#spanish learner

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Los Chicos Peleandoooooo

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[langvillage]

hello language learners! new this month in the language village, a chill way to practice a little bit every day: the one sentence club! as the title suggests, the idea is to write one sentence in your target language(s) every day. for an extra challenge, especially if your target language uses a different script, try handwriting the sentence too!

join the language village discord server to receive daily reminder pings, get inspiration from a daily question prompt, and participate alongside other one sentence club members!

feel free to tag #langvillage if you post your sentences on tumblr ✨

[una-ragazza-con-un-flauto]

Via sonomiguelangelo su Tiktok

Italia 🇮🇹 España 🇪🇸 Suomi 🇫🇮

[rotzaprachim]

I find the dialect issue really interesting in Italian, like it’s been a hot second since I studied it (don’t want to get it mixed up with Spanish etc) but I used to be faaaairly profficient-ish. But Italian has some interesting stuff with dialect and language that is of course super political - absolutely I believe that the minority languages of Italy are LANGUAGES, not “dialects,” eg napolitano, Sicilian, Calabrian etc. However! That doesn’t stop the complicating factors that

a) many are (due to repression in part) somewhat unstable and there’s been clear linguistic pushes in the direction of standard Italian

b) many (not all) young people don’t speak their regional language (which is also geographically associated)

c) the minority languages are for the most part still related to Italian and lend easily to blending and mixed forms

d) the standard language in Italian classes for foreigners is that florentine standardized form and they will almost never tell you regional slang or alterations

in essence there’s a dual issue here: minority languages are called “dialects” in a way that is deeply politically loaded, but for many many speakers there is a kind of language spectrum between minority languages (or remnants and borrowings from minority languages and “standard” Italian) that created a lot of…. Actual dialects in modern spoken Italian

but anyway I do think this all encourages a situation where the reality is that the majority of Italian speakers have some kind of mixed form or where regional dialects affect the standard spoken form at LOT , so that when you learn Italian you’re like oh this is easy. I’m getting an a. I’m a b2. Why the fuck can I not understand anyone ever. What is this. Like the standard form/minority language binary are kind of two ends of a spectrum and class will prepare you for like, official tv channels and Dante but not talking. Italians can understand you and they tend to be very very friendly and accommodating in matching that official form and altering their words/grammar, but you can’t easily follow a lot of *their* conversations and daily pronunciation and the literary language is very ornate. There are also not so many resources for this kind of thing

[rigelmejo]

Something that always annoys me is the idea only 1 language learning method works. Which is not true. While it may be possible that, for a particular individual, only a few out of many study methods may work well enough for That Individual to make progress and stay motivated... that doesn't mean all the other study methods won't work for anyone else out there, or that those few methods will work for every other given person.

Obviously if you've been studying a while, then you already figured out what kinds of things work for you and don't. If you're a beginner, just wading into studying?

I would suggest you simply look for study methods that: 1. Teach you new things regularly, 2. Review and practice things you've learned, 3. Include studying things you need for your particular goals (for example if your goal is to read X book then the study materials at some point should involve reading practice and some words the book contains, if your goal is to talk about Y then the study materials should include some information about pronunciation and words you'll need to be able to say).

As you can imagine, a TON of study materials will meet these requirements. And you can study a given skill in a LOT of ways.

(Reading is my focus lol so just for reading, a beginner might: do vocabulary study with lists or conversations with native speakers or watching shows and looking words up or listening to dialogues with a transcript like in a textbook or graded readers or a picture book with word labels in the target language or a video game with labelled objects in target language, all of those things as long as your vocabulary is improving or reading practice is happening would help you make progress). So to improve reading skill as a beginner: you could study with a textbook, a podcast with transcript, a classroom or tutor with words written down in target language (like TPRS), a video game, a TV show and a translate app on your phone, a friend you talk with (who either writes words down or you look up words you hear with a translate app), a friend you text with, srs flashcards like anki (provided there's text) etc. As long as there's new words, and/or you're practicing reading, the study method may work. If it works will come down to if you can stay motivated doing it regularly, and make sure you regularly learn some new things and review/practice things you've already studied.

So consider those things when you see people selling a study method as a product (especially when it's costing you money). Consider if it teaches you NEW things, and are those new things related to your goals, and how MUCH new stuff will it teach you before you finish it? Consider if it provides review or practice, or if you can use it's materials to review on your own making up your own method, or if you'll need to do separate review/practice.

So examples:

LingQ. Can it teach you many new words? Yes, thousands, since you can import any texts you want when you get done with their provided material (I have no idea how much their beginner material covers though in terms of words... I would hope 1000-3000 words but that can be researched). Is your goal reading? It's suited to reading, so you will practice and review often with it. Cost? I think it was $12 a month when I last had it, and the price may have increased. Is it worth it? Depends on a learner's needs. I found it was wasting my money, so I chose to use free tools like Pleco and Readibu apps - since those apps are suited for Chinese learners and have better translations, Pleco has better paid graded reader material if I was going to spend money, and both Pleco and Readibu let me import texts so I can learn thousands of new words just like LingQ but free. Now that I'm not a beginner, I often use Microsoft Edge to read chinese... since I can still click-translate words easily (all my web browsers have that tool free), and Edge's TTS voice is helpful for pronunciation and sounds quite good. I read webnovels online so Edge works well. But it's translations aren't as good as Pleco or Readibu, so if I still needed translations more I would use them. So... is LingQ a good study method? Its certainly a study method marketed to buy. Well... the method is suited to improving reading skill, at least. It costs money, which is a negative, but it does offer a lot. However: everything it does regarding reading can be done free with other apps or sites or web browsers on their own. So if paying money motivates you to read... sure. LingQ does have a few word tracking features a learner may find worth the money, keeping in mind the actual read-to-learn method can be done free without lingq. (Also... while LingQ is a valid option for improving reading, if the learners goal is speaking then it would be important to think of what study activities the learner will do OUTSIDE of LingQ to improve speaking... because I've seen how LingQ is marketed as "how to learn a language" but it's only focused on some skills. It has vocabulary and grammar in some sense, since you'll read a lot and encounter new words and structures. But it doesnt have speaking or writing practice at least last time I was on it. Those activities would need to be worked on, on your own).

You can do that kind of cost/benefit contemplating with any study method material you see being sold. Amother example: there's a beginner Mandarin course called Mandarin Blueprint. It teaches like 800 words. Thats all. It may be worthwhile for a beginner... who still needs to learn 800 common words. But if you already know a few hundred words, the benefit of the course is less, you'll need to find a new material to teach you more new stuff soon. And the price was like a few hundred for the course... which for me personally was too much to spend, when I had already learned 800 hanzi from a book that cost me 12 dollars and 2000 words from a free user made memrise deck. The course claimed to get a person speaking, competent, but anyone not a beginner would say speaking basically with 800 words is nowhere near the level of working in Chinese or just doing a lot of daily life stuff, or reading/listening to media. (Although for the motivated beginner if you're learning 800 words on your own like I was, its definitely close to the point of jumping to learn more words and start reading kids and teenager books, and watching easier shows if you're willing to look new words up). So to me... Mandarin Blueprint felt like overselling some basic beginner materials. (Again when I know several other things that teach beginner stuff either more in depth so HSK test prep classes, and college courses, or that teach beginner stuff to the same depth as Mandarin Blueprint but free).

Some study materials aren't going to act like they teach everything. I've seen chinese courses just for learning to speak tones better and general pronunciation - probably worthwhile if your goal is to improve speaking and a teacher could help improve the issues your having. But a learner needs to be aware for that course that they'll need to study vocabulary on their own, its JUST a pronunciation improvement course.

[comfymoth]

:0 Chique is the gender neutral term in spanish? O did not know that!

it’s the one i’ve heard used for nb people the most! in Most cases swapping the o/a endings of words for an e seems to neutralize them, like chique, amigue, hije, etc., but it’s not like, an official universally agreed upon rule. just what i’ve seen used in queer circles

[witchinatree]

the magnus archives is officially too much of an influence on my life

i've been learning french for almost a month now and it means i'm saying "my name is" a lot more and every time i say it or read it my mind just goes to "je mappelle martin blackwood et je suis non solitaire plus"

or like when i'm practicing spanish!!!!! what the fuck!!!!! "me llamo martin blackwood y yo no soy solitario nunca màs"

GET OUT OF MY HEAD.

LEAVE ME ALONE [flashbang] AAAAGHHHH (/ref)

[adhd-languages]

Hey, Spanish learners or native speakers following me — I just found out there’s a Spanish AITA account! If you’re looking for a way to practice it might be good. I’m personally pretty hyped because I’m sort of addicted to AITA lmao

It’s @ aita-espanol

[ego-sum-ex-altiora]

My Roman Empire is the fact that if my school offered Latin, I would absolutely take it (no matter how pretentious it would make me)

[truthem]

i posted this on langtwt but no one likes to respond to me there so…

fellows on langblr, does anyone else have the issue of knowing words when they’re spoken/when you read them in your TL, but can’t recall them when you want to use them???

i have this issue with korean and spanish which is my main problem when i go to speak them or when writing (also why i haven’t been blogging in spanish or korean)

is it just a me problem or is it normal???

[smokeys-house]

I get that it's not the job of every person who's fluent in their first language to teach it to new learners, but why is there such an attitude surrounding new learners? Why is there the idea that every person should be fluent before they dare speak aloud? You don't have to let people be wrong, but you do have to accept that there is a polite way to correct someone. If you're going to correct someone you should at least muster the effort to do it politely. You don't have to point out a mistake in a way that shames someone. That discourages learning, which in turn only causes even more of the situations that had you acting this way in the first place.

Idk why you'd feel the need to flex on someone who's showing you a vulnerable point. If someone trusts you enough to fail around you that's not something you should scorn. Is it not in poor taste to break a child's wrist when they challenge an adult to arm wrestling? Why are you trying to gain a feeble sense of power over someone who is still learning? I don't get it.

[femmesandhoney]

cringing my way through this required reading where the author keeps using the word latinx and chicanx making most of it dogwater to read

[book51ut]

need to read more spanish language books taking recommendations

[cloudiness]

ughhh give me a weekly podcast by Carlos Sainz Jr, one weak it has to be in English, the next one in Italian and then the other one in Spanish. PLS!!!!!

[thevegetablewhichnoonedaresname]

be careful you guys, there are sickos out there that memorize ciphers, alphabets, and writing systems for fun. and they LIKE it

[halftheway]

k respect spanish so much bc like english has words that are spelled identically but pronounced and mean different things (tear/tear, wind/wind) and spanish has the decency to give you accents on letters so you know which is which (tú/tu, esta/está)