Catch up/obligatory statement of intent
Yesterday marked my first post in the years which, until now, was the usual update rate of this blog. Since last posting here I've done relatively little on the language front, but one of the major game changers for me has been the discovery of Duolingo.
If you don't know what Duolingo is and enjoy language learning, I cannot express how incredible a tool it is for quick comprehension of various languages and urge you to give it a try immediately. My first foray into Duolingo was the Spanish for English speakers course. I have long wanted to learn more Spanish, but I found self-teaching via dictionaries, grammar and phrase books to be quite draining and rarely rewarding. Maybe I'm just lazy.
Duolingo completely revitalised my approach to learning a language. While it's important to note that nobody should expect fluency just from using Duolingo, after little more than a few months, I was pretty comfortable reading articles on Spanish websites and had a strong grasp of grammar.
Of course, like most things worth learning, languages require regular practice and it's been quite some time since I've been looking at the Spanish course regularly. That is to say, my Spanish is quite rusty at the moment! So I thought I'd try to use this blog for regular practice. Hence the pretty poor post seen yesterday.
I will practice other languages too when I'm actively studying them. Without wanting to make too many wild promises, I'm starting to get to grips with Welsh at the moment, and have Hungarian in the pipeline for my trip to Budapest this summer. We'll see how that goes...
Reviews
So, these posts will be reviews of what I did right and wrong in the last non-English update. In this case, I fear it will be much more wrong than right...
Falling at the first hurdle
I entitled the post 'Ha sido uno tiempo largo'. This was so close to being correct it makes me hurt a little in my heart of hearts. But alas, I made a catastrophic error - forgetting the Spanish article.
'Uno' is the Spanish number one, and never the indefinite article for masculine nouns. Lol. The sentence should of course have been:
'Ha sido un tiempo largo'
'It has been a long time'.
Falling at consequent hurdles
The next section was also almost correct I began with my trademark melodrama:
'Hay muchas cosas de que deseo a hablar...'
I'm not entirely sure about this line. The sentiment is 'There are many things about which I want to speak', and I think this might be acceptable. When I later put it through the always-100-percent-accurate Google translate ™, it was implied that it only makes sense when the 'de' follows 'hablar'. I can believe that, since 'to speak of/about' is basically the verb. I suppose it depends on the workings of 'que' and how that translates. I will endeavour to research it.
I keep on falling in and out of love with you
'pero ahora las trato de escribir, encontro que no sé tanta español que pensé.'
Again, not sure about this part. 'But now I try to write them (down), I find that I don't know as much Spanish as I thought.'
Key points here are that I'm unsure of the use of 'las' here. I also think the encontrar conjugation is wrong...
I'm free... Free falling
'Es bastante a decir que he sido aprender! Quizas no tal bien!'
'It's enough to say that I have been learning! Perhaps not so well!'
I'm pretty confident that the first half of this is correct. Google translate did not like the use of bien for 'well' at all here though. That's made me doubt myself.
Blah blah blah Hammer to Fall
'Voy a tratar de practicar más! Lo siento por esto obra pobre.
'Hasta la vista'
'I'm going to try to practice more! Sorry for this poor work.
'Until next time'
I think this is OK, if a little clunky. It stinks of somebody not knowing enough foreign vocab to make a coherent sentence. I'm unsure of the use of tratar here, and whether por is correct vs para. Hasta la vista literally means 'until the sight', I think? Unless the la is a pronoun.
An embarrassing summary
All in all, I wasn't lying; I definitely don't know as much Spanish as I thought. I will update again with the following confirmations:
'To talk about' definition and usage
Usage of 'que' and 'that' vs. 'which'.
'To write down' translation
Las as an object pronoun usage.
Encontrar conjugation present
Use of bien as 'well' (adverb)
Tratar de usage
Por vs para
Hasta la vista literal meaning.
Adios!
