Ser & Estar

Ser and Estar are two ways of saying ´to be´ in the Spanish language.

Now, this is a raft of information on the internet on this subject, so I will not repeat it here - however, these are my thoughts on the subject:

Ser:  Is a descriptive of a permanent characteristic.  e.g Soy de Escocia (I am Scottish)
Estar: A permanent, constantly changing descriptive of a characteristic. e.g Estoy esperando (I am waiting).

Estoy esperando, is a temporary state for me at that time, when I was waiting.  I was at that time in the process of waiting.

Obviously, as is the case in English people can qualify to be śer' and éstar´ - for example, I could be quiet.

Soy callado.  This would be permanent, I am a quiet person.
or
Estoy callado.  This is temporary, I am at that moment in time quiet.

So, people are constantly changing evolving in states of estar.   A man could be:

Es borracho.  A drunk, by a description of his permanent state.  Or Está borracho - drunk at that moment in time.

Curiously - está muerto.  He is dead.  Es muerto, surely?  No - because death - while permanent, is a change to his permanent state, when he was alive - curious, as I said.

However, finally - looking at day to day use of the language.  Estoy viejo, could mean I feel old - Estoy joven estar aqui, the opposite.  For example, I am young, or I feel young to be in this position.
  
So, I think I understand to some extent - the basics of the ser v estar concept.  Spanish, perhaps has an extra level of sophistication to English in this respect?

thoughts on the road bike

I am impressed - very impressed, after a trip to Decathlon in Glasgow I spotted this machine for sale.  For the price, it has a ridiculously generous spec.  It is the b-twin sport 3.  Here is a pic:

For the £600 you get:

Double butted 6061 T6 aluminium frame with high-modulus carbon seat stays. Carbon fork with aluminium steerer and integrated head tube. Campagnolo groupset. Campagnolo MIRAGE brake levers. Aluminium double pivot brake calipers. Campagnolo Xenon 10-speed rear derailleur. Campagnolo triple RACE front derailleur. Truvativ Elita chainset with triple chainring (50X39X30). 12x25 cassette. Welgo clipless pedals. b'Twin Twin 32 wheels and Hutchinson tyres and inner tubes. Velo saddle. Weight: 9.8kg (size 57 with pedals).

 For en entry level bike, there is not much at all wrong with that.

Michel Thomas Method - Spanish

Now - I am amazed at how successful this product has been for me.  I have been lucky that my library had the foundation, advanced, and builder courses available for hire.

I really do not know where to start with this product, and how I cannot rate it highly enough.  It has taken me from absolute beginner knowing a handful of seeming unrelated phrases, to a reasonable level of communication.

Earlier, I looked at Platiquemos Spanish.  A comparison of that with MT Method, is that the MT method has you speaking - constructing sentences - with a knowledge of how the language hangs together, pretty much immediately.  On the other hand, the Platiquemos method would take a long time - I had a knowledge of Spanish before looking at it, but admit I would be lost if it was my first entry to the language.

MT comes with NO books, you take NO notes, you do not try to remember.  You never criticise yourself for making mistakes - all the STRESS of learning is with the teacher. 

So how does it work?

Well, with the exception of the builder which is MT on his own - the foundation & advanced courses come with MT and 2 other students.  In the foundation course, they employed a quite hopeless English guy and an American girl who was much better.  In the advanced, a English woman, and an American guy - the pair in the advanced are much more switched on.   You are the invisible third student.

MT will ask the pair (and you) a question.  You hit the pause key, think of the answer - say it aloud, then one of the students on the CD answers, and either validates your answer or you got it wrong.  It really is that simple.  So, some examples?

MT would ask: How would you say?  I want
Response: Yo quiero.
This builds and builds to cover all verb endings in the past tense, present, future and the subjunctive.

A typical(ish) sentence would be:


Hablé con Jose ayer, desafortunadamente no puede hacerlo hoy porque estará demasiado ocupado.  Voy a preguntar mi amigo mas tarde.

I spoke to Jose yesterday, unfortunately he can not do it today because he will be too busy. I'll ask my friend later.

After the MT method is complete, you are not fluent by any means, however - the Spanish you can speak will be understood.    Their are drills in the MT method, but they are presented in such a fun way, that you are unaware of the amount of sheer repetition involved! 

There have been negative reviews about a lack of native speakers and the poor pronunciation involved.  However, this is simply an very in depth introduction into Spanish grammar.

There is not much given in the way of vocabulary, however there are many resources out there for this. 10/10

Skype and Ubuntu

If you are learning a language, and want to speak with native speakers (for free) over the internet using VoIP technology, definitely download skype.  I think I am the only person on the planet who has not used it yet, but within only a week on the job - as to speak -  I am amazed of its strength. 

If you are on Ubuntu goto:

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/get-skype/

Download the package and install away.  Skype, once installed, has an option to make a test call.  This is where things got slightly messy for me.  With my call, my voice was recorded, but there was a lot of static and feedback included.  To cut a long and tedious story short - here is what worked for me.  As my 2nd machine, I run an Acer Aspire One.

1) Within a terminal type: alsamixer

This will take a fair amount messing about, but you want to slide the Mic Boost control down to zero.  I also had to set my Input So to i-Mic.  

Escape to leave alsamixer - retry skype after this.

After this - the job was a goodun.  No evil feedback noises, just my sweet, sweet melodies coming through the headphones - shit, do I actually sound that bad!?

So far, I have spoken in a mix of Spanish and English to people from Spain, Colombia,  Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic.  It is an excellent way to practice - or in my case - mangle the Spanish language.

Learn Spanish with FSI Platiquemos

I am trying to immerse myself in Spanish language right now.  Trying to learn as much as possible.  It has a been a goal for as long as I can remember to be able to go to Spain and be able to talk with the ĺocals and not to do the loud, pointy, S-L-O-W speaking thing that Brits abroad do when speaking to ¨ẗhe natives¨.

I am learning on my own at the moment, trying to use as many sources as possible.  I have tried a product called Platiquemos, which is a product you can see here: http://www.amazon.com/Platiquemos-Fsi-Language-Program-Spanish/dp/1582141827/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282038545&sr=8-14

This is advertised as a complete Spanish course, the worlds best, they proclaim!  I have found it OK - their system is based on drill and repetition which does not work for.  Does not work for me.  Does not work for me.  for me.  Work for me. Does not....   I have not gone mad - this is the way the associated CDs sound!  They present a conversation, and break it into small parts.  Then drill the associated structure over and over.

So, without the repeating what has already been said in the reviews on amazon, I would probably not recommend this product as it will be extremely slow to work through, there are apparently over 40 hours of audio and 1200 pages.  I question the Spanish you will learn also.   You will learn phrases like:

Translate this!
The hotel said it would be 2 pesos, I give you 3 and you take one as a tip!
Get me more pens!
Give me that!
Give me this!
Do this or I will kill you!

Ok, so I made the last one up!  But, my idea of travel is not to bark orders at people around me - but try to get to know the people I meet and treat them as equals etc etc.   

FSI Platiquemos may work for you, but not for me.   May work for you.  May work.  for you.  but not for me Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hello World

Hi this blog will be about me and my life.  In particular related to my journey in learning the Spanish language, and about technology also.  A lot about sports, and things I do in my freetime - lots of stuff really.  Happy reading!