Wanting to learn Spanish

[Mrs. Gooch]

Duolingo keeps telling me to pay attention to accent marks....Are they really that importante?

if you are going to be writing formal documents, then yes.  you'll appear ignorant if you don't place appropriate accent marks.  for any other purpose, ignore them completely.  actually, if your intention is to speak, i don't think it's helpful to look much at written spanish - it just fucks up your pronunciation.

Apparently 'El' means 'he' and 'the'; but one of them has an accent mark??? How am I supposed to know which one they mean????

[sys]

I only care about conversational, but I also think it useful to be able to read a sign while drunk in a foreign country.   

if you can speak, you'll be able to read signs and menus and what not.  and i'm not suggesting you put blinders on and never look at written spanish.  just don't spend any time intentionally working with written language.

i find when people see the written word they are prone to pronounce it as if it were english.  where if they just hear it, they imitate what they hear and thus pronounce it much better.  i've actually had it happen to me where i've finally seen words written out that i've been saying for years and it'll trip my tongue up and make me mispronounce it even when i know how to say them correctly and have been doing so previously.

[CNS]

I get that.  I would love it if there was some way to do that better than some dumb cd.  Duolingo is mostly written in the early stages, but has a audio/verbal component too.  I am hoping that the latter is emphasized more as it goes on.

[sys]

Apparently 'El' means 'he' and 'the'; but one of them has an accent mark??? How am I supposed to know which one they mean????

how would you deal with an english speaker that said "i need to climb he wall"?  or "the is tall"?

[sys]

I get that.  I would love it if there was some way to do that better than some dumb cd.  Duolingo is mostly written in the early stages, but has a audio/verbal component too.  I am hoping that the latter is emphasized more as it goes on.

watching tv/movies is amazingly good for learning a language.  probably the best way other than living soemwhere the language is spoken.

[Mrs. Gooch]

Apparently 'El' means 'he' and 'the'; but one of them has an accent mark??? How am I supposed to know which one they mean????

how would you deal with an english speaker that said "i need to climb he wall"?  or "the is tall"?

I would say, "What are you talking about, Fanning?"

[Mrs. Gooch]

I get that.  I would love it if there was some way to do that better than some dumb cd.  Duolingo is mostly written in the early stages, but has a audio/verbal component too.  I am hoping that the latter is emphasized more as it goes on.

watching tv/movies is amazingly good for learning a language.  probably the best way other than living soemwhere the language is spoken.

Do you need subtitles? If I don't know what they are saying then I am not going to know what they are saying....

[mocat]

I get that.  I would love it if there was some way to do that better than some dumb cd.  Duolingo is mostly written in the early stages, but has a audio/verbal component too.  I am hoping that the latter is emphasized more as it goes on.

watching tv/movies is amazingly good for learning a language.  probably the best way other than living soemwhere the language is spoken.

Do you need subtitles? If I don't know what they are saying then I am not going to know what they are saying....

you'd be surprised

[sys]

Do you need subtitles? If I don't know what they are saying then I am not going to know what they are saying....

start with movies in spanish with english subtitles.  eventually try watching some without subtitles.  but you can also fall back to subtitles when you are feeling lazy (you'll have to concentrate more to understand without subtitles, so it isn't very relaxing).

[CNS]

CNSWife and I love watching HBO in Spanish when in MX and too tired to go out after a super long day in the sun/at the beach.  Its pretty great.

[Gooch]

Those tele novellas on Telemundo look interesting as eff.

[Dub]

Is there anyway we can get Telemundo to broadcast Bruceketball?  Would definitely make the rest of the season worthwhile.

[CNS]

Yes

[Mrs. Gooch]

Those tele novellas on Telemundo look interesting as eff.

OK, we can start watching them as soon as I get to 20% fluency. I'm only at 7% right now, but I should be to 20% by the end of the weekend.

[mocat]

Those tele novellas on Telemundo look interesting as eff.

OK, we can start watching them as soon as I get to 20% fluency. I'm only at 7% right now, but I should be to 20% by the end of the weekend.

Sí, lo puedes (si lo puedes)

[mocat]

^ good example of accent mark mattering in written spanish

[Mrs. Gooch]

^ good example of accent mark mattering in written spanish

But if you were speaking, how would I know the difference? Is Sí pronounced different from Si?

[mocat]

^ good example of accent mark mattering in written spanish

But if you were speaking, how would I know the difference? Is Sí pronounced different from Si?

context. the same way you can tell if someone is saying "won" or "one"

[sys]

good example of how accent marks don't matter at all.

[Bloodfart]

you don't rough ridin' know me

Read the last couple pages and this is still killing me.   

[star seed 7]

thanks bloodfart 

[Mrs. Gooch]

I must be a prodigy or something.

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[CNS]

 

[Emo EMAW]

"Chicharron" is my new favorite word in Spanish.  Just say it, I'm sure you will feel the same way.

[Mrs. Gooch]

Do they not capitalize names of months, days, or languages en espanol?