Studying Spanish and reading Matthew 16

Today was my weekly "conversational Spanish" practice lesson. My teacher, "Teresa Paz," thinks that I am learning at a good pace. She suggested daily practice in reading out loud. It would build my confidence and pronunciation.

She thinks that I have good understanding to build on. I have a couple of books in Spanish on my Kindle, they will work well. I understand about 80% of what I'm reading without looking anything up. At least I think I do. There were a couple of places where I understood individual words, but had to ask what the entire concept within a phrase or sentence was. The book I'm reading is "Cristo, mi Salvador" by Herman W Gockel. It is challenging, but I'm enjoying it.

After she left, I ran across this cartoon that made me laugh. It is too true to be funny, but there you have it.

From www.AgnusDay.org

 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Music

Yeah, it's kind of interesting… Music is an excellent tool for various needs.

• The rhythm and melody make an excellent mnemonic device. (THE ALPHABET SONG comes to mind…)
• Hymnody has been used as a catechetical tool like this  
• Part of my "Spanish-learning" includes learning songs like 

And now I hear that the LCMS is sponsoring a hymn-writing contest. <http://blogs.lcms.org/2014/contest-starts>. Part of me wants to think about thinking about entering. First, I will have to get over my fear of writing poetry.

More tools to help me study Spanish

Here are some more tools that I have discovered:

• BBC Languages Spanish http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/
• Destinos  http://www.learner.org/series/destinos/
• Telemundo http://msnlatino.telemundo.com/videos
• Univision http://videos.univision.com/novelas
• BookBox Spanish Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCE1049BCC2C78B97
• Euro-News Spanish  http://es.euronews.com/
• United Nations Multimedia, Spanish  http://www.un.org/es/multimedia/videos.shtml
• TED Talks Spanish http://tedxtalks.ted.com/browse/talks-by-language/spanish
• Spanish Proficiency Exercises from UT Austin  http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/siteindex.php   (THIS is an extraordinary website!)
• Catecismo Menor (Prefacio de Martín Lutero al Catecismo Menor)  http://sites.cph.org/catechism/es/index.asp  (What More could I ask?)

The last one set off a brainstorm. If I find books that I am familiar with and interested in, I might pick up something. Maybe. I hope.

Kathy S says that I spend way more time talking and thinking about theology than anyone else she knows. I don't know, maybe it is true. At the very least, it is an interest.

That is why I got these books.

• Cristo, ten piedad (Christ, Have Mercy) (Spanish Edition)
• Cristo, mi Salvador (Spanish Edition)

Learning… Spanish… AGAIN!

Once upon a time, there may have been a woman that I will call Teresa Paz. (I generated that name at <http://www.behindthename.com/random/>.)

Anyhow, Teresa may be a real person. She may be a friend that I met through Mother. She may, on the other hand, be an alter ego for myself while I learn Spanish.

Anyhow, I have set some goals for myself in re-learning the Spanish that I took in high school and college, only learning it to be able to speak it. I MIGHT try to find someone to talk to. I probably ought to also try to reconnect with some of my classmates from high school… Or not. Irregardless, I have, as Teresa Paz set some goals for myself for the next two weeks:

• Go to <http://www.grimmstories.com/es/grimm_cuentos/el_tambor> and read that story aloud for five minutes daily. Yes, I still read Grimms fairytales, especially when I'm trying to learn something else while I'm doing the reading!
• Listen to <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VniS1NXAurU> daily until I can sing along.  (No comments about how I don't watch chick flicks and romantic movies! I will do it to learn Spanish, especially when it is attached to music. Besides, THE NOTEBOOK was not the most hideous thing I've seen… It just isn't Apollo 13.)
• Watch TV in Spanish for a minimum of five minutes daily, just to get my ears accustomed to the sound of real speakers speaking. Maybe <http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/b6434-RTVE-1.htm> will work.
• Come up with questions that I would ask a person IN SPANISH, IF A NATIVE-SPEAKER WAS SITTING IN THE SAME ROOM WITH ME.
• Another song to learn <http://www.albumcancionyletra.com/el-pescador-de-hombres_de_jose-guadalupe-esparza___84733.aspx>.  
• … And another one <http://youtu.be/xxe-8Iw9OW0>, and I don't even care that it is for children.

And another romantic one <http://lyricstranslate.com/en/echame-mi-la-culpa-blame-it-me.html>

• Yet another <http://lyricstranslate.com/en/el-tiempo-que-te-quede-libre-free-time-you-have-left.html>. I know that I've heard this one. I just never knew what it meant. If I need it with a male voice, it is also here <http://letras.mus.br/luis-miguel/26152/>
• 
  

It WASN'T a tutorial on training your voice recognition devices!

I get it! Sometimes my prejudices about books and movies gets in my way. Even though all of my nieces and nephews said that I would enjoy, "How to Train Your Dragon," I just had this mental blockage against it.

Every time I hear the words "training" and "Dragon" in the same sentence, I envisioned the myriad of ways voice recognition software has gone awry for me.

… Like "the Wheelchair from Hell." It really wanted to kill me! I would say, "stop," and it sometimes stopped. Or sped up. Or turned left. Or turned right. It would listen to horns honking & dash into traffic. It tried to throw me into water fountains.

Worst of all, IT HAD THE AUDACITY TO IGNORE ME!

… Or the time that I was using an early version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. (Back when Dragon Systems made the software and they had the coolest logo…)

But… I'm not going to tell that story. It makes my face turned red, STILL.

Anyhow!

"How to Train Your Dragon" is a cute movie that I will probably watch again.

Missionaries

:-) I'm surprised that I know so many of these folks! :-)

Wish I was one of them…