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Adventures in learning Spanish continues. What I have discovered about Rosetta Stone is this. It is not worth paying for (which I did not, thank goodness)...it is good for some things, but not even remotely what the hefty price tag implies. In terms of vocabulary and pronunciation it is fantastic (my accent is still ass, but repeating things after a native speaker and the ability to play back how I just said it as well is at the very least helping me identify where and how it sucks). In terms of grammar it is...less useful. The theory is that grammar is picked up through example and repetition or something. The reality is that, for me anyway, without understanding why or how verbs are conjugated and whatnot I just get lost. I can pick the right answer from the multiple choices usually, but when called upon to properly put a sentence together by myself I have no freaking clue which form of the verb to use or where the adjective goes or any of that.
I found a basic Spanish grammar guide on the interwebs and within ten minutes it was like a lightbulb going off over my head and suddenly I got things that had been confusing the shit out of me using Rosetta Stone. Definitely add a supplemental grammar study outside the program if you use it.
My biggest issue right now is understanding spoken Spanish outside a really limiting context, or the speaking thing (adding the supplemental grammar studies is helping). Reading is coming along much quicker, and I suspect I will be able to read and write at a much higher level long before actual conversation is even possible.
To compensate for this I have added fun to the project. In the form of television, because I am a fan and fannishly is how I do all my shit. Right now this is two things. The first is a telenovela I accidentally got hooked on when I started turning on Univision for an hour a day to get used to the sound and rhythm of speech. And then I found it on Hulu so I'm watching from the beginning now. I'm only picking up the very broadest of plot outlines, mostly based on contextual clues and body language and whatnot, I suspect if I rewatch it once I can understand more than 5 percent of what's being said, some of what I thought was going on will be hilariously wrong in retrospect.
The second is watching Buffy with the Spanish dub on (where it is available, the early seasons don't have a dub, boo). Since I already know what's going on, I don't waste any energy trying to sort out plot and contextual clues to what's being said are much easier. About half the time I put the English subtitles on to help build associations with words and phrases. The other half I leave them off and try to just pick up what I can through hearing alone. After watching four episodes in a row this way yesterday (and here is where marathoning skills come in handy) I noticed by the fourth that I really was picking up on not only new vocabulary words, but listening skills and a wider variety of sentence construction and informal usage (formal study is awesome, but most people don't talk like an educational manual).
I am still in the frustrating phase where the vast majority of the language is completely opaque to me. This is annoying. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it long enough to actually gain some competency.
I found a basic Spanish grammar guide on the interwebs and within ten minutes it was like a lightbulb going off over my head and suddenly I got things that had been confusing the shit out of me using Rosetta Stone. Definitely add a supplemental grammar study outside the program if you use it.
My biggest issue right now is understanding spoken Spanish outside a really limiting context, or the speaking thing (adding the supplemental grammar studies is helping). Reading is coming along much quicker, and I suspect I will be able to read and write at a much higher level long before actual conversation is even possible.
To compensate for this I have added fun to the project. In the form of television, because I am a fan and fannishly is how I do all my shit. Right now this is two things. The first is a telenovela I accidentally got hooked on when I started turning on Univision for an hour a day to get used to the sound and rhythm of speech. And then I found it on Hulu so I'm watching from the beginning now. I'm only picking up the very broadest of plot outlines, mostly based on contextual clues and body language and whatnot, I suspect if I rewatch it once I can understand more than 5 percent of what's being said, some of what I thought was going on will be hilariously wrong in retrospect.
The second is watching Buffy with the Spanish dub on (where it is available, the early seasons don't have a dub, boo). Since I already know what's going on, I don't waste any energy trying to sort out plot and contextual clues to what's being said are much easier. About half the time I put the English subtitles on to help build associations with words and phrases. The other half I leave them off and try to just pick up what I can through hearing alone. After watching four episodes in a row this way yesterday (and here is where marathoning skills come in handy) I noticed by the fourth that I really was picking up on not only new vocabulary words, but listening skills and a wider variety of sentence construction and informal usage (formal study is awesome, but most people don't talk like an educational manual).
I am still in the frustrating phase where the vast majority of the language is completely opaque to me. This is annoying. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it long enough to actually gain some competency.
From:
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I am still in the frustrating phase where the vast majority of the language is completely opaque to me. This is annoying.
I hate that bit so much! I still feel like that's where I am with Spanish, and I so need to revise stuff before I hit the next bit of my course. It's a hard bit to get through, after the initial excitement of being able to understand anything at all.
From:
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I'm hoping the amount of spanish language tv and spanish dubbed tv I'm watching right now will help with the opaqueness. I think part of the issue of studying any language is that what you hear/learn in formal context is horribly difficult to translate to everyday/informal usage. The way people naturally shorten things, use slang, and speak informally is a nightmare.
From:
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"I am still in the frustrating phase where the vast majority of the language is completely opaque to me. This is annoying. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it long enough to actually gain some competency."
Ah, but first you have the just as frustrating phase I'm in now when you understand about 30-40% intermittently of what you're hearing, just enough to taunt you with what you're missing. "The Bank of Spain announced....it...WHAT ARE THEY DOING? DAMMIT, I GOT THE FIRST HALF OF THAT, RFI NEWCASTER, TALK SLOWER!"
From:
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The learn by listening and matching pictures method Rosetta Stone does is good for developing vocabulary, but not really much else. I'm finding an expanding vocabulary *useful*...but if I was just doing RS I am pretty sure I'd get nowhere in terms of actually acquiring language, unless being able to parrot back phrases and identifying objects is 'language' in any meaningful sense. Imma go with no on that.
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