Book Review - La Casa: Short and Easy Spanish Novels

This book caught me by surprise. It is not your regular bland story for beginners. LA Casa: Short & Easy Spanish Novel for Beginners is about a family that finds the perfect house or so they think. The story picks up quickly and I found myself asking the characters (out loud) why they chose to do certain things. I found myself concentrating on the story and not the level of the material. I have to admit that the book was nothing like I expected.

The bi-lingual book is written for people at the A2 level (Advanced beginner) and it has an interesting design. Twenty-one chapters - Ten sentences each chapter - No more than 12 words per line. That was the format.

It was a quick and easy read and I finished it in about 30 to 45 minutes.

Joe Arenas, the author, has written a jewel of a short story here and I think it would a good tool in the quest to retain or increase your level of Spanish.

Me gustó mucho este libro y se lo recomendaría a los principiantes y los lectores intermedios.
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Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

Book Review - Citas en el Restaurante

Citas en el restaurante is a quick and easy read if you are at least an advanced beginner to intermediate reader. The e-book follows the foibles of a guy who enters the dating scene after 6 years of being in a relationship. His method of finding love is through e-dating. As you can guess, he is a mess when it comes to dating and his best foot forward is often his worst.

The chapters are short and easy to digest. The author keeps it interesting by changing the scenes in every chapter. I think this is a great book to help the reader maintain their level of Spanish while also picking up some interesting words and phrases. I enjoyed reading it and it took me only 2 days to finish it by periodically reading a chapter when I had a bit of free time. 

The book is one of a series of e-books created by Jorge from thatspanish.com. I could not find a last name for the author and I think he meant it to be that way. Anyway, it is free if you are with Kindle Unlimited ($9.99 for unlimited number of books each month that are registered with Amazon's KU program). Or, it costs $1.69, if not enrolled in the KU program.

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Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

Inspiring Spanish Learners - No. 1

While learning Spanish, many have inspired me to continue when I have felt my worst. When I need motivation, I often look for videos of people who have succeeded or that teach in a way that makes me want to believe my goals are possible. This will be one of a series of posts that highlight these individuals as they deserve much attention for their work.

1. Nathan Heightz

Nathan is a passionate learner of languages and when he focuses on a language it has nowhere to hide but in his brain. Watching this guy's growth in languages was amazing and he offers many good tips on how to process languages. Here are a few of his other videos that are inspiring or helpful to language learners.

My Spanish speaking progress: 6 months
How To Learn Spanish Fast (In 6 months or Less!)
My Spanish speaking progress: 7 months
My Spanish speaking progress: 8 months
Me speaking after 1 year of intense study

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Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

FluentU - Powering up my Listening Skills (and my ability to read, write...)

               

¿Que estoy haciendo ahora?/What am I doing now?

Even though I am always all over the map in my Spanish adventure, there is always one thing I am focusing on for an extended period of time. For now, that is using FluentU for listening comprehension.

FluentU is probably one of the best services that can be used to learn Spanish. Sometimes, I wonder how long the service will last because it is so valuable. It covers listening, reading and writing. If you desire, you can add a an aspect of speaking by reading aloud. In short, they offer the learner short video clips of all types and they provide:

Advanced bi-lateral subtitles
Dialogue (line by line)
Definitions for words (that you place the arrow over)
Interactive questions for reinforcement
PDF transcripts

You see, hear, read and experience the learning process in a totally different way than you are used to. They also offer videos ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. Pick your medicine.

They offer different tracts for the beginner, intermediate and advanced learners. It also predicts how much you will know of the vocabulary that is new in the video. It keeps track of what you learn so it can forecast what you will know as you advance and it allows you to master videos. Or if you just want to watch videos in another language then you can choose between ¨Learn¨ or ¨Watch¨

When I have free time I just go through the list of videos (Upper Intermediate for now). I watch it first and see how much I know. Then I go through the dialogue page. Next, I watch the video again and maybe once more. After that I go to the next video. When I want to be more thorough I will choose ¨Learn¨ and spend a few minutes going in depth.

There is no better feeling than watching a video after reviewing the dialogue and the person speaking Spanish seems like they are using English.

I pay $18 a month for there Premium version and I am grandfathered in (until they change the policy of course). They do have a free version which will provide many features that allows it to still be very useful. I like watching videos so it is a painless way of learning and no drudgery is involved.

¡Paz!
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Si tienes tiempo, visita el sitio. Me lo puedes agradecer después.


Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

Pato muy hambrienta - A very hungry duck - Kindle Unlimited

Okay, I read this book by using the Kindle Unlimited program (KU) through Amazon. For $9.99 a month I can read as many books as I want on my Kindle and devices that have Kindle apps. You can check out ten books at a time and can exchange them as often or as much as you would like. Also, Amazon has a general fund that they use to pay the authors or publishers so all parties profit.

For now, I only spend money on children's books in Spanish if they are classic fairy tales, such as Peter Pan or Jack and the Beanstalk. However, with the Kindle Unlimited program I can read as many books in Spanish that I can stand.

Pato Muy Hambrienta is a simple book that introduces or reinforces many simple words for pieces of furniture, fruit and animals. The easy sentences and structure will help to build sentence making ability and to learn easy phrases. The repetitive nature of the book will ensure that the reader will take away valuable skills for the future.

It is a cute book for beginning Spanish learners and can be shared with a child learning the language. It is not a bilingual book, but you can easily look up anything you don't know and will not be slowed down too much, as it is a short book. It is a good book for learning and will give beginners a sense of accomplishment for reading a book.

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Agradezco que la lectura de mi blog. Hasta la próxima vez.



Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and also writes for his blog at Psychology Today. He is also the author of Spanish Conversations: Realistic Conversations to Improve your Spanish and Conversaciones en Inglés: ¡Conversaciones realistas para mejorar tu inglés!

SaySomethingin Spanish - My Glowing Review! - I do not know the owner/nor was I paid!

Okay, I finished level one of SaySomethingin Spanish (25 lessons about 20 to 30 minutes each) in about a week and here is my assessment;

Fantastic!

In the past 8 months I have completed and reviewed, a few times, listen and repeat programs, have read over 100 children's books, have read over 200 news articles and a few Spanish texts. (Yes, I count everything and my wife calls me Numbers - No Joke!). I am currently slogging my way through Pimsluer (level B). So, I have exposed myself to a lot of different programs and I have put in the time to finish them. As you can guess, I didn't know if this program would help me.

I was presently surprised!

SaySomethingin Spanish helped me fill in the gaps immediately that I have been missing in other programs. I liked the fact that the material takes you into deep water quickly, but not in a way that overwhelms you. I knew a majority of the words already, however, the construction, placements and usage is what I valued most as I can plug and mix and match later. After the very first lesson I could feel my fluency increase, immediately.

It was that simple. Additionally, the 2x the speed listening sessions for each fifth session is revolutionary. Especially, since a few programs that offer sped up listening, charges for them as a different course and don't include it as a part of training for the actual course they offer. After the 10th listening session I went back to the fifth lesson and it felt as if I could literally grab words out of the air. Each time I listen to them, Spanish I hear spoken elsewhere seems much slower and I like that! After lesson twenty, one of the podcasts I listen to at its intermediate level felt like listening to 'paint dry.' I had to turn it off and jump to the advance podcasts because I didn't have the patience to wait for them to talk so slow. I can't wait to hear 3x speed!

Bravo SaySomethingin!!

Now, I do not know how a raw beginner would fare because I had a strong background coming in. However, I do know that if you have some basic training this course will be perfect for you. I plan to go back over the 25 lessons again in the next two weeks to sear the speaking style it uses into my brain and will be adding it to my regular rotation over the next few months for a refresher.

A few more points:

-I appreciated the length of the pauses that allows you to think about the answer. Many programs do not give you enough of a chance to think and I believe that does the learner a disservice.
-I liked the use of spaced repetition.
-I liked the use of two different speakers (saying it slightly differently).
-Each lesson builds on the next and he encourages you to move forward and not repeat.
-I liked the fact that he encouraged me along the way and let me know I was headed into advanced territory, but would be okay.
-I don't feel marketed to and I feel that I received a fair trade.
-You don't get insulted with material that is too easy...
-I liked the cost ($13.27 equivalent of 9 British Sterling Pounds).
-Oh yeah, I liked the book (H.I.L.T.), which introduced me to the course (free Kindle Unlimited/.99 cents otherwise).

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Nos vemos el proximo tiempo!
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Bakari Akil is a Professor of Communication, blogs for Psychology Today and has authored many books on Communication and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is his experience learning Spanish.

Two new books just arrived! - ¡Dos libros acaba de llegar!

Okay, two books have just arrived that I have been anticipating! While searching on Amazon for libros en español to read earlier this week, I found this little book by Alan Galán titled, ¡Qué Cosas Dice Mi Abuela! (The Things my Grandmother Says!) No, it isn't a profanity laced diatribe like the book,  S#@% my Father Says. This book is for children aged 4-8 or pre-k to 3rd grade and it has words of wisdom for little tykes learning to read.

However, that is not why I bought the book. I bought it, because, when I read the first couple of pages the words flew off the pages and I understood them in a way that made me feel good. I understood most of it, but the parts I didn't understand was written in a way that I could guess easily what I missed. I have read over 100 children's books and not every writer is capable of doing this, so I got excited. It has a solid paragraph on every page and yes, I will probably finish it 5 or 10 minutes. But, I reinforce my ability to read in all types of ways so I don't view this as a bad investment ($2.99).

Finding this gem of a book made me hungry for more so I searched for every book Alan Galán has ever written and I came across this book Mondragó: La gran prueba, Libro 1. It's about a little boy who gets a dragon for his birthday and runs into a whole lot of trouble afterward.

Now this book is 142 pages and is written for juveniles or could be considered YA. I have scrupulously avoided books like these because I have been gradually trying to build my reading skills up by taking baby steps. But this guy's writing style translates well to his YA books too. I found that I could easily understand the part that I sampled on Amazon so I figure I will not have a problem for the rest. I abhor having to continuously check the dictionary or having to always resort to a contextual understanding. I like to fully grasp what I am reading.

This is a new challenge for me, but I need to start reading denser books, especially since I am going to be tackling a John Grisham novel this summer. I am up to the task though, as I read Spanish articles and study Spanish everyday.

It's time to crack them open and see what's happening!


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Gracias por leyendo este. Nos vemos en mi próximo entrada!
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Bakari Akil is a Professor of Communication, blogs for Psychology Today and has authored many books on Communication and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is his experience learning Spanish.

Dealing with Insults (Que hacer con los insultos)

The title of this post is also the name of one of the books I just finished. It is one of a series of books for kids aged 8-12 that deals with issues many kids face, but may have never received advice on how to deal with them.

I must admit that I didn't agree with all of the advice. I learned early that to respond to an insult with a clever comeback usually kept people at bay and some rivalries developed into friendships. Of course, that approach is not suitable for all occasions, but it saved me a lot of grief when I finally learned how to deliver a proper comeback.

However, placing my personal feelings aside, I loved the structure of the book and the writing. The book was 22 pages long and it had English on the top and Spanish at the bottom. The paragraphs averaged 7 lines of text per page. I read most of the book without having to refer to the English portion, however, there were a good number of words that were new, such as:

herir - to hurt
autoestima - self-esteem
lidiar - deal (Una buena forma de lidiar...)
lastimar - to hurt
fastidiarse - annoy
bravucon - bully

One thing is bothering me though. Increasingly, reading is becoming easier. The messages are becoming clearer. Yet, I know that a lot of it is due to context (pictures - clues from the entire sentence, etc.) and not necessarily my knowledge of words, grammar or syntax. It is eating me up, a little, that my ability to understand may encourage me to think I know more than I think I know.

I am reading increasingly difficult texts, however, I often  wonder if someone who has never studied Spanish (and is native to English) could read the same material with no problems. I know better, but sometimes it is amazing how fast I am picking up the ability to decipher, read and understand text.

Agradezco que hacer tiempo a leer este. Hasta proximo tiempo!
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Bakari Akil is a Professor of Communication, blogs for Psychology Today and has authored many books on Communication and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is his experience learning Spanish.

A commute is good for one thing...

Man, I hate my commute!

It is 45 minutes at best and usually, it is 1 hr and 15 minutes w/traffic at its worst. There is only one thing that I can hang on to in order to stay sane and it is listening to my Spanish CDs. I practically seared the Berlitz Passport Spanish into my brain by listening to all 12 tracks every day for three weeks. I play Vocabulearn CDs until I can barely think in English. I keep my Assimil tracks on repeat.

It is that serious!

I am a professor, so I look at everything in four month increments. I expect my Spanish to be vastly improved by the end of the fall semester due to my commute listening habits. Further, I will admit that my listening habit decreases when the weekend starts. It's hard to stick to audio media when I can watch TV or read a book.

I know I would not have listened to the Berlitz Passport CD as much in my house. So thanks to my commute I can now rattle off phrases such as:

Hola. Quisiera pedir desayuno por favor. Quisiera cafe con leche y azucar, huevo rancheros, sin picante, pan dulce con mantequilla y jugo de naranjo por favor.

I have most of those phrases from that CD locked and loaded.

I will not let my commutes be in vain!


La tortuga gana porque el sigue caminando.

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Bakari Akil is a Professor of Communication, blogs for Psychology Today and has authored many books on Communication and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is his experience learning Spanish.

Weekend of Espanol - A Tally!

A perk of my job is that I do not have to work on Fridays. So my weekend begins Friday (or Thursday afternoon). That means I have plenty of time to work on my Spanish. Of course, that is when I am not watching our two year old, taking care of our lawn/house, running errands...

That aside, here is what I accomplished this weekend:

5 lessons in Spanish text and audio (Spanish)
2 children's books (read)
2 comics strips in Spanish (read)
3 episodes of a novella* (watched)
Watched an episode of UFC Latin America (en Espanol)
Viewed 3 episodes of a Spanish podcast (4 minutes each)
*Started a new blog about my Spanish journey - Habermelo Dicho!

I was a little bummed out about my progress this weekend until I realized that I accomplished quite a bit.

Y que tenga un buen dia!
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Bakari Akil is a Professor of Communication, blogs for Psychology Today and has authored many books on Communication and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is his experience learning Spanish.