The drunk snail's exile

Discussion in 'Language Learning Logs & Super Challenges' started by Cavesa, Apr 18, 2014.

  1. Cavesa

    Cavesa New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2014
    Messages:
    14
    Native Language:
    Czech
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French
    Intermediate Languages:
    Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    German
    Welcome to the Exile. The drunk snail's journey got a new obstacle-htlal is down. I really hope everything is gonna be there when we are back online (YKYAALN is a treasure I'd miss enormously!)

    Why I'm continuing here asap: I have news and I'm afraid I'd forget them in the meantime. Really, can't the forums go down when I am too busy to continue with my languages? No, of course not!

    I suppose most people here are htlalers (by the way, it's totally a great word root. htlaler-member of htlal; to htlal-participate on the forum, read, write, procrastinate; htlaly-that could be an adjective: "that's a totally htlaly opinion") so no long introduction is needed.

    ASCR: Thanks god I'm keeping a separate word document with my list of movies and books completed! I should back it up somewhere! Had I lost that with my logs, I'd be desperate.
    ASCR news:
    French movies: 4 episodes of Engrenages, that's +2 movies
    French and English books: I wanted to finish a few. Instead, I started another. So, right now, I am somewhere in the middle of 7!!! books

    I'll sign up for the new SC, which starts the 1st May. I'll go for regular 100+100 for Spanish and German.

    French
    So many news!

    I passed my medical French exam with the best possible grade! Well, you could say it wasn't that hard but still! List of useful links for students, doctors and other medical professionals in need of French:

    wikinu.fr , especially the resources from Grenoble are awesome. Ppts with audio, I use them not only for the language value, they are awesome introductions to the topics. The anatomy isn't bad, the physiology is really good, biochemistry is quite good... and everything comes with nice schemes. And there's audio, you can study while ironing or something like that. Free

    youtube: there are some episodes of il était une fois...la vie available! not all of them. But they are awesome. The perfect introduction to the vocabulary concerning the human body. Free

    http://www-sante.ujf-grenoble.fr/SANTE/alpesmed/corpus.htm is awesome!!! and free!

    Francouzština pro lékaře: useful for czechs only but quite a good tool. Not expensive

    Le français des médecins by PUG, really good for the communication situations you may encounter during your internship or when doing your job. Videos included. Quite expensive

    Santé-médecine.com by CLE. like the previous one but shorter and with les material. Not expensive

    And there are several tv series located in hospitals including original French ones but I didn't have time for those.
  2. Cavesa

    Cavesa New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2014
    Messages:
    14
    Native Language:
    Czech
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French
    Intermediate Languages:
    Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    German
    Spanish
    It's my new priority. I'm going to Spain for a month long internship during the summer and I've promised fluent Spanish in the motivation letter. Hahahahaha!
    My comprehension is really good, my active skills suck. I've begun my intensive preparation. What do I intend to do before leaving for Spain and what I'm already doing:

    Finally finish Fiesta 1 (a czech course). The lesson 15 has been waiting for years. Yeah, I'll need to review briefly all that comes before. And I expect to do Fiesta 2 as well, at least a large part. I've started reviewing the old chapters yesterday, it shouldn't take me long.

    Get down the important grammar. My weak knowledge is a large obstacle between my passive understanding and its transforation into active skills. That's how:

    I've read the "about verbs" chapter of La conjugación verbal: El use de los verbos en el español de España y de América Latina.
    • personal +: I have quite no trouble understanding the explanations. I don't know all the verbs by far (as vocabulary), otherwise I wouldn't need to use it.
    • personal - : Compared to my use of similar guide for French (which I described in my regular log), it is quite visible how much weaker is my Spanish experience. I don't say comprehension for a reason. Both guides are meant for natives or advanced learners and expect you to have heard it all many times before. In French, I've heard quite everything in the movies, tv series or from the natives. It's much easier to just precise my rule and ortograph knowledge. In Spanish, I don't have the "feeling" for the language which comes from experience yet.
    • book + : both Spain and LA variants included, extensive list of verbs with the note concerning how they are conjuged.
    • book - : Amount of examples, user friendliness, quality of explanations, that all sucks, especially in comparison with the similar French book!
    • book + : There is a list of verbes with prepositions (just like in the French book, perhaps more extensive)
    • book - : There is no chapter or list about "semi-auxiliaires" which are mentioned in the French book. But even there isn't an extensive list. I'd really love an extensive list of all those Acabar de, tener que (venir de, arriver à) to fill my gaps.
    Now, I'm gonna learn the model tables of important verbs and irregularities so that I can conjugate freely and not make stupid mistakes. For those hating "learning tables": Of course I'll have tons of input as well. But following my experience, learning the proper conjugations the painful way saves lots of troubles.
    A side note: the chapter about verbes made me feel the grammar was really complicated and impossible to use! But no worries, I've already solved the situation. It's all about finding good quality explanation and lots of examples. I've decided to skip a few forms for now (such as Préterito anterior) ;-). Really, Spanish is not an easy language. Getting the basics down is much easier than in English or French I'd say. But while En and Fr later become just a puzzle of the basic pieces, Spanish seems to have whole new layers behind the beginner friendly facade.

    Gramática (by Anaya) and Gramática de Uso del Español
    These two series should give me enough practice and exemples. I'm in the second half of Gramática (Anaya) for A1-A2 and it's not hard. I plan to do the B1 level and the first volume or two of GdUso.

    I've been recently working on some of the "perifrasís verbales", like volver a, terminar de, haber que, and use of estar+gerundio. Not hard but I need more practice to drill the perifrasís in memory and use them naturally. I think this is an important thing in French as well but most teachers or courses don't put emphasis on it despite these things being the bread and butter of everyday language.

    I need to get a wide enough vocabulary base I've got a huge bonus from French. That means I understand quite well (like B1 or perhaps even B2 at times). But my active vocabulary is small and lacks the everyday things I'm definitely gonna need in Spain. So, here's the cure:

    Anki everything

    Fiesta 1 vocabulary is first to be in Anki. I'm working on it. Than, I'll add words from the workbook series I'm using. Vocabulario (Anaya, like the grammar above) and Viva el Vocabulario . Right now, I'm in the second half of Vocabulario A1-A2. I hope to get to the B1.

    Natural sciences Spanish vocabulary! That's a must. But it is the harderst part. Does anyone know good resources? There is no single science book in Cervantes here. There is nothing in my usual bookshops. And I can't find any sources like those for medical French. What websites do the Spanish universities students use? For now, I'm stuck with wikipedia.

    My language practice:
    Books: Zafón and a few other authors in original, Pratchett in translation and a whole library of ebooks. That's a lot of practice. But reading is not a priority now.
    Tv Series: This is more important! Tv series had miraculous effects on my French, including speaking. It's a way to get immersed and automatise the language, to get used to thinking in it, to soak in everything. I've got a few on dvds and so on. Here's a tresure:

    www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/aguila-roja/aguila-roja-t1-capitulo-1/383800/

    You can watch rtve's series for free online from abroad!!! Thanks! Finally someone reasonable. If I like it, I'll be likely to buy a dvd. I love culture producers who understand forcing people to piracy and then criminalizing them is no way to make a business in the 21st century.

    Writing and Speaking.
    I should revive my Italki account for writing feedback. And I'll do all I can to be ready for speaking in Spain. Exercises out loud, speaking to myself and so on. I have no time to seek a tutor and I'm unsure it would be the best in my situation.

    Sorry about a long post but regular followers of the Drunk Snail are already used to this fault of mine.
    Big_Dog likes this.
  3. Cavesa

    Cavesa New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2014
    Messages:
    14
    Native Language:
    Czech
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French
    Intermediate Languages:
    Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    German
    German and Swedish

    These two are everywhere. I'm thinking of them and need to continue but I don't have the time. I have exams at school in two months and I need to focus on those and Spanish. But I'm thinking of them regularily, I've been listening to a few pieces and read a few instruction pages and such things in German recently. I miss them.
  4. BAnna

    BAnna Active Member VIP member

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2014
    Messages:
    104
    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    Russian, Turkish
    First, congrats on your French exam results! Your log and your outstanding title has inspired me so often to keep going, especially when I have felt worse than a drunken snail.

    I'm not sure exactly what sort of resources you're looking for in regards to natural sciences in Spanish, but the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina has an online dictionary of medical terms http://dtme.ranm.es/index.aspx, the US National Institute of Health has an online medical encyclopedia http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/encyclopedia.html the newspapers El País and El Mundo both have great ciencia sections , http://elpais.com/tag/ciencia/a/ and http://www.elmundo.es/ciencia.html and there are a ton of resources in the US for medical students, physicians since we have such a large Spanish-speaking population.
    A few examples available through Book Depository (based in UK, ships to Europe) are
    Español Medico Y Sociedad: Un Libro Para Estudiantes De Español En El Tercer Año De Estudios
    Nuevo Diccionario de Terminos Cientificos
    McGraw-Hill Education's Medical Spanish Visual Phrasebook: 825 Questions & Responses
    tons of other books to be found searching on Medical Spanish
    There are lots of pocket cards, guides, laminated sheets, etc.

    Best to you! On a side note, I feel like a tiny bit like a traitor to HTLAL, but wow, it's so much easier to post here...
    Cavesa likes this.
  5. Cavesa

    Cavesa New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2014
    Messages:
    14
    Native Language:
    Czech
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French
    Intermediate Languages:
    Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    German
    Thanks, I'll have a look at these. The Español Medico Y Sociedad may be really useful. And the websites even more as I love to use materials aimed at natives. I didn't think of the newspapers for some reason, good idea. I have found a few websites about science but not that awesome. Lectures and such things are the best.

    I think I'd love to watch some documentaries during the Super Challenge. But those aren't that easy to find.

    My progress:

    I have added all the vocabulary from Fiesta 1 to anki during the last few days! It's approximately 1200-1300 items (sometimes, there are two words on one card, other times I need two cards for one word, so it isn't that easy to say an exact number). A few notes:
    • I've tried to finish Fiesta 1 several times already. The furthest I've been: lesson 14 out of 15. What I really know well: first 7 lessons.
    • The weak points: active vocabulary (anki solution) and grammar
    My next minigoals:
    • add all the verbs and their forms from Fiesta 1 and Gramática to anki
    • review anki
    • finish Gramática (the one by Anayla for levels A1-A2
    • Finish Fiesta 1 for good. That means reviewing a lot of tiny things and my first journey into the realm of the Spanish subjuntive but I must not dwell on mastering everything right now or I'll get extra bored again and leave. I need to cover the ground, use what I can, mine the book and cds but not to be a perfectionist for now.
    So, in the next few days, I'll be spending time on present tense with irregularities, imperativo, pretérito indefinido, imperfecto, futuro simple and other things. Basically nothing new but a lot of things I am not comfortable with yet. Grammar is keeping me from active use of the language so it needs to be conquered.
  6. BAnna

    BAnna Active Member VIP member

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2014
    Messages:
    104
    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    Russian, Turkish
    A few more ideas if you like videos:
    From Spain
    http://www.enfermeriatv.es/canales/...salud_46/0316e7fa-a1e3-49f6-868f-1f3a18d33177

    The Argentine government has a web channel with documentaries and they include transcripts that run on the right while the program runs on the left. Example:
    http://www.encuentro.gov.ar/sitios/encuentro/Programas/ver?rec_id=105565

    National Geographic Español has a site with videos (might only work in US)
    http://www.ngenespanol.com/videos/385628/video--clamor-tigres/

    Discovery has a Spanish site with videos (also might only work in US)
    http://www.tudiscovery.com/enespanol/web/africa/videos/

    Once HTLAL is back up, I think Crush, dbag, Iversen could all be helpful in finding nature or science based video resources, especially available to you in Europe.
    Cavesa likes this.
  7. Cavesa

    Cavesa New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2014
    Messages:
    14
    Native Language:
    Czech
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French
    Intermediate Languages:
    Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    German
    Thanks! The national geographic seems to be working well. And the argentinan site looks really promising! I'll have a look at the rest at the beginning of May, when the Super Challenge begins.

    I will certainly sign up (probably after the sign up thread is back at htlal) for Spanish and German.

    Speaking of the SC:
    ASCR French books +4! Ch.Harris: La conspiration finished! Very enjoyable read with lots of usual, everyday, colloquial language in the translation by Fréderique Le Boucher. Exceptional work by the translator. I am enjoying the French version of the series just as much as I had enjoyed the original a few years ago.
  8. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2014
    Messages:
    165
    Native Language:
    Norwegian
    Intermediate Languages:
    English
    Basic Languages:
    French, German
    I like your log title, make me laugh!
  9. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2014
    Messages:
    326
    Native Language:
    French
    Advanced Languages:
    Dutch, German
    Intermediate Languages:
    English, Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    Italian
    Drunk snail hahaha LOL. :)

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