Learning Spanish - Multilingual HP Readalong

[dorsetgirl]

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Inspired by this post at linguaphiles, I ordered Harry Potter y La Piedra Filosofal from Amazon last night and will be joining in. I don't know yet to what extent, if at all, I'll be posting about it. People are doing the readalong in whatever language they choose; I've chosen Spanish

Comments

[suzie_shooter]

I need to see things written down before I can hear them properly
I'm the same, and I think it's partly why I've always considered myself to have no affinity for languages, because all language lessons at school were firmly and determinedly orally based, the teachers insisting that hearing it/speaking it would make you learn it quicker. So I was sat there completely unable to retain anything because I hadn't seen it written down, and so I hated the lessons (also being a pathologically shy child who hated being made to speak in front of people, especially if it was something I was likely to Get Wrong to boot). But I did GCSE German, and at the same time half a year of Latin and a year of Spanish (to get out of one of the PE lessons, because I hated Games more LOL).

[dorsetgirl]

"also being a pathologically shy child who hated being made to speak in front of people" " I hated Games more"

OMG we're twins! In some respects I was lucky with my languages at school, because actually speaking the damn language was the last thing anyone was trying to prepare us for. Our learning was all about reading, listening and producing perfect written work, all of which I found extremely easy. Unfortunately the emphasis on output being perfect put most of us off ever daring to actually speak.

Nowadays language GCSEs seem to involve huge amounts of speaking, loads of controlled assessments etc, and I'm not sure I'd do very well at all.

completely unable to retain anything because I hadn't seen it written downI've always had problems in meetings because of that. Either I participate in the meeting, in which case I can't remember anything that was said or what I agreed to do, or I take detailed notes in which case some arse always taps me for doing the minutes. Which is tricky because I'm not necessarily writing everything

[suzie_shooter]

I still managed to get an A in German, but that was entirely due to the fact I was good at exams rather than good at the language. I can barely remember any of it now, other than a few words.

People (read: my boss) take the piss out of me at work for constantly carrying a notebook around with me, but I get so many instructions if I don't write them down immediately I'm bound to forget something. (also, both the people I work for have the world's worst memories, so I need to retain facts for three people, hah!)

[meridiani]

Hello, DorsetGirl --

I too am going to be taking part in the Harry Potter Multilingual Readalong. My current target language is German, but I've studied Spanish off-and-on many times over the years and am going to try to also read Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal. Maybe we can help each other out, if (when!) we run into trouble with our readings.

I love that you've found motivation for studying in a real-world interest.

[dorsetgirl]

Hi!

My copy arrived today and I was very happy to read the first sentence straight off, better than my son who has just got an A* at GCSE! My biggest problem, I think, is that I may just end up reading the Spanish words without taking in any meaning. But I may stick with that for a while anyway, just to see what happens.

It's going to be an interesting project - I've never tried to read a book in a foreign language before, and I've never been part of a group reading project before. Looking forward to it!