Book gifts for people who love South America!

Book gifts for people learning Spanish!

Available as ebooks and paperbacks from https://linktr.ee/helenpugh

#qotd What language are you learning or would like to learn?

Back on Thursday I went to a few bookstores here in Valencia. One of them had a separate chess section, where I saw books by Miguel Illescas. I considered buying the book on endings, but after a bit of research I saw that the "Curso completo de ajedrez" basically contains all four paperbacks, and the ebook version was only 9.49€

Now I can work on my Spanish and on my chess at the same time, and I can use the Chessnut Go to play through the exercises against the engine

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Three good things about today:

1. Worked with hubby to get a wood rack modified to fit the back of our woodshed.

2. Learned a new word in Spanish: marido = husband

3. Had a delicious steak supper and a glass of Voodoo Ranger (an IPA) at Saltgrass.

#learningspanish 'Tiempo Condicional' learnt today: reading Spanish OSM tagging discussions. For me unknown verb conjugations like " ..se debería usar..". " la cambiaríamos ...". Not yet in my course...

Researching: in English we would say "we should, would, could, ..use, change etc". But Spanish has single 'Condicional' tense. Very often used in our field as we (usually) talk politely in terms of recommendations, how things could/should be done (programmed, tagged!).

Fun #learningspanish !
"Buscarle tres pies al gato" (for @delawen ). Translates literally: "to look for three feet on the cat" in English. However, the phrase is idiomatic, like "estar en las nubes" (=daydreaming, not about Cloud Tech), and actually means "to nitpick". In Dutch it is simply: "Muggenziften". Both expressions apply to me btw.. @jorgesanz

I continue to be amazed by the quality feedback I get from my custom GPT:

Spanish Coach: Analyzer and Alternatives Generator

https://chatgpt.com/g/g-WNDowewbg-spanish-coach-analyzer-and-alternatives-generator

I have reached an intermediate level of Spanish, but I have a LONG way to go before I feel fluent. When I write emails or WhatsApp messages in Spanish, I write a draft in Spanish, drop it into my GPT, and get feedback — in Spanish — on how I did, what can be improved, and some areas where students often get tripped up. Helpful!

26 mins later, 1 AM. Just some of the struggle learning Spanish.

Via the Duolingo app -
Mistake eraser! You corrected 10 mistakes!
Total XP 11
Commited (time symbol) 26 minutes 55
Good 31 percent

STEM-CHANGING VERBS I HATE YOU RN! #LearningSpanish

Whenever I start dreaming in a language I’m learning, I know that it’s taking. Like, I’m struggling a lot learning Spanish but then I had a dream or two where I spoke Spanish and I knew I was going to be okay with learning the language.

I haven’t dreamt in ASL yet but I think that’s to do with the fact that my eyesight is incredibly bad in my dreams. I’m very near-sighted in life but obviously wear glasses. Apparently, since I don’t have those on when I sleep, I also don’t see well in my dreams.

So, I’m currently learning both ASL and Spanish. Started approximately at the same time, although a tiny bit earlier with ASL — but that disadvantage for Spanish should easily be made up by the fact that I already know Italian.

I find it both fascinating and hilarious how in ASL I can now have a smol conversation about where I grew up and my hobbies while in Spanish I’m still building silly little sentences that say “in the summer it’s very hot and sunny.”

I made a handy custom GPT for intermediate Spanish learners.

https://chat.openai.com/g/g-WNDowewbg-spanish-coach-analyzer-and-alternative-generator

Chat a phrase or sentence to the bot, and it will respond with analysis of correctness along with some alternative ways of saying the same thing. It also offers pointers on constructions that students often find challenging.

Alright, this is for the records: today (March 8) I started learning Spanish. Let's see if I can speedrun this thing because I'm not super into it as of yet. If anyone has advice for how to make me like it more, let me know. I'm already planning to use music as that made learning Italian super nice.

It really is a cruel joke, though, that I used to be fluent in Italian, fell in love with Portuguese and briefly studied it, and of all romance languages I now need to learn Spanish so we can move to Spain. French is totally irrelevant, as I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Okay, why is the #Spanish word for aquarium “acuario” and not “aguario”? Is this some Latin thing again?

I finished the first season of #LaCasaDePapel today, and immediately binged the first four episodes of season 2. So yes, it is a captivating show. Some of the more fast-paced dialogue still escapes my comprehension, especially if they use words I’m not familiar with, but I can still keep up with the main points well enough.

700 days on Duolingo! Whew, what a commitment this has been.

It ain't much but it's honest work

In search of other Spanish language students with whom I can share memes. My classmates are 20 years younger than I am and I'm having difficulties making friends.
#spanish #LearningSpanish #AprendiendoEspañol

A language question for the lovely people here who've learned Spanish as a second language.

What worked best for you when you first started out?

I'm currently doing Duolingo, but any other suggestions would be massively appreciated!

(Will be going to Spain in 5 months or so.)