El Mar Rosado

 

This morning I attended my first Heygo tour, as recommended by my peer coach. Thank you Joyce! It was really fun having the chance to see places that I might not get a chance to see otherwise. Today, Jorge took us to see The Pink Sea in Cartagena, Columbia. Sadly it wasn't in Spanish, but it was still very cool.

I also re-listened to Language Transfer Track #37. In this one, Mihalis first introduces us to the pronoun for "to him", "to her" and "to them". 

For example:

I give him (the baby) - Lo doy

I give to him - Le doy

I give them (the babies) - Los doy

I give to them - Les doy

Oh my goodness, that's the difference between lo, la, le? I agree with you Joyce, I'm going to listen to these Language Transfer tracks again and again probably. Mihalis has such an interesting perspective to teaching language.

¿Qué será será?

This morning I re-listened to Language Transfer Track #36. In this track Mihalis teaches us the future tense. He explains that the sounds we need to build the tense come from the sounds we learned from the verb "haber". 

You add the sound to the end of the "to" form of the verb and move the accent to the end of the word. Mihalis describes it as "pushing the accent to the future. He says this is not a coincidence, that in Greek, the past tense is built by moving the stress backwards. How interesting.

For example: I will go is iré. It will go is irá. I will wait is esperaré. It will wait is esperará. And finally it will be is será. Which brings us to the video today.

I found this clip of Doris Day (with Spanish subtitles) from the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Man Who Knew Too Much". Jimmy Stewart stars as Doris Day's husband and she's singing (quite loudly) in hopes that their kidnapped son will hear her and cry out for help. A fun classic movie. 

What's great is at the end of the track Mihalis says that the future tense isn't used very much, but it exists and now we've learned it. Perfect!

Bailando?!?!

I re-listened to Track 34 on Language Transfer and learned something new about gerunds or gerundios. I had been exposed to the construction on Duolingo but Mihalis explained that in Spanish the gerund form is only used when talking about something that's going on right now. He said that's why all along he's been teaching the present form as for example hablo means I speak or I am speaking. But if someone interrupts you, you would say Estoy hablando versus hablo, because you are speaking right now, right at this moment.

Oh my gosh! What a revelation? That clears up so much of my confusion as to why it was used in some cases and some not. Which brings me to the first time I learned about gerunds and realized what Bailando actually meant 😊😊 Plus it gives me an excuse to post Enrique.

I also post this handy guide to gerundios from Profdele.com

Where in the world is Spanish?

Today we watched a video listing the 20 countries plus Puerto Rico where Spanish was spoken and then we were to list which countries we wanted to visit. At the moment I don't have any plans to travel abroad, at least not until the pandemic settles. However, as my coach reminded me, there are ways to visit virtually.

HeyGo Tours

Discovery at your fingertips.

Join a live-streamed tour and learn something new about the world today.

She's mentioned it before and I never got around to checking it out, so this time I went ahead and signed up and booked a tour to Cartagena this Saturday morning. Exciting! If I'm lucky, some or all of it will be in Spanish!

Totumo Mud Volcano

About the tour

Would you like to swim inside a volcano? Experience something unique during your holiday in Cartagena, Colombia. Let’s discover together, one of the world's smallest volcanos and enjoy a relaxing soak; the trip to Santa Catalina town lasts around 50 minutes driving from Cartagena. Upon arrival at the volcanic zone, prepare for a unique experience as you climb the 50 steps that surround the volcano; people say afterward, you will appear to be 10 years younger.

Another app!

Oh my goodness, another app! I remember when I was just starting to think about learning Spanish I asked the advice of my coworker and she suggested I watch Spanish TV. At the time, I only had cable and wasn't subscribing to the Latin channels so there was very little content I could find. Now through this challenge, I'm finding the opposite. There is SO MUCH content! The only way I've been able to keep from getting overwhelmed is to focus on the homework and let everything else be a bonus.

I'm also thankful for this blog as it is going to help me keep track of everything and help me to remember all the useful tools we have available. It will also help me remember where I started and how far I've come.

So back to the app. This one is called Learn Spanish - Listening and Speaking. It allows you to listen to a conversation at the level of your choosing, add subtitles in English and/or Spanish even slow down the speed. What I'm excited about is the short stories and the news. I don't think I'm ever going to run out of "comprehensible input"!

On a side note, after the 90 days, maybe we could keep up the challenge ourselves through the Telegram app. Every day we throw out a challenge and just rotate through the different apps. Thoughts?

Quizás, Quizás, Quizás

Back home from a long weekend out of town to visit a friend in San Diego. He was kind enough to take us to Mexico for lunch and dinner yesterday. It was my first time and I was so excited to practice my Spanish. I have to admit I was a little disappointed that most people spoke English very well. But I was able to tell our friend how to search for a bakery or panadería and it was fun to read the menus and all the signage in the towns. And the food was outstanding! I didn't get to try the al Pastor version, but these tacos were darn tasty.

L to R: Steak, Octopus, Suckling Pig

I don't even really like octopus, but I had it twice yesterday and both times were delicious. I guess it's like anything, if it's prepared right.

Now we're back home and I'm catching up on my homework. Today we were back to Lyrics Training. This time I picked a song and I listened to it on karaoke mode several times, paying close attention to the pronunciation, the cadence and intonation. It's very different singing versus speaking. Many of the words blend together to fit the melody. The song I picked I heard for the first time in English  in the Australian movie Strictly Ballroom. 

Such a quirky film, but this scene with that song made it a favorite of mine.

Motivación

Sundays are always a light homework day because we have our 90 minute Group Sessions. Today, Ismar's helper was his daughter, Allison, she was lovely. She helped us with our book reading. We were to focus on pronunciation and intonation or the cadence of the language, not necessarily the meanings of each word. Today we read the story "Mi Hogar".

Summy commented that the story was very Indian and reminded her that her family would normally sit on the floor, unless there was company and they would bring out the chairs. Anouska mentioned a lot of the stories are. Which is interesting considering the books are Nicaraguan.

The coach discussion today was how to keep motivated. For a lot of us finding the time is a challenge. But really, now that I think about it, don't we always find time for things that we want to do. And what is it that we want to do, we want to do things that are fun. I've heard it many times before, keep it fun! 

Another instructor suggested to regularly take time to review things I've done in the past. Whether it's re-watch a program, re-read a book, re-listen to a podcast and notice how much more I understand than the first time. It's easy to get bogged down in how much you don't know, that we forget how far we've come. I need to be a better self coach. 

Having said that, I am enjoying this group very much. We are all very motivated already and I hope we continue our "journey" (I'm stealing this from Anouska's  blog) together either through our blogs and through Telegram. Maybe someday we'll even meet in person. Wouldn't that be fun!

LingQ

This morning we were requested to watch one episode of one of the series Pablo recommended in a video from earlier in the week. I just finished the series Extr@, so I watched an episode of Pocoyó. It was adorable, and I'll probably watch more just for practice.

But as usual I find myself sidetracked. This was a carry over from reading the comments on the Dreaming Spanish video about Extensive Reading. One writer mentioned she likes to do her reading on the LingQ app (not to be confused with the Ling app!). Since finding reading material at your level is a challenge I decided to pursue it.

LingQ Learning Languages Simply

I created a free account and selected my level (I chose Intermediate). Then selected the topics I was interested in and the amount of "points" I wanted to do daily. Then it generated a lesson for me.

The blue words are words you know, tap words you don't and they turn yellow and it gives you the definition and keeps track for future review. Stopping to look up definitions isn't recommended for Extensive Reading, but I'm willing to try it as a source for reading material. Plus it's free, for now.

Leer o no leer, esta es la pregunta.

Today's homework included listening to a video from the Fingtam Languages YouTube channel. In it he discusses the benefits of extensive reading in order to learn a new language. He is a proponent of Stephen Kreshen of "Free Voluntary Reading" and the concept of "comprehensible input". Which coincidentally I mentioned in yesterday's post.

He goes on to explain that extensive reading is reading as much as you can. But choose books that are enjoyable, that are at your level or slightly above your level. You want to be able to understand 95-98% of what's going on. You want to keep the flow of reading, minimize the time you need to stop to look something up or stop to understand. The key is to keep the flow.

Yesterday I watched this video from the Dreaming Spanish video

Why to do Extensive Reading (When You're Ready)?

Pablo agrees with the benefits of Extensive Reading, but suggests you wait until you reach Intermediate Level Spanish before attempting. So this brought me to the question "To Read or Not to Read". 

I tried to read and listen to the first chapter of Harry Potter for a splinter group from our class. It was very advanced for my level and even though I was familiar with the book, I was lost. I decided, for my sanity, to keep to the 70-80% rule for now and maybe go back to HP at the end of the challenge, hopefully? At any rate, I can still participate in the chats. That will be fun.

Dreaming Languages

This morning I was curious about a comment I had read on the Dreaming Spanish YouTube channel. According to the channel, by listening we develop a native-like intuition for grammar, vocabulary together with clear pronunciation. The method is based on the ALG method developed by Dr. J Marvin Brown and Stephen Krashen's Comprehensible Input theory.

To learn more about the method:

Dreaming Languages

In one of his posts, he shares an excerpt from the book "The Listening Approach" which defines the ALG method and used in the AUA school in Bangkok to teach Thai.

Two teachers talk to the class and to each other as they do things in clear close view of the students. There are no books. What they do and say must be both comprehensible and interesting. (In Krashen’s terms, the teachers provide comprehensible input.) The students sometimes participate and sometimes do not, but they always look, listen, and try to understand what is going on, with as little conscious attention on the language as possible. This means not only that they don’t take notes or try to remember sounds, words, or patterns; it also means that they don’t speak—not until words and phrases come to them without their conscious attention. This may take several hundred hours.

I stumbled upon this video that discusses the difference between learning and acquiring a language. Mihalis talks about this also. All of this together makes me feel like I can let go of my need to study grammar and focus more on listening, since my goal is to be able to speak not teach. How freeing! 

Yay! Tacos!

Normally I try to do some of my homework before work, which is easy when I wake up before the alarm. That was not the case today! I actually slept all the way through, which is unusual for me. I tried to cram in a little bit but I'm glad I didn't post on Tandem 'cause I DID NOT read the instructions very carefully. That became obvious when I saw the first few posts. So I went back to the homework and realized that the video link WAS to the Dreaming Spanish channel, but the homework was NOT to re-listen to the same TV series video from a few days ago but to listen to a video of your own choosing. That makes WAY more sense!

Anyways, I decided to try an Intermediate level, since I didn't have any trouble with the Beginner level video.

I chose Tacos! in which Tamara from Mexico talks about her favorite foods from her country.  She was so expressive and obviously passionate about the subject, who doesn't LOVE tacos! I found it quite easy to understand. If I had to guess, I probably understood 75%. There were a number of words that I hadn't heard before, but they seemed to be words describing local ingredients. Tamara also used her hands when she spoke to pantomime some of the words which helped a lot also.

On a side note, as Tamara said, there are lots of different kinds of tacos in Mexico. A quick Google search indicates there are anywhere from 11 to 18 different types of tacos you can find in Mexico. Though there appears to be a concensus regarding the most popular

Tacos al pastor made with spit-grilled meat (often pork) and sometimes combined with chopped pineapples for sweetness

Tacos al pastor at Mexico City's Car Garage Taqueria

Immersion

Today's homework included describing our immersion experience. Ismar says the greater the immersion, obviously the greater the results. He insists not to worry about output (speaking and writing) for the moment, but rather put more attention to input. It doesn't matter your level of concentration, less or more. I've also heard this referred to as Active versus Passive listening.

So here's what I have been doing:

• Before work I try to listen to the Language Transfer lessons, I'm an early bird, so that's prime time for me.
• On my commute I listen to the Latina Mix 99.3 in my car
• During my lunch break I try to finish off Language Transfer, or the Duolingo story

After that it varies

• Read aloud a story from the Global Digital Library
• Listen to a podcast while relaxing on the couch
• Play LyricsTraining or Lirica
• Play my Carlos Vives Pandora channel if I'm home alone
• Watch an episode of Extra on YouTube
• Skype call my language practice partner in Columbia, once or twice a week
  
• Make a blogpost and comment on my peer coaches blog and sometimes my other classmates blogs
• Attend various Duolingo events, some are grammar based, some are conversational
  

As I'm writing this and thinking about Ismar's other suggestions, I realize that I'm doing more output work than input. Ismar suggested:

• listening to a podcast while cooking, exercising, driving or going for a walk
• watch a video or listen to music while I eat

This is a shift for me. I've been trying to balance my limited time with speaking and more active listening and very little passive listening. So again, I'm going to trust the system, take the challenge and add more input.

And because I can't seem to post without including a little something, I end this with Carlos Vives. Ricky Martin is a bonus.

Karaoke

Part of today's homework was to look for your favorite song in Spanish with lyrics (con la letra) on YouTube. Try to remember the lyrics and sing at least one verse of the song in Telegram. I have lots of songs that I love, but quickly found out the quicker songs were beyond my current abilities. So I decided on a somewhat slower song.

I admit that rather than remembering the lyrics it was more than enough of a challenge for me to sing karaoke. Thank goodness for the masking capabilities of a band with a horn section!🎵🎷🎺🎻🎹🎸🎷🎶🎤

The challenge for me was getting my mouth to move and make the correct sounds to the rhythm of the music. It's very different from reading aloud or conversing with another person. I had fun with it though.

On a side note, the song I chose is is also a great song to learn how to dance cumbia.

¿Qué Pasa, USA?

Disclaimer: I'm arguing that blogging isn't the same as writing since I use it solely to illustrate my comment for today.

Last night I went back to review past Language Transfer lessons and I came across the section where Mihalis is teaching the verb "pasar" which means "to pass" or "to pass by". You look to whether it's an -AR, -ER or -IR verb, which tells you if the key sound is "ah" or "eh" when conjugating the present tense. So he/she/it/you(formal) passes by would be "pasa". His example was "Qué pasa" literally meaning "What's happening?" but is also used as a greeting, like "What's going on?"

I must have glossed over it the first time, because this time around I actually heard it. And I remembered an old program my girlfriend Jacqueline and I used to watch in middle school. "¿Qué Pasa, USA?". We did everything together back in the day.

Well, I figured, what are the odds that show is available on the internet. Don't you just love YouTube?! I include only the link since the owner disabled viewing on other sites.

Que Pasa USA Episodio 1 - YouTube

I watched a little bit of the first episode and I'm amazed at how much Spanish was spoken. Somehow we must have pieced together the meaning, I guess? But I'm going to have fun watching it now. I noticed right away the grandparents are speaking all Spanish, the kids are speaking mostly English and the parents seem to switch back and forth. Interesting.

Jacqueline, Rebecca, me and Kimber

Here's to you Jacqueline, I miss you.

¿Cuál es mi nombre?

Parte de la tarea cada dia esta leer y escuchar una historia en Duolingo. Por hoy, leo la historia "The Boxing Match". It's a story about a grandmother and her granddaughter watching a boxing match at a bar. The granddaughter is bored and wants to go home to watch what sounds to me like a version of "The Bachelor". To the grandmother watching that sounds just as boring.

I would side with the grandmother on this. I remember as a little girl I watched boxing with my dad. I didn't understand all the rules, but I could appreciate the athleticism, plus the time with my dad. He was a big Muhammad Ali fan. 

I found this clip (with Spanish subtitles 😉). It's interesting to hear about his life and career as an adult. 

On a side note, since we're not supposed to memorize or write anything down. I'm going to take the extra time I have on the weekend to re-listen to the Language Transfer lessons. We're up to Lesson 20 today!

"the bite"

Part of Today's homework was to listen to tracks #17 and #18 on the Language Transfer app. Which after listening I realized I hadn't slept through the origin of azúcar but my peer coach had skipped ahead. Way to mess with me Joyce! 😜😜

I agree with her though, the Arabic origins of many of the Spanish words was so interesting. According to Wikipedia the Arabic influence dates back to Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula between 711 and 1492.

Wikipedia - Arabic language influence on Spanish words

The Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula

They guess about 4000 words or 8% of the Spanish dictionary has Arabic influence. Mihalis says that "al" means "the" in Arabic, so chances are good that if the word starts with "al" it has an arabic influence.

Here are some examples:

alcalde: Mayor. From Arabic al-qadi (the judge). Qadi comes from the verb qada (to judge)

almuerzo: Lunch. Arabic al- + Latin morsus (bite)

barrio/barriada: Area, district or neighbourhood in a town. From Arabic barri "outside"

hasta: "Until". From Arabic hatta (same meaning). Influenced by Latin phrase 'ad ista'

tarea: Task. From Arabic ṭaríḥaand root طرح, "to throw"

Tarea as we all know is also the word for homework. And it's derived from the Arabic word meaning "to throw"?? I feel like there's a joke in there somewhere. 

Duolingo with Videos

My peer coach suggested I try Lirica, no not the drug, the app.

Lirica - Learn Language with Music

According to their website (and I'm para-phrasing)

Rapid-fire exercises based on memorable hit songs to help you master the language and get to know the culture along the way.

She was right, this is right up my alley. Thanks Joyce! 😊

Today I did the first lesson on Level 1 - Learning how to Introduce yourself & Nice to meet you! using Nicky Jam's song

What I like about this app compared to lyricstraining is that it creates a language lesson using the song versus it just being a game. It's like Duolingo but with pop videos. And I cannot tell a lie, I love pop music!

Who is Language Transfer?

Today's homework included Lessons 13 and 14 on the Language Transfer app. If you recall this is the app that asks you not to write anything down and not to memorize. I've since become more comfortable with this, though it took me two weeks to get there. 

What I found interesting in these lessons is the student questioned him about being told not to memorize but to remember. He explained the difference is like borrowing the knowledge versus internalizing it. It's very interesting and made me think...Who is this guy? I want to know. Plus it's nice to put a face to the voice. The creator of Language Transfer is a guy named Mihalis. 

He believes that foreign language is not really foreign, that by using linguistic points of view to help you see the relationship of the language you're learning with the language you know, you gain a more intimate relationship with both. This creates an extension of yourself through language. That's cool. 😎😎

Speak Before you Think

Part of today's homework was to watch the video on Agnieszka Murdoch's YouTube channel 5-Minute Language. This one was about overcoming the fear of speaking a foreign language. 

I got over my initial fear back in February of this year when I attended my first Duolingo event. I ghosted the breakout room leaving myself muted with the video off. That was until I was outed by the other two participants. I turned on my video, 'fessed my fears and they immediately convinced me to just try. They were so friendly and helpful. I ended the event on a good note. That was almost 100 events ago!

I still found Agnieszka's 3 tips helpful:

1. Use what you know to say what you want. Meaning if you don't know the word you want to say, then use words you know to describe it. Or with grammar, if you only know the present tense of the verb, use it along with accompanying words to help describe the tense, like next week or yesterday. This is brilliant! Because I can't conjugate verbs.....yet 😕😊
2. Native speakers aren't there to judge or correct you (unless you ask them to). The majority just want to help. This is so true, even more so if they are trying to learn English!
3. Speak before you think! This feels like the opposite of look before you leap. It essentially is though, right? Don't let fear stop you from trying. Saying anything is better than saying nothing at all.

Which then reminded me of a song from one of my favorite guilty pleasure moves. So I include it purely for my own pleasure 😉😛

Hasta luego!

Lyrics Training

Today Ismar assigned Lyrics Training for part of our homework. I was already familiar with the site but had abandoned it when I couldn't even handle the beginner level of the game. However, today I learned two things:

1. There is a karaoke option where you can watch the video of the song and sing along with lyrics; and
2. There is a Children's Music genre - which is much easier to play the "fill in the blank" game with.

I was even happier to find an old friend in the Children's section, Grover, from Sesame Street. As a child, I used to watch Sesame Street every day. Who knew Grover was bilingual?

The song was called Arriba, Abajo, Alredador y A Través. It was great! and what's more I will never forget the meanings of those four words.

And for the kid in me, here's a clip of classic Grover - sorry, this one is in inglés.

La Bicicleta

Today is Day 11 of our 90 day challenge and our second Zoom meeting. It was fun to put faces to names after interacting with them all during the week. We practiced introducing ourselves using "Me llamo .... y me gusta ...." We have one classmate whose name is Shakira, which our instructor, Ismar couldn't help but ask if she was named after Shakira the latin singer or if Shakira is a popular name in different countries. As it turns out, it is a popular Arabic name. 

Afterwards, I attended Spanish Zumba class, which since I love to dance and I love Spanish music, it's like a tri-fecta for me! The last song was La Bicicleta, by Carlos Vives and ..... wait for it ... Shakira! Coincidence? I think not.

It's a vallenato, which my Columbian language partner, Isabel says is a very popular type of music in her country. I understand about 60% of the lyrics, which is less than the 70-80% Ismar recommends. But I'm willing to struggle through it. I love the song and I trust that will get me past the 10%.

Plus isn't culture and music part of learning a language? I think it definitely adds to your understanding. What do you think?

Bookbox Spanish

Today our homework included exploring the YouTube channel Bookbox Spanish. Watch a video and then comment on it.

The suggestions were:

• listen to a story and try to repeat the phrases to get your brain used to producing the sounds in Spanish
• Choose a level of story that you can understand the general meaning not necessarily every word
• Give yourself this input on a daily basis

According to the Bookbox Spanish Channel: These are simple, fun stories that can help you or your little ones learn Spanish! I guess in my case I am the "little one" 😁😊😉. This made me think of the old TV series, Kung Fu, where the master referred to his student as grasshopper. Which of course brought me to this clip. We must learn to listen!

Given my experience with UNESCO books, I thought I would try Level 1. I started with the Level 1 recommendation from our instructor, but I found the English/Spanish narration distracting. So I chose this Level 1 book with Spanish narration and English subtitles.

 

Este libro fue mas fácil para mi. So I moved to Level 2 and chose this book.

This one was a better fit for my skill level. Though I had difficulty trying to repeat the phrases unless I stopped it after every sentence, which I ended up doing. I also found it difficult to truly gauge if I understood the general meaning since the English subtitles gave the meaning away. I listened to it a second time without stopping. It was helpful practice listening at full speed. Like a podcast with pictures.

Más Pronuncíacion

Today's lesson was on pronunciation. I'm feeling like maybe this is important! 😉😉😉 We had two videos to watch. 

Besides enjoying her impressions of the many spanish accents I learned that there is no vibration in the Spanish letters: B, V, S and Z. Think of how you say "very". I never noticed the vibration before. It doesn't help my Spanish pronunciation, but I still found it interesting.

The second video was from SuperHolly, an American but according to our coach, speaks Spanish at a native level.

SuperHolly had several tips which helped me:

• The letter "T" is pronounced with the tongue touching the back of the teeth
• The letter "D" is pronounced like "TH" in English
• The "R" she compares to the "D" in English (e.g. caro vs cadet)

Practise Practise Practise!

Discovering Language Patterns

Day 8

Part of today's homework was to read aloud a book from the UNESCO digital library 

Global Digital Library

and try to identify words and patterns discussed in the first six lessons of the Language Transfer app.

I chose the book Aaloo-Maaloo-Kaaloo

It's a book about a boy (Maaloo) and his dog (Kaaloo) trying to help his grandmother (Dadi) find some potatoes. At least that's what I gathered from my reading comprehension plus the pictures. 

I found a couple of words (tomates, plantas) which share the same root in both English and Spanish. I also found a word that I think follows the patterns we've learned (excavando is a gerund, but excavation would be excavacion and to excavate would be excavar??) That's what I'm going with anyway 😊

My only question is who's Aaloo??

Day 7

Today was lesson 4 and 5 on Language Transfer. I enjoyed it much more today knowing more what to expect and not a pen or paper in sight!

So now what? I've done my Duolingo story. I answered the Classroom question....hmmmm. I know! I'll go back to watching the show I found on YouTube, it's based in Spain, which has a little bit different accent than Latin America, but the dialogue is at a speed I can follow. 

It helps me practice my listening comprehension and it's fun. Plus I'm learning  colloquialisms like  "Vale" and "Tonto".

Language Transfer

Today, part of our homework was to download the app Language Transfer and complete the first three lessons and only three first three lessons. We were,  however, allowed to repeat them, which of course I did. 

The lessons weren't difficult, in fact, the instructions I found most difficult were

• Don't write anything down
• Don't try to memorize

My first thought was, "What kind of woo-woo, new age thing did I get myself into?"🙄🤔  For as long as I've been a student of anything I've written notes and memorized. But since I'm a novice in learning languages I'm going to trust in the Thinking Method. Here I go!

Pronounciation

The second part of today's homework was to explore Pronunciation in Spanish. Our instructor suggested two videos both from Ana Padilla with Butterfly Spanish. I ended up watching her whole series on the Spanish alphabet, because why wouldn't I do that on a lazy holiday Monday. 

Be forewarned, I'm about to get super geeky. The one I found really interesting was how to pronounce the letters LL and  Y. She explained the LL sound as: between the English sounds for J (ch) + Y (io).

The technical term was fricativas palatales sordas, which include LL, RR, Ñ and CH. Technical term aside, you put your whole tongue (not just the tip) up against your palate and make the english JY (ch-io) sound. 

Plus she's just fun to watch! She makes me laugh 😄😄

Podcasts

Part of today's homework was to share your favorite podcast for learning Spanish or if you didn't have one to search for some new ones to share with class. I used to listen to Duolingo podcasts in my car on my commute. I stopped because it was too dangerous to concentrate on Spanish and driving at the same time! 😨😉

Here's what my search produced:

https://www.espanolistos.com/micro-1494436_1920/

https://www.spanishobsessed.com/beginners-spanish/

So now I can add listening to a podcast to my list of daily things to do to learn Spanish. I'm thinking it might be safer to listen during my lunch break instead of while driving LOL!

Peer Coaching

Hola,

Hoy fue el primero reunion por la 90-dia desafio. Y se conocen mi nueva Peer-Coach, Joyce de Ottawa, Canada. The purpose of a Peer Coach for this challenge is:

* Support and motivate each other

* Ask questions about a task or activity

* Give and receive opinions and feedback

* Homework partner

* Comment on each other's blog

Remember to be supportive, not judgemental.

 

Que vs Lo que

 Yesterday I was in a Duolingo event and another student asked what the meaning of "lo que" was in the sentence "Esto es lo que el Sr. Anda entendio." and didn't it mean "what"? It wasn't a grammar class so the host gave us a short version of the difference between 'que' vs 'lo que'. 'Que' is usually used when you're asking a question versus 'lo que' is used when you're making a statement. For example: "What do I want?" versus "This is not what I want." He challenged us to spend time to look up videos on the topic. So I did.  

The introduction, I think, is more than most could get through, but it appealed to the math major in me 😉. Skip past it if you need to because his explanation made all the difference!

Essentially, 'lo que' is a relative pronoun that can link two relative clauses.

e.g.  This is not what I want.   Esto no es lo que quiero.

Note, both clauses must have conjugated verbs. If the second verb is an infinitive (not conjugated), then you would use que.

 e.g. I don't know what to say.  No se que decir.

Interesting, right? You can also use "lo que" at the beginning of the sentence. For example: "Lo que quiero es..." "What I want is...." or "Lo que necesito es..." "What I need is..."

Esta es importante, no? Lo que necesito es mas tiempo para practicar! Es verdad? 😉

Leyendo y Hablando en Espanol

Today's assignment was to start reading aloud in Spanish. I started by listening to a few Duolingo stories, only this time repeti cada frase despues lo leyendiendo. I replayed each line that I had any trouble with and tried to repeat the sentence with the same pronunciation and phrasing. After downloading the "Read Aloud" chrome extension I then read my first book from UNESCO's Global Digital Library. At the suggestion of my coach empezo con el biblioteca de Espanol de Nicaragua, libros del Nivel Uno. 

Mi primer libro estaba "Los Colores de la Naturaleza". Aprendi una palabra nueva "cabra", el significado es "goat".

Tengo buscar el significado del palabra porque pienso que es un "bull" LOL. El palabra para eso es "toro". Tambien, tengo dificultades con la pronunciacion del nombre de este animal.

.

Es un cocodrilo! Pienso que necesito practicar hablando esta palabra. Es diferente que doble "r". Me recuerdan la frase para practicar ese. "R" con "R" cigarro, "R" con "R" barril. Rapido correr el carro cargado con azucar con ferrocarril.

Eso es para hoy.

My First Blog

This is my very first post on my very first blog. I've thought about making a blog before but I finally did it as a homework assignment for a 90 day challenge I signed up for. July 2nd is day 2 of Desafio de Espanol 3 Meses - JAS. The goal is to write every day about what I did to learn Spanish. Try to use Spanish as much as I can. I can include:

* Language points I've learned. Things I'm finding difficult.

* How I've practiced. Did I learn a new song? Did I order lunch in Spanish?

* Keep track of materials studied

* Add multimedia - audio, video, pictures

* Add goals

* Involve other people, another student, a friend, a tutor

* Review

Here we go, exciting!