RE: DuoLingo friends list for spanish-learning

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Dudnote

Posts: 1805
Joined: Nov. 13 2007

RE: DuoLingo friends list for spanis... (in reply to Piwin)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Piwin
I do think people's time would be better spent with a good grammar book ... a good dictionnary or any book and just a wee bit of imagination.

Thanks for your ranting Piwin.

You've persuaded me. I'm ditching Duo. It reckons I'm 39% fluent - like what the heck does that mean??? I just re-found my long-lost French / Spanish copy of Jeu et Théorie du Duende / Juego y Teoría del Duende so will get back to annotating that and to hell with guessing what the monkey did to the chicken.

And if that doesn't work, I'll just have to get myself a bike and cycle from Montpellier to Jerez with an MP3 player stocked with cante puro, a solar-powered speaker and enough cash to stop off in Madrid to buy a good guy there a few cervezas.

_____________________________

Ay compañerita de mi alma
tú ahora no me conoces.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 5 2017 3:35:20

mrstwinkle

Posts: 551
Joined: May 14 2017

RE: DuoLingo friends list for spanis... (in reply to Dudnote)

I get frustrated with the number of mistakes and inconsistencies, but every system has their faults. For example I did Pimsleur Spanish for a while as I used to drive to work and it is audio-only. It was great at first as it uses a trick of having you listen in on a Spanish class. The format works well for a while at basics, but at intermendiate level the whole thing just fell apart.

Book-only alternatives can get very dry very quickly IMO. To me Duolingo is good if you have easy access to a web browser. I don't use the app - it is just a guessing game. You need to understand enough grammar to ask the right questions of google (decline xxx, and understand the difference between preterite and imperfect).

As for business model, meh, no different from wikipedia. it isn't offensively filled with ads and isn't invasively forcing FB integration down my throat. So okay with me.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 5 2017 9:22:03

Piwin

Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: DuoLingo friends list for spanis... (in reply to Dudnote)

@mrstwinkle

quote:

As for business model, meh, no different from wikipedia

Wikipedia is a not-for-profit organisation. Duolingo is a for-profit company. Saying their business model is the same is like saying Airbnb and the Red Cross are the same thing because they both provide shelter for a few nights. It's only "okay" with you because you're on the consumer end of it and not on that end of its business where it actually is destroying jobs. I'd quote Martin Niemöller's famous "first they came for the socialists" quote as words of caution but in this world I don't know if it'd do any good. For you as a consumer, you could also say "Spotify's business model is okay with me", because if you pay just a little bit then you get access to a bunch of music without commercials. Nevermind that professional musicians are dying out because of it. Soon both translation and music will be done only by amateurs. No more quality Weinbergers to open the world of Octavio Paz to English-speakers, no Justin O'Briens to let the ideas of Camus into the consciousness of the English-speaking world, no more Paco de Lucias, Vicente Amigos or Antonio Reys to lead ambitious forays in the unexplored territories of beauty and aesthetics. Soon the best thing out there will be you, me and Dudnote playing our error-filled rendition of Entre dos aguas in an empty bar, and all because, well, for us as consumers, it was ok, and when the pros told us about their plight, we answered with a non-commital "meh".

@Dudnote

quote:

It reckons I'm 39% fluent - like what the heck does that mean???

In today's world, it means that you can add "fluent in Spanish" on your CV.

A conjugation book is a must. Bescherelle is great. I have "Vademecum del verbo espanol" by Pedro Gomis and Laura Segura. Those books (the conjugation ones) are the realbooks of language. You really shouldn't bring it with you to a jam, because you should know it already, but if you do bring it, it better look beat-up as hell with coffee stains all over and signs that you've used in intensively.

The editor Santillana Universidad de Salamanca has some very good grammar books. I've used "Sintaxis del Espanol: nivel de perfeccionamiento" by J.F. Garcia Santos. The only problem is that the solutions to the exercices are sold separately

(it's originally intended as a book for Spanish classes so the teacher would give the answers. But it works pretty well for self-study). The one I use is entirely in Spanish but I think they have some bilingual ones as well.

I started out reading authors like Isabel Allende. Not to open any sort of critique of her work, but let's just say it's an easy read, very good for learners. Borges is much better in that mix of fantasy and reality but he's also harder to read. Miguel de Unanumo should come dead last. Even the Spanish have a hard time understanding him, though he is held in the highest literary regard.

For listening, well that's the easiest part. So many resources out there from TV series, movies to radio and podcasts. I'm a radio fan, and have used RTVE's radio dramas as exercices for Spanish comprehension when abroad (their Sherlock Holmes radio drama is really good!).

For speaking, there are sites for language exchange. Just last week, a "student" of mine (rather just a friend who asks for my help from time to time) told me about a site called Italki. Apparently it's a platform to get in touch with freelance language teachers and get Skype lessons, but people also seem to use it as a sort of language exchange café. I haven't tried it myself so I can't attest to the quality of it. She seemed to think it was pretty good. My point is just that there are options like that out there to talk with actual Spanish people even when abroad.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 5 2017 14:17:53