iTunes es Muy Mal

Up to Lección Doce with Assimil...

Things I either never knew or forgot...

esos coches – how did I forget “esos” for those? I remembered it as aquellos.

Tanto mejor for so much the better

al contrario for on the contray (obvious, that one)

Vosotros habéis  conocido a su hermana

has ido – gone
has venido – come

Not that anybody cares, but I now officially hate Apple products. Today I wanted to listen to the lesson I was listing to earlier on my iPhone, suddenly it whipped through each “song” of that CD on the iPhone, put a red square next to it and then I could not play it.

So I tried a music album and the same thing happened. Most others worked but, well I was ticked off. It took me the better part of an hour to get all the stuff back on. So I can conclusively state Apple = BAD

New Day, Nuevas Palabras

Yesterday I flew through 2 more audio units in the Pimsleur CDs which makes 2 CDs done. I know all the words but I still occasionally stumble in coming out with the right response (even when I already "know" what to say).

But it does make me think that these first 8 CDs will not cover that much material and then I will have to find the rest of the set at another library or find used copiers somewhere.

And I got through lesson 5 aka as leccion Quinta, of the Assimil book and audio. Assimil is a French company and I gather they are a popular in Europe, so the the audio uses a Castilian accent with the lisping C. VERY strange to hear since every other experience I had in learning Spanish has been with the New World correct accent.

I hear the lisp but respond as if I was from Mexico, plus the dialog already has some vosotros thrown in. Which I knew about but I have never actually seen it in a beginning lesson.

Other new things in Assimil...

Qué Tal estás? - Of course I learned Qué Tal,but I don't remember tacking estás on afterwards

Tenía ganas de verte - I may have learned about Tenía ganas in the past but totally forgot about it meaning to desire something. I only remembered Quiero.

Deberías trabajar menos - It must be a common phrase, but I had to google it to figure out what tense Deberías was (conditional). And that is only on page 13.

Yo conozco a un médica - If I knew about using "a" after conozco, I had forgotten.

One other thing, it is odd that the Pimsleur at this beginning stage never uses the Tú form of YOU, while the Assimil never uses the Usted form.

Video Blog #1

My intro to this new attempt at learning Spanish. Here I try to continue blogging, but is blogging still a thing?

¡Vamos a ver!

This week I think I will have another crack at self taught Spanish. This time my main tool will be Assimil Spanish with Ease and as a backup I checked out Pimsleur Conversational Spanish 8 CD set from the public library.

This weekend I had to work on Saturday and during a slow spot I somehow landed on the Pimsluer website. To hear them talk about their product, the Pimsluer method was almost magical. 8 or 9 years ago I was on an Italian jag and used their Italian cassettes for a while. I later took a few semesters at the local community college and liked that quite a bit. Anyway, I knew the Pimsluer method was not a sure fire ticket to success. BUT I remember it being at least OK and it probably helped me when I took my classes.

Sooo, then I remembered hearing good things about Assimil when I was thinking recently about trying Italian again.

That said, and without really thinking about it, I decided to take another stab at Spanish. I've already started listing to Pimsluer, 2 lessons so far, while I wait for the Assimil to arrive.

Just to establish the starting point, I've periodically attempted Spanish over a few decades so this is nothing new. Back in 1990 I spent 2 months at a language school in Mexico and that helped, and I sort of think the only real way to learn a language is to live there and be forced to learn it to survive. BUT I won't ever have that chance, so one does what one can.

Will I stick too it or will I fall off the learning wagon? Will it last a week? Month? Six Months? Longer?

¡Vamos a ver!