Accentos

Track #66 was a short one, but there were a couple little tidbits which I offer here. The first was that in Spanish we wouldn't say 'my leg hurts'. Instead we would say 'it hurts me the leg' - 'me duele la pierna' from the verb doler = to hurt.

The noun is 'dolor' = pain. So similarly 'I have a headache' would be 'I have pain of head' or 'Tengo dolor de cabeza'. You could also say 'it hurts me the head' - 'me duele la cabeza'. The second sounds more natural to me.

Track #67 fue muy interesante, sobre del accentos. Basicamente hay dos reglas:

1. Si la palabra terminé en 'n', 's' o un vocál, el estres esta en la penúltima sílaba
2. Si la palabra no terminé en 'n', 's' o un vocál, el estres esta en la última sílaba

Si la palabra no sigue las reglas, la silaba necesita un accento. Encontró este video sobre los mismos reglas. 

1. She says that most of the words that don't follow the rules came to Spanish a different way other than Latin
2. There is only one accent type (unlike French)
3. The accent only indicates stress of the syllable, it doesn't change the sound.

On a side note, at the suggestion of our professor, Ismar, I'm going to stop reading Webtoons for now. It's too advanced for me at the moment. And unlike Harry Potter where I know the story, the pictures aren't enough for me to fill in the blanks.

Vez

Track #65 of Language Transfer discusses the words 'más' and 'vez'.  For example:

• nada - nothing
• nadie - noone or nobody
• más - more, else
• nada más - nothing else
• nadie más - nobody else

Mihalis explains and gives examples of the word vez in these Spanish phrases:

• una vez - once
• una vez más - one more time
• otra vez - again
• a la vez - at the same time, while

I found these ones also:

• de vez en cuando - occasionally, once in a while
• a veces - sometimes, at times
• tal vez - maybe
• en vez - instead of
• de una vez - once and for all
• rara vez - rarely, seldom 
• cada vez - every time, each time 
• habia una vez - once upon a time

And finally my video for today, the first song of the medley is 'Amaneci Otra Vez'. I love the string section and he can sing too!

Hablaste

Today I hosted the Potter Book Club. It was a LOT of work, not only did I have to read the chapter, which was extra long this week, I had to come up with something to do. Summy and Anouska gave me a pass to read together in the meeting, but I took the challenge and created some hangman games using phrases from the chapter. I can't take credit for the idea, since I stole it from another event, but I did find a site that made it easy to create the games. It was fun!

Also today we are at two months of our three month challenge! I am thankful to our instructor, to my coach Joyce and my fellow students for helping me through. I've come a long way in just two months and I'm motivated to keep it up! Shakira produced our story for today and w/ Nigel's help performed it for us. It was a gory story about a man who murdered women on behalf of his wife. It went super fast for me, so there were parts that I didn't quite catch, but it was really entertaining and I understood the basic story. So yay! And well done Shakira and Nigel.

Finally, I reviewed Language Transfer Track #64. On this one Mihalis explains the final two 'Point in the Past' tenses: you (formal) and they. So back to our 'hook' verbs (hablar and comer).

• hablaste - you spoke
• hablaron - they spoke
• comiste - you ate
• comieron - they ate

He also makes note of the 'i' being important in this tense for the -ER and -IR verbs as compared to -AR verbs.

• hablé - comí
• habló - comió
• hablamos - comimos
• hablaste - comiste
• hablaron - comieron

And here's my musical hook for today.

Cepeda

Hoy es dia de LyricsTraining! Y mi canción por esta juego hoy es Por El Resto de Mi Vida por Andres Cepeda. Es un juez en la programa La Voz - Niños de Columbia.

Este video es muy artistica. Solamente ver los zapatos, ningun persona excepto en la revista. Me gustó.

Which coincidentally was discussed in Track 63 of Language Transfer which I reviewed today. 

• Me gustó - I liked it
• Le gustó a ella - She liked it

Mihalis also introduced us to the word accordar, which means to remember. 

• Me acuerdo - I remember 
• No me acuerdo - I don't remember 
• No nos acordamos - We don't remember 

We're pretty close to finishing Language Transfer the first time through. After today we only have 5 left. Which at the rate we've been going we'll be finished on Tuesday. Then what?!

Te doy, Maluma

I struggled to find something to blog about today. I did re-listen to Language Transfer Track #62. Mihalis explains how the verb dar - to give in the past tense behaves like -ER and -IR verbs even though it's an -AR verb.

• di - I gave
• dió - he gave
• dimos - we gave

He also spoke about Spanish not liking the phonetics of 'le lo' or 'les lo', so in the instances where that would be the correct grammar, Spanish changes the first word to 'se'. 

• I gave it to him - se lo di
• I gave it to them - se lo di

But now there is ambiguity so to clarify you can use 'a'

• I gave it to him - se lo di a el
• I gave it to them - se lo di a ellos

Note that there is some repetition in these sentences. If instead you use a different preposition to clarify, like 'para', there is no repetition.

• lo compré para ti
• lo compré para usted

Mihalis says not to memorize but instead just try to understand, so that when you are listening and hearing you will notice it.

And to finish I give you Maluma, because I realized I have yet to post of video of his. He's pretty, but such a mess in all of his videos. I do appreciate his ability to perform while under the influence though. His acrobatics on stage are impressive!

Pensaba que la Vida Daba y a Mi Solo me Quitaba

Today I reviewed Track #61 of Language Transfer. Mihalis revisited the line in the past tense. For example:

I was speaking on the phone when Maria arrived.

Hablaba por teléfono cuando Maria llegó.

Clearly that tense did not make an impression on my brain. No surprise there, it's pretty full right about now. I had to go all the way back to Track #46 to review. I decided to repost on this tense with a song since songs seem to help me remember. This one is really pretty. I don't yet understand all the lyrics but I translated this one line.

Pensaba que la vida daba y a mi solo me quitaba, roughly translates to

I thought that life gave and I just took away

Mihalis also discusses in this track, the difference between 'no me gusto' and 'no me gustaba'. Both mean I didn't like it, but the former refers to an event while the latter is ongoing. He says they are interchangeable and that the difference is in your mind, your perception of your not liking something. Goodness!

Tambien algunos frases común:

• me parece - it seems to me
• me pareció - it seemed to me
• me pareció - it seemed good to me

Eso es todo para ahora.

Empanadas

Today is podcast day and I listened to #4 of the Duolingo Podcast series. I hope they put more of them on the YouTube channel, because it's very handy to watch the video while you listen.

Una chilena en China

This podcast was about a Chilean girl who while in China found a restaurant serving Chilean style empanadas, a welcome taste of home. She ends up meeting the chef and they fall in love. Of course they do! I want to know about the empanadas. I think most cultures have some sort of meat pie, though they might call it something else. In the podcast she mentions empanada del mar y carne.

This video talks about the empanada pino, which is beef, boiled egg, black olive and a raisin. Though from the comments on the video there seems to be some controversy. I may not have followed all of it though. People are so serious about food!

Yo Viví

Review of Lesson 60 on Language Transfer. In this track Mihalis continues with the 'point in the past'. He likes to use the same 3 example verbs to use as our 'hook' to remembering.

• we speak - hablamos, we spoke - hablamos
• we eat - comemos, we ate - comimos
• we live - vivímos, we lived - vivímos

So to review 

• hablé, habló, hablamos
• comí, comió, comimos
• viví, vivió, vivimos

Which segues nicely to this One Republic video of the song "I Lived" about one of their fans, 15 year old Brian Warnecke who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis.

 

The streets of Mexico

Today we were introduced to a new YouTube Channel called Easy Spanish. I actually watched a few different videos from this channel. The first one was about 9 Every Day Phrases to Sound Like a Spanish Native in Mexico. I found it difficult to understand the slang. The second one I watched was about the uses of 'lo', but it just confused me even more. The third time I was lucky and was able to understand most of it. This one was about Things you see on the street in Mexico City.

I have to say the number of YouTube Channels out there is overwhelming. And I only have so much time, so I feel like I have to focus on the few that I find fun.

On Language Transfer I reviewed Track #59 where Mihalis introduces us to the 'point in the past' for -ER and -IR verbs.

For example:

• comí - I ate, comió - he, she, you(formal) ate
• salí - I went out, salió - he, she, you(formal) went out

On a side note, Summy and Anouska put me in charge of next week's Harry Potter meeting. I am going to do my best and see what I can come up with. I guess this means I have to try and read the chapter before Sunday morning 😁

El olvido

Today I re-listened to Language Transfer Track #58. Mihalis introduces us to the 3rd form of past tense, what he calls the 'point in the past' or the english words usually ending in 'ed'. 

For example:  hablar = to speak, hablé = I spoke, habló = he, she, you(formal) spoke. He stresses how important it is to put the accent on the final syllable, otherwise you change the meaning of the word. 

He also gave us a resource to find the origins of words which I mention here so I can remember it.

Online Etymology

The last thing I wanted to write about was the word 'olvido'. Mihalis says there isn't a word for it in English, but it's a noun that means 'the forgetting'. From the verb 'olvidar' - to forget. He says you will see it in many songs, especially tango. It wasn't hard to find this tango. It's a beautiful song written for his grandmother who died of Alzheimer's; still strong motivation for me to keep learning Spanish.

La Voz

Well it's Saturday and usually that means Lyrics Training homework. So my post today was going to be about the song I sang but before that I re-listened to Language Track #57. Mihalis was talking about a few different uses for the word 'lo'.

1. the interesting thing - lo interesante, the easy thing - lo facil
2. the thing about the party - lo de la fiesta, the thing about Juan - lo de Juan

All these little words start to get confusing when there's a bunch of them all in a row! So as I like to do, I go to YouTube to see if there's a video that might help. I stumbled upon this one. It has absolutely nothing to do with the uses of 'lo' but this kid was AMAZING!

Like I said last week in Zoom class, algún día espero entender las letras como las escucho. I don't know what he was singing about, but I was feelin' it! Does anyone know what the song was that he sang at the end?

Prepositions

Today I re-listened to Language Transfer Track #56 where Mihalis tells us that although in English the preposition or PRE-position, as Mihalis says can sometimes be at the end of the sentence. In Spanish the preposition can NEVER come at the end. So his example was:

• The girl that I worked with. You would rearrange the sentence first to
• The girl with that I worked - La chica con que trabajo
• The girl with which I worked - La chica con cual trabajo
• The girl with who I worked - La chica con quien trabajo

All are correct.  It made me think about why there is the difference and I found this short but interesting video

So in short, in English, the preposition was moved to the end of the sentence to make it sound less formal. So maybe the Spanish culture and their language had no desire to sound less formal. This follows with most if not all of the Spanish speaking people I have come in contact with speak extremely respectfully and formal to me. It's nice. So why wouldn't the language reflect that?

Dicho Y Hecho

Today I re-listened to Language Transfer Track #55. We have learned a bunch of different tenses now and I'm starting to forget. I'm reminded of some advice given by another instructor and also Laura from Spanish After Hours. To learn phrases that you use often or that are commonly used until you've really learned the concept. Which now that I think of it is kind of what Mihalis is doing also. Now I think I'll need to go back a third time through Language Transfer and keep better track of the common phrases he's been giving us all this time.

For now, these are the ones he gave us in this track.

• I should do it - Deberías hacerlo
• I could do it - Podría hacerlo
• I am dead (tired) - Estoy muerta
• I died (from embarrassment or laughter) - Me muero
• I have said it - Lo he dicho
• I have told him - Le he dicho
• I have done it - Lo he hecho
• I should have done it - Debería haberlo hecho
• Made in China - Hecho en China

That's what 'hecho' means!! I hear it all the time, that and dicho, but was never exactly sure what they meant. Damn those irregular verbs!!!

And since it's difficult for me to post without adding a little sumpin' sumpin' here is a video I found called Dicho Y Hecho.

Hooky

The other day, Ismar introduced another new reading resource called WebToon. You can access it on the web or they also have an app. I struggled to find a cartoon that interested me so I just picked one to get the homework completed, but came back to it today to spend a little more time looking for a series that I might enjoy.

I found Hooky  I decided to give it a try based on the description of the first episode (there are 222 episodes posted so far). 

Dani y Dorian perdieron el autobús de la escuela de magia. Ahora deben encontrar a alguien que les enseñe a convertirse en grandes maestros de la brujería... ¿Lo lograrán?

I'm hoping it will be along the lines of Harry Potter possibly? I guess we'll see. I had a little trouble understanding the first episode, a lot of words I didn't know, but I will keep trying.

Sofia

I looked back to the early days of this challenge and decided to re-listen to the Espanolistos podcast I had listened to the first week. At the time I didn't put a percentage to how much I understood, but I believe I understood more this time around than the first time, so something must be working. Mostly I'm recognizing more verb conjugations, which makes sense, thanks Mihalis. 

Also today I listened to a Dreaming Spanish video about Álvaro Soler. It was a beginner video, so I understood about 90%. I did find it interesting to hear more about this singer. I love his song Sofia. It turns out the song was about his ex-girlfriend Maria, but he changed the name to Sofia. Coincidentally his current girlfriend's name is Sofia. 

I discovered this song in Spanish Zumba class. It's a great song. Tal vez podería cantar con este canción algun día, pero ahora es demasiado rapido para mi.

Over and over and over again

I'm back home and attempting to catch up on everything! It was challenging to keep up with the 90 day challenge while out of town but I managed....barely. I re-listened to to Language Track 52, in this one Mihalis repeats that in English we use 'ing' far more often than in Spanish. For example, when it's used as an adjective like interesting, irritating or living, instead of using the 'ando', 'iendo' form of the verb we use 'ante' or 'iente' to form the adjective.

• interesting - interesante
• irritating - irritante
• living - viviente

I also chose two of Laura's videos to try listening to over and over and over again to see if I can get to the point where I can shadow the video. Plus I find her entertaining. I chose:

You should read more, so join the club!  and this one about her packing prowess.

So far I've watched them both 3 times. I've already increased my comprehension a little with each viewing. Right now I'm at about 75%?? So that's encouraging!

The other thing that I've been neglecting to do is review things I've done in the past. It's easy to do with this blog. We're over halfway. I should see how I'm doing, right?

Jenny and the Mexicats

I suppose singing along with a song is basically 'shadowing' to music. Eventually it would be nice to be able to sing along and actually understand what you're singing. I do love this song. I found it on the Lyrics Training app.

They also have a YouTube channel. Jenny is Jenny Ball and she's from Great Britain, but holey cow, she sounds like a native and she plays the trumpet like 'all get out'! The drummer is from Spain and the strings are from Mexico. Their music is described as a mix of rockabilly, cumbia, jazz and flamenco. It makes me want to dance. It's so motivating to want to learn how to sing along!

The Mexicats - YouTube Channel

Tips to Learning a New Language

 

I went back to the Spanish After Hours YouTube channel and watched what I think was her first video she posted. In it Laura discusses her tips on how to learn a new language. 

1. Listen - which I've heard before, but she suggests it's better to watch something that you're NOT familiar with so you are forced to listen actively. She also suggests picking one or two videos 5-20 minutes long that you watch over and over and over again until you understand them completely. And once you get to that point you can try shadowing, which I used to do as a kid with movies I had watched so many times I knew the dialogue. Her final tip is to choose videos of someone whose voice or speech you like because if you're listening as much as she suggests you'll end up picking up their speech patterns. So interesting!
2. Read - anything you can get your hands on. She read a lot of teen books that used a lot of the same common phrases that eventually she picked up the meaning.
3. Find - a Language Partner or Language Parent A partner came be someone learning your target language or is fluent in your target language and learning your native language. A parent is someone you can ask questions or get clarification from. She recommended HelloTalk for chatting and Conversation Exchange to match with a person. I suspect it's like Tandem where I found my Language Partner.
4. Be Consistent - Keep at it every day, because the likelihood of one skipped day become two, three or more is high. She made out a calendar where Mondays were reading days, Tuesdays were Language Partner etc
5. Think in Spanish - Translate your most common expressions and start using them when you talk to yourself. Change your phone setting to Spanish. But she warns to keep a screenshot of how to change it back in case you need to. Put sticky notes on objects around the house either of the spanish word for the object or common sayings.
6. Make Mistakes - It's the best way to improve. It's easy for me to make mistake while speaking, I get practice doing that with my Language Partner. I should though probably try to write more in Spanish.

That's my summary of the points she made that spoke to me. After this 90 day challenge I'm definitely going to have to figure out something to keep me consistent. I suppose all the Google Docs should still be available, I could just go back to Tarea 1 and start all over again!

Verano Azul

Back to Dreaming Spanish today. I watched the beginner video about the Spanish TV Series Verano Azul. From what I could understand it was a very popular tv series from the 80s. It was re-run in many different Latin American countries. 

Dreaming Spanish - Verano Azul explained

I understood all the words but wasn't 100% sure if I understood completely the meaning. I thought that he was saying the show was popular because it discussed a lot of issues that previously weren't topics for TV during the the dictatorship. It would help if I knew more about world history, but that was never my strong suit. So Wikipedia to the rescue.

According to Wikipedia 

In Spain itself, the series broke with patterns inherited from Franco's television , openly dealing with then delicate or novel issues such as divorce, freedoms, the right to protest, real estate speculation, the environment or generational conflicts, among others. 

The series originally broadcasted in 1981 after the natural death of Francisco Franco in 1975. What I also learned from Wikipedia is that you can watch the whole series on TubiTV for free. What a world we live in where in minutes with a couple clicks on your phone we can be watching a Spanish TV series from the 80s. Amazing!

TubiTV Verano Azul Episode 1

era, iba, veía

Language Transfer Track #49 Mihalis continues with the imperfect tense and the three irregular verbs:

• ser = era
• ir = iba
• ver = veía

These are the I, he, she, you (formal) version. For the other conjugations you add s, mos, is and n. Senor Jordan has another nursery rhyme video to help remember. In addition to the sentence my peer coach gave me: Cuando era un niña, iba a la playa y veía el océano. Thanks Joyce!

Ía Ía Yo

In Language Transfer Track #48, Mihalis teaches us the 'line in the past' for -ER and -IR verbs. He compares it to the 'would' form of the verb in that they share the same ÍA ending but you take off the ending first. For example

• comería - I would eat
• comía - I was eating
• rompería - I would break
• rompía - I was breaking

Mihalis doesn't call it that, but it is the imperfect tense. I found this video which I thought was impressive he actually made a song. Kudos!

Part of today's homework was to record a conversation with our peer coach and post it on Telegram. I am not a techy, but we got it done. Thanks Joyce!

A Crisp Sandwich

This morning I reviewed Language Transfer Track #47, in this one Mihalis talks about

• este = this, the plural is estos = these; drop the 't' and you get
• ese = that, and esos = those

Ismar also asked us to watch another Spanish After Hours video. I chose 'A Spanish Snack Even Your Dog Could Make'

Laura is so funny that I wasn't sure if this was an actual thing or if she made it up for the video. As it turns out there is such a thing called a 'crisp sandwich' which is basically a potato chip sandwich. It is said to have been invented in England or Ireland. I also found this in depth article in the Guardian discussing the 'ins' and 'outs' of eating it.

How to Eat a Crisp Sandwich

It reminds me of a sandwich my dad used to make when I was a kid. It was an ice cream sandwich using sliced white bread. I think we might have been out of clean bowls so dad just put the ice cream between two slices of bread. I remember it being yummy as a kid, I'm not so sure how I would feel about it now.😁😏

Fearlessness

This morning I reviewed Language Transfer Track #46 where Mihalis teaches us the second of three past tense forms. He refers to this one as 'a line in the past ' or ongoing. For example, I was speaking, I used to speak all the time. You remove the verb ending and add 'aba' to get: hablaba, hablabas, hablaban, hablabamos.

Today's homework included listening to another Duolingo podcast 'Sin Miedo'. I had listened to this a couple times before a long time ago. With the words I was able to understand 75-80%, which is considerably more than before. Look at me improving, yay!

Anyway, the story is about a girl from Chile who moves to Argentina but gets dumped by her boyfriend. She snaps out of her funk when she hears a Michael Jackson song at a club and it frees her to focus on enjoying the chance to dance on her own. So in the name of fearlessness, I include a video of MJ singing in Spanish.

What gives you the courage to break through the fear?

On Top of Old Smokey

A review of Language Transfer Track #44 gave us a few random tips regarding the gender of nouns. Mihalis mentions that although most words ending in 'a' are feminine many of the words ending in 'ma' come from the Greek language. In Greek the words are neuter but look masculine and so kept their masculinity when they came into the Spanish language. Words like problema, sistema, idioma.

He also mentioned that the word for hand is 'mano' and the only true word that ends in 'o' that is feminine. Since foto comes from fotografia and moto from motocicleta. 

The last tidbit was words starting with 's' plus a consonant don't exist in Spanish. Mihalis explains you need to add an 'e' in front of it. So words like españa, español, eschema and espagueti. Which brings me to my random addition to my blogpost today. 

How to make spaghetti with meatballs, Mexican style. I found this video to be extremely comprehensible input. She was very easy to understand and the pictures helped with most of the words I didn't already know. 

On a side note, I also discovered this morning that the spaghetti song I remember from childhood was NOT the original. It turns out it was a folk song about a mountain. Go figure!?

Have you ever re-discovered any of your childhood memories?

Mariachi!

This morning's tarea was to sing another song. I practiced the one line in the verse that was much faster than I've been able to sing before and managed to get my tongue to make the sounds. Yay me!

The song, La Bikina, was introduced to me in another Duolingo event. The instructor has been a huge Luis Miguel fan since she was a kid. She also told us the story of his life is a new series on Netflix. She didn't realize his early life as a performer was so sad, but suggested we watch the series for practice anyway. She also gave me a new appreciation for the mariachi bands.

Luis Miguel - The Series | Netflix

The Coco version of the song by Karol Sevilla is also great.

This morning I re-listened to Language Track Lessor 43. He re-visits the verb 'haber' and explains the future tense is not habería, but habría. It loses the 'e' like poder to podría. So 'I would have gone' is 'habría ido'.

What I also found interesting was that 'should' is 'would owe' or debería. So 'I should speak' is 'debería hablar'

Me gusta o me gusto??

I re-listened to Language Transfer Track 42 this morning. Mihalis continues with the future tense and the verb poder, which means 'to be able'. 'Would you be able' is another way of saying 'Could you'. Using the rule and the key sound 'ía' you would think it should be 'poderías' but because this is a very common verb used  over the many years, the 'e' got lost and the word evolved to 'podrías'. The other forms would be podríamos, podrían, podría. I love this! This will definitely help me to remember.

He also discusses  the verb "gustar". I have always known this verb to mean "to like" but Mihalis suggests we instead think of it as "to be pleasing". 

• I like it - It is pleasing to me - Me gusta
• I like them - They are pleasing to me - Me gustan

If we using the intermediate "Spanglish" translation, we arrive at the correct translation and avoid using the "Me gusto" incorrectly, which translates to I like myself or I am pleasing to me. Which might also be true, but may not be what you meant to say!

And, because she makes me laugh, I include Ana's video on the verb gustar. She gets off on several tangents, but the beginning does explain a different mistake that some people make with the verb. 

Me gustan mucho los videos de Ana? Te gustan?

A man and a rifle??

Today's homework introduced us to yet another YouTube Channel that provides us comprehensible input. This one is called Spanish After Hours in which Laura, who prefers to be called a friend helping you out with learning a new language versus a teacher, entertains us with her videos. The beginner one was easy to understand, but this intermediate one I watched was more difficult. I would say I understood about 60%.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, Laura is also featured on several of Pablo's videos on the Dreaming Spanish channel. In this one, they are playing a version of the game 20 Questions. Laura tries to figure out how the man with the rifle died.

 

Would I Lie to You?

This morning I re-listened to Language Transfer Track #41 in which he introduces us to the second future tense "would". He explains that similar to "will":

• we add to the "to form" of the verb
• the stress moves to the end of the word or "into the future"; and
• there is one set of endings for all verbs -AR, -ER and -IR

The key sound is "ía"

• bailaría - I, He, She, It and You (formal) would dance 
• bailaríamos - We would dance
• bailarías - You (informal) would dance
• bailarían - They would dance

Which brings me to my video today, like Doris Day, Annie Lennox will help me remember this particular future tense. Would I Lie to You? - ¿Te mentiría? - Right?

Also today Ismar had us listen to the first Duolingo Podcast (with the transcript). Anouska posted a YouTube video from the Duolingo channel which had the transcript simultaneously playing with the sound, which was helpful. Sadly they don't have all the podcasts. But they did have this one, which is one of my favorites. Do you have a favorite?

 

20 Preguntas

For today's homework we were back to Dreaming Spanish YouTube channel. Anouska got me started on his Let's Play Games Series. In this one he teaches his friend how to play the classic '20 Questions' game. Though he does stray from the traditional yes/no answers to give his friend a hand. It's a great game to play when you're practicing with people learning the same language or even exchanging languages. I've used this in an intercambio breakout room once or twice. Plus it doesn't require any technology!

Last night I reviewed Language Transfer Tracks #39 and #40. Every day I try to do the assigned tracks plus review two tracks from a day or two before. It seems to help lock in the concepts a little better. In these tracks he reviews prepositions or Mihalis pronounces them PRE-positions as Joyce pointed out in her blog. I'm not sure if that's on purpose either. 

• with - con
• for - para
• of, from - de

He comments that prepositions are used more often in English than in Spanish and in time, we will eventually drop them from our Spanish.

Another interesting point is the change in the uses of prepositions in different languages. 

• I think about you - Pienso en ti, (I think in you)
• I fall in love with you - Me enamoro de ti (I fall in love of you)

He's said more than once that "Language is permitting and requiring us to perceive and express the world in a certain way" Which I guess is his way of saying thinking about what might have been going on to cause the differences between languages. He's an interesting guy, don't you think?

Encanto

 

Yesterday I attended a Duolingo event where we watched and discussed the trailer for the new Disney movie Encanto. It's about a girl, Madrigal, who lives in a magic town in Columbia, in a magic house, with her magic family but she doesn't have any magical powers of her own.

Normally, I would watch and enjoy this movie at its most basic level. The theme song is fun and happy and sung by Carlos Vives, who I love. But it was interesting to discuss it at another level with people from Columbia.

Disney gives a nod to 'magical realism' a style of writing used by the Columbian writer Gabriel Garcia Márquez in his book 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'. He defines magical realism as 'finding the magic in our existing world'. I'll have to put this one on my list to read.

It was also interesting to hear that each of the kids is dressed to represent the different regions of Columbia and that the vibrant colors of the houses are similar to some of the towns like this one. How fun!

Guatape, Columbia

La Piedra Filosofal

 

Today we had our first Harry Potter Spanish Book Club meeting or Club de lectura español. We mostly discussed our experiences trying to read this advanced book. We had similar experiences that it would have been difficult to understand what was going on if we didn't already know the story.

I decided to listen and follow along with the text. It was difficult, but was still fun. I actually fell  asleep listening to it one night. So that would be "inactive listening", right? LOL. I'm going to pretend that I absorbed some of that subconsciously. 😊😏

Anouska said Ismar is thinking about starting a Harry Potter event for intermediate learners. She suggested he wait until October to start, which if all goes well, then maybe I'll qualify as an intermediate learner by then. Here's hoping!

Also, I reviewed Language Transfer Track #38 and in this one he introduces us to the word "se" which can mean himself, herself or themselves.

For example:

• I stay - Me quedo
• We stay - Nos quedamos
• You stay - Te quedas
• He stays - Se queda
• They stay - Se quedan

He also taught us how to say "I realize" - "Me doy cuenta", which literally means I give myself account. Joyce and Anouska you already knew that 'cause I read it in your blogs!

Hasta la proxima vez!