How to Think in Spanish

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by Chris

@CrOtALiTo: Notebook or spiral notebook. Pad of paper or notepad can be used. Just like the Windows operating system has a writing program called Notepad.

I think that using an image to associate the word is the best thing. Sometimes it's difficult to retain the word without it. There are websites that have flash cards that are really helpful. They show a picture of a key and the word llave. It helps you set the word in your mind without thinking "key" and you start thinking llave instead. I have an Android powered phone and there is a program on it called StudyDroid. It is a flashcard application. You can build your own cards and even add images. Usually the words that I don't understand and go look up I have to look up again later because I haven't made that connection in my brain I guess.

TV and movies help a lot. When I first started listening to Spanish it sounded like gibberish. Now I don't understand a lot of words but it doesn't sound like gibberish and I can pick out a few words that I do recognize.

Yes I'm agree with you.

There're many ways to learn the language properly and well just I don't know about flash cards, I would like to know about them.

Please give me the website where I can get the flash card immediately.
And I can be sure with the flash cards can result easier to retain the words in your brain.

I have used that method during more of three years using the notepad or a word page, and it quite has worked for me.

But sometimes it's hard to search an specific word within of all the word wrote in the word page, I loss time and I haven't sometime the correct translation, already there're many word to have a several meanings in English.

Then if I can remind some words without use the word page, then it could result for me gorgeous in the moment.

Thank you for your advice.

[Chris]

Okay, I'm not sure what is allowed here but I'll post them and then if a mod removes them I'll send them to you in a PM or on facebook.

www.spanishdict.com - This website is really good for viewing flashcards. It has them in groups like "food" "body parts" and the like. It also has an image with the word and an audio of a person saying the word. This way you can be sure you are pronouncing it correctly.

www.livemocha.com - This one has a language course. Curso de idioma. It starts of pretty good but then just turns into a vocabulary lesson in the last few lessons. I liked it anyway.

[CrOtALiTo]

Thank for the links.

I have meet the second choice or the second link.

I'm registered in the second website and inclusive I have a level in the website, I meet people in the website and they have helped me a lot of with many translations.

Thank you for the advices.

[Feliz]

Originally Posted by Rusty

@Feliz: perdóname
You correctly suffixed the pronoun to the imperative (command), and I'm sure you pronounced the resulting word correctly. However, when a pronoun is suffixed to an imperative, we need to make sure the stressed syllable of the imperative is maintained even though a trailing syllable has "joined the ranks." This sometimes means that an accent needs to be written. Good job.

Rusty, Señor Speedy, Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. I will keep it in mind the next time I see a pronoun attached to a word in the imperative - command - form. Yes, I pronounced the word correctly but only because of good audio on my DVD player when I was watching the movie. I wanted to put a right acute accent over the "o" in perdóname when I was writing the word even though I didn't know why. Obviously, I didn't. I'm only at Grammar Lesson 7 on the Study Spanish site. In lesson 4, I learned that accents could be dropped in certain situations, and I was given one example: when a noun goes from singular to plural. If those nouns end in -ión, drop the accent. Then examples were given, such as: el avión: los aviones; la conversation: las conversaciones; and the like. You see what I mean? I am just becoming acquainted with the fact that accents should be kept or dropped when the forms of some nouns change. Now, I need to remember why and in which instances. Thanks, again, I will remember and store this information for when it comes up in a future lesson. Very interesting!

[Rusty]

¡No hay de qué! (You're welcome!)

[Feliz]

Originally Posted by chileno

That's why a recommend reading a lot and also watching movies without subtitling.

I read Spanish novels beyond my expertise and it is helping. I get up the nerve once in a while to watch a movie without sub-titles, as well. At the end of watching those movies without sub-titles, though, I feel that I should have understood more. I suppose that is normal to feel that way when learning. Watching movies without sub-titles is probably similar to reading beyond one's level of expertise. Maybe I should look at it like that. Hmm. I'll try that attitude for a while and see what happens.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Feliz

I read Spanish novels beyond my expertise and it is helping. I get up the nerve once in a while to watch a movie without sub-titles, as well. At the end of watching those movies without sub-titles, though, I feel that I should have understood more. I suppose that is normal to feel that way when learning. Watching movies without sub-titles is probably similar to reading beyond one's level of expertise. Maybe I should look at it like that. Hmm. I'll try that attitude for a while and see what happens.

You're right on some of your impressions. But this was my experience:

I started translating a novel from English to Spanish, Spanish being my native language. I wrote phrase after phrase translating each one of them to Spanish. I could tell in Spanish that there was something wrong with the translation since it is my native language, so back to the bilingual dictionary and rephrase and re-accommodate the phrase until I was understanding.

When watching movies I figured that if picked up a Spanish movie (my native language) and played it with the volume down, so that I couldn't hear anything, if I watched with intent, at the end of the movie I would understand so much, but something at least to get the gist of movie. So if I did it with a movie in English and the volume turned up, I would "hear" a blah blah that was incomprehensible at first but eventually it would become legible somewhat to my ears. Coupled with writing, it made a big difference.
I started to catch myself listening to words that I had written before and recognize them through the sound of the movies... etc...

I made my own method.

[vita32]

Para gentes que ser aprender el engles, el escuchando de la musica americana desde 1950-1960 puedes ayudar a aprendes los liricos english porque esta es musica lento.
(For people who are learning English, listening to American music from 1960- 1970 can help you learn the English lyrics because these are slow music.)

Forgive me if I made so many errors in writing Spanish, but I have to try doing it on my own without the help of google.

Corregir mis errores por favor.
Gracias.

[Feliz]

Originally Posted by chileno

You're right on some of your impressions. But this was my experience:


When watching movies I figured that if picked up a Spanish movie (my native language) and played it with the volume down, so that I couldn't hear anything, if I watched with intent, at the end of the movie I would understand so much, but something at least to get the gist of movie. So if I did it with a movie in English and the volume turned up, I would "hear" a blah blah that was incomprehensible at first but eventually it would become legible somewhat to my ears. Coupled with writing, it made a big difference.
I started to catch myself listening to words that I had written before and recognize them through the sound of the movies... etc...

I made my own method.

My goal is to stop translating, to begin to dream in Spanish instead of what I'm doing now which is talking to people in my dreams "about" Spanish. Isn't that funny? I think what you are saying is that I will get the gist of the movie even with the volume turned down and without sub-titles. And if I watch a movie with the volume up, without sub-titles, that I will get more of the gist of the movie, some gibberish, but some of it will makes sense. Importantly, that what makes sense will have been gotten without translating. If I go back to watching movies with sub-titles, again, I will just be translating. I think that I understand now. (Creo que entiendo ahora.) Thanks for hanging in there with me until I got it. Movies provide a testing ground after all the studying, reading, practicing, and memorizing, but only if they're watched and heard without sub-titles--because sub-titling encourages translation--which is what "we" don't want. ¡Caramba!

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Feliz

My goal is to stop translating, to even begin to dream in Spanish instead of what I'm doing now which is talking to people in my dreams "about" Spanish. Isn't that funny? I think what you are saying is that I will get the gist of the movie with the volume down even when there are no sub-titles. That, if I watch a movie with the volume up and without sub-titles, that I will get more of the gist of the movie and gibberish that will sometimes makes sense. And that what makes sense will have been gotten without translating. And, if I go back to watching movies with sub-titles, again, that I will just be translating. I think that I understand now. (Creo que entiendo ahora.) Thanks for hanging in there with me until I got it. Movies provides a testing ground after all the studying, reading, practicing, and memorizing, if they're watched and heard without sub-titles--because sub-titling encourages translation. ¡Caramba!

Close but not cigar.

Read and translate novels (books) as movies are meant to be watched and heard.

By watching and listening movies, even though what you listen to does not mean anything, eventually you'll "hear" and "understand" more by the fact that you have been reading and translating novels.

And you are welcome.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by chileno

Close but not cigar.

But it's interesting what you brought up. I had just noticed a day or so ago translating something from Spanish to English. The word was tiempo and the sentence in English didn't make sense with time, but temperature made a lot of sense.

If I might ask, how long did it take you to get fluent using the method that you made up? You seem to have a very good grasp of the English language. Can you effortlessly post these messages or do they take a bit of time? For me it takes ages to type out a post in Spanish for having to look up words, read them again to make sure everything is in agreement.

[Feliz]

Originally Posted by chileno

Close but not cigar.

Read and translate novels (books) as movies are meant to be watched and heard.

By watching and listening movies, even though what you listen to does not mean anything, eventually you'll "hear" and "understand" more by the fact that you have been reading and translating novels.

And you are welcome.

Are you saying to also read as though I am watching and listening to a movie? And to do this by using my imagination? I do that now with verbs. They're like little action movies sometimes. Other times they are like snapshots in a photo album. Sometimes a mnemonic device appears out of nowhere. I guess that it helps to know what the word "translation" means in the first place. Then I would know better how to stop it.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Chris

But it's interesting what you brought up. I had just noticed a day or so ago translating something from Spanish to English. The word was tiempo and the sentence in English didn't make sense with time, but temperature made a lot of sense.

If I might ask, how long did it take you to get fluent using the method that you made up? You seem to have a very good grasp of the English language. Can you effortlessly post these messages or do they take a bit of time? For me it takes ages to type out a post in Spanish for having to look up words, read them again to make sure everything is in agreement.

Thank you for correcting me. Although I know, my fingers fly the "other" way.

It took me about a year to become functional in English. What I mean by that is: In you language, when a new words comes up, you look it up in the dictionary and "acquire" a new word, right?

Not in Spanish, not at least at the present. You read a new word, look it up and then you have to try to "exercise" it so you don't forget what it means, which most likely it will happen if you don't use it daily.

That's what I mean by "functional"

All in all, it took me about two or three years, difficult to assess, to get to my present state, although I have been in the country for 30 years now, and I would be lying if I said that I have not learned through all these years.

Originally Posted by Feliz

Are you saying to also read as though I am watching and listening to a movie? And to do this by using my imagination? I do that now with verbs. They're like little action movies sometimes. Other times they are like snapshots in a photo album. Sometimes a mnemonic device appears out of nowhere. I guess that it helps to know what the word "translation" means in the first place. Then I would know better how to stop it.

There you have it. (+ or -)

[laepelba]

The other thing I do to pick up new vocabulary in Spanish ... when I have time, and I try to only do this a few times a week (as opposed to many words in one day) ... I receive a "word of the day" e-mail ... and when it is a word that I am not already familiar with, I make sure I understand the sample sentences that come in the e-mail along with the definition, then I go to the RAE dictionary and make sure that I understand all of the definitions, and often I also check it against a bilingual dictionary and even try to find some of the collocations (unique ways of using the word in phrases). If I have time, I'll even do a search on Tomisimo and WordReference forums to read discussions about the word to see if there are any unique things like regionalisms or idioms related to the word or find the etymology ... by the time I'm done reading all of those things, I pretty much know the word.

[JPablo]

Lou, I think that is an excellent method to acquire vocabulaire. One thing I would add is to make-up sentences 'of your own', (up until 20 or more if needed) so you really make that word totally "yours".

And the other thing (if not covered already) is to get the derivation of the word, so you see from were it comes.

(Checking and getting familiar with idioms and synonym studies would be the last actions... but by then, you are so familiar with the word you could write a short story about it...)

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by JPablo

Lou, I think that is an excellent method to acquire vocabulaire. One thing I would add is to make-up sentences 'of your own', (up until 20 or more if needed) so you really make that word totally "yours".

And the other thing (if not covered already) is to get the derivation of the word, so you see from were it comes.

(Checking and getting familiar with idioms and synonym studies would be the last actions... but by then, you are so familiar with the word you could write a short story about it...)

Yes, Malila has been on me to write example sentences for my grammar learning. I really ought to be doing the same for vocabulary. Derivations and parts of speech would also be helpful ... and any possible irregular conjugations for verbs ... and I LOVE the wealth of synonyms in Spanish ... yes, if I was truly thorough I could definitely write short stories about each vocabulary word...........

[JPablo]

[Feliz]

Originally Posted by JPablo

Lou, I think that is an excellent method to acquire vocabulaire. One thing I would add is to make-up sentences 'of your own', (up until 20 or more if needed) so you really make that word totally "yours".

Yes, I agree about making up relevant sentences of one's own. I try to create ones that I will actually use with my family, friends, at the doctor's offices, at the stores I shop at, and especially with my neighbors. I have never had to repeat myself once, so far, they always have understood me the first time and that has really made it all worthwhile. Something that I wasn't expecting, really!

[JPablo]

¡Muy bien, Feliz!
Aprender para comunicar.
Y comunicar para aprender.

[kenkiwi90]

I just try to immerse myself as much as possible by watching Spanish Tv, listening to Spanish radio and much more! The more you get into Spanish, the more natural you will start to think in Spanish!