WEEK 2Hola!
So, it’s the end of week two of my project to prove that even the whitest person can develop a little latino flair – at least as regards conversation, if not dancing or dress sense. I think the pace of my learning dropped this week compared to last, not because of a fall-off from my initial bristling enthusiasm I think, but because as I spend more and more time going over what I have already learnt, I have less and less time to devote to learning new material. I’ll have to figure out a better method of retaining what I’ve already covered I think. One weird thing I discovered this week is that Spanish has two verbs that mean “to be”: “estar” and “ser”. I haven’t quite gotten to the bottom of exactly what situations call for one rather than the other, and the online explanations I’ve looked at are quite complex, so I’m hoping I’ll just figure it out from practice. From what I’ve read so far though, it seems that “ser” is used to describe permanent characteristics regarding who or what a person or thing is, while “estar” is used for temporary states of being, or how the person is right now. So, you use “estar” to ask how someone is , because people are fickle and when someone says they are happy, that just means that they are happy right now and not happy generally, so it can’t be relied on to mean that they will be happy tomorrow, or in five minutes time. I get that, I’ve been married. Twice. So, I use “estar” to say I am in Dublin, because I am in Dublin right now, but I might not always be here. Fair enough. But Spanish people would also use “estar” to say the Phoenix Park is in Dublin, which makes me wonder about the thrilling sense of constant flux that Spanish speakers must live in. Where is that huge 700-hectare park? Right now it’s just to the west of the city centre. But tomorrow, who knows? I’ve been continuing with the Duolingo app and this week reached “checkpoint 1” (one of seven in the Spanish course). This involved answering questions that required a knowledge of grammatical structures and vocabulary that had not been covered in the previous lessons, and also listening to recordings of Spanish speakers speaking at full speed using words I could not understand. Since you could not access the rest of the lessons without getting through this checkpoint, I was about to abandon using the app altogether, but a quick Google search revealed that you can get through the checkpoint no matter how many questions you get wrong, making the whole experience pointless, confusing and frankly dispiriting. The app definitely does have its pluses though, as you can pick dip in and out for a few minutes here and there throughout the day, which is definitely a plus when standing in supermarket queues has become the highlight of the day. I’ve also been continuing with the Michel Thomas method Spanish foundation course, and hope to finish the entire 8-hour course by the end of next week. I think the course is great for introducing grammatical structures and getting you to use the vocabulary you have learnt to say more and more complex sentences. He doesn’t always get back to getting you to use the vocabulary he has given you though, and I feel that I have forgotten some of the words, whereas on Duolingo you are tested on the words you have learnt constantly. On the other hand, I like Michel’s simple explanations of grammatical rules which is something I feel is missing from the Duolingo app. I also started using the Pimsleur Spanish course this week. The course is broken into 30-minute lessons each of which involves listening to a conversation between two native Spanish speakers, a man and a woman, and then learning the vocabulary used in the conversation over the course of the lesson. The words are taught by a native English speaker, but all of the Spanish words are spoken by the native man or woman. There is a lot of repetition of words and using them in different types of sentences, and I did find it a bit repetitive. Having already done some Duolingo and Michel Thomas, I think I should have skipped the first few lessons at least. On the positive side, I find the course works well while driving as it requires less concentration than the Michel Thomas audio course and there are so many questions it doesn’t matter much if you make a few mistakes. It does force you to answer the questions out loud to mimic what the native speakers are saying, and I think this is improving my accent in a way that neither Duolingo nor Michel Thomas have. I going to pause the recording at traffic lights from now on though, as I suspect saying “Yes, I like beer” in Spanish within earshot of others may lead to some kind of public intervention. I had my first Spanish conversation exchange this week, putting into practice the key recommendation of Benny Lewis’s book Fluent in 3 Months, which I read last week (see my review of the book here). The first site I tried, Speaky nearly put me off the whole project. I signed up and sent messages to people and got no replies. It was a bit like online dating, except that the rejection was worse because these people weren’t just saying they didn’t want to date me, they didn’t want to even speak to me for 10 to 15 minutes, half of which would be spent improving their own English language learning. Cowed but undeterred, I tried Conversation Exchange which was much better. I was quickly able to arrange a Skype video call with Carmen from Madrid, and set to work figuring out what I was going to say and how to answer any questions I might be asked. I tried to use the vocabulary and grammar I had learnt so far, but still had to look up a few words. I expected to be nervous before the conversation exchange, but really it felt more like anxiety – like that stress dream a lot of people have of showing up to do an exam they have forgotten to study for. In the dream, apparently people often show up naked to the exam, adding to the stress. With an online conversation exchange on Skype, if you keep your webcam focused on your head you can either be fully clothed or entirely naked, if that makes you feel more relaxed. I’d imagine. I was surprised that I managed to have a four minute conversation completely in Spanish (you can hear the recording here, though I missed the first few seconds). Carmen did say a few things I didn’t quite understand, and there were things I wanted to say but didn’t know how or couldn’t remember how, but it was a pretty good start. You can hear a recording of the conversation here. This week I also read How I Learn Languages by Hungarian polyglot Kato Lómb. The book was quite autobiographical and contained a lot more anecdote than practical advice. It was also very rambling and read much more like a transcription of one side of meandering conversation than a well thought out instructional book. It wasn’t until page 147 that she actually set out her method of learning a language, but even then she wasn’t entirely explicit about exactly what her approach is, and half way through her explanation she mentioned that she preferred learning from female teachers and then filled the following several pages with digressive musings about how women talk more than men; apparently proving her own point. You can see my full review of her book here. The key point that I took away from the book is that, even at a very early stage, it is a good idea to read in the foreign language so you can see the words you have learnt used in real sentences and to practise figuring out other words and phrases from their context. Taking this on board, next week I’m going to start reading a novel in Spanish. I think I’ll start with something easy that I’ve already read, like a Roald Dahl book. This week I also watched two Spanish movies: Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales) from 2014 and No se aceptan devoluciones (Instructions Not Included) from 2013. As was the case last week, I’d seen both of these movies before and tried to pick out words that I’ve learnt so far. I did manage words here and there, but nothing approaching full sentences yet. Well that’s about it. Week two of fifty-two complete and I reckon that I now know 333 words in Spanish – including 95 new ones that I learnt this week, which works out at 13 per day. So, one small step towards sounding Mediterranean, and the adventure continues … |
Here are some of the resources I was using this week
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