James29's Spanish and French Log

[James29]

Hey James, glad to see you're still around and kicking butt! I know you mentioned going through a couple grammar books before that you liked, i just got back from China after about 5 years and have been ignoring my Spanish a bit, i was looking for some advanced Spanish grammar books to sort of review i suppose, i picked up a book called "Uso de la gramática española: avanzado" but the first few chapters i've gone through seem kinda basic so far, i'm not sure if you have any suggestions?

Crush is back! You are one of the most motivating language learners here on this forum. I have the C1/C2 level book of gramatica de uso del espanol and I think that is the most advanced thing I know of. I have not used it, but have skimmed through it. It might not be advanced enough for you as my Spanish is not as advanced as yours and many of the exercises look fairly easy. This series is leveled for people wanting to reach the C1/C2 level. It is pretty comprehensive and set out really well. I have the book saved as a pdf and could email it to you so you can take a look.

I also have the C1 book by Anaya. https://www.amazon.com/Suena-Alumno-eur ... +alumno+c1
I have not even looked through it yet so I cannot comment on it. I have that one as a pdf also.

There is one other series that has a C1/C2 grammar book. It is by Edinumen. The publish the Prisma series. I have one of their B1/B2 specialty books but have not used it. It looks pretty good and comprehensive. Here is a link to their current catalog: https://www.edinumen.es/images/stories/ ... 017-18.pdf

I wish I could be more help. I've just been doing reading and watching telenovelas for at least a couple years now. I keep meaning to spend some time doing advanced grammar but just cannot get motivated (or find the time) to do it. Let us know what you end up using.

[James29]

Ok, I'm back in my regular routine now. For Spanish I'm doing the same old thing. I watch nine telenovela episodes during the week on my treadmill. Then, I do a mishmash of Spanish random things at other times during the week. I listened to the VOA news this week when I had a long drive. I got out of the habit of listening every day. My commute is now really short and it just does not seem worth it to listen to the news in Spanish for 7 minutes in the morning. I also go to my Spanish meetup. I have random emails/chats with former language partners who still keep in touch. I speak to my Spanish speaking customers whenever necessary, which now is not too often as I have an employee now who can handle most of the everyday communications.

I think it was early this week I finished the telenovela La Nina. I'm really glad I did it. Generally it was a good show. It kept my interest the whole time and there were only a few silly sub-plots. I think my favorite characters were Alfonso and Victor. They were both such goofballs but ended up being heroes. It was funny how they were both such dorks but all the women loved them. I really did not bond with any of the women. I like shows where I can develop an innocent crush on one of the female characters. It makes it more fun to watch. Connie and Barbara were ok, but just were not deep enough characters. Manuel's girlfriend, Melissa, definitely had some serious potential as a character but she was only in the show for a short period of time so viewers could not get to know her too well.

I'm back into French. I bought the second Alex Rider book and have finished the first two chapters. I realized that the chapters are taking me about as much time as they took me to read them in Spanish. These were the first books I read in Spanish and I was pretty slow with them, but I had studied Spanish quite a bit. I'm going to take my kindle to the beach today and hopefully get a few more chapters read. I generally feel really good about my French reading. I have to look up a ton of words, but it is fun. I like the story. If I had not read it previously in Spanish I'd probably be lost. Many of the words I can accurately guess in French because I know the story.

My French is just going to be a easy paced journey. I'm not really going to worry about it or try to rush it. Whatever happens will happen. I'm advancing even though I'm not taking it too seriously. My general goal is to focus on reading until I get to the point where I can comfortably read popular novels translated into French. When I feel pretty comfortable with reading I'll probably spend some time watching TV series. TV series are easier for me right now in terms of time because I spend so much time on the treadmill. I have a marathon coming up in about three months and after that I might convert my running time into French time. For now, I'm going to keep it in Spanish.

[crush]

Crush is back! You are one of the most motivating language learners here on this forum. I have the C1/C2 level book of gramatica de uso del espanol and I think that is the most advanced thing I know of. I have not used it, but have skimmed through it. It might not be advanced enough for you as my Spanish is not as advanced as yours and many of the exercises look fairly easy. This series is leveled for people wanting to reach the C1/C2 level. It is pretty comprehensive and set out really well. I have the book saved as a pdf and could email it to you so you can take a look.

I also have the C1 book by Anaya. https://www.amazon.com/Suena-Alumno-eur ... +alumno+c1
I have not even looked through it yet so I cannot comment on it. I have that one as a pdf also.

There is one other series that has a C1/C2 grammar book. It is by Edinumen. The publish the Prisma series. I have one of their B1/B2 specialty books but have not used it. It looks pretty good and comprehensive. Here is a link to their current catalog: https://www.edinumen.es/images/stories/ ... 017-18.pdf

I wish I could be more help. I've just been doing reading and watching telenovelas for at least a couple years now. I keep meaning to spend some time doing advanced grammar but just cannot get motivated (or find the time) to do it. Let us know what you end up using.

Ah, i was thinking of picking the Gramática de uso del español up. I just got back to the states after a long time in China, so trying to pick my Spanish back up. I've just received three different books and have just started the one which is mostly too simple for me. The three books i got mostly based off of reviews online and forums are:
1. Uso de la gramática española: avanzado
2. The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice - seems even more basic than the other one, but it covers a wider range of material so it might be nice to skim through. It's also mostly in English, the other two books are completely in Spanish which i like a bit better.
3. Curso de perfeccionamiento: Hablar, escribir y pensar en español

I'll definitely have to look into the Gramática de uso book, looking at the entries on the Prisma site the upper level books look interesting, too. I'll see how i feel after i get through these books i suppose. I haven't really touched grammar since i finished Platiquemos so many years ago, so i know the feeling. It's hard to really consider watching a movie or reading in Spanish study time since it really doesn't take any effort anymore

[James29]

Well, I have not been updating my log but I have been keeping up with my languages.

Spanish is my primary language now. I'm primarily just watching Netflix on the treadmill for about 6 hours a week. I'm watching a few different things now and changing until I find something that grabs me. I've watched a few documentaries and several episodes of Breaking the Magician's Code. It is a series where they show you how illusionists do their big illusions. It is fun and the vocabulary is good for learning Spanish.

I'm also watching El Chapo which was a series of about 12 or so episodes on Univision. It pretty much just seems to show El Chapo's life. It is very heavy on violence and drug running type stuff. In fact, that's 100% of what it has been so far. I'm doing it because it fits well with my schedule (episodes are correct length) and it has the audio description function in Spanish.

I also watched four and a half episodes of Grace and Frankie. That show was definitely not for me.

My current plan is to finish El Chapo and then just work through all the shows that have audio description in Spanish.

I had a work trip and had a day where I spoke extensively in Spain Spanish with a colleague. This was very nice. I have no problems whatsoever in these types of situations... using Spanish one on one with a native speaker who speaks well.

On my work trip I went into a couple Mexican places and ordered in Spanish. I love doing that now. I always get good responses from the staff in Spanish.

I also had a few days where I listened to the VOA news. This is going to happen less now as I don't have a very long commute anymore.

In terms of French, I'm not doing too much. I bought the second Alex Rider but am not really doing much with it. I brought it and my Assimil French with me on my work trip but mostly ignored them. I read through a lesson or two in the Assimil but that's about it. It is hard for me to do French when I am tired.

The highlight for French over the past couple weeks was my recent beach trip. I sat down on a bench to eat next to a family. They were speaking French so I just belted out a few horrible lines in French. They understood me and we were able to do the basic greetings and stuff like that. I was making fun of myself and speaking French very animated. It was pretty fun and I think I gave that family a pretty good laugh.

I'll probably get back to focusing on Spanish again. It is my "comfort" language and gives what I need when things at work get a bit more stressful.

I'm doing a marathon in October so I'll just be watching Netflix on the treadmill for Spanish until then. After that I'll have some more free time to devote to reading Spanish or studying grammar.

[jeff_lindqvist]

You know what - this thread has so many inspiring posts so I just bookmarked it in case I ever miss an update.

[James29]

Thanks for the comment, Jeff. Feel free to add input to the log if you ever feel inspired to do so.

Well, my language "studying" isn't really much more than just spending some free time I can find on doing relaxing things with my languages.

Spanish is just a part of me and my life now. I have very few "problems" with the language now. There are certainly little things I probably screw up and I sometimes find myself slowing down to think about how to say a complicated construction (like hypothetical conditionals in the past and things like that). I also will have some difficulties understanding natives speaking together if they are speaking casually and I am not accustomed to their accents. For example, starting a new TV series can be tough in the sense that I probably miss some of the nuances. Also, if a new Spanish speaking customer calls me at work I sometimes have a hard time understanding everything. This is because their accent is new to me, we are on the phone (cannot use visual cues) and they are usually emotional. I have never worked on writing in Spanish (other than I do text with some folks in Spanish) so my writing is not something I am proud of. I do not really feel comfortable writing my log in Spanish. It would look like I was pretty careless because I don't really pay too much attention to where the accents/tildes need to go and things like that.

This week in Spanish I mostly just watched Netflix while running on the treadmill. I run on the treadmill during the week and outside on the weekends. So, I have about 6 hours of Netflix time a week. I finished Breaking the Magician's Code in Spanish. I would say it was a very good show for Spanish. The set up and "plot" is so basic that you cannot get "lost." A magician does an impressive illusion while the narrator narrates. Then, the magician shows the secrets as to how he did the illusion while the narrator continues to narrate. The only person speaking the entire time is the narrator. This makes it VERY easy to follow. The Spanish is very well spoken and well articulated Mexican Spanish. The narrator is often just explaining what is happening on the screen. I had zero problems understanding the show. There were some words I did not know and there were contexts and alternative uses of words that were new to me but posed no problem with comprehension.

The magician has several very attractive assistants and they are scantily clad. This is actually important to "magic" because it serves to distract the viewer from what is going on behind the scenes with the illusions. This seems like one of the strategies of the show... to have extremely attractive scantily clad women prancing around and contorting themselves into various situations to help the magician perform the illusions. Many of the illusions require them to contort themselves in certain ways so the magician can "make them disappear" or "cut them in half." The narrator is a bit of a pervert. The narrator is constantly making innuendo comments about the attractiveness of the assistants. From a Spanish perspective I found it good that I could easily pick up on his constant innuendo comments. If anyone is looking for a good show to watch on Netflix that would be a good starting point to watching TV, I would highly recommend this show due to the type of Spanish and the relative ease of the narration.

I've also bounced around a bit with other shows on Netflix. I am a few episodes into El Chapo, but have not made much progress in the past week. A new show, Sobreviviendo a Escobar, has been released. It is a 60 episode telenovela that was produced for Colombia TV. It also has the audio description function. This is basically exactly what I am looking for... a mid-length telenovela with 45 minute episodes that has the audio description function. Unfortunately, as is often the case with telenovelas, it is about drug related stories. I still think I'll do it as I really want to work through a show like this.

I did not do anything else in Spanish this week that I can think of.

French has been a nice surprise. Over the past few weeks I have been carrying around my Assimil book with me. It has kind of turned into my "beach book" this summer. I take it with me everywhere and when I have a few minutes I just pull it out and read for a few minutes. I am able to "do" each lesson simply by reading through the lesson and notes two times. I am now on lesson 73 and I am still able to understand most of the lesson the first time through just by reading it.

I stopped reading the second book of Alex Rider. I'll probably go back to it someday. It was just too much work for my brain. Reading through a lesson of Assimil is much easier and right now I feel like I am getting more out of it. I think I'll just keep working through Assimil until I feel like doing something else. I am not using the audio.

I am very pleased with the progression of my French reading skills. I think my reading will continue to progress if I continue to put in a few minutes a day. I really don't spend much time on French and I will often take a week or two off without doing any French. And, even though my French work is so sporadic I am still progressing pretty nicely. I'm hoping that come December my reading in French will be good enough that I can transition my treadmill time to watching shows in French (with subtitles). That is my basic goal now.

I found an amateur recording of the Atlas Shrugged French audio book which really got me motivated. I'd love to get my reading to the point where I can make use of that. That is one of the audio books that really pushed my Spanish to the next level.

Well, that's all I can think of for now with my language.

[jeff_lindqvist]

French has been a nice surprise. Over the past few weeks I have been carrying around my Assimil book with me. It has kind of turned into my "beach book" this summer. I take it with me everywhere and when I have a few minutes I just pull it out and read for a few minutes. I am able to "do" each lesson simply by reading through the lesson and notes two times. I am now on lesson 73 and I am still able to understand most of the lesson the first time through just by reading it.

Great! Imagine the breeze if you decide to pick up another Romance language. (=Portuguese, just suggesting ...)

[the1whoknocks]

This week in Spanish I mostly just watched Netflix while running on the treadmill. I run on the treadmill during the week and outside on the weekends. So, I have about 6 hours of Netflix time a week. I finished Breaking the Magician's Code in Spanish. I would say it was a very good show for Spanish. The set up and "plot" is so basic that you cannot get "lost." A magician does an impressive illusion while the narrator narrates. Then, the magician shows the secrets as to how he did the illusion while the narrator continues to narrate. The only person speaking the entire time is the narrator. This makes it VERY easy to follow. The Spanish is very well spoken and well articulated Mexican Spanish. The narrator is often just explaining what is happening on the screen. I had zero problems understanding the show. There were some words I did not know and there were contexts and alternative uses of words that were new to me but posed no problem with comprehension.

The magician has several very attractive assistants and they are scantily clad. This is actually important to "magic" because it serves to distract the viewer from what is going on behind the scenes with the illusions. This seems like one of the strategies of the show... to have extremely attractive scantily clad women prancing around and contorting themselves into various situations to help the magician perform the illusions. Many of the illusions require them to contort themselves in certain ways so the magician can "make them disappear" or "cut them in half." The narrator is a bit of a pervert. The narrator is constantly making innuendo comments about the attractiveness of the assistants. From a Spanish perspective I found it good that I could easily pick up on his constant innuendo comments. If anyone is looking for a good show to watch on Netflix that would be a good starting point to watching TV, I would highly recommend this show due to the type of Spanish and the relative ease of the narration.

I've also bounced around a bit with other shows on Netflix. I am a few episodes into El Chapo, but have not made much progress in the past week. A new show, Sobreviviendo a Escobar, has been released. It is a 60 episode telenovela that was produced for Colombia TV. It also has the audio description function. This is basically exactly what I am looking for... a mid-length telenovela with 45 minute episodes that has the audio description function. Unfortunately, as is often the case with telenovelas, it is about drug related stories. I still think I'll do it as I really want to work through a show like this.

Thanks for mentioning Breaking the Magician's Code. I watched the first episode last night after reading your post. You know it's all fake ... but it's really cool seeing how all that it done.

I'm on episode 8 of Surviving Escobar and can say it's a well made series. I don't really know what to make of it yet, but it's holding my attention pretty well (I only made it to episode 12 of Fugitivos before the end of the month). It's definitely a narconovela, but feels different for some reason ... maybe a bit more like Narcos, than El patron del mal, if you've see those series. There is a lot going on: the police trying to get to JJ's girlfriend in hopes she'll offer incriminating information, criminal elements jockying for power and influence, and JJ himself trying to establish himself as he leads a new life in prison.

I'll have to ask around, but if this series reflects how this particular prison in Colombia was at that time, I'm shocked. Narcos, paramiltares (I think I got that right) and guerrilleros are all housed in separate areas of of the prison (more or less) and they have guns ... inside the prison ... everyone. I'm probably missing something here.

There are no drugs yet, but plenty of violence. In fact, the violence is probably the most explicit I've seen from a telenovela, but I could be wrong on that. It's not the most I've seen anywhere, it just goes further than I am used to seeing in telenovelas. Language-wise, they use language you'd expect to see in a narconovela, but you also hear speech from government officials, the police, and people outside the prison system. I'm finding it easier to understand than El Chapo, but that could be a personal thing.

Not to convince you one way or the other, just my take so far.

[James29]

French has been a nice surprise. Over the past few weeks I have been carrying around my Assimil book with me. It has kind of turned into my "beach book" this summer. I take it with me everywhere and when I have a few minutes I just pull it out and read for a few minutes. I am able to "do" each lesson simply by reading through the lesson and notes two times. I am now on lesson 73 and I am still able to understand most of the lesson the first time through just by reading it.

Great! Imagine the breeze if you decide to pick up another Romance language. (=Portuguese, just suggesting ...)

I know! I previously checked out what was out there for Portuguese (when I was wobbling between Portuguese and French) and actually bought a few Portuguese resources. Who knows.... eventually I might even use those resources. It is really amazing how much easier French is now that I have English and Spanish.

[James29]

This week in Spanish I mostly just watched Netflix while running on the treadmill. I run on the treadmill during the week and outside on the weekends. So, I have about 6 hours of Netflix time a week. I finished Breaking the Magician's Code in Spanish. I would say it was a very good show for Spanish. The set up and "plot" is so basic that you cannot get "lost." A magician does an impressive illusion while the narrator narrates. Then, the magician shows the secrets as to how he did the illusion while the narrator continues to narrate. The only person speaking the entire time is the narrator. This makes it VERY easy to follow. The Spanish is very well spoken and well articulated Mexican Spanish. The narrator is often just explaining what is happening on the screen. I had zero problems understanding the show. There were some words I did not know and there were contexts and alternative uses of words that were new to me but posed no problem with comprehension.

The magician has several very attractive assistants and they are scantily clad. This is actually important to "magic" because it serves to distract the viewer from what is going on behind the scenes with the illusions. This seems like one of the strategies of the show... to have extremely attractive scantily clad women prancing around and contorting themselves into various situations to help the magician perform the illusions. Many of the illusions require them to contort themselves in certain ways so the magician can "make them disappear" or "cut them in half." The narrator is a bit of a pervert. The narrator is constantly making innuendo comments about the attractiveness of the assistants. From a Spanish perspective I found it good that I could easily pick up on his constant innuendo comments. If anyone is looking for a good show to watch on Netflix that would be a good starting point to watching TV, I would highly recommend this show due to the type of Spanish and the relative ease of the narration.

I've also bounced around a bit with other shows on Netflix. I am a few episodes into El Chapo, but have not made much progress in the past week. A new show, Sobreviviendo a Escobar, has been released. It is a 60 episode telenovela that was produced for Colombia TV. It also has the audio description function. This is basically exactly what I am looking for... a mid-length telenovela with 45 minute episodes that has the audio description function. Unfortunately, as is often the case with telenovelas, it is about drug related stories. I still think I'll do it as I really want to work through a show like this.

Thanks for mentioning Breaking the Magician's Code. I watched the first episode last night after reading your post. You know it's all fake ... but it's really cool seeing how all that it done.

I'm on episode 8 of Surviving Escobar and can say it's a well made series. I don't really know what to make of it yet, but it's holding my attention pretty well (I only made it to episode 12 of Fugitivos before the end of the month). It's definitely a narconovela, but feels different for some reason ... maybe a bit more like Narcos, than El patron del mal, if you've see those series. There is a lot going on: the police trying to get to JJ's girlfriend in hopes she'll offer incriminating information, criminal elements jockying for power and influence, and JJ himself trying to establish himself as he leads a new life in prison.

I'll have to ask around, but if this series reflects how this particular prison in Colombia was at that time, I'm shocked. Narcos, paramiltares (I think I got that right) and guerrilleros are all housed in separate areas of of the prison (more or less) and they have guns ... inside the prison ... everyone. I'm probably missing something here.

There are no drugs yet, but plenty of violence. In fact, the violence is probably the most explicit I've seen from a telenovela, but I could be wrong on that. It's not the most I've seen anywhere, it just goes further than I am used to seeing in telenovelas. Language-wise, they use language you'd expect to see in a narconovela, but you also hear speech from government officials, the police, and people outside the prison system. I'm finding it easier to understand than El Chapo, but that could be a personal thing.

Not to convince you one way or the other, just my take so far.

This is a really helpful post. I have been putting off starting Surviving Escobar. I'm glad to hear you endorse it. As long as it has some plot to it that is not just about drugs and killing I should be fine. it was produced by the same folks who produced La Nina so I think it should be ok. Thanks for the input. I'll start it soon.