Ejercicio 23-5

[Perikles]

What I'm saying (without any kind of success, but it's ok), is that you can't learn a language by heart, that's the job of dictionaries.
You can only memorize some basic principles, ...Yes, but we all have different strategies, and I have to defend @laepelba here because she seems to need this method of 'list learning' as I do. It must come with being a mathematician - I can't remember/understand anything unless I know the 'logical' reason for it. Knowing a verb is in a particular list or group helps to 'understand' why it is associated with a particular preposition. It is self-deception, but it enables you to form a pattern which some find helpful. :)

[laepelba]

Yes - I will gladly admit that I am quite a bit more analytical in my approach to learning anything than most people are. I guess I was exaggerating about memorizing the list ... I have "a" list, and there are hundreds of verbs on it. But what I want to do is memorize the verbs that I will run into on a regular basis. "Asistir" is one that I know I will use a lot because I attend a lot of meetings and rehearsals (etc.), so it's a natural part of my speech. It should not be a surprise to me that it requires the use of "a". I really DO need to narrow down a list of verbs that I will likely commonly use and simply *learn* them. Does *learn* mean, specifically, "memorize"? In a way, yes, in a way, no. I have to go through them many times and practice using them in context and sentences ... and work on just looking through the list in a way that will help me to remember them....

I don't have the opportunity to live in a Spanish-speaking country, or to have started learning Spanish at a young age, or to spend much of my time interacting with native Spanish-speaking individuals. I am not allowed to actually teach in Spanish, but can only occasionally help my Spanish-speaking students if they are truly "stuck" with the English. I spend a couple of hours a week with a conversational tutor, but that is definitely not enough time to learn the rhythms and patterns and usages of a language....

So, according to what I know works well for me in learning ... I do the best with my analysis (sometimes *over*-analysis) of the grammar....... :)

[irmamar]

Memorizing a list of words is not a good method for learning them. Many years ago I had to study a long (loooooonnnnggg :eek: ) list of phrasal verbs, I wrote some histories with those verbs. Sweet, funny or absurd histories about some cockroachs (yes, cockroachs :D ). I'm still able to use those verbs. Last year I had to study a loooooonnnnnng (much longer) list of words, and I did (not all of them, of course). I have already forgotten those words (and only a few months have passed), I'm able to recognise those words (when I see them, I say: "Look, I had to study this word"), but I'm not able to remember many of them, just a few.

Therefore, context is necessary to learn words, reading or writing, but with context. Isolated words are nothing. ;)