Hedgehogs: Creatures of the Night (ES)

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coldrainwater
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La realidad supera a la ficción

Postby coldrainwater » Wed Apr 19, 2017 6:01 am

Si miras mis entradas de log anteriores, notarás eso tuve una idea loca de usar el español para aprender ciencias de la computación. Parece que los vientos de la fortuna han dado vuelta a las mareas y debería usar mis habilidades de programación para apoyer el aprendizaje de idiomas en su lugar. Con eso en mente, invocé dos herramientas de conversión de libros y convertí mi contenido Kindle a otros formatos. Seleccioné ochenta y un libros, setenta y nueve de los cuales fueron convertidos a texto sin problemas (los diccionarios ofrecen la mayor resistencia). El texto será un buen forraje para el análisis y extracción (munging si lo desea). Para visualización y portabilidad, también creé archivos PDF. Me di cuenta de que los formatos proprietarios de Kindle estaban haciendo más difícil en lugar de fácil de leer.

Como toque final y para efecto cómico, descargé y convertí Text Analytics with Python. Análisis del lenguaje...una lluviosa tarde de domingo.....entorno de desarrollo integrado....la tecla F5...

-Erizo
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El mayo se acerca

Postby coldrainwater » Sun Apr 30, 2017 4:03 am

El horizonte
Diez días pasan. Marco el final de abril y noto que acabo de terminar dos meses de escuchar. Dado como me gustan los desafíos mensuales, ¿por qué no pensar en el futuro? Sin más demora y a mi manera normal:

La escucha extensiva (audiolibros > podcasts)
  • IVOOX ha sido un gran recurso pero la calidad auditiva ha sido impredecible y casi al azar.
  • Por otro lado, audiolibros ofrecen una combinación preferible de mayor desafío y mejor calidad de audio.
  • Por lo tanto, trocamos podcasts por audiolibros (una opción obvia).
Las telenovelas contra las películas
  • La guerra estalla, como siempre.
  • Mis incursiones recientes en los dos mundos del drama me han demostrado que telenovelas ofreczcan una adquisición del lenguaje más eficiente.
  • Mi única experiencia con telenovelas hasta ahora ha sido a través de Yabla.
  • Necesitaré algún tiempo en pruebas.
Yabla y VeinteMundos
  • Estos prójimos son recursos fuertes, probados por el tiempo. Ellos quedan en mi vida sin cambiar.
Otras ideas incluir los buceos superficiales en la gramática y el vocabulario. La música se está volviendo comprensible para mí. Las horas de estudio diarias se estiman entre dos y cinco horas. Me gustaría mantener el mismo horario en el futuro (incluso si implica comprar un "libro de horas" para mantenerse en el buen camino).
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Giving Back

Postby coldrainwater » Sun Apr 30, 2017 9:54 pm

Lately, I've taken extra time to browse the forums. Even though I am still at a low language level, I would like to start giving back and sharing. Reading over some of the language logs has inspired me to switch my writing language back to English. For comic effect, I may occasionally write with different pens. German would be fun a fun pen to use, for example. I might try minimizing the font or coloring it colorado to soften the blow for the more mature and sophisticated eyes that grace these pages. Apologies in advance for my poor use of the English language and lack of cogency.

I wrote enough entries in my L2 to thoroughly recommend it for the interested (even at A2 in ES). I may have even reached a point of diminishing returns with the quaint technique that I employed and am now obliged to describe. In brief, I would often write my entries in brainstorm fashion first, without a care in the world for grammar or correctness. Then, just as with my maternal language, I would spend most of my time editing and removing the worst of my chicken scratch. I do this holistically at the 10,000-foot level and at levels of abstraction much closer to the metal. Specifically, with respect to Spanish, I dump the lot of it directly into the first grammar checking utility that pops up on my google-fu. Spanishchecker was a common one for me. At first, it highlighted quite a few travesties, but recently, it hasn't griped much and I could probably eyeball my writing and not miss too much. I took some of the entries and put them piecemeal into lang-8. The feedback there was good, but by that stage, the corrections I received were subtle and not too high in number. I also had the self-defeating tendency to edit too many entries for others where the two muscles, be they right and left or back and front, might forever remain out of balance. The fun part of the Spanish writing in the logs involved making liberal use of WordReference and Linguee (or other reverse-context search) to find ways native. I could probably write like that all day long. It is a dessert that I leave for later, tantalizing as it may look from afar.
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My goals, or in other words, why I listen

Postby coldrainwater » Sun Apr 30, 2017 10:44 pm

To understand a given language learner, it helps to understand their personal motivations. Mine, I give a glimpse here. I have a long-term idea with listening. Well, I may have more than one such idea, but as it is with journals, I'll keep it short and sweet for now. In my future, maybe five years from now, I see myself consuming Spanish listening material for the purpose of knowledge acquisition using the time that would otherwise be wasted or suboptimal. Preferentially, I will learn that which I do not already know in English and therefore mildly trump English. Examples of practical listening time include various daily cardio expeditions, listening on breaks at work, and listening while power napping. In addition, I am not blind to the possibility of world travel and that one day my very survival may depend on whether or not I am able to understand Spanish (it can be disarming to hear a gringo that can both deeply understand what is said and that can speak just well enough to convey that they have obvious, but non-native skill and are trying their level best). Good travel examples in my case involve hiking mountains distant and high as well as exploring equatorial rainforests and other natural venues. Assuming a safe environment, I have enough hiking skill to make that far more than a dream (provided that I know the language where I trek). As a side note, I know my usual safety precautions for international travel (and that they mostly don't depend on language but rather planning and precautions).

My listening capacity in the English language is very poor and underdeveloped, especially given someone of my age (still 37 unless I calculated wrong) and supposed exposure. I think it is critical for me to state that here and recognize it myself. In all my years of academic class, I rarely took a single note (another poor skill of mine...the list of those is long) and preferred instead to listen extensively with the occasional interaction if no one else in the class was willing to oblige the instructor. The notes in a typical class for me often passed from the mouth of the instructor through the ears of the students without reaching the brain of either. To put it in language terms, a class was often an extensive listening practice.

For that reason, it is a very helpful metric for me to take this into consideration as I learn my L2. Just as with my reading skills, my secret desire is to one day both listen and read at a level that is higher than my native English. On both fronts, I believe it may be possible and it can be good to reach for the stars sometimes as you might at least hit the moon. I am also equally aware of the sheer power that listening capacity affords and I am not immune to human desires in that sense. Of the four disciplines, the listening piece will also offer the most challenge, which is a blessing in my case (more on that later).

Mid-thought, I think I'll steer practical for a few paragraph minutes. There is a difference between noise and sound. Right now, I am interested in high-quality sound for my listening exposure (at native levels that are at least n+1). That desire pervades each of my form choices and gates what hits my ears. Currently, I have learned that my earmuffs and ear plugs are both super valuable resources that I have been under-utilizing. It is also a great way to limit how much English I hear. In my times half-alert where I am approaching and/or running from sleep, I definitely and often wake up with a self-voice in Spanish. That is definitely a welcome guest and small step to immersion. I have noticed that I have less anxiety in the mornings if I put my ear plugs in as soon as I remember and leave them there until I hit the office. There is substantial noise pollution in my city of residence and I can do without that. I have never played a musical instrument nor have I studied music in depth. For this reason, my 'discoveries' seem like novelties and what is important to me may be laughably simple for others.

Practically, I am picking my Spanish listening very broadly, with TLC, much like a spoiled five-year-old. As my comprehension improves, interest in the subject matter starts to matter more. The trick in the trade is that my low listening level won't allow me to deeply understand what I really want to learn (yet). So my best practical choice is to keep climbing the mountain and put stakes higher each month. I have two full months of dedicated listening practice under my belt and I don't think I would have made much progress if I didn't understand this subtlety. Right now my listening level is probably A2 after two months (and nearly one year of total learning as a false beginner). I am mindful of listening to the words and grammar and thusly the language slowly opens up to me. I choose native and high-quality audio specifically because I am looking to correctly map what I hear with what I know. I use mindfulness and meditation as my primary tool to make progress. It easily underlies everything else I do to develop my hearing. On that note, I pause briefly. The next topic I want to discuss should probably have its own entry space.

-Erizo
Last edited by coldrainwater on Mon May 01, 2017 12:41 am, edited 3 times in total.
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On habits

Postby coldrainwater » Sun Apr 30, 2017 11:33 pm

I can cultivate obsession, but I don't have an addictive personality. I spent some months on other forums looking at addiction and I couldn't relate in many cases because I couldn't replicate their situation in my own skin. Vicarious was the most I managed. Nevertheless, I learned valuable life lessons and disciplines that I will take with me to my grave. One of those was how to cultivate habits experientially. As a whole, I am not sure the addiction advice on those forums really helped many that struggle (note the use of present tense), but cultivating good habits definitely worked. In that microcosm, it is useful to watch over time as good habits crowd out bad habits. The crowding-out effect is worth repeating on a number of levels and as many times as necessary. In times of stress, we fall back on our habits. If they are good habits, then we fall back on good habits and we give ourselves a chance to come out of whatever mess we find ourselves in. It is like a planned kung-fu and is closely tied to discipline. That is where and how I developed mindfulness (On long and difficult challenges to fight and change who I was into something new and different. There were ice slopes where one slip could be devastating).

Now that you know a bit about my past journey, my listening plan may make more sense. To break down a complex target, I am aware that I need many weapons and tools and that they are often best cultivated over the long-term as habits. The emotional aspect of habit formation is worth making a quick note. As a habit first starts to form, there is and maybe should be wide emotional swings (it is the negative of those that we often remember). Over time, chunking and long-term changes take place, and those emotions level out and soften. We get fewer of the positives and fewer of the negatives since we aren't even thinking about the habits anymore. There is automaticity then. All of this is well known to this whole forum I would say, but it is illustrative to show that it can just as well be derived from an unrelated microcosm.

The funniest practical application of the above is probably my foray into listening. Unlike many, I would not normally have any interest in listening (save for my aforementioned long-term plans and my current and future love of challenge). There is a litany of times where I have simply evaded listening in English. I have a very male-oriented rule that I laugh at often. My rules of engagement for picking a TV series or movie to watch are simple and podcasts never even entered the picture. They were rather a byproduct of my L2. I tend to evade any movie if it is primarily a comedy, drama, or romance (exceptions are made for certain movies that meta-critic and other review sites rave over). The second layer of approval is that I have to pass the title by one of my guy-friends to make sure I haven't selected something that might give me bitter beer face. I tend to watch movies and TV series in English seldom, partly on account of lack of time and largely due to lack of interest since they often do not seem to further my life goals. They are more likely to cause significant stress (I was gifted with an anxiety disorder a few years back) and therefore it is necessary for me to consider them more or less a form of intensive activity (it is tied to my introversion as well as those types of activities are more likely to drain than replenish my fragile social reserves). I hope this post sets the stage well enough where I can talk a bit about my current listening scheme next. Background is sometimes nice.

-Erizo
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My current listening schedule

Postby coldrainwater » Mon May 01, 2017 12:34 am

I went for a successful skirmish today and set up my new moto G5. It may supplant my current MP3 player as my extensive listening device for May. My last phone was more expensive (rookie mistake, this one is cheaper) and I destroyed it by repeatedly dropping it on the concrete. Until my protective devices arrive in the mail, I'll do my best to be careful with the new toy. I took it on a run today and listened to a random Mexican podcast, giving the phone a light death grip so that it didn't hit the turf on day one (but not so tight that it broke the glass). That gave me about 80 minutes of listening practice. I don't have a data plan on the Moto G5 and am debating about whether I should pay the 50-100 dollars monthly that it would cost to acquire such a thing. I am leaning toward getting the plan since, as we age, if we are given the choice between spending money and spending time, it may be best to spend the money (you can get more of that).

Some of the IVOOX podcasts that I have been listening to are getting a bit too comprehensible for them to remain interesting, so I am bumping the challenge in order to stay motivated. I purchased a few audiobooks that I can listen to via Audible and in extensive fashion and I don't see anything wrong with doing that for at least part of my extensive listening practice this coming month. It partially avoids the slightly annoying need to repeatedly find high-quality material (and the occasional disappointment when several of the podcasts presenters make a grand mess of things by switching to media that are not even in Spanish). I have found that I need at least three podcasts for one run in the event that the first two offer low-quality learning material. It is a good rule of ear. Having loaded audiolibros will make that rule of less import and give me another good option.

Telenovelas and Yabla
As planned, I started my first dedicated telenovela session today. I picked El Chema and watched the first 30-minute episode on Telemundo. With respect to subtitles, I will probably use them at least part of the time because I feel they will be very helpful in matching sounds to vocabulary and phrases (and because I can often easily read them much faster than they are speaking). At other times, I will not use subtitles and will focus instead on watching the telenovela, using visual cues, body language and the like to help while giving the bulk of my attention to mindful listening (without the distraction of text). How much I do of one form of listening over the other will likely depend on what other listening activities I have going for myself. As it stands right now, Yabla is absurdly useful for me, so I may be able to watch the telenovelas without subtitles (since I get plenty of subtitle practice on Yabla). In order to build the telenovela habit nice and slow (like a fine wine), I may watch no more than one episode per day in May (then bump that in June assuming a succesful first month). I know I will need to work my way through several telenovelas, so one episode per day probably won't be quite fast enough (and at some point I will want to read again, so will have to back off of listening a bit when that time comes).

Speaking of Yabla, I planned my May 2017 Yabla in advance and ate the elephant (the boring beginner material) in April 2017. I did what you might call a mop-up of the beginner portions of Yabla listening over the last week or two and am now four pages into their intermediate section. I mopped-up the beginner material by using their fast forward feature to move through the videos more rapidly. I often read the subtitles before they spoke and would also hit the fast-forward button half way through one line if they were talking too slowly for my liking (true for most of the ones marked beginner). The intermediate section of Yabla is a sweet spot for me. There are 31 pages of intermediate video available and I am now on page five. Yabla works here because the material is almost all native and there is enough source variety to stave off boredom. Additionally, they do a ton of work on my behalf and I can fast forward as much as I need to (and this really saves time since it is sometimes tough to do that with native material. Yabla tells you right where they aren't talking which is nice). You get music (very useful with letras), cartoons, telenovelas (several and at least one is rapid-fire Argentinian Spanish), videos made for language learners (they help at least some by making sure you get listening coverage over key important topics in life), interviews, and a wide variety of cultural exposure.

My Yabla plan is intuitive, but I think it will work. Of the 31 pages of intermediate video, I may go through a total of 10-15 of those pages before moving on to the advanced section. Then after tackling the advanced section, I'll simply mop-up the remaining intermediate videos in the same fashion that I handled the beginner videos (kind of like reading a magazine from back to front). At that point, that may be all she wrote for Yabla (as I will be out of material).

Bouncing back to El Chema and telenovelas, I am glad I chose them, but I do have a few kinks to work out (not critical but I can anticipate one or two battles). The first problem I will likely need to solve will be the problem of commercials. I haven't watched dedicated TV since roughly 1999 and I remember why I stopped (the commercials are more or less life wasting among other reasons). For a short while, the commercials will provide me with useful Spanish learning, but they will get boring and repetitive very quickly. To that end, I want to find a way to watch my preferred telenovelas without those commercials and that may take some soul searching and click-bating on the internet. As it stands, my 30-minute video was plagued by at least four two-minute interruptions, largely wasting valuable learning time and interrupting mindful extensive listening.

In any event, I think I am off to an acceptable start in the telenovela world. Telenovelas definitely seem superior to both movies and TV series in my specific case. A lot of that will have to do with word and information density. It is like they made telenovelas to teach Spanish listening (give me a chocolate cake and I suppose I'll eat it).

-Erizo
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Audiolibro

Postby coldrainwater » Mon May 01, 2017 2:25 am

Awhile back, I bought the audible version of El cóndor de la pluma dorada figuring on it being a good resource in due time. It seems like I might have found the right time and place for it, even thought I couldn't have predicted so in advance. I am using it currently as extensive audio listening on my Kindle Fire (awesome cheap investment for language learning by the way) while I tread on the elliptical and am now on chapter 6 of 28. Today, I did about 35 minutes of ellipitcal while listening to it. I had initially planned some sort of read/listen for it, but that idea flopped. When I read the first two or three chapters, I found out that neither the plot nor the prose was interesting enough for me to read extensively or for enjoyment. More perniciously, the novel had the name of an action book, but the writing style of a love story drama (in Texas we call that bait and switch). The plot so far has been far too predictable to enjoy. So I dropped the reading aspect and now it finds its way to my elliptical time. The Audible audio quality is very high overall and it is good practice for virgin audiobook ears like mine. Another slight goof I made was thinking I'd like it for the history aspects. Instead, I think I would rather read an actual history text on the subject.

I am sort of using old electronic devices (I am a tech nerd) like Easter eggs. I chain some of them to existing habits (like elliptical training) and others I leave at opportune physical locations (like a shuffle or mp3 player next to my napping zone so I can listen while I power-nap. crappy low quality earbuds are fine paired with it then since I basically created an isolated sound chamber for sleeping purposes.). I mentioned it awhile back, but I have a couple of failed technical attempts at making improvements to my laptop. I gave my best Chromebook to my language partner (who is learning English) and that was a great decision (he didn't have a laptop at all). My next Chromebook bricked about two months into use (I also paid a bit too much for it). Yet another laptop attempt was a partial failure in the sense that I picked a super-high resolution monitor and unfortunately, the graphics card that they slapped in it couldn't hang (great job guys!). It is a partial failure, because I may jack up the magnification which 'could' make it more responsive. The third time was the charm and I now am using a monster 15 inch, with a weak TN panel, but quick response time and solid battery life (they claim 12 hours so I imagine it is good for about 6 hours. I am not brave enough to juice it all the way since I am a battery lover). That computer is still partly in German (how you start tends to stick even when you tell it to change back to Spanish).

I can follow the plot of the golden condor audiobook, but not terribly well, even with good audio quality (A2 listening ears showing their teeth). 28 chapters probably won't change that decisively, so it meets my current criteria for extensive listening. Veintemundos so far has likely been good prep for audiolibro listening even though I have used the text exclusively alongside the Veintemundos audio (the ampliación and other cultural aspects are too good for listening without the visual magazine aspects). If I had to make a guess and not resort to counting, I'd say I am half-way through Veintemundos (starting at the advanced portion and working my way down to intermediate). For the time being, Veintemundos may be crowded out by audiolibros and Yabla, both of which I view as currently more valuable (the news was crowded out a bit as soon as I was able to follow and understand too much of it). I'll probably make repeated excursions back to news listening, but it tends to be fairly boring and repetitive, so I question the relative challenge value. Next news test will certainly be without the transcript.
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La gramática

Postby coldrainwater » Mon May 01, 2017 2:58 am

My A2 weaknesses in grammar are all too apparent. I am finally making inroads into grammar territory, partly because my level is advancing and it is needed, and largely because I have found a grammar resource that is a true pleasure to read intensively. For a Spanish reference grammar, A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish by B & B (Butt & Benjamin) is a treasure trove and absurdly enjoyable. As many readers have reported, I find it pleasant to read cover to cover (even though it will likely take several months to do that). At the time of this entry, I am roughly nine chapters in and it is definitely a page turner. In order to plan out May and write all these journal entries, I gave B & B very short shrift today (I only read a few pages using siege time as it were).

I have the entire Practice Makes Perfect series which involves a great deal of grammar drilling. My decision currently is to hold off on using them and to prefer instead B & B and possibly other native all-Spanish sources. My reasoning is simple but possibly worth noting. I really like the fact that B & B gives you the insight and awareness to know what is out there in a well written and concise format (I think I am looking at about 550 pages, which is insanely short for a full-fledged reference grammar). That awareness creates true interest and may make later drilling feasible (much like FSI, I would probably find repeated grammar drills without detailed explanation too boring to complete). This is another unexpected turn of events as I had actually planned to use the Practice Makes Perfect Series (comes very highly recommended) before a reference grammar, but life and experience show roll contra.

The only other consideration I have made is to boot up Duolingo and drill some of the verb tenses that I didn't learn well using my old account. So far, that doesn't seem like it is worth the effort right now in light of my current listening focus, but I can hold that in reserve as a clutch option if needed. I initially ran through the entire Duolingo tree in the first month and remember having to slow down so that I could space the learning out somewhat. As the beginner that I am, I initially turned all the audio off on Duolingo as I found it somewhat annoying (that was a mistake if ever there was one). With no audio and no mic, you can more or less fly down the Duolingo tree.

As it stands and for my level, B & B is where it is at right now.
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Today, Part 1 (Active Listening)

Postby coldrainwater » Tue May 02, 2017 12:05 am

Just curious. I wonder if anyone else has had the idea of attaching their earbuds directly to their [bifocals] so as not to miss out on listening opportunities in their L2. I am sure I am not the only one.

Lunch Listening
I experimented with several types of listening today while at work. For 50 minutes, I listened to my golden condor audiobook on the moto 5 while climbing stairs at lunch time. I'd say this is comparable to my podcast listening, with the downside that I wasn't very excited about listening to the same audiobook that I had listened to the night prior. The time was not perfectly distributed. The first 40 minutes or so were training and there was mild interruption due to the fact that I needed to focus on physical movement part of the time. The last ten minutes, I used in meditative fashion outside cooling off. Listening results and comprehension were noticeably better as expected while meditating.

Music
I am slowly but steadily letting Pandora do its work and am building a small music collection that way. My work today involved substantial programming but was not particularly dangerous from a production standpoint (I was inserting rather than updating and deleting) so it was appropriate to listen to music. I turned on my Cienfue Pandora station and probably listened for at least 4 total hours. The listening here was background and not active, so it likely barely counts for learning purposes. Nonetheless, I did pick up on some known lyrics. I like the idea that another poster made recently about doing most reading extensively with [for example] 1 in 20 pieces read intensively. I have used the same idea with music listening rather unintentionally and it seems to be of some benefit. Even with native English music, I usually can't tell what the singer is saying and should refer to the lyrics at least one time to verify (1/2 the time I can't figure out what the English singer is saying and the other half I get it wrong).

Grocery Shopping and Listening
I am putting this one here just to show a failed attempt. Grocery shopping and anything other than passive music listening does not seem to work at all. Last time I did this I think I dumped half of a salad I was considering buying directly onto the floor at checkout (I blame the poor packaging). As I left the store, I hear the famous Mr. Mom "cleanup on aisle six" on the loud speakers. The better idea that I use often is that, when available, I always check out at the kiosk totally in Spanish.

Power Nap Listening
I listened to my MP3 player as a cool down after work in order to destress and prepare for [the actually useful] language studying that I do tonight. This afternoon's episode was on the Knights Templar and was interesting to listen to. I am still at gist comprehensible and am missing quite a lot. The podcast is not optimal in the sense that it is an obvious rip right off the history channel which was originally intended to be shown with video prompts. They play bad music and strange sounds in the background and have some speakers that might not be fully professional but who decide that they should try out their Tarzan voices.

Normally, I won't need to be anywhere near this detailed about my work listening, but I wanted to record it here once as many of my future efforts are likely to follow similar patterns as what is shown above.

-Erizo
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Today, Part 2

Postby coldrainwater » Tue May 02, 2017 1:44 am

Telenovela
I went with two episodes of El Chema without any subtitles. It looks like that may be a good habit to cultivate over dinner. Headphones helped substantially with understanding. I like the idea of learning the language extensively for a while using visual cues and body language rather than transcripts. I tend to be optimistic about my understanding, but the optimal way to describe it might be simply 'spotty' after three total episodes (the episodes have dropped to 16 minutes each so it seems). I do think the telenovelas offer far better acting than American soaps which is a pleasant surprise. The worst part of it is that it brought back a missed childhood opportunity. I watched plenty of TV back in the 1990's and even took years of Spanish in high. Sadly I have no memory whatsoever of anyone ever telling me that it would be a good idea to watch TV to learn Spanish. If I don't need the transcript that Telemundo provides, then I may simply look for superior viewing sources for telenovelas. The commercials on Telemundo are likely not worth my time in any capacity (they are already comprehensible and too many are in English). The other downside to Telemundo is that it omits a significant portion of the vocabulary. I noticed this yesterday as well and I suspect they do it to appeal to younger audiences rather than adults. There may be an option to watch them in the more natural and unedited version, but since I am considering dropping Telemundo as a source anyhow, it might not be worth the minutes wasted researching. Overall, I feel like this is a great start and there are far more positives than negatives. The slight problems I have found, look like they will fall with a few good hammer strikes next weekend and then the rest will be good old-fashioned language learning (note how optimistic we are when we start new things!).

Yabla
I spent one hour listening to intermediate Yabla videos. As usual, it was highly efficient and mostly packed with good learning content. I'd say I was giving likes to 8/10 videos watched and that 10/10 were overall decent practice. Occasionally, in Yabla, as in life, you get speakers that are a bit half awake and mumble slowly. The two Argentinian telenovela shows that they use for clips are probably the best listening language practice that I have on Yabla. They are definitely rapid fire compared to much slower speaking accents such as Mexican and Spanish from Spain.
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