Glossika Mexican Spanish

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stanh
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Glossika Mexican Spanish

Postby stanh » Mon Aug 08, 2016 5:31 pm

I speak a little, rusty Castilian Spanish and want to achieve fluency in Mexican/South American Spanish. Does anyone know whether the Spanish in Glossika's Mexican Spanish course is idiomatic? I have heard that the Castilian Spanish course has a lot of problems--the English sentence sometimes being translated literally into something a Spanish speaker would never say. Does the Mexican Spanish course have the same problems? Recommendations for other methods/courses also welcome. Thanks in advance for any information and/or opinions.
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Re: Glossika Mexican Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Mon Aug 08, 2016 7:21 pm

I don't know, but to be honest, it wouldn't have to be a problem necessarily. The way I understand Glossika is that you shouldn't memorise the sentences. Shadow them, maybe do some dictation and then move on. Most of the sentences in there that have those problems are further in with passive voice and those kind of less used constructions. They are usually so specific that you wouldn't just parrot these sentences anyway, so there is very little chance that you'd use them just as they are. The idea is that you will be able to produce even the less used constructions automatically and hear when you're making a mistake in them. Glossika sentences might seem to make more sense than some of the Duolingo sentences, but ultimately they're still only meant to teach you the structure. I think as long as you don't put the sentences into Anki, it's still a good resource.
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Re: Glossika Mexican Spanish

Postby Tomás » Mon Aug 08, 2016 8:52 pm

My understanding is that all of this company's products are translated from English. Whether well or poorly translated, they are unlikely to be idiomatic. I don't see the point of studying non-idiomatic language. I like the Glossika concept, but I personally see the use of translations as a fatal flaw. There are many other sources of idiomatic sentences that you can use the same way.

Also, there isn't really a "Mexican/South American Spanish". Latin America harbors a variety of accents. I would not worry about that while studying the language. Just listen to tv or radio from the country that interests you and you'll get used to the accent.
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Re: Glossika Mexican Spanish

Postby ShawnP » Mon Aug 08, 2016 9:16 pm

Tomas,

I have the Glossika Mexican Spanish and even at my level I've noticed a mistake here and there. Just simple things really such as the sentence reads ella but the audio says el or a verb usage may be used wrong. However, from the standpoint of learning simple, everyday ways to communicate on many different topics to listening to how things are are spoken by, hopefully a real Mexican, I really believe it will help me. I plan to use it during my morning elliptical cardio sessions starting next Monday. Out of Fluency 1, I maybe noticed 5 errors, or what I thought were errors. So nothing major at all.

I'm starting Fluency 2 Monday and I plan on treating fluency 2 & 3 much like an assimil course. I'm not saying it's as good as Assimil as I would be shunned on this forum, but the material in Glossika seems much more relevant to my needs. Time will tell how that works out.
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Re: Glossika Mexican Spanish

Postby PeterMollenburg » Tue Aug 09, 2016 9:08 am

Tomás wrote:My understanding is that all of this company's products are translated from English. Whether well or poorly translated, they are unlikely to be idiomatic. I don't see the point of studying non-idiomatic language. I like the Glossika concept, but I personally see the use of translations as a fatal flaw. There are many other sources of idiomatic sentences that you can use the same way.

Also, there isn't really a "Mexican/South American Spanish". Latin America harbors a variety of accents. I would not worry about that while studying the language. Just listen to tv or radio from the country that interests you and you'll get used to the accent.


I'm not so convinced that being translated from English is a fatal flaw. Translations have been done by hired translators, thus the language, provided the translators are very good, ought to be idiomatic, not word for word. Spanish seems to be a bit of an exception with Glossika, in that some of it is poorly translated or translated word for word. If English has been chosen as the base for all the courses to translate into other languages then it's not in my opinion that you are speaking a French version of English or a German version of English as a result, simply because it's been translated, it's that you are saying something in French, German, whatever language in a phrase that is equally useful in whatever language it is. English would have been chosen as the base to choose a whole host of useful scenario-like phrases that would be useful in whatever language you are speaking. Example, you might be taught that 'it's a nice day' (with regards to the weather) is translated to 'il fait beau' in French. What's the issue? The translation is not flawed and does not say incorrectly 'c'est un beau jour' which would be more of a direct translation but gives you the appropriate French idiomatic way of saying the same thing. This phrase is not useless nor is it Frenchified English claiming to be French. Like I said, I don't see a problem when the goal is not to learn the French way of saying English things, but to learn a whole host of useful Expressions in French which have been translated to the French way of saying them and therefore are 100% relevant and usually correct. Spanish is an exception for Glossika it seems, so how incorrect/poorly done it is remains a debate, but the Glossika concept I think is sound.
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stanh
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Re: Glossika Mexican Spanish

Postby stanh » Tue Aug 09, 2016 6:35 pm

Thank you all--this is very helpful. Glossika Mexican Spanish does not seem to match my needs at this time. Hopefully they will correct the problems in the future.

Just want to mention a resource I've found that may be of interest to others. It's News in Slow Spanish - newsinslowspanish.com - actual current news written and spoken by native speakers with a lot of support--full transcripts with definitions of words when you hover the mouse over them, grammar lessons, expressions, quizes. And you can choose between European and Latin American Spanish. There are parallel sites for French and Italian.
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Re: Glossika Mexican Spanish

Postby Serpent » Fri Oct 12, 2018 8:15 pm

No illegal links here :!:
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