Language Barrier

[Celt]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Re: Language Barrier/Latin E..., posted by Cali vet on Oct 10, 2002

She wore braces, which was alright. And she had expensive
hobbies, e.g. scuba-diving, without any discernable source
of income. But, when we were eating a steak dinner, and
she ate pieces of salad and potatoes with her fingers,
and then licked her fingers, I wanted to hit her on the
head with the wine bottle!

[No doubt she is one of those selective types who dates
widely and is gaining self-knowlege on her way to compatibility with a good North American man.]

[Cali vet]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Language Barrier/Lat..., posted by Celt on Oct 10, 2002

Thanks for the rest of the storey as one famous midwestern radio personalty would say. Braces are very common. In the US many of us have braces as a kid. In Colombia the families can't afford them so the girls (and guys) don't get their teeth fixed untill they're adults out in the job market and can afford the dental work themselves. I once took a girl I'd been dating out with her mother and nephew to Arrieros del Norte accross from Chipichapi (ban this place!), fairly fancy and the mother and nephew ate the entire meal with knife and spoon, didn't know what the fork was for. Scuba diving at the dinner table however without discernable income is unpardonable.

[Celt]

... in response to Re: Language Barrier/Latin Encounters, posted by Wayne1 on Oct 10, 2002

Wayne,

Margaret seems to inspire loyal defenders and
bitter ex-clients in equal numbers. I spent about
an hour with her, and told her to use her
"match-making" skills by choosing my dates for me,
rather than calling women I chose from the
books. (Mind you, this way before I paid for more
than one-day's fee.) Gosh! Every ringer in the book
came to that house over the next two days, including
the super-ringer whois on page 1 of her website.

I think she has a sentimental side, and honestly wishes to
give good service to customers who show her lots of money
and absolute, childlike trust. I met some guys who have
stayed with her 3-4 times for 1-2 weeks each time. This is
the kind of client she likes. If she senses that you are
not completely malleable, she will try to take as much money
as she can from you. And there will be no science in her
selection of citas.

I also grew tired of her victim's mentality: she who has
been the victim of harassment, gossip, duplicity, etc.
It does not surprise me that she started a gossip campaign
against you. In my limited time there, I heard her malign
all the other owners.

She also had a certifiably crazy translator: the translator
would push clients to take their dates to places she wanted
to shop, or restaurants where she wanted to eat. Everyone in
the house ( this way in July, 2002 ) was shocked at this woman,
and the fact that Margaret placed so much trust in her.

[Kit]

... in response to Language Barrier, posted by littlebhuddha on Oct 10, 2002

Study a couple of hundred of infinitives as well as a couple of hundred of nouns. Some basic grammar can be mastered for a couple of days. Dont bother with past of future tenses/conjugations for now. You can always say "en pasado" or "en futuro" with present tense. Just use infinitives with prepositions, nouns and pronouns. That is a good start. Also get one of those Francklin ES 1040. It can also pronounce words for you.

[valuedcustomer]

... in response to Re: Language Barrier, posted by Kit on Oct 10, 2002


I use a Franklin all the time and highly recommend the Merriam-Webster Franklin translator.  It is reasonably priced and you get alot for your money.  It is small enough to keep in your pocket.  They recently came out with a new model DBE-1450 with an improved interface.  I wouldn't recommend spending extra money for the talking version, because Spanish is so easy to learn how to pronounce.  Instead, buy the excellent tape set "Pronounce it Perfectly in Spanish".  It walks you through pronunciation and gives you just about every possible exception to the rules.  You should be able to get it on Amazon.com for about $14.  

[Wayne1]

... in response to Re: Re: Language Barrier, posted by valuedcustomer on Oct 10, 2002

I like the talking franklin...!

But it has a Mexican twang that the Colombians think is hysterical.

[Ken2]

... in response to Language Barrier, posted by littlebhuddha on Oct 10, 2002

You might want to pick up a pocket translator at WalMart for $16.95.  It is a Sieko  Spanish English Translator with advanced conjugation features.  This, along with a few beginner texts books I breezed thru, I could talk to the ladies in(some-what broken)Spanish effectively.  

have fun....

[valuedcustomer]

... in response to Language Barrier, posted by littlebhuddha on Oct 10, 2002

For anyone who wants to learn Spanish,  taking the community college sequence is the best way to go.   I tried learning Spanish for a year on my own, but didn’t start making rapid progress until I enrolled in a community college.  I am currently finishing up the last class.  The community college is very inexpensive, at least in California, and the most effective way to learn with high quality instruction (my current instructor wrote one of the popular textbooks).     The textbooks actually cost me more than the tuition.  Berlitz is another alternative, but it very expensive.  The Pimsleur tapes are a joke compared to what you learn in a community college course.  The whole Pimsleur sequence (which I have done) barely gives you the knowledge of the first course Spanish 1A.  And Pimsleur doesn’t give you any written material.  Their pitch that learning a language is best by just listening to their tapes the “natural way” is faulty.  You really do need to learn to write and study grammar.  And you can take the entire sequence Spanish 1A,  1B, 2A, 2B, 3, 4, and 10 in a community college for the price of the Pimsleur tape set.    

[Bueller]

... in response to Re: Language Barrier, posted by valuedcustomer on Oct 10, 2002

"Their pitch that learning a language is best by just listening to their tapes the “natural way” is faulty."

  This is a misrepresentation of their claim. As they emphatically instruct you, you don't just listen to dialog, you must actively participate by verbally responding to all questions and situations presented. How could you go through all three levels of their program and end up saying the above? Or did you never read the instructions?

  Your idea of going to community college is good, and littlebuddha already has that planned. But if he knows a smattering of Spanish but not enough to turn it into a conversation, getting Pimsleur at the library or secondhand is about the best he's going to do to prepare in the next 40 days, short of hiring a tutor or something.

[valuedcustomer]

... in response to Re: Re: Language Barrier, posted by Bueller on Oct 10, 2002

Of course, you are supposed to actively participate with the dialog of the tape.  That’s how it is set up and they tell you that on the tapes.  The important point is they don’t have any written material.  They market this as an advantage but based on my experience I have found this to be a limitation in their system.  It’s important to learn how to read and write Spanish and to study the rules of grammar.  And additionally, in order to learn a language, you need a large vocabulary.  In the textbook approach, each chapter focuses on some particular common situation and gives you a large vocabulary to talk about that situation.  For example, in the chapter on health you must sit down and memorize dozens of words for the parts of the human body, words for diseases, common verbs used in talking about health, and so forth.  And to talk intelligently you must study at least the major tenses, such as present, preterite, imperfect, subjunctive, future and conditional.  There is really no way around learning grammar and doing the hard work of acquiring a large vocabulary.  You don’t get this from a tape set.  If somebody is time limited, I would recommend that they buy another tape product with some written material.  The Pimsleur tapes are very expensive and not worth the price.  You can buy a cheaper product with written material that will do a better job of preparing you.        

[Patrick]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Language Barrier, posted by valuedcustomer on Oct 10, 2002

I studied on my own for months before enrolling in a JC class.  Way, way better to get into a real class in my opinion.  I also thought virtually all the stuff commonly available in the commercial bookstores was very tourist oriented.  "Dame la quinta por favor." and :Donde esta el bano?"  Might be good things to know while in a restaurant, but it's not much good for conversation with a woman.  I learned way more in the first 5 unit semester of Spanish than I had in nine months of studying on my own.

[Cali vet]

... in response to I agree, posted by Patrick on Oct 10, 2002

You asked for a fifth in the restaurant? Didn't that create sort of a questionable impression on your date? But seriously a real class is the only way to go. I had a Korean girlfriend (mi malo!) who studied English before going to the US who'se been there ten years and a Vietnamise friend who has been in the US since the war but never took a class. The Korean spoke with an extremely heavy accent and left out the "the's" etc but was understandable because her grammer was usually in order whereas the Vietnamise gal just "picked up" English over the years in the states and her English to this day is nearly unintelligable.

[Ricky]

... in response to Language Barrier, posted by littlebhuddha on Oct 10, 2002

Don't worry about the language barrier. It's a little late now to worry since you have reservations. Shirley at Latin Encounters ai an excellent translator. I don't know about staying there though. I've stayed at both LS and L. Encounters. I would suggest staying at Suites since it's only about 5-10 minutes away and then going to the agency for appointments. You can always "hook up" with other gringos there.

[Bueller]

... in response to Language Barrier, posted by littlebhuddha on Oct 10, 2002

There are two things I'd do. First, get your first set of Pimsleur tapes, as there is time to get through them before you go to Cali. The list price is over $250, but you can buy them used on eBay and resell them there when you're done. Just make sure you get the whole 30-lesson set, not the 8- lesson teaser.

 Second, that won't be enough to maximize your time in LA, so you'll probably have to hire someone to interpret for you. Others here might have suggestions for hand-held translating machines, etc. if you don't want to a third wheel with you all the time.

[littlebhuddha]

... in response to Re: Language Barrier, posted by Bueller on Oct 10, 2002

Does anyone have any contacts with interpreters in Cali?