[2016] A Spoonful of Spanish [TAC] (feat. Italian, Esperanto & more)

[Spoonary]

If you want any help/resources for studying Basque, please let me know. Basque (alongside Mandarin) is my focus language, i'm currently working my way through the Ikasten course but recently stumbled across a great resource with tons of short dialogs with transcripts and exercises, organized from A1-C2. I've only done a couple as i'm putting most of my effort into the (also free) Ikasten.net course, but once i've finished that it seems like a great way to improve your listening skills. Basque grammar is really great, though there are a painfully large amount of verb forms that require memorizing. Sentence structure surprisingly often reminds me of Mandarin.

Btw, is the book you found (cómo aprender el euskera fácilmente) in Batua?

Thank you so much for the resources, crush. I really haven't started learning Basque at all yet but I'll be sure to take a look at them when I have some time to work through more than a couple of pages in an old book. I have been chatting with a couple of people in the Basque group on Telegram (in English) who have said that the great thing about Basque is that it is really regular. Hopefully that will help me out when I get around to actually learning it.

I have no idea how to tell if something is in Batua or not (and I even had to google that to find out what it was ), sorry. Something I did notice was that it said that Kaxo meant Hola, when I thought it was Kaixo... Also, the book was, in fact, called 'Cómo aprendes el euskera fácilmente'. That wasn't a typo (on my part). I'm taking that book with a pinch of salt though so no worries.

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Hello jennybenny25! Thank you for stopping by, and good luck to you too! I find sign languages fascinating, but I wouldn't know where to start. Maybe I should hop over to your log and see how you're doing it Feel free to follow me on Duolingo and I will just follow you straight back

[jennybenny25]

Following

Bsl have a look online and youtube but I'm doing a course at mo it is fascinating

X

[crush]

Thank you so much for the resources, crush. I really haven't started learning Basque at all yet but I'll be sure to take a look at them when I have some time to work through more than a couple of pages in an old book. I have been chatting with a couple of people in the Basque group on Telegram (in English) who have said that the great thing about Basque is that it is really regular. Hopefully that will help me out when I get around to actually learning it.

I have no idea how to tell if something is in Batua or not (and I even had to google that to find out what it was ), sorry. Something I did notice was that it said that Kaxo meant Hola, when I thought it was Kaixo... Also, the book was, in fact, called 'Cómo aprendes el euskera fácilmente'. That wasn't a typo (on my part). I'm taking that book with a pinch of salt though so no worries.

Yeah, Basque is regular in that there are very few verbs that have their own conjugations, these synthetic verbs also have patterns but they aren't that visible at first. For example:
joan = to go
noa = I go
doa = he/she/it goes
goaz = we go
zoaz = you (sg) go
zoazte = you (pl) go
doaz = they go

ibili = to walk, go around (probably easier to think of the Spanish verb 'andar')
nabil = i walk
dabil = he/she/it walks
gabiltza = we walk
zabiltza = you (sg) walk
zabiltzate = you (pl) walk
dabiltza = they walk

At first glance it seems each form is completely random as they look nothing like the infinitive (joan, ibili), but synthetic verbs tend to have a stem which is actually (usually) the middle part of the verb. You have the n- for 1st person, g- for 1st person plural, z- for 2nd person, z- + -te for 2nd person pl, d- for 3rd person. These verbs are thankfully few in number, but still a pain to get down. The cases are more like simple affixes and the rules are relatively straightforward, but again it takes some time to get used to (i still often look at charts). I don't think Basque is really that hard or complicated, it just takes a bit of effort to get over that point where the list of verb forms seems never ending. I remember that feeling studying Spanish but got a pass on my other languages due to their similarity to Spanish (Catalan, French, Italian) or lack of conjugations (Mandarin). Not so with Basque, however

Also, i'm pretty sure 'kaxo' is a typo. Older courses (before the 70s/80s, when Batua started to become more popular) likely chose a particular dialect (like the Gipuzcoan, which is actually pretty similar to Batua).

Anyway, it'd be great to see another learner of Basque!

[Spoonary]

Anyway, it'd be great to see another learner of Basque!

Thank you for all that information, crush. Somehow, the prospect of learning some Basque doesn't seem quite as scary now. I think most of what attracts me to the language is that it is so different to anything I have learned before. I love my current TLs but I want to branch out a bit and try my hand at something new. I definitely do want to dedicate some time to Basque in the near future. I just have to find that time to be able to do so.

[Spoonary]

Wellp, it's that time again. Here we go with the results of this week's goals!

Goals for w/c 11/1/2016 RESULTS:
#1 - Complete! - Historia de los Egipcios is dragging now. I started off all enthusiastic and fascinated by the Egyptian history, then at about the half-way point, the Macedonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans starting wrecking the place and the book became a dot-to-dot of battles and kings, with nothing too interesting in the middle. To be honest it was like that before, but I was interested enough in the middle bits that it didn't matter.

Meanwhile, Laura Esquivel is still wowing me with her beautiful narrative and... curious magical realism in Como agua para chocolate. The two chapters I read each week are so tantalising that I know I would devour the book in a couple of sittings if I wasn't reading it as a part of a book club

#2 - Complete! - I am still going strong with the output challenge. This week, 200ish of the words I wrote made up the output challenge script-writing mini challenge for January. It was very fun to do and I will be sharing my script when I have typed it up, edited it and recorded my performance of it for the audio portion of the challenge.

#3 - Complete! - The self-talk is still happening. I find it useful to speak aloud about how I'm feeling (albeit in my rocky Spanish) and often find myself flapping around like a mad woman while I do my recordings I actually think they're getting a teensy bit easier, but that could be my imagination. I definitely do better when I have been listening to something in Spanish beforehand, but this is not often the case, as I have to squeeze these recordings in as and when I have some quiet time.

#4 - Complete! - I watched episode 3 of El tiempo entre costuras at some point this week. I really enjoyed this one, as it was mainly about the many garments Sira makes in her new workshop-cum-boutique. This episode also saw the introduction of Rosalinda Fox. Now, the actress is stunning and does her job beautifully, but there is just something about the way the character speaks that bugs me. For anyone that doesn't know, Miss Fox is English but speaks Portuguese and Spanish. The thing is, although she speaks to Sira most of the time in amazingly fluent, complex Spanish, sometimes she says "Oh how do you say it?" and then something SUPER simple in Spanish a second later. She also throws in the odd Portuguese word when she is particularly flustered. For example, she says at one point "oh, meu filho, my son, mi hijo." I know that these things happen sometimes, but I just don't believe it with her. It bugged me in the book and it's even worse in the series

I also listened to another episode of the podcast Nadie Sabe Nada. I am a couple of episodes behind so that will give me plenty to listen to over the coming week.

#5 - Complete! - My Duolingo Esperanto tree is all shiny and golden up to the point where I stopped doing new lessons. I am currently on an 11 day streak and I have already started learning the next skill, Affixes 1.

#6 - Incomplete - This week I haven't bothered finding a new album as there has been some talk about making the music challenge monthly. I suppose I could have still tried to find something but... meh.

I haven't done much in the way of other activities this week (I mean, I have done things but none of it is worth mentioning here) so let's get straight on with the goals for the coming week, which are almost identical again.

Goals for w/c 18/1/2016:
Goal #1 ( Reading) - Read (the last) 2 chapters of Historia de los Egipcios and a chapter of Como agua para chocolate.
Goal #2 ( Writing) - Write at least 150 words/a page in my 'diary' each day.
Goal #3 ( Speaking) - Record 10-15 minutes of self-talk per day.
Goal #4 ( Listening) - Listen to a podcast and watch an episode of a TV series.
Goal #5 ( Duolingo) - Keep up daily streak (30xp per day).
Goal #6 Basque - Do something with Basque

[reineke]

Keep it up! It looks like you're accomplishing a lot more than just a spoonful of Spanish. I am about to embark on the Spanish adventure myself (I think). I'll try to do it in big swigs.

[Spoonary]

¡Lo conseguí! Ayer terminé de leer Historia de los Egipcios de Isaac Asimov. Compré este libro en una tienda de libros de segunda mano mientras estaba en España hace dos años. Siempre había tenido curiosidad de saber más sobre el Antiguo Egipto, así que cuando vi que el libro costaba solamente dos euros, no me lo podía perder.

La primera mitad del libro me gustó bastante. Me parecía un texto accesible, hasta para alguien que no sabe nada de historia, como fue mi caso. Iba subrayando algunos datos interesantes y palabras desconocidas (aunque no había muchas, la verdad) y aprendiendo bastante sobre el Antiguo Egipto al mismo tiempo.

Sin embargo, cuando iba por la mitad del libro, mi interés empezó a disminuir. El texto se transformó en una lista interminable de invasiones, batallas y sucesiones. Aunque sí hubo comentarios sobre como las varias disputas impactaron el pueblo egipcio, estos carecían de profundidad, y el libro se transformó en un bucle de ‘un tal Fulanito tomó el trono, mató a alguna gente, se murió y le sucedió su hijo Fulanito II’.

No sé si había más que el autor pudiera haber dicho sobre cada uno de estos reyes/batallas, o si la historia de Egipto después de un cierto punto de verdad se volvió tan repetitiva y aburrida. Supongo que tendré que leer otro libro sobre este periodo para averiguarlo, aunque quizá esta vez lo lea en inglés.

[Spoonary]

It's that time again. This week has been rather uneventful and as such, my reflections are quite melancholy, so sorry about that.

Goals for w/c 18/1/2016 RESULTS:
#1 - Complete! - So I finally finished Historia de los Egipcios, and I wrote my opinion about the book in the post just before this one. Sorry there is no English translation; I was feeling lazy. Basically, I enjoyed the first half of the book and found it really interesting, but at around the midpoint, the book just turned into a continuous repetition of the same 'Man takes over the throne. Man invades other countries. Man dies. Man's son takes over.' - rinse and repeat. So I ended up giving it 2 stars on Goodreads. I still want to read more about Ancient Egypt, but I'll probably do it in English from now on.

#2 - Complete! - Yeah, I'm completing my writing goals, but I'm not all together happy with what I'm writing. My diary entries are convenient and easy to write, but they tend to be a repeat of what I say in my daily self-talk session. Also, I much prefer the feeling I get after writing a post on the forum in Spanish and counting those words, rather than counting the words I scribble in my diary, simply because I put a lot more effort into the former. I'll see if I can change my ratio of forum posts or similar:diary entries in the coming weeks, and perhaps I should also post more on Lang-8 to get some feedback.

#3 - Complete! - A similar thing goes with my daily self-talk recordings; sometimes I just don't know what to talk about, particularly when my day has been/will be particularly dull and uneventful. I think I am going to write down some of the many discussion topic suggestions posted on this forum/twitter etc. and make a lucky dip kind of thing for the days in which I don't have much to say. That could work, right?

#4 - Complete! - Same old, same old here. I listened to two episodes of Nadie Sabe Nada this week, and I watched episode 4 of El tiempo entre costuras. There's not much to say about the latter apart from the fact that I love the relationship between Sira and Félix (who reminds me so much of David Thewlis as Remus Lupin - it's the tash!) and that I'm not sure I'm ready for all the political espionage that is still to come

#5 - Complete! - Well, I'm currently on an 18-day Duolingo streak (which is a record for me ) and I am ever so close to the last checkpoint before the final push. I am actually enjoying doing a teensy bit of Esperanto every day. It breaks up my otherwise very Spanish language time while also helping me solidify my knowledge of all of those little grammar/vocab points I have been hearing for months in Evildea's videos but which I never sat down and learned before.

#6 - Incomplete - Yeah, I didn't do anything with Basque this week.
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@Elenia (if you're reading this), the key to completing (all) your goals consistently is setting yourself a handful of easily-manageable ones

So there you have it. As I said, not much has gone on this week, and my language activity reflects that. Hopefully, I will find something interesting to post about at some point next week to give those who follow my log a reason to come back For now, though, how about some mundane goals!? Yay?

Goals for w/c 25/1/2016:
Goal #1 ( Reading) - Read 2 chapters of Como agua para chocolate.
Goal #2 ( Writing) - Write at least 150 words/a page in my 'diary' each day.
Goal #3 ( Speaking) - Record 10-15 minutes of self-talk per day.
Goal #4 ( Listening) - Listen to a podcast and watch an episode of a TV series.
Goal #5 ( Duolingo) - Keep up daily streak (30xp per day).
Goal #6 ( Reading) - Read 1 chapter of Splendore.

[rdearman]

Try some of the writing prompts in the first post of the Output Challenge thread if you want to change up your writing and speaking a little.

[Cavesa]

Keep it up! It looks like you're accomplishing a lot more than just a spoonful of Spanish. I am about to embark on the Spanish adventure myself (I think). I'll try to do it in big swigs.

Yeah, that spoon looks more like a shovel to me.