I've started to write (badly) in Spanish
Aug. 3rd, 2023 08:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWhile I can kinda-read basic Spanish (the which you are all probably tired of hearing about), I can't write it for shit. So, I'm taking steps to address that problem.
The resources available on the internet to help people learn languages are mind-boggling. There is just so damn much of it. Obvi, since I'm doing Spanish, I'm not going the hard road here. There is a ton of Spanish stuff out there. It uses mostly the same character set as a bunch of other languages. Shitbuckets of people speak it, etc.
Fine, fine, I hear you say. Where do you learn to write in Spanish?
Journaly.com is a free, sorta-crowdsourced thing where you write your stuff in foreign and people who actually speak the language better'n you fix your dumb-ass errors for you. In exchange, you fix other people's errors in your native language.
It is asymmetric -- you fix other people's English (and they may be coming from anywhere -- Chinese or German or Vietnamese or French) and they fix (whatever they speak) for the people trying to learn those languages. The person fixing your bad Spanish might not be learning English, is my point.
This only works if people are reasonably kind and helpful. Trying to write in a language where you do not have a whole lot to work with is like trying to put together a puzzle while wearing oven mitts. It's easy to get frustrated... but everyone is there doing their own puzzles while wearing oven mitts. It's surprisingly kind and helpful.
I'm trying to put in a post every other day, usually about two paragraphs. Turns out that when I can't write for shit and it's a struggle just to express myself, I do not be all wordy like I am in English. I write like a first grader, except the errors are not even first-grader level. No first grader would be "I has two pets which that are cats" or similar.
*sigh* It do be a struggle and I can't play with it at all yet like I can play with English.
So, how's it look?
Tengo dos gatos como mascota. Ambos son atigrados pero uno es grande y el otro es pequeño.
(I have two cats as pets. They are both tabby but one is big and the other is small.)
El gato grande se llama Kobe. Kobe tiene doce años, un poco viejo para un gato. Kobe es muy guapo y un buen chico. Aunque él es grande, no es gordo. Cuando mi veterinario nuevo vio a Kobe por primera vez, él me dijo-- ¡Guau! Él es muy grande.
-- ¿Es un problema? ¿Está demasiado gordo?
--No te preocupes. Está bien. Él es grande, no gordo.
(The big cat is named Kobe. Kobe is twelve years old, a bit old for a cat. Kobe is very handsome and a good boy. Although he is big, he is not fat. When my new vet saw Kobe for the first time, he said to me, "Wow, he is very big."
"Is that a problem? Is he too fat?"
"No, don't worry. It's fine. He is big, not fat."
Mi gato pequeño se llama Squeaky Wheel. Ella es joven. El verano pasado, era una gatita y jugaba mucho. Ahora su actividad favorita es matar los animales pequeños en mi patio. Ella es una buena cazadora. Squeaky Wheel mata mariposas y grillos. Una vez, ella mató un ratón. Ella me trae su trabajo porque está muy orgullosa.
"My small cat is named Squeaky Wheel. She is young. Last summer she was a kitten and played a lot. Now her favorite activity is killing small animals in my yard. She is a good hunter. Squeaky Wheel kills butterflies and crickets. One time, she killed a mouse. She brings me her work because she is very proud."
It's not literature, over here. But it is communicating, kinda. We'll see how it goes.
On the Spanish book, I'm about 2/3 of the way through it. The war has arrived in force at the Ranger Training Camp and things are not going well for our side. Evil Mage in the North is beating the shit out of the good guys at the moment.
The resources available on the internet to help people learn languages are mind-boggling. There is just so damn much of it. Obvi, since I'm doing Spanish, I'm not going the hard road here. There is a ton of Spanish stuff out there. It uses mostly the same character set as a bunch of other languages. Shitbuckets of people speak it, etc.
Fine, fine, I hear you say. Where do you learn to write in Spanish?
Journaly.com is a free, sorta-crowdsourced thing where you write your stuff in foreign and people who actually speak the language better'n you fix your dumb-ass errors for you. In exchange, you fix other people's errors in your native language.
It is asymmetric -- you fix other people's English (and they may be coming from anywhere -- Chinese or German or Vietnamese or French) and they fix (whatever they speak) for the people trying to learn those languages. The person fixing your bad Spanish might not be learning English, is my point.
This only works if people are reasonably kind and helpful. Trying to write in a language where you do not have a whole lot to work with is like trying to put together a puzzle while wearing oven mitts. It's easy to get frustrated... but everyone is there doing their own puzzles while wearing oven mitts. It's surprisingly kind and helpful.
I'm trying to put in a post every other day, usually about two paragraphs. Turns out that when I can't write for shit and it's a struggle just to express myself, I do not be all wordy like I am in English. I write like a first grader, except the errors are not even first-grader level. No first grader would be "I has two pets which that are cats" or similar.
*sigh* It do be a struggle and I can't play with it at all yet like I can play with English.
So, how's it look?
Tengo dos gatos como mascota. Ambos son atigrados pero uno es grande y el otro es pequeño.
(I have two cats as pets. They are both tabby but one is big and the other is small.)
El gato grande se llama Kobe. Kobe tiene doce años, un poco viejo para un gato. Kobe es muy guapo y un buen chico. Aunque él es grande, no es gordo. Cuando mi veterinario nuevo vio a Kobe por primera vez, él me dijo-- ¡Guau! Él es muy grande.
-- ¿Es un problema? ¿Está demasiado gordo?
--No te preocupes. Está bien. Él es grande, no gordo.
(The big cat is named Kobe. Kobe is twelve years old, a bit old for a cat. Kobe is very handsome and a good boy. Although he is big, he is not fat. When my new vet saw Kobe for the first time, he said to me, "Wow, he is very big."
"Is that a problem? Is he too fat?"
"No, don't worry. It's fine. He is big, not fat."
Mi gato pequeño se llama Squeaky Wheel. Ella es joven. El verano pasado, era una gatita y jugaba mucho. Ahora su actividad favorita es matar los animales pequeños en mi patio. Ella es una buena cazadora. Squeaky Wheel mata mariposas y grillos. Una vez, ella mató un ratón. Ella me trae su trabajo porque está muy orgullosa.
"My small cat is named Squeaky Wheel. She is young. Last summer she was a kitten and played a lot. Now her favorite activity is killing small animals in my yard. She is a good hunter. Squeaky Wheel kills butterflies and crickets. One time, she killed a mouse. She brings me her work because she is very proud."
It's not literature, over here. But it is communicating, kinda. We'll see how it goes.
On the Spanish book, I'm about 2/3 of the way through it. The war has arrived in force at the Ranger Training Camp and things are not going well for our side. Evil Mage in the North is beating the shit out of the good guys at the moment.
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