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spanish stuff
I like learning languages. After watching a Spanish tv series and realising that the subtitles were sometimes inadequate, I decided to learn some Spanish. So I've been using Duolingo. It's fast, interactive, relies on text, listening, speaking and writing equally, and doesn't expect too much of a beginner. The day I learned to say 'I need a pen, where's my pen?' and 'I need to read a book' was a day of joy. Along with, 'I need a coffee' that's most of my daily communication.
Learning another language teaches one a lot about the native tongue as well as the new one. I think everyone knows this. It also points up certain 'default' attitudes. Spanish is a gendered language and when asked to put 'the doctor is american' into Spanish then 'La medica es americana' is as correct as 'el medico es americano' but to 'pass' the lesson, the second is 'correct'. Now, in English, I'm aware that it would be argued that the default was always to the male when gender was unknown but, 1) in the context of an actual conversation the gender would probably be known, 2) assumed gender may not be correct 3) the male default is being fought in many fields, not only language. Perhaps, as a beginner I should just shut up and get on with learning the basics, but I don't like it. Of course, this may simply be the result of trying to put language learning on a website where there is no actual interaction with a teacher. The programmers can't think of everything, I suppose, but I do resent that I, a female, often have to write as a male to achieve a 'correct' answer.
Or possibly I'm just getting old. (Also what about new pronouns? Gender neutral ones.)
On another note. I rather like Spanish. It is surprising, and has very interesting sounds and combinations of sounds. I'm confused about rather a lot, for instance why 'ella' is sometimes pronounced ey-a and sometimes e-ja, and 'yo' is io or jo. I have to research this, obviously. Oh dear.
I think my favourite word so far is 'disculpe' I like that way my mouth feels when I say it.
Learning another language teaches one a lot about the native tongue as well as the new one. I think everyone knows this. It also points up certain 'default' attitudes. Spanish is a gendered language and when asked to put 'the doctor is american' into Spanish then 'La medica es americana' is as correct as 'el medico es americano' but to 'pass' the lesson, the second is 'correct'. Now, in English, I'm aware that it would be argued that the default was always to the male when gender was unknown but, 1) in the context of an actual conversation the gender would probably be known, 2) assumed gender may not be correct 3) the male default is being fought in many fields, not only language. Perhaps, as a beginner I should just shut up and get on with learning the basics, but I don't like it. Of course, this may simply be the result of trying to put language learning on a website where there is no actual interaction with a teacher. The programmers can't think of everything, I suppose, but I do resent that I, a female, often have to write as a male to achieve a 'correct' answer.
Or possibly I'm just getting old. (Also what about new pronouns? Gender neutral ones.)
On another note. I rather like Spanish. It is surprising, and has very interesting sounds and combinations of sounds. I'm confused about rather a lot, for instance why 'ella' is sometimes pronounced ey-a and sometimes e-ja, and 'yo' is io or jo. I have to research this, obviously. Oh dear.
I think my favourite word so far is 'disculpe' I like that way my mouth feels when I say it.
no subject
If Spanish doesn't do that, that may be worth filing as a bug.
spanish stuff
No, can't see any extra info.
Is Welsh fun?
Re: spanish stuff
I'm not very far into the Welsh course, but I can now go to the supermarket muttering 'I am buying butter. I am buying milk. I am not buying oranges. I do not enjoy making breakfast' which is more Welsh than I could speak before.
At the same time, I don't know how useful the course is for people with no knowledge of the language they're studying - there's not much teaching going on, just a bunch of new words/concepts. (At my best, I was able to read a newspaper or leaflet and understand what it's about, and I could follow a very simple soap opera on TV as long as it was in my local dialect; I just never learnt to speak.)
A knowledge of Welsh is, however, absolutely deadly when travelling in Spain: parsing 'll' as the Welsh letter leads to... interesting reactions. Particularly on Mallorca.
Re: spanish stuff
(Anonymous) 2019-05-20 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)(The male lead is a bit too pretty, but charming). 🙂