One of the best things about having done these lessons, is that when a native speaker finds out that I don't speak spanish but am trying to learn, I now get more out of their improptu lessons :-) Though that said I have noticed an interesting aspect of learning another language, I'm not sure if its just me, but I don't think so..
In essence it is that when people have long conversations or there is a reasonably long bit of text (say in a museum or newspaper article) that I actually have the most understanding, when a short sentence is used (in conversation or on a display) I need to know 1 specific key word being used to understand the whole sentence... Whereas in a long conversation there is usually a running theme where the topic is usually repeated multiple times, but in different ways. Meaning that I, with my limited spanish vocabulary am more likely to understand 1 of those 3 ways that you used, I can then put into context the other words and hopefully recognise them the next time they are used.
It's just something I've noticed in trying to learn more spanish, that I want people to do the opposite of what you (and I include myself in this) do when you meet someone who doesn't speak your language, you use shorter sentences, this only helps when the person knows that specific key word. If you use a longer sentence I seem to have a better chance...
Of course this only helps when I understand at least one or two of the words in that longer sentence, if I don't know any of them I'm still stuffed. For that I've got my lonely planet phrase book (which I'm studying during these long bus journeys!) and of course the fluent Cath (who I keep bugging with "¿Como se dice ...?", "¿Qué significa ...?")
Ok, I didn't really know what to say about learning Spanish, but I guess there was something... Hopefully it made sense, if not I'll try and use fewer words :-)
Where are we?
Just a quick follow on, we're currently in Puerto Madryn (about 17hrs South of Buenos Aires) have been out to see the whales and off to see the half a million penguins tomorrow. Should have some spectacular pictures to upload in a couple of days!
Take care,
Andrew (& Cath)
1 comment:
What you need in Puerto Madryn is a knowledge of Welsh for it is there that 150+ Welsh people sailed from Liverpool in 1865 to establish a new future.I've always thought that's where our country's top footballing genes disappeared to.We have a lady in Church who came from Patagonia and had to work in Wales initially as she only knew Spanish and Welsh.
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