What, Are You Going to Type All Day? (Or Are You Going to Practice Your Spanish)?

For some reason the YouTube video contains the same skit twice.  Just hit stop after first run.

 Remember Charo?  Boy, you must be old! (Just kidding).  Above is a skit she did on the Carol Burnett show way back then.  It's pretty funny. 

I've added a music file to this blog.  It's actually a very energetic and pretty instrumental with a Spanish rhythm.  To play it, just click the forward button on the little window on the right of the home page.  If it's not your taza de té, just hit the stop button.

I'm having second thoughts about adding all this multimedia to my blogs.  I've noticed that it now takes a few seconds longer for the blog to load, and I wonder if this is a real problem for readers with slower Internet service.  The purpose of my blogs has never been to showcase technology, but rather to talk about learning languages.  I'll have to re-evaluate all the bells and whistles as I go.

I read a lot of material on language acquisition.  Just as with any other topic, the opinions vary widely and one 'expert' will completely contradict the findings of another.  I think the reason for this is that everyone has her own reasons and goals for studying a specific language.  For example, right now I'm more interested in learning to comprehend spoken Spanish, either in movies or TV shows or in real life conversations with fluent speakers.  Another person, on the other hand, may be more interested in learning to read Spanish or Latin American literature or needs only the basic vocabulary and grammar for a trip to Barcelona or Mexico.  They may have no interest in watching films in Spanish or in carrying on an extended conversation in Spanish.  Perhaps all they want is to have the satisfaction of ordering a meal in a Spanish restaurant.  For each of the purposes, the learner may need to adapt a learning program that is primarily centered on her goals.  For my own purposes, I've concluded that I need to listen to and speak in Spanish every day.  Instruction material that have me reading and typing or writing all day seem to me for the most part counterproductive for my goals.  I use the all-audio Pimsleur system and spend several hours a day watching TV or films in Spanish or listening to Spanish audio recordings and songs.  That's not to say that I should completely eliminate all non-oral activities.  Reading is the best way I know to bolster vocabulary and writing grammar exercises helps solidify my learning.

So the point is that there is no one specific method that is tailor made for all learners of languages.  I registered for the Babbel online courses and though I'm a little disappointed that so much of it entails reading and typing, I do like their pronunciation tips and drills and the voice recognition.  Their written exercises are interwoven into typical conversations, a technique which avoids introducing vocabulary and sentence structures that are isolated from real conversation and context.  Still, I feel that all the typing is interfering with the aural component that I need to focus on.  But I'm supplementing that with Pimsleur and my YouTube viewing, so I should be fine.  It's all very logical:  If you want to read or write Spanish, find an instruction method that emphasizes that; if you want to understand spoken Spanish and eventually speak it, find a method that has you doing more listening and speaking.

I found that Google Hangouts is a good compromise.  Though it involves typing messages back and forth, because of its immediacy one does get the feel of having a conversation.  I feel that I've learned quite a bit from my daily pen-pal interaction in Hangouts.  Try it, if you have a Google account. 

Aristocratic Bloodlines at Gran Hotel

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the NetFlix series 'Bloodline' is available to subscribers with both Spanish audio (dubbed from English) and Spanish subtitles.  See here for a review:  Review of Bloodline.  This is good news for my daily exposure to spoken Spanish because, though it's relatively easy to find TV series with Spanish audio (either dubbed or original), finding material that has both audio and subs is not nearly as simple.  And this is a good one to watch for the purposes of learning.  1) It's relatively fast-moving and contains a lot of action that cues the watcher/listener who is trying to comprehend the Spanish and 2) it's well-acclaimed, reasonably directed, and offers Sissy Spacek and Sam Waterson in starring roles.  I watched the entire first episode with both Spanish audio and subs turned on.  Though there was some dialogue (a lot actually) that I didn't grasp, I was able to follow along with the story and scenes fairly well.  Naturally, the issue with subtitles, no matter what language they're in, is that if you're reading, it's hard to concentrate on the audio.  I suppose the sensible thing to do would be to watch each episode twice--once in English to make sure I absorb most of the dialogue and story and then again to focus exclusively on the Spanish audio.  I'm just not sure I like the series enough to watch each episode twice.  Now, if they offered a show that's very dear to me, like 'Monarch of the Glen,' for example, that would be a pleasure to watch in two languages.

One thing that I've noticed is that subtitles, whether in English or Spanish, do not always match completely with what the actors are saying. I was elated to see that I was understanding enough of the spoken Spanish to recognize this.  I suppose the subs sometimes have to be shortened to fit that little space on the bottom of the screen. 

"Santander.Palacio.de.la.Magdalena.2". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santander.Palacio.de.la.Magdalena.2.jpg#/media/File:Santander.Palacio.de.la.Magdalena.2.jpg

The other show I'm following on NetFlix for Spanish practice is 'Gran Hotel,' (See Wiki here: Gran Hotel ) which interestingly is offered only with Spanish audio (its original track) and English subtitles.  One of the things most attractive for language learners here is that there are over 40 episodes of 'Gran Hotel,' enough viewing time to give me a pretty thorough comprehension workout.  The series is a sort of high quality telenovela, rife with beautiful actors and lush Spanish scenery.  It's filmed on the north coast of Spain at the Palacio de la Magdalena.  It is highly melodramatic with people getting murdered right and left, pistol duels, and someone getting pushed out of a window.  Lurid stuff, but perfect for language practice, since there's lots of action and conversation.  Now if only I could find a version with Spanish subs. 

To Speak or Not To Speak, Esa Es la Pregunta

Perhaps it's just wishful thinking, but I wonder if it really matters that much if Spanish is not spoken perfectly.  I've seen movies where a non-Hispanic is obviously speaking Spanish with a strong accent and she is getting her point across.  In my dealings with Spanish speakers attempting to communicate in English, I've noticed that it is rare that I completely fail to understand what they are saying.  Often they use the present tense almost exclusively and are mispronouncing many English words, but I get the gist of what they are saying.  If not, I ask them to repeat or to try to phrase it another way.  Sometimes, I play detective and ask them if they mean this or that.  Yes, I think that being unable to pronounce the Castillian c or d exactly right should not deter anyone from speaking Spanish.  I mean, really, we're all familiar with the French's difficulty with the th sound, but very few of us would be perplexed by hearing 'the' pronounced 'zee,' as in 'show me zee money.'  Zee is close enough.

Of course it would matter a great deal to someone who is on a diplomatic mission to Latin America or is for whatever reason trying to avoid being perceived as a foreigner.  But that's not the case for the vast majority of us.  Indeed, I've heard that embarrassment and self-consciousness is the primary reason why language learners often fail to become fluent.  We are determined not to utter a word in public until what comes out of our mouths is perfect Spanish and our conversation partner is smiling and marveling at our linguistic talents.  Well, it ain't gonna happen--at least not for years.  I'm one to talk, though--I shudder in horror at the thought of having to speak to anyone in Spanish, whether they be gringos or native madrileños.  I'm hoping that fear will subside.

Thinko Thenas

Having some regrets about learning 'peninsula' or 'Castellano' Spanish instead of the Latin American variety. I'm still plodding through Pimsleur's Castillian Spanish audio recordings and have concluded that correct pronunciation is harder to achieve than with its counterpart.  The difficulty arises with the major difference between the two dialects:  the 'th' sound.  You'd think that sound would be a cinch to make for English speakers, since so many of our words contain the 'th' sound as in 'think.'  But I've found that when the sound has to be repeated in the same word or in a quick succession of words, such as cinco cenas (five dinners).  For some reason I find saying thinko thenas very difficult to articulate.  And when there are three or four of these sounds in the same sentence, I start feeling tongue-tied, which slows down the all-important fluidity of my Spanish.  



My logic for studying peninsula Spanish instead of Latino was that, since I lean toward the sound of Castellano a bit more than the Latin American accent, I could use oral study materials with that pronunciation and modify the pronunciation slightly should I need to speak the Latino version at some point.  I could have just as easily done the reverse, and now I sort of wish I had.  It's much easier to find Latin American learning materials in the U.S. and I wouldn't have to concern myself with all that lisping (I don't mean for that term to be derogatory).  I think that if I learned the Latino way first, I'd already have the rhythm of the language down pat and it would be much easier to add the "th's" on after I have mastered the other pronunciation problems that are for the most part identical in both dialects, such as the softer g's and d's.  Agua seems to me to be pronounced more like 'awa' than 'agua.'  Well, no harm done, since I can still revert to Latin American Spanish if I choose to. 

In so many ways it's amazing, really, that Spanish retained so much of its purity when it left the borders of the Iberian Peninsula during Spain's imperialist age.  English, it seems to me, did not make the transition quite as intact.  Though most North American's can easily understand British, or Scottish, or Australian, et al., English, there are major differences in vocabulary, intonation, and the pronunciation of certain vowels and a few consonants.  When I watch Downton Abbey on PBS, for example, every now and then an individual word or phrase doesn't register with me and I'm not quite sure what they meant. 

Perhaps one reason why Spanish exported so smoothly was that for the most part it's much easier to learn to pronounce than English is.  It's pronunciation is way more consistent and there are very few (with the possible exception of some 'g' and 'j' sounds) guttural or 'toothy' sound (with the exception of that ubiquitous 'th').  English contains so many cases of possible pronunciations of such diphthongs as 'ou,' for instance.  And the grammar for the most part is very logical and versatile. 

Malas palabras del dia

Veo que 'la palabra del día de hoy' es 'mala pata,' (bad luck).  Well, let's hope that's not a bad sign in itself.  Funny, I always thought the Spanish word for bad luck was mala suerte, but I suppose one needs a variety of ways to express that things are not working out quite the way we'd prefer them to.  

This once again adds support to my theory that Google Translate is very limited in just how helpful it can be as a language learning resource.  When I typed in 'bad luck' and clicked the Translate to Spanish button, it came up with, wouldn't you know it, mala suerte.  Worse, when I clicked on the phrase for alternate translations, mala pata never made an appearance at all.   In fact, various combinations of the word suerte were all that ever displayed.  

I have a feeling that a good unabridged online/offline Spanish dictionary would be more beneficial.  Even more distressing was that when I used an online Spanish thesaurus, mala pata still did not come up as an synonym.  Now I'm really perplexed.  Is the source that is pulling my Spanish word for the day unreliable?  I even googled mala pata and nothing anywhere near bad luck popped up.  Looks like I'm having muy mala pata today with my Spanish studies.  Or is that mala suerte?  

And now that I'm harping on dictionaries, I'm p.o.'d at Amazon for failing to provide a setting to change the default dictionary in First Generation Kindle Fires (the kind I have). This means that I cannot attach a foreign language dictionary to the books I have collected on the device.  I did, however, find a partial solution to this (no thanks to Amazon, mala suerte).  There is a free ebook reader for Kindles called 'Moon Reader' that displays ebooks in a format similar to Kindle's.  The user manual says that there is a way to attach alternate dictionaries to Moon Reader documents, though it looks complicated and I haven't tried it yet.  In the mean time, if I tap on a word I get a menu and one of the options is 'Translate.'  That will take me to Google Translate and the Spanish definition of the word selected.  This is cumbersome, but maybe if I can figure out how to attach the Spanish dictionary to Moon Reader I'll be in for some smooth sailing and no more mala suerte with dictionaries. 

Proper Assimilation of Assimil

Never having tried the popular language teaching materials called 'Assimil'--Assimil French with Ease, Assimil Spanish with Ease, etc., I decided to give the one for Spanish a try.  This series is the preferred method of learning a foreign language in Europe, or so I've heard. According to someone on a YouTube review of it, it's pronounced ASSimil, with the accent on the first syllable.  I was saying AsSIMil.  Who knew?

Having completed the first several lessons, I can easily see why it would appeal to some language learners.  It does deal with grammar, but it incorporates it into the dialogues and notes of the text.  This is probably the way grammar should be taught, at least at the first stages of learning.  Isolating sample sentences with no context makes learning grammar much more difficult than demonstrating the rules in full conversations.  It makes the grammar easier to remember and allows the learner to see ordinary situations in which, for example, the subjunctive mood is needed. 

Also, the dialogues seem natural and useful.  One of the main complaints I've had about a lot of language textbooks and self-teaching books is that I'm being fed a lot of words and phrases that I simply won't need in everyday conversation.  At the outset, I need only words that will likely pop up in a normal conversation or, in my case at this point in time, in a casual email.  Assimil seems pretty adept at this. 

Another attractive aspect of the series are the audio files that can be purchased along with the book.  Unfortunately, this ups the ante in the cost of the program.  The book is not cheap (even used copies run for around $30), but the audios are over $100.  Still, even it doesn't break the bank for you, they are very good tools for getting your pronunciation right and for practicing comprehension. 

I'll end this post by changing the subject to TV.  I've been watching the Spanish language miniseries Gran Hotel for the past few nights.  Luckily, NetFlix allows me to watch either with English subtitles or with no subtitles.  At this point, I would not be able to follow the story at all without subtitles.  The show is lavishly produced with lush sets and talented and gorgeous actors.  It's sort of the equivalent of a typical Spanish telenovela souped up BBC style.  I must admit that I was taken by surprise when one of the female characters pushed her sister out the window from one of the upper stories of the hotel.  It was late and I was sort of dozing off, but that really woke me up!  Did the girl survive?  Tune in next time to find out :)

Every Letter in Spanish Pronounced Distinctly? Dream on!

Spanish Makes a Good Showing in the US

When I first began to study Spanish, I was very excited to read that unlike French, every letter is pronounced distinctly.  Absurdo! No es verdad.  While it's true that if you isolate individual Spanish words, you would clearly enunciate every syllable, every letter, when you're using the same word in a sentence, it may sound more truncated and more merged with the word that follows it.  Take the sentence ¿Dónde está el hotel?, for example.  I'd probably be understood by a native Spanish speaker if I recited this sentence with no elisions, enunciating every letter, but it would probably come across similar to an English speaker talking to someone they assume to be hard-of-hearing.  My understanding is that this sentence should be delivered sort of like this: ¿Dóndestál otel?  And this makes perfectly good sense, because we'd probably squish all those words together in English also:  Wherzthotel?  or something to that effect.

This condensing of words and phrases seems for the most part to just come natural after you've studied Spanish for awhile, but the problem arises when you're hearing someone else speaking and trying to isolate different words to make sense of the meaning of the sentence.  Scrunched up words just sound different from the way we learned them from vocabulary lists and textbooks.  

Still, it was a bit of a letdown when I discovered that Spanish is not quite as simple to pronounce as many would have us believe.  And most of the elisions make very good sense, because it often sounds awkward to pronounce two or three vowels together.  And as in all language acquisition, the only way to get the hang of it is to listen and practice; speak and practice.  

Hasta pronto.