- Time of past OR future Camino
- First one in 2005 from Moissac, France.
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Well, I have been more observant about choosing different varieties of Spanish red wine the last 9 months, balancing my diet.Hi all - so here we are, the beginning of a new year and this morning it occurred to me that apart from a brief lessening of restrictions during the summer I have been locked down for nine months now and have done nothing 'new'.
All these months with more time on my hands than ever in my life and I think that I may have wasted them.
I have a block re learning Spanish but surely if I had started a video or CD course back in March I would be able to speak adequate Spanish by now? - or play the guitar, or juggle, or learn photography, or sketch, sing, paint, mimic animals .. an infinite list - now, apart from being able to speak Spanish I don't want to do any of those things but have decided, as I will be severely locked down here in the UK until possibly Easter, that I shall buy a good comprehensive Spanish course from Ebay this evening and 'go to school' at home every day, only twenty minutes or so a day, but every day ... and by April? Who knows ...
So my question - has anyone taken on anything new? Learnt a new skill? Taken an online course to enhance their CV and/or job skills? Become a lion trainer? Tai Chi master? Sculptor? Pianist? Multi-linguist? Pastry chef? Anything? Or is it just me who has thrown nine months of opportunity away??
Oh dear - what a waste of nine months!!!
A friend unloaded his set onto me a few years ago.I just bought the Michael Thomas complete 8 CD set Spanish course second-hand on Ebay -
- £4.39 and free postage - result!!!
A friend unloaded his set onto me a few years ago.
After 15 or 20 minutes of Michel droning on I would doze off,maybe it's just me.
Good luck!
Yep!! Me too. But I learned quite a few words and even used some on a hotelier who said "Perfecto!"A friend unloaded his set onto me a few years ago.
After 15 or 20 minutes of Michel droning on I would doze off,maybe it's just me.
Good luck!
Hi David: Have you tried Duolingo? It is very elementary, easy to use, and overall; it is “free”! Well, it has some advertising. You can download the App to your phone or tablet and practice where there is internet connection. It can also be used on a computer. I used it to learn basic Italian and now I am using another utility, which is more advanced, but it requires payment. This has been part of my lockdown activities, plus other things around the house.
Hope this helps in deciding you course of action in learning Spanish. By the way, is my main language. Any assistance you may need in your learning; just let me know. It would be a great pleasure.
Seems like you’re just needing a Manchego sheep or two and you’re complete!Well, back in March, 'she who must be obeyed' decided that the Zombie Apocalypse was soon to descend on us and that food and water would be in scarce supplyWho was I to argue.
So I started a vegetable garden. Never had much luck in the past.......... It has now taken over half of the back yard. Madam, is very happy. As she loves cooking and now has access to all the herbs she needs, including a few obscure Thai ones. And we've already harvested some potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, beans and all manner of greens.
We never need to leave the house again!
I'm also having to learn about pest control and fertilizing! Killed a few plants with over fertilizing. More is not better
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Try listening to the Duolingo stories. We have also used the Notes in Spanish podcasts which start off very basic build on the previous ones. I studied spanish in Madrid back in 1975 and lost most of my “hearing” comprehension. Using these for the last few years had my husband and I both saying at the same time, “Did I hear that correctly- Holy Year until 2022? News in Slow Spanish is also helpful.Strange that you should mention Duolingo as that is what I am attempting. Now whilst I can read Spanish (to a greater or lessor degree) I still have trouble hearing and understanding. Its the speed that Spaniards speak at. Still as I have at least another 12-15 months before I am likely to return I will just have to keep on keeping on. Cheers
It looks beautiful, I had not had a garden in years and last summer we grew everything in pots on our deck. Between the tomatoes, squash and padron peppers it looked like “Jumanji” by the end of August. I have managed so far to over winter one of the padron peppers, hopefully I can keep it alive until spring.Well, back in March, 'she who must be obeyed' decided that the Zombie Apocalypse was soon to descend on us and that food and water would be in scarce supplyWho was I to argue.
So I started a vegetable garden. Never had much luck in the past.......... It has now taken over half of the back yard. Madam, is very happy. As she loves cooking and now has access to all the herbs she needs, including a few obscure Thai ones. And we've already harvested some potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, beans and all manner of greens.
We never need to leave the house again!
I'm also having to learn about pest control and fertilizing! Killed a few plants with over fertilizing. More is not better
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Seems like you’re just needing a Manchego sheep or two and you’re complete!
Great tip @Ekelund ...I'm going to start your diary idea today! I too do not have anyone to practice speaking Spanish with so anything we can do to reinforce the other aspects of language learning is very helpful.I do not know any Spanish speaking people and in order to make up for speaking Spanish, I write a daily dairy in Spanish to improve constructing sentences.
Thank you for the link @alexwalker ...especially as you have tried & tested Enforex. I've looked at their website & am very happy to see they hold courses for the Over 50's. As anyone who has tried to learn a language 'later' in life knows, although not impossible it does present a set of...er...'challenges' I wouldn't have had in my younger days...!If you want to learn more Spanish, check out www.enforex.com . I think they have online classes now. They are GOOD: I spent 1 (intensive) month with them in Alicante one year, and it has helped me immensely. It cost me less than 1.300 Euros for the month, including local housing & half board (!).
Hi Saint Mike II:Strange that you should mention Duolingo as that is what I am attempting. Now whilst I can read Spanish (to a greater or lessor degree) I still have trouble hearing and understanding. Its the speed that Spaniards speak at. Still as I have at least another 12-15 months before I am likely to return I will just have to keep on keeping on. Cheers
Audio discs do not seem to work for me either, but for some reason podcasts, and other audio with videos work for me. My latest is lightspeedspanish as there is beginner to advanced and you can start where you feel comfortable. When I am in Spain and getting lost when someone is speaking to me, I always ask despacio or lentamente. I am then frequently asked if I prefer English, but say no as I prefer to practice my hearing skills. It has always been greeted positively with slower well enunciated speech.For me the problem with Spanish is that they talk too fast and fluidly for me to separate words.
This is not just me, Spanish is the second fastest spoken language in the world (Japanese is the only one faster).
I have no problem 'hearing' French, nor 'hearing' German, I can clearly hear the words that they say, but my block would appear to be that I just cannot listen fast enough!
Previous learning with audio discs I fail more or less towards the end of disc 2 when sentences get longer and the speaker speeds up (and they always speed up!).
Tricky!!
Dude, you need to get those plants in the ground, gardening in pots is all well and good (and sometimes necessary when you have an inner city garden polluted by lead), but you are in Sydney and watering must be costing a bomb. Real gardener tend their soil and then the plants that grow from it,... Ohh that sound like a nasty real pilgrim debate, forget that, you have mastered the first rule of veggie growing, grow what you like to eat.We did think about Chickens!
But they attract snakes
Dude, you need to get those plants in the ground, gardening in pots is all well and good (and sometimes necessary when you have an inner city garden polluted by lead), but you are in Sydney and watering must be costing a bomb. Real gardener tend their soil and then the plants that grow from it,... Ohh that sound like a nasty real pilgrim debate, forget that, you have mastered the first rule of veggie growing, grow what you like to eat.
At the moment I have a glut of green vege and eggs, no snakes in Godzone and my 6 chooks are pumping out over 3 dozen eggs a week, I am awash with them and have taken to leaving random egg deposits in letter boxes on my way into town.
My OH and I are both using Duolingo, he learning Portuguese and myself, Spanish; I definitely got the better end of the deal and was able to use a little on Camino in October. Apart from polite greetings, probably the most used were « sin carne? » and « yo quiero una cama para la noches, por favor ».Hi!
Just listened to this back;sorry guys there's quite a bit of waffle to get to the Portuguese bit !
I did two eight week Spanish courses at evening classes; beginners September 2019 and an improvers course last January, it was hard but enjoyed it. (couldn't read the board or class handouts in the lesson;so had them scanned from tutor email a couple of days before and had to learn tracts of conversation to work with the class. They had it in front of them and were able to take notes. They thought i was a genius memory man and one said i blew her mind by what i remembered.
I said when you cant see stuff a good memory is a useful tool!!!!
Since then i have practiced Spanish with apps and by trying to type things in Spanish online into Google translate;and then listen to the translation in English for something to occupy the time.
But as with other languages where you haven't become fluent, you either use it or lose it!
For the last few weeks i have been using the Memorise app on my phone and Duolingo and Google translate on my computer to try and get the basics in Portuguese.
However i am finding the pronunciation of Portuguese harder than Spanish.( a lot of Portuguese has nasal and squishy sounds in words that i find hard to get anywhere near.)
You would laugh your socks off if you could here what Google comes up with as a translation;i don't want to get a punch in the face by being unintentionally rude to somebody!
That combined with the fact that there are quite a few similarities in the two languages;will make life a little confusing.
This i know will happen cos first two weeks walking in Portugal;i will slip up with Spanish. The second two weeks in Spain i guarantee i will have got into the habit of Portuguese that i have been using.
But i say to myself never give up;just keep plugging away and one day i will be able to order a sandwich and a beer ha!ha!
Woody.
In the true Camino tradition, you might consider a quest to walk along each and every street/road in your town/city. I had begun this here in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA, and i am almost finished. It gets me outdoors and offers a new perspective on my community, looking at each house in the city. Start by getting a street map of wherever you live, then color in the streets as you do them. Better than sittin around...Hi all - so here we are, the beginning of a new year and this morning it occurred to me that apart from a brief lessening of restrictions during the summer I have been locked down for nine months now and have done nothing 'new'.
All these months with more time on my hands than ever in my life and I think that I may have wasted them.
I have a block re learning Spanish but surely if I had started a video or CD course back in March I would be able to speak adequate Spanish by now? - or play the guitar, or juggle, or learn photography, or sketch, sing, paint, mimic animals .. an infinite list - now, apart from being able to speak Spanish I don't want to do any of those things but have decided, as I will be severely locked down here in the UK until possibly Easter, that I shall buy a good comprehensive Spanish course from Ebay this evening and 'go to school' at home every day, only twenty minutes or so a day, but every day ... and by April? Who knows ...
So my question - has anyone taken on anything new? Learnt a new skill? Taken an online course to enhance their CV and/or job skills? Become a lion trainer? Tai Chi master? Sculptor? Pianist? Multi-linguist? Pastry chef? Anything? Or is it just me who has thrown nine months of opportunity away??
Oh dear - what a waste of nine months!!!
Hi David:For me the problem with Spanish is that they talk too fast and fluidly for me to separate words.
This is not just me, Spanish is the second fastest spoken language in the world (Japanese is the only one faster).
I have no problem 'hearing' French, nor 'hearing' German, I can clearly hear the words that they say, but my block would appear to be that I just cannot listen fast enough!
Previous learning with audio discs I fail more or less towards the end of disc 2 when sentences get longer and the speaker speeds up (and they always speed up!).
Tricky!!
I hope you have great results. I'm 17 days post-op TKR, L knee. R knee scheduled for late March. The grind of recovery/physical therapy-rehab/conditioning during 2021 should lead to walking a mostly pain-free Camino in 2022.Well, I got a new knee in October. That is a pretty big action for me, and rather useful for camino walking. I am still working at getting it functioning.
Hello Albertagirl:I have started to review my Spanish, using a free course from a public library website, which I have used before. I just started at the second section, as I am reasonably knowledgable in the introductory section. These lessons are from a series titled "The Great Courses." They are taught by an American college professor. Their major disadvantage for me is that, like all such courses that I have found in Canada, they follow the Spanish of the Americas, in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical details. However, the instructor includes the vosotros forms in all sets of verb forms. He also speaks clearly and at a reasonable speed for my current knowledge, so that I can understand everything that he says in Spanish. For me, this is a very useful part of the review. However, to get all the details and absorb the vocabulary and grammar, I must sometimes stop and go back, so it can take me several hours to get through a lesson, even though it is material that I have seen previously. I, too, have challenges as a senior student. Must go now: back to class.
So my question - has anyone taken on anything new? Learnt a new skill? Taken an online course to enhance their CV and/or job skills? Become a lion trainer? Tai Chi master? Sculptor? Pianist? Multi-linguist? Pastry chef? Anything? Or is it just me who has thrown nine months of opportunity away??
Oh dear - what a waste of nine months!!!
@PhoenixI hope you have great results. I'm 17 days post-op TKR, L knee. R knee scheduled for late March. The grind of recovery/physical therapy-rehab/conditioning during 2021 should lead to walking a mostly pain-free Camino in 2022.
Re: other new things:
- Having made the decision last April, I head back to college in a few weeks.
- Working on first novel, appx 50% complete.
Thanks Ivan. I did some courses a few years back in preparation for my first camino. Our teacher was from Sth America and yes she spoke very differently from how they speak in central Spain (Castilian). Then you add Catalan and El Andaluse and don't even think about Galacian. Still its what makes Spain such an interesting country. As for "immersion" well that is going to have to wait - maybe until 2022 before I can travel again. (My oncologist - cancer doctor - has laid down some strict ground rules.) Happy New Year. CheersHi Saint Mike II:
Well, that what you mentions happens even to me. Every person has a peculiar way of speaking, voice tone, etc. To overcome this, you would need a deeper immersion in the target language. In the case of Spanish, it spoken very differently in Latin America, the Caribbean and in Spain, because of reasons already mentioned. If you are able to find a language course, the characteristics will be of teacher’s country on origin. This will affect your usage of the language. This phenomenon can be noticed within Spain, every Region has its “ways of talking”.
I just googled it and I still barely "understand" it..maybe I should look up a youtube video next.Well, I will try when the audio discs arrive - at least I speak Esperanto like a native
I just googled it and I still barely "understand" it..maybe I should look up a youtube video next.
Hello Saint Mike II:Thanks Ivan. I did some courses a few years back in preparation for my first camino. Our teacher was from Sth America and yes she spoke very differently from how they speak in central Spain (Castilian). Then you add Catalan and El Andaluse and don't even think about Galacian. Still its what makes Spain such an interesting country. As for "immersion" well that is going to have to wait - maybe until 2022 before I can travel again. (My oncologist - cancer doctor - has laid down some strict ground rules.) Happy New Year. Cheers
I now speak Spanish like a native, a two year old native.at least I speak Esperanto like a native
That's better than nothing.I now speak Spanish like a native, a two year old native.
And this time I'll be able to communicate on some level with the local people.
Its the speed that Spaniards speak at.
I have no problem 'hearing' French,
I find "Más despacio, por favor" and "Soy un poco sordo" (true) both help.For me the problem with Spanish is that they talk too fast and fluidly for me to separate words.
This is not just me, Spanish is the second fastest spoken language in the world (Japanese is the only one faster).
I have no problem 'hearing' French, nor 'hearing' German, I can clearly hear the words that they say, but my block would appear to be that I just cannot listen fast enough!
Previous learning with audio discs I fail more or less towards the end of disc 2 when sentences get longer and the speaker speeds up (and they always speed up!).
Tricky!!
Wow,Lockdown 1:
Learned how to fix a sewing machine
Learned how to use a sewing machine
Made a lot of masks
Tried cross-stitching (my daughter had left a kit here on her last visit)
Started a Virtual Camino Frances (still only at Ribadiso)
Improved my harmonica playing
Kept up my German studies
Made an awful lot of sourdough bread
Put on an awful amount of weight.
Made three note books with leather bound spines from scratch
Started an on line drawing class (learning not teaching)
Failed to learn to juggle (again)
Obtained a Ham Radio licence (M7KEC)
Lockdown 2:
Dropped out of German
Concentrating on guitar and ukulele instead of harmonica
Did refresher course in Spanish
Started woodcarving (c/o Doug Linker) - I now have a lot of IKEA pencils with wizard faces carved on them.
Dallied with birdwatching (new binoculars for my birthday)
Made more masks (plus 2 kites and a hiking kilt)
Stopped making sourdough.
Got into Middle Eastern cooking
Still can't juggle
Lockdown 3:
Ordered more material for next batch of masks
Started making kamikara mechanical toys out of paper
Restart German next week
Still can't juggle.
Since 23rd March I have read 74 ½ books
"Train hard, fight easy!"Wow,
It looks like you need to go on camino to have a rest.
That sounds rather threatening. Still, I am in a similar position with my new knee: "Train hard, walk easy.""Train hard, fight easy!"
Jeff, that is truly an amazing list! You sound like a very interesting and productive guy to get to know in person.Lockdown 1:
Learned how to fix a sewing machine
Learned how to use a sewing machine
Made a lot of masks
Tried cross-stitching (my daughter had left a kit here on her last visit)
Started a Virtual Camino Frances (still only at Ribadiso)
Improved my harmonica playing
Kept up my German studies
Made an awful lot of sourdough bread
Put on an awful amount of weight.
Made three note books with leather bound spines from scratch
Started an on line drawing class (learning not teaching)
Failed to learn to juggle (again)
Obtained a Ham Radio licence (M7KEC)
Lockdown 2:
Dropped out of German
Concentrating on guitar and ukulele instead of harmonica
Did refresher course in Spanish
Started woodcarving (c/o Doug Linker) - I now have a lot of IKEA pencils with wizard faces carved on them.
Dallied with birdwatching (new binoculars for my birthday)
Made more masks (plus 2 kites and a hiking kilt)
Stopped making sourdough.
Got into Middle Eastern cooking
Still can't juggle
Lockdown 3:
Ordered more material for next batch of masks
Started making kamikara mechanical toys out of paper
Restart German next week
Still can't juggle.
Since 23rd March I have read 74 ½ books
Alexander Suvorov I believe.That sounds rather threatening. Still, I am in a similar position with my new knee: "Train hard, walk easy."
I confess that two years of retirement had left me wondering how I managed to fit working for a living into the equation. I now look back on them as training for a year of Covid!Jeff, that is truly an amazing list! You sound like a very interesting and productive guy to get to know in person.
Worth it though, nobody has tried to invade Canada since 1866!It isn't a threat so much as an Army mantra.
We have so many in the military..."Travel light, freeze at night", "Time spent in recce is seldom wasted...", "when in doubt, rack out..."so many that applied to the Camino.
I carried a pack, slept in a shared room with a large number of people, most who snore, showered with cold water, get up...walk, eat-walk-sleep-repeat.
Man- how crazy was that? 20 years in the military prepared me for the ideal Camino!
Cheers!Worth it though, nobody has tried to invade Canada since 1866!
Bless you for your involvement and support in an ongoing difficult situation.Trying to reconcile end of life suffering (live-in mother-in-law, she is 89)
I’ve taken up paintingHi all - so here we are, the beginning of a new year and this morning it occurred to me that apart from a brief lessening of restrictions during the summer I have been locked down for nine months now and have done nothing 'new'.
All these months with more time on my hands than ever in my life and I think that I may have wasted them.
I have a block re learning Spanish but surely if I had started a video or CD course back in March I would be able to speak adequate Spanish by now? - or play the guitar, or juggle, or learn photography, or sketch, sing, paint, mimic animals .. an infinite list - now, apart from being able to speak Spanish I don't want to do any of those things but have decided, as I will be severely locked down here in the UK until possibly Easter, that I shall buy a good comprehensive Spanish course from Ebay this evening and 'go to school' at home every day, only twenty minutes or so a day, but every day ... and by April? Who knows ...
So my question - has anyone taken on anything new? Learnt a new skill? Taken an online course to enhance their CV and/or job skills? Become a lion trainer? Tai Chi master? Sculptor? Pianist? Multi-linguist? Pastry chef? Anything? Or is it just me who has thrown nine months of opportunity away??
Oh dear - what a waste of nine months!!!
Me to , the inside of our house.I’ve taken up painting
awesomeMe to , the inside of our house.
Sorry couldn't resist.
Mine is a long list, too. It's a "to do" list.Yep. Sure have David. How much time have you got? Compiling my list ......
You are patient to give it 8 tries before succeeding.. Sourdough!
It wasn't until the 8th version I got the process right and I got a good rise. No kneading at all, just stretching at regular intervals through the day, which works perfectly when you are working from home.
Thanks David for asking - suitable question indeed. (Though I hope you'll cease to think that nine months of being alive is a wasteHi all - so here we are, the beginning of a new year and this morning it occurred to me that apart from a brief lessening of restrictions during the summer I have been locked down for nine months now and have done nothing 'new'.
[...]
Oh dear - what a waste of nine months!!!
English also used to be the same with the second person: singular was used with intimates, plural was used to show respect. But the English got so formal with each other that the singular (thou, thee, thy, thine) pretty much dropped out of usage.Hello Albertagirl:
You are right about the difference in the Spanish (Castellano). There are very few countries in the Americas that uses the Third Person Plural version of Vosotros. Example of this is Argentina and Nicaragua. Mostly the rest use “Ustedes”. I encountered something similar in my Italian courses; the Second Person, could be either Tu or Voi. That depends on how close is your relationship with the other person. With a family member or close friend is used “Tu”, when talking to an older person, supervisor, or newly introduced person; then, “Voi” is used to show respect.
All right, maybe that's the dumbest idea ever, and maybe it's a genius. I figured that since the stepper motors and controller board are the most costly sections of both a laser engraver/cutter and a 3 d printer, that maybe the 2 could be combined. Create a laser cutter head mount that suits where the extruder goes and switch it out when you want to cut the laser. I understand that any time it was swapped, there will be calibration/adjustment to be done. Is that as plain as I think, or is there something unbelievably important missing from me?Oh, something new?
I have learned to use a 3D-Printer and a laser-engraver / cutter. That is one of the benefits of the german education-initiative with big money well spent on the education-system all over the country.
I have attended several online-courses for imaging/videoediting-software like CaptureOne (new build).
BC
Roland
There are some potential problems for interchanging the tool of desire.... think, or is there something unbelievably important missing from me?
You have the perfect ingredients to make Spanish Turrón !! With a New Zealander touch !!!Life down on the farm hasn't actually changed that much, hard to get more isolated. But when fortress New Zealand pulled up the drawbridge and put us into lockdown it was right at the start of our harvest so no time to learn a new language, I had to bring in 10 tonnes of walnuts on my own...it was a bit like the Camino, you don't dare look at the herculanian task overall, just set off one foot at the time and start picking them up a bucket at a time.
Due to flour shortages I didn't get to crank out any sourdough. But I did learn to use what I had to hand, in my case that was honey, nuts and dried plums.... So I learnt to make nougat.
Que paso, mi amigo? Habla muchissimo Espanol hoy, si?I just bought the Michael Thomas complete 8 CD set Spanish course second-hand on Ebay -
- £4.39 and free postage - result!!!
"This 8-hour digital course will give you significant results in a remarkably short period of time, with no books, exercises, memorizing or homework. You will be able to construct simple phrases by listening and thinking out answers for yourself, making rapid progress as you are taught to think about the ideas that you are trying to communicate. Within the first hour you will be able to construct simple sentences. By the end of the course, you will have the confidence to understand and speak basic Spanish."
We'll see!!
Maybe he wants to have a conversation with a doctor or an engineer.Que paso, mi amigo? Habla muchissimo Espanol hoy, si?
Language is important, @Arn : It opens the doors to both the people and the culture. How warmly I have been accepted in Spain, even with my meager Spanish: A big difference!Maybe he wants to have a conversation with a doctor or an engineer.
I just want to get a beer and access to a bed and banjo!
Agreed! My tongue in cheek comment was meant to help me find a musical instrument, not criticize.Language is important, @Arn : It opens the doors to both the people and the culture. How warmly I have been accepted in Spain, even with my meager Spanish: A big difference!
A couple of years ago I attended a 1-month intensive Spanish school in Alicante, staying on half-board with a Spanish woman in the centre of the city. It helped me immensely, and I can now go on my own in Spain, in Spanish. Highly recommended. They now, in Covid times, also offer online courses, if I am not mistaken: www.enforex.com Highly recommended.Agreed! My tongue in cheek comment was meant to help me find a musical instrument, not criticize.
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