Jenn is trying to learn Spanish, in addition to brushing up on her French

[conuly]

As part of this for some reason she bought Don Quixote in English to read - and wow, she was surprised when I remarked that I'd read a big chunk of that in Spanish! She didn't realize I could read Spanish that well! (I can't anymore, I don't think. This was back in high school, and I'm fairly certain that I wasn't supposed to be in that class, but it was either that or the other Spanish class with the teacher I couldn't stand. He liked me, but he was also massively racist, so... I mean.... I threw myself upon the mercy of the guidance department!)

Comments

[readerjane]

Good for your guidance department!

I avoided studying Spanish in high school for that same reason: couldn’t stand the teacher. I took French instead, which did me some academic good, in the sense of seeing language in a binocular way. It all makes a whole lot more sense when you see how the same functions work differently between one language and another. But it didn’t do me any social good at all. I don’t think I’ve ever met a single person whose birth language was French. Maybe if I could have done an exchange program, eh.

[conuly]

Ah, well, move to NYC. My mother loved talking French to people, mostly African immigrants. (Occasionally Belgians. You'd be amazed how many Belgians are in NYC.)

[senmut]

That was me and French authors, in addition to SEVERAL animated movies. Had a GREAT teacher, then a so-so one, and the one I got in University absolutely wrecked my love of learning it.

[hudebnik]

I had a long-running conflict with my second-year high school Spanish teacher, which I now suspect was actually with the curriculum rather than her. Anyway, I walked into third-year Spanish, saw the same teacher, walked out, dropped the class, and took Spanish at the community college instead.

If she actually wants to use Don Quixote to learn Spanish, I'm sure there's a facing-page translation out there somewhere so she can read as much of the Spanish as possible with the English as backup.

We're both currently studying Spanish on DuoLingo, in preparation for a planned trip to Spain next spring.

[thewayne]

There is a fairly well regarded intro text book called Libro Libre - free and online. Our uni uses it for at least the 101 level. You can download it, use it as an ebook, or print it out if you desire. And the cool thing is the teacher updates it and fixes typos and errors as they are found!

http://librolibre.net/

[conuly]

I don't think she's using Don Quixote to learn Spanish. I think it's just the logical conclusion of her thought process.