Building my Confidence » spanish

Finished Pimsleur Level 2

totalwise — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:23:34 +0000

Hey Guys and Girls

Just finished pimsleur spanish level 2, my comprehension and vocabulary has improved a lot, going to start level 3 soon, I might go and recap some of level 2 or just go straight on to level 3 tomorrow.

Cuba or Chile?

totalwise — Tue, 05 May 2009 22:38:13 +0000

I’ve been to Spain a few times, I really want to go far afield now and experience genuine Latin American culture, the closest I got was when I visited Cancun, Mexico. Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t such a great experience, Cancun is really a little America, North America that is, and has the same sort of price bracket as U-S of A too. if you’re luckly enough to brave venturing out into the local areas then you could find yourself in heaven, amazing meals for around $2, great weather and very hospitable people. However it’s as if the whole place is built so that you do not venture over there, firstly there are no Road Signs, there are maps… BUT here is the big BUT, none of the locals know the street names. Because the local town outside of the resorts aren’t big most of the locals know the locations via familiarity, so they don’t need to know street names or road signs.. So if you get lost… Good luck finding your way around..

cancun Beach serial view

So aside from being lumbered in the tourist areas of Cancun, with a bunch of drunk Americans, I hadn’t reallybeen to Latin America.. Which is a shame because with my basic Spanish I think I’ll have a great time.

So I have one of 2 choices to do. Either visit Chile or Cuba.. here are my reasons why

Chile
Is a South American Country which speanks Spanish, albeit muy rapido. The country is a thin strip sandwiched from the rest of South America by the Andes mountains.. This is good because I always have the problem of not knowing where to visit, Chile is great because you can go other up or down, and if you start from the top you have no choice but to go down, vice versa. Secondly Chile is wealthier and more peaceful than other south American country like honduras, colombia, guatamala etc. So for a novice traveller who likes his creatre comforts such as ipod, digital camera, laptops, and designer gear, this could be a good place.

Andes Mountains in Chile

Cuba
Of all the people I’ve spoken to Cuba pretty much comes up on the top of the list of places to visit.. Amazing friendly people, cheap (if you can escape the tourist places), great music and dance atmosphere. However like always there are some downsides to every place.. what are they? Janteros (prostitutes) are rife, and prostitution carries a heavy penaulty. Chances are you’ll get blackmailed by the pimp to fess up a lot of money. Easy you say, just avoid all prostitutes. Not so, prostitution doesn’t take place in the convential form, they appear to be like the average bar girl, you think you’ve got lucky and last minute they lay down the proposal. So I’ve been told. Also most Cubans are poor, and you’ll get constant invitations to get ripped off. See people’s Cuba experience is very polarised, I guess some people want a stress free relaxing time and don’t want to be hasseled and constantly have to negotiate, barter and tell people “no me gusto” constantly, while other people enjoy this experience and find that this is really the charm of the place.. I guess it’s different, I mean I’ve walked along the streets of London, and have nobody talk to me at all.

Cuba Tours

I do sometimes feel very lonely in London which is home to 20 million people. Quite ironic actually, I feel that in London you really have to make an effort to keep friends and have good people around you. If you are too passive about it, it can be tough to be in contact with people.

Finished Pimsleur level 1

totalwise — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:29:37 +0000

Just finished pimsleur level 1, feel elated that I finished it, but at the same time realise that there’s a lot more for me to learn.

Currently reading a book called intimate connection by david burns, interesting book which an interesting twist on how to pursue love. One of the things it says is that you need to first learn to love yourself and treat yourself with love and respect, and completely forget finding love, and live as if you will never find love and basically put yourself first.

the idea is that when you stop searching and look within you, you become a more attractive person and people are drawn to you, I’ll be doing the lessons.

Live, Laugh, Love

Building Confidence through Learning Spanish

totalwise — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:25:05 +0000

I’ve been reading a few books on self help for a while now, one of those which has made a big impression on me is Intimate Connection by David Burns, what stood out was the fact that I could relate very much to author of the book who came from an analytical mind, he didn’t have any success with women until 26, and slowly learnt how to do so by treating himself with love and dignity, he says most people who have no love in their life seek out a partner who will end their years of misery, but what tends to happen is that their needyness and desperation is apparant to the other person and they run a mile.

What I’ve been doing is putting myself on the backseat, not putting my needs first before everyone else, I do things to impress others, or laugh at other peoples jokes, or be a spectator and look to others to make me happy, and not to enough to humour myself and treat myself as the most important person in the world.

So anyway, I’m into the first few chapters like maybe 1/6 of the way there, really enjoying this book.

One of the things I’m doing is learning spanish, I’ve read elsewhere that learning a new skill is good for bulding self esteem as it allows you to take your mind off your daily routine.

Also learning a new language is like a new voice for you to express yourself, can you imagine practising a new language and making a point of not learning the negative expressions, and allowing yourself to only express positivity??!!?