This morning was Harry Potter book club with my Desafío friends. It's fun because we take time to catch up on the week. My one friend Nous admitted she had finished the Turkish series Con Olor a Fresas. I said that I stopped around Episode 14 and switched back to Dreaming Spanish when I realized I wasn't understanding enough of the dialogue to make it comprehensible.
So I switched back to Pablo. She said that she 'cheated' and was watching at v the quarter speed with Spanish subtitles. Thanks for the reminder Nous.🤦♀️🤷♀️🥴 I always seem to forget to slow down the speed.
So I went back to the series and knocked out two episodes. I'm still not understanding all of it, but enough now to make it comprehensible. Thanks Nous!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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!
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
