a lot of unknown vocabulary but, because the prose is very simple and the storylines are uncomplicated, they were enjoyable and not particularly difficult.

Here are links to the listening materials I have been using:

Dreaming Spanish Superbeginner
These videos are fun and fairly simple. There are subtitles and the presentation is slow.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... KmVSngZucl

Shackleton Kids
This is a playlist with videos about historical figures. Very good quality audio and subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... NhoQ9gE3f9

Cuentos con Valores
This is a playlist of short videos for native speaking kids. Again, the sound quality is very good and there are subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... _3yDkqSgIN
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dklinker
White Belt
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2020 6:26 pm
Languages: English (N), Turkish (maintaining) Spanish (learning)
x 81

Re: Spanish

Postby dklinker » Sun May 08, 2022 2:52 am

Since the last post life has been busy and complicated but Spanish is still moving along slowly.

I've been trying to find books that are fairly easy to read without a dictionary. Lately that has meant translations of children's books by the British author Enid Blyton. The vocabulary and structure are fairly basic so it is not too difficult to figure out a lot of the vocabulary from context - and a lot of the same vocabulary is used repeatedly. I was able to get four of them through inter-library loans, but for most of them I've had to use archive.org. The site is not very good for browsing so, if anyone is interested, here a link to some of the books.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=en ... io&sin=TXT

A couple of weeks ago it felt like it was time to start using more challenging listening materials. I've been using these two youtube channels and will probably continue using the second one for several months.

The first channel, Dory Story Espanol, has 4 to 6 minute videos with a fictitious narrator telling strange or awkward (and usually unrealistic stories) about something that they have experienced. The videos are aimed at teens and are silly, but they have a lot of language that you could expect to find in daily life. There are at least five or six more channels on youtube that are very much the same.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChb0BF ... 6Yw/videos

The second channel, Que Pasaria Si, also goes for shock value in some of its videos, but is more interesting and has more language you would expect to find in media.

https://www.youtube.com/c/QuépasaríasiW ... /playlists
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