So, I need to get really fluent in Spanish in two days.
Knowing Latin, Italian, French, and already having basic conversational command of Spanish, this will be easy; however, I need the right tools and the best tools for this massive dedication; almost a year ago, I had to learn a whole first semester of Russian in four days, so I know this is something I can do (and want to do, and need to do). Free online materials will be ideal, perhaps podcasts, with a focus on fluent conversation at a fairly advanced level finally — I am open to all methods and suggestions.
Ken, I know you have experience in a variety of methods; Amadeus, Gonzalo, you are natives of course, and there are other natives as well; all your thoughts will be most welcome to me.
I´m glad to help you with this. I don´t know exactly how your skills in Spanish are but knowing Latin, French and Italian, I suppose that you are able, at least, to read through a text and understand the sense of the whole. I´m going to suggest you some options from my own experience with French, Modern Greek and Italian. Two days aren´t a lot of time, but I´ll try to help.
Besides, if you want to get writing proficiency I find very useful the pen-pal system, that´s to say, you send a “curriculum” to a site and you can exchange letters with people in the languages you have selected.
It’s awesome! It’s even better than French in Action so far! I really love it, and am very grateful for this chance observation — it was right there on the French in Action site! Tan maravilloso…
Well, I didn’t use English language so that Luke may read some words from Spanish but I consider that most people here prefer English, so I turn off Spanish.
And now, I answer you in connection with the usage of caro. In fact, it’s used since a lot of time in Spanish, it’s probably an italianism because -from what I know- it’s not used in our medieval poetry (or at least, I cannot remember such a thing) and I find it in Garcilaso’s Eclogues: “[…]del duro labrador que cautamente / le despojó su caro y dulce nido / de los tiernos hijuelos entretanto / que del amado ramo estaba ausente” (Egloga I:24). That’s to say, he (the farmer) robbed the children from his sweet and beloved nest.
It’s said to be part of Spanish formal speech (use it only when addressing to your most beloved Lady or the President ). So, Spanish translations of our carissimo Leopardi’s Infinito usually give “Siempre caro me fue este yermo cerro…” (=Sempre caro mi fu quest´ermo colle…).
Don’t hesitate to write here every doubt which arises.
Regards,
Gonzalo
P.S.: I was about to start a new kind-of-Wordreference topic on German language because I want to begin to study it within one or two months since I’ve read Spanish translations from Novalis’ Hymns to the Night and Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther and Faust. I’ll try with these courses about which you talk very well.
Delightful! So “caro” is used in common speech in Spain? Is that also so in Mexico, Amadeus? And then, does it seem unusually strange or merely friendly and courteous to call you gentlemen “caros señores,” and would that sound better than “queridos señores?”
Also, in listening to Spanish from Spain, in addition to the fricative nature of 'd’s and other consonants, I hear a loss of ‘s’ when followed by a consonant: for “usted” I hear “u’tedh” [‘dh’ respresenting the sound in English “this” or Arabic “Riyadh,” and I know this sound is normal for intervocalic or final Castillian ‘d’], and for “esperanza” I hear “e’peranaza.” Actually, it even sounds like a double consonant as in Italian: “epperanza.” Any comment, caros señores?
Caro is often used in formal letters, and referred to an only man or woman. So, when addressing to more people you should use “Estimados señores”. It´s not correct pronouncing “epperanza” (or more common “ehperanza”) but people in AndalucÃa pronounce such an “s” as an aspirated “s”. Where have you heard that?
Luce, would you say it’s enough to simply watch those “___ in action” videos to learn a good amount of the language? I’ve taught myself introductory Spanish and can read it with some competency, but I’d like to develop some listening skills. I assume I could do the same thing with French (and German) in Action after having taught myself the basics?
Estimado Gonzalo (also good in singular?), thanks for enlightening me on that. I heard it just now in the third of the Destinos videos, where the Mexicanoamericana protagonist has travelled to Sevilla, in AndalucÃa of course, and a Taxi cab driver speaks in the manner I described. Awesome! cool dialect.
Thesaure, absolutely! I’ve gained huge value from them, especially since most of my language learning has hitherto been though books and letters. I think you and I are at about the same level of Spanish, and I think these videos are extremely useful and helpful; I’m learning a lot all the time, and it’s a great story. I’ll share my notes with you too if you like (I rewind and rewrite whole phrases). Definitely I recommend it!
Yes, it’s beautiful. From what I know. It’s also heard in the Canary Islands (I spent a month in Tenerife two years ago) and in Extremadura (I have a friend from Extremadura and the “s” is aspirated in the strongest manner I’ve ever heard it but since he came to live to Madrid (don’t scream if you happen to hear “Madriz” ), he is been losing it…).
Y la razón que yo necesitaba reforzar mi español ha salido muy bien.
De todos modos, ¡muy buen progreso!