Book IV · My Home Is the Road · Chapter 80 of 127

spanish by the books

April 4, 2022 Мексика ~4 min read
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Essay Spring · Morning April 4, 2022

#Spanish_Through_Books

One of my final exams in school was English. I took the Unified State Exam in it and got an A. I prepared diligently for it all through 11th grade, attended special courses, and it was an amazing time. Guests came to us from America, we celebrated holidays together with the teachers and other participants, learned to dance, sang songs. It was fun and friendly. I remember that time with great warmth.

In my university years, I was among those who knew English better than most of my classmates. But that, alas, wasn't enough to hold conversations in English. My knowledge was still weak.

And where would it come from without constant language practice? To start speaking a language, you have to speak it, and speak it a lot, a lot and constantly. It has to become something fundamental, your way of life. Without that kind of attitude toward the language, you'll be forever learning it and forever remain a student.

You don't need to be learning a language, you need to learn it! And after that — keep learning.

The real and truly fruitful language learning began later, when I realized that I genuinely needed it. I started learning it on my own, and the learning became regular. For a while.

And I developed a system that not only helped raise my overall level of English but also allowed me to significantly expand my vocabulary in a short time, so that later I'd have something to build a dialogue from.

Actually, in this case, I don't believe in magic at all when they say it doesn't matter how many words you know — just start speaking and that's it. I don't know about you, but for me that formula never worked. So I went a different way, one that seems to me more reliable and effective — first build up your vocabulary to a decent level, and only then introduce speaking into the learning process.

I won't insist — maybe there are real magicians among you who can speak a foreign language without knowing its words. But I'm built more simply, so I started by bringing construction materials to the construction site. And, as it seems to me, I didn't miscalculate.

What did I do to expand my vocabulary? I read books. That's it. Yes, just that. I had a wonderful app called "English Reader," which at some point stopped working for some reason, and that was unpleasant. It was a good app — with its help I read more than one book in English.

Now there are other programs too. My friend Alexander recommended a couple of good apps to me, for which I'm very grateful, and one of them is SmartBook — a direct analogue of English Reader, but unlike the latter, SmartBook lets you read books not only in English. With its help, I started rereading Castaneda, and this time in Spanish. All my language learning, at least a little bit, is connected to Castaneda. ))

Direct download link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kursx.smartbook&hl=ru&gl=US

And in the photo — a banana taco )))

🎸🎤🎹

And the song attached to the post — a Cover of Imagine (John Lennon):

Imagine there's no heaven
Imagina que no existe el cielo

nowhere to go
ningún lugar donde llegar

no hell either
tampoco abajo un infierno

there's only this place
tan solo existe este lugar

imagine everyone
Imagínate a todo el mundo

living in today
Viviendo en el hoy

imagine no borders
Imagínate sin fronteras

it's not so hard to think
no es tan difícil de pensar

there'd be no reason for war
no habría razón para la guerra

no religions to pray to
ni religiones para rezar

imagine everyone
Imagínate a todo el mundo

living in peace
Viviendo en paz

you think I'm crazy
Piensas que yo soy un loco

but there are many more of us
pero somos muchos más

if you join us
si te unes a nosotros

one day this world will change
algún día este mundo cambiará

Imagine nothing is yours
Imagínate que nada es tuyo

it would be beautiful to achieve
seria hermoso de lograr

no greedy, no hungry
sin codiciosos, sin hambrientos

just brotherhood
tan solo una fraternidad

imagine everyone
Imagínate a todo el mundo

sharing bread
compartiendo el pan

you think I'm crazy
Piensas que yo soy un loco

but there are many more of us
pero somos muchos más

if you join us
si te unes a nosotros

one day this world will change
algún día este mundo cambiará

🌎💛

Arthur O'Harra.

#SpanishThroughBooks #ReadingBooksInSpanish #SpanishOnYourOwn

Chapter 80 · 127
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