La Manada: Intermediate / Advanced Spanish TAC 2016

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
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Stelle
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La Manada: Intermediate / Advanced Spanish TAC 2016

Postby Stelle » Thu Dec 31, 2015 4:57 pm

¡Hola compañer@s! Welcome to la Manada, the Upper Intermediate / Advanced Spanish team thread!

This team is specifically geared towards B2/C1 learners who are looking to bump up their skills to the next level in 2016.

If you...

- can relax with a Spanish novel
- can easily follow the news in Spanish, and can comfortably follow a TV show or movie without subtitles
- can engage in conversations exclusively in Spanish, without strain for either speaker or listener (although, of course, you may not always be as eloquent as you'd like)

...then this is the team for you!

Membership is open and flexible. If you find us later in the year, then stop by and say hello! To join our team, simply post in this thread with a link to your log. (Not sure how logs work? Send me a message and I'll help you get started!)

Team guidelines:

    - Please follow your teammates' logs to the best of your ability. Interacting with one another through our logs is highly encouraged!
    - Life gets in the way, but please try to update your language log at least once a month.
    - Updates in both English and Spanish are welcome on this thread. If you prefer to keep all forum writing in English, that is your choice! Likewise if you prefer to write only in Spanish.
    - An update in Spanish doesn't require an English translation, since all team members should be able to read and understand Spanish.

Links to members' logs:
Arthaey
BAnna
Cavesa
Evilado
James29
Mitcht
Random Review (log pending)
Reineke
Spoonary
Stelle
Yuurei

A partir de ahora, somos lobos. ¡Bienvenid@s a nuestra manada!
Last edited by Stelle on Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:18 pm, edited 12 times in total.
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Spanish Recommendations and Resources

Postby Stelle » Thu Dec 31, 2015 4:57 pm

This post will be updated throughout the year with recommendations for native media from various Spanish-speaking countries. All recommendations are credited to the poster who suggested them, so get in touch with them directly if you'd like to discuss more about what you watch or read! I highly encourage all members to post recommendations for movies, podcasts, TV shows, books and other resources to our team thread. As upper intermediate / advanced learners, we all need to consume a lot of media!

podcasts

1982 Este podcast es un podcast que trata de la música popular del año 1982. ¿Por qué este año? Es el año en que "una dictadura absurda nos metieron en una guerra inútil", y la música cantada en inglés estaba censurado. Boy George, George Michael, Dexys Midnight Runners, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, todos los hits más reconocidos de este año. (Evilado)

Demasiado Cine, Star Wars, historia de una saga Para prepararles por la experiencia de la nueva entrada de la saga, todos los amigos de este podcast revieron todas las películas. Cada una tiene un episodio interesante, debates, teorías, y análisis de los personajes y paisajes importantes. Además, hay un episodio que se trate de Ralph McQuarrie, el genio detras de los diseños de los naves, los droids, los stormtroopers, y mucho más. (Evilado)

Fallo de sistema en RTVE. Se trata de la cultura "friki": videojuegos, películas, ciencia popular, fantasía, ciencia ficción, libros, y cosas así. Hay discusiones, entrevistas, reportajes, y clips de películas o series de televisión. También hay canciones interesantes, aunque sean a veces en inglés. (Stelle)

Radio Ambulante - Native Latin American speech spoken at a normal pace. Professional production values, not just for this episode but for the entire series. And for those of us that need help, there are transcripts in both Spanish and English! What's not to like? For those familiar with the US based NPR network, the Radio Ambulante podcasts appear to be quite similar to the "This American Life" program and I believe were modeled after it. (Haziz)

It's a heartbreaking story, but radioambulante's two episodes on the intersection of heavy metal music and AIDs in Cuba is really good, in case you want to work on caribbean spanish. (Evilado)

libros

La extraña odisea: confesiones de un filólogo clásico es un libro autobiográfico en cual el autor describe sus experiencias con el aprendizaje del latín y del griego antiguo. Es un relato muy interesante y además muy útil para esas personas que quieren aprender o el latín o el griego antiguo en el futuro. Habla de los métodos alternativos para el aprendizaje de estas lenguas, como el método directo para el latín (que podéis encontrar en Lingua Latina per se Illustrata) o el aprendizaje del griego antiguo a través del griego moderno. Sobre todo, el autor narra como aprendió esos idiomas antiguos, con todos los problemas y dificultades que encontró, con sus faltas y sus éxitos y todo lo demás. Así que, leer La extraña odisea es un poco como leer uno de los logs de aquí con sus historias interesantes y recursos útiles. Y a mí me gusta muchísimo leer los logs de aquí, así que me gustó también la odisea. (Yuurei)

Ojos de agua es la primera novela escrita por el autor español Domingo Villar. El libro, que fue publicado en 2006, trata de la historia de un homicidio en la costa griega y nos introduce al inspector Leo Caldas (y su acompañante Rafael Estévez) que también son los personajes principales en su siguiente libro, la playa de los ahogados. (mitcht)

La Tumba Perdida es ficción histórica sobre el Antiguo Egipto, particularmente el hallazgo de la tumba de Tutankamón por parte del egiptólogo británico Howard Carter. Es un libro bastante lento, y no acontece mucho, la verdad, pero es simpático y a quien le interesa el Antiguo Egipto, le podría gustar. (Spoonary)

televisión

El Ministerio del tiempo - Esta series nueva de rtve (podéis mirarla sobre rtve.es) es un poco el Doctor Who español. Un grupo de heroes viaja por puertas del tiempo para que la historia no cambie. Los episodios son divertidos, llenos de interesantes cosas sobre España, hay muchos chistes, y la serie es muy buen hecha y intelligente. Creo que no hace falta presentar los actores, la mayoría es bien conocida de otras series ya conocidas en nustra communidad. Todos hacen muy buen trabajo y sus carácteros no tardaron en buscar sítio en mi corazón. (Cavesa)

Isabel - Ya lo he dicho varias veces en mi log, pero me encantó esta série. Es un drama histórico que trata de la reina Isabel y del rey Fernando. La trama es apasionante y la ropa es muy impresionante. Podéis verlo en RTVE o en Drama Fever (con sútitulos ingleses de quita y pon) si sois en Norteamérica. Os advierto - ¡es muy adictivo! (Stelle)

Lalola es una serie argentina que cuenta la historia de Lalo Padilla, un mujeriego que maltrata a la mujer equivocada quien lo acaba transformando en una mujer, con la ayuda de una bruja. Es una serie muy entretenida, y aunque pueda llegar a ser un poco repetitiva, yo no puedo parar de verla. Hay muy buenas actrices aquí, mientras algunos de los hombres no me acaban de convencer. Además, me encantan como hablan los argentinos. (Spoonary)

Pablo Escobar el patrón del mal en Netflix. Me gustó mucho y me volví adicta. El único problema es que hay 74 episodios (¡!). Para los que interés en esa tema tienen pero tal vez no tengan tanto tiempo, se puede ver la serie Narcos (en una mezcla de inglés y español). (BAnna)

películas

8 Apellidos Vascos – Es una comedia basada en los estereotipos/tópicos que los españoles tienen sobre los vascos y los andaluces. Por lo tanto, si no estás muy al tanto de estos tópicos (como fue el caso conmigo la primera vez que la vi), puede que no pilles muchos de los chistes. Aun así, es una película muy divertida y vale la pena verla. (Spoonary)

Séptimo - Es de Argentina y es un thriller. No quiero revelar mucho, pero vale la pena verla. (BAnna)
Last edited by Stelle on Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:50 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Re: TAC: Upper Intermediate / Advanced Spanish Team

Postby Stelle » Thu Dec 31, 2015 5:02 pm

And now for the most important task of all...

...what shall we call ourselves? :mrgreen:

Any ideas for team names?
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Re: TAC: Upper Intermediate / Advanced Spanish Team

Postby James29 » Thu Dec 31, 2015 5:27 pm

Thanks for organizing this, Stelle. I'll definitely be here throughout the year. I've been pretty consistent with 30-60 minutes a day of Spanish for the last six years.

I'm going to be reading books with most of my time. I usually read popular fiction (Michael Connelly, John Grisham, etc) translated into Spanish and will stick with it this year. The telemundo telenovelas are great and will be finishing up Los Miserables. I'd like to watch Celia as I really want/need to work with more Caribbean Spanish.

I'm still weighing whether or not to do the C level Gramatica de Uso del Espanol book. I absolutely loved the B level book. I'd be interested in your thoughts on doing it as I know you were talking about it.

in 2015 I accomplished very much and made major progress with all aspects of my Spanish. I read about 1,500,000 words of novels, completed the B level grammar book, watched about 120 hours of the Simpsons and telenovelas and listened to the news in the car for about 15-20 minutes each weekday morning. My basic belief has been that getting a ton of input from various different types of resources is what people at our level need.
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Re: TAC: Upper Intermediate / Advanced Spanish Team

Postby Spoonary » Thu Dec 31, 2015 7:49 pm

Yeah, thanks a lot for organising this team, Stelle.

James29 wrote:My basic belief has been that getting a ton of input from various different types of resources is what people at our level need.


Exactly! My plan for this year is to get as much varied input as I can, while also doing the output challenge in Spanish. As you can see, I'll definitely be in it for the long haul (although I pretty much signed up to Spanish for life when I did a Spanish degree :P).

This is my first TAC, so I'm excited to see how it all pans out :)

As far as names go, I have no idea really but I guess it should be something in Spanish, given that we are so advanced ;)
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Re: TAC: Upper Intermediate / Advanced Spanish Team

Postby Stelle » Fri Jan 01, 2016 9:51 pm

James29 wrote:I'm still weighing whether or not to do the C level Gramatica de Uso del Espanol book. I absolutely loved the B level book. I'd be interested in your thoughts on doing it as I know you were talking about it.


I ordered the C level book in large part because of your log and how highly you thought of the B level book! I haven't received it yet, but it should get here any day now. I plan on working my way through it this year. I really need to target some of my grammar and writing weaknesses.

James29 wrote:My basic belief has been that getting a ton of input from various different types of resources is what people at our level need.


I fully agree with this! I think that lots of input will be important for all of us this year.
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Re: TAC: Upper Intermediate / Advanced Spanish Team

Postby Stelle » Fri Jan 01, 2016 9:53 pm

Spoonary wrote:This is my first TAC, so I'm excited to see how it all pans out :)


Honestly, I think your presence here will do a lot to keep our team active! You've definitely been an inspiration to me with your regular contributions to the Spanish sub forum.
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Re: TAC: Upper Intermediate / Advanced Spanish Team

Postby Stelle » Fri Jan 01, 2016 10:02 pm

If everyone agrees, I'd like to suggest the following guidelines to participation in this group:

    - Please follow your teammates' logs to the best of your ability. Interacting with one another through our logs is highly encouraged!
    - Life gets in the way, but please try to update your language log at least once a month. (Ahem...this one is aimed at your leader, who's been known to disappear for months in the past. But she plans on posting weekly in 2016!)
    - Updates in both English and Spanish are welcome on this thread. If you prefer to keep all forum writing in English, that is your choice! Likewise if you prefer to write only in Spanish.
    - An update in Spanish doesn't require an English translation, since all team members should be able to read and understand Spanish.
Any thoughts or suggestions for anything that should be changed or added?

Also, how does everyone feel about team challenges? Would you like to do monthly challenges, or would you prefer that we all follow our own paths, and report back on our progress here?
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Re: TAC: Upper Intermediate / Advanced Spanish Team

Postby Stelle » Fri Jan 01, 2016 10:07 pm

re: team name...

In 2014, the Spanish team on htlal was Lobo. I suggested the name because wolves are independent, but they also depend on the pack. It seemed fitting because as autodidacts we all do our own thing, but it's nice to have a pack for encouragement and motivation.

Also, I liked it because I teach little kids, and little kids always choose animals for team names. Ha!

Anyway, it was adopted in 2014, but not in 2015. So I think that it's available if we'd like to adopt it for our team name this year.

Of course, other suggestions are welcome!
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Re: TAC: Upper Intermediate / Advanced Spanish Team

Postby Spoonary » Fri Jan 01, 2016 10:51 pm

Stelle wrote:I really need to target some of my grammar and writing weaknesses.

I totally need to do this too. I'll be reading through A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish this year, as it was the set grammar text for my degree but I have yet to read more than a few pages of it :lol:

Stelle wrote:Honestly, I think your presence here will do a lot to keep our team active! You've definitely been an inspiration to me with your regular contributions to the Spanish sub forum.

Aww Stelle, that's really nice of you to say. :) Here's hoping I can keep up the enthusiasm this year, although I'm sure I'll have to draw inspiration from some of you when the going gets tough ;)

I agree with all of the guidelines you have proposed, and I can't think of anything else that needs to be added at this time. I am also intrigued by the idea of monthly challenges. What kind of thing did you have in mind?

In my opinion, calling ourselves "lobos" is a great idea :P Would we be simply Team Lobo, or maybe... La Manada (de lobos)?
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