Spanish from the beginning

[bard]

I got through basic arithmetic on http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/index.html.

I started listening to Genesis today. Here is the way I will go about it for now: I noticed that I can basically take note of where the speaker is in the text. I am reading just a bit faster than he is speaking. Is this the way I am supposed to do it? I had a hard time with the speed of the voice, so I am cheating! "How?" you ask. Well, I set the audio to play back at .95 speed instead of full speed. I also made his voice not quite so bass-ie by using the graphic equalizer. I figure anything it takes to catch the meaning of more words must be good.

[bard]

I got through the "things I like" section on the website I have been mentioning. I read another chapter of Genesis. I am not sure of my method as I read. I may need to slow down and stop the recording more often to get more understanding. I am torn between that and just letting it flow, picking up words as I go every now and then. If I just let it play and go along with my reading, will I pick things up naturally? I hope so. Another approach, splitting the difference, might be to stop at the end of each chapter and see if I can translate it by looking at the Spanish and then listening to it while looking at L1.

[bard]

listened to the section on "parent's work" on the website I have been mentioning. I am a little distressed to find out that many (not all) spanish speakers are like French speakers, they do not really say all of the word. I had thought that this was just a French thing, but it seems very natural to many spanish as they speak to sort of smooth the word out or chop it off. Back when I studied German this was not an issue, but I guess each language has it to one degree or another. I find it annoying! I know of some english speakers like this but overall they are not the norm.

[MmeFleiss]

Here are a couple of free Spanish readers that I think would be of great interest to a beginner:

https://books.google.com/books?id=k3RMA ... sh&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=i6EXA ... &q&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=HO4RA ... er&f=false

[bard]

I read through Genesis 4 and was very happy with my progress on comprehension.

Thanks for the links! I will check them out and report back.

[iguanamon]

I, too, started with Genesis for Haitian Creole. I like the Old Testament stories. They have more basic vocabulary and are "down to earth". I used a parallel text to start with L2 on the left and L1 on the right. I've been reading Genesis in Djude0-espanyol/Ladino in Rashi script lately (after having read the Gospels- ironic for a Jewish language).

For Spanish, there are a plethora of resources for Spanish-learners out there. There can be so many they can be overwhelming at times. Destinos gets recommended a lot but few people seem to stick with it to the end. That's a bit of a shame. Destinos combined with any good, basic course book is a wonderful combination. I'm old enough to remember watching the series broadcast in reruns on PBS and used to set my VCR (remember those!) to record it. It is very useful for conversational speech and listening training.

A website that gets little use here on the forum is the Centro Virtual Cervantes, the Cervantes Center from Spain website for Spanish-learners, the CVC Aveteca has lessons from A1 to C1, in a monolingual format. No need to worry, there is enough explanation in the early lessons to get a learner through it. Scroll down tothe bottom of the page for the A1 section.

Aveteca es el archivo de las Actividades del Aula Virtual de Español. Periódicamente se incorporan aquí todas las actividades, clasificadas de acuerdo con los niveles de referencia A1-A2 ,B1-B2 y C1 que recoge el Plan curricular del Instituto Cervantes.

It is vastly underutilized and free.

The CVC also has free graded readings with highlighted words defined in a pop-up box: Lecturas paso a paso. Click on "Inicial" to get started.

[bard]

[quote="iguanamon"]I, too, started with Genesis for Haitian Creole. I like the Old Testament stories. They have more basic vocabulary and are "down to earth". I used a parallel text to start with L2 on the left and L1 on the right. I've been reading Genesis in Djude0-espanyol/Ladino in Rashi script lately (after having read the Gospels- ironic for a Jewish language).

For Spanish, there are a plethora of resources for Spanish-learners out there. There can be so many they can be overwhelming at times. Destinos gets recommended a lot but few people seem to stick with it to the end. That's a bit of a shame. Destinos combined with any good, basic course book is a wonderful combination. I'm old enough to remember watching the series broadcast in reruns on PBS and used to set my VCR (remember those!) to record it. It is very useful for conversational speech and listening training.

A website that gets little use here on the forum is the Centro Virtual Cervantes, the Cervantes Center from Spain website for Spanish-learners, the CVC Aveteca has lessons from A1 to C1, in a monolingual format. No need to worry, there is enough explanation in the early lessons to get a learner through it. Scroll down tothe bottom of the page for the A1 section.

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions, I will definitely try it out and let you know of my progress!

[bard]

Studied through "People's physical characteristics" on the website lately mentioned.
I have been seeing how Windows 10 incorporates different languages. If you want to immerse yourself in spanish with spanish dialog boxes and various windows interactions in spanish, then you must download the "language pack" for that language. Also, it seems the default windows keyboard for latin american spanish is NOT US International, so I switched it to that. I should be able to start typing in spanish on my Windows 10 computer now!

[bard]

Re: MmeFleiss

I downloaded the .pdf of the spanish readers. Hopefully, my spanish will be beyond that by the time I get to them, but they are definitely worth it if I find my present course too frustrating.
I did some review today in Madrigal's book and read to Genesis 7.

[MmeFleiss]

Re: MmeFleiss

I downloaded the .pdf of the spanish readers. Hopefully, my spanish will be beyond that by the time I get to them, but they are definitely worth it if I find my present course too frustrating.
I did some review today in Madrigal's book and read to Genesis 7.

Good luck. It starts off really easy but has a ton of vocabulary by the time you get to the end. Some of it is outdated (and frankly parts of it were sexist/racist), but the majority of the vocabulary is still useful.