Speech recognition busy

Hello,
Is there a particular time of day when the speech recognition is most busy. Today at 8am GMT it was impossible to use. It is great that the product is popular, as it indicates longevity. 

It would just be helpful planning my day to know if there are times best avoided.

Thank you

I have found when it says speech recognition is busy, it is something going on with my computer. It took me a while to realize that as I couldn't find anything, but it is almost certainly something going on with your computer. I sometimes have to resort to a reboot, but that seems to always fix it.  Good luck!

Thanks Scott,

That is good advice, caching can be an issue sometimes. A shift refresh sorts out the occasional issue.

I am pretty sure when it says it is busy, it is busy. I have noticed it at similar times of day. As I have some time off, I am doing the course itensive at them moment so I see it at quite literally all times of the day, morning noon and night.  I run a state of the art Macbook Pro. When there is a  network connection problem, indeed that is my internet connection. Generally when the server is busy, it becomes un busy in a couple of minutes with no intervension from me. When it would be the evening else where in the world, is generally when it occurs. I imagine that Rocket would have server logs to refer to. So I thought I would ask. 

That said, I have done exactly the same as you once or twice, but there is no way of knowing if that is just correlation rather than causation. Thus my equiry.

I appreciate your feed back… currently dreading starting level two!! 

I rarely see busy and a restart has always fixed it for me, but you certainly could be right! Servers definitely get busy at times.

I am in Level 2 and it is definitely harder than Level 1, but it should be. I think part of it is Level 1 is mostly a review of high school Spanish but I don't remember much of the stuff in Level 2 thus far.  Good luck, if I can do it, so can you!

Hi Scott,

I hear you, server busy goes away in the time as it takes to do a restart on an old machine. On my machine the restart is mind bendingly quick. It is not an issue to do it, other than having to close the other apps that I am using, and tabs on the browser etc. So I try to avoid it, I can go many days with out a restart. Rebooting the browser really shoud be enough anyway, or a shift reload of the page, refershes everything,

I have noticed that the rocket site also goes slow at the same time. Hence my question here about server load. It's not really a big issue I was just curious if they had any info to share.

As far as the levels are concerned - I have been living in Spain for 20 years, didn't learn Spanish at school. I can already function perfectly well and have an extensive vocabulary, I want to fill in the gaps, as I have literally learned just by lsitening for the last two decades. I dipped into level 2 as a matter of curiosity, boy do I hate grammar!

The benefit I have is that when I finish a stint, I go to my local bar, literally 5 yards away, (where no one speaks English) and get to see what I have learned! Doing this course has actually impeded my communication skills, as I now appreciate how bad my spanish is/was, before I would blurt out stuff quite fluently, now I am more considered. I have not had a problem being understood for years nor to understand. I am enjoyng going back to basics, but as my other half (who is spanish and  enjoys taking the p¡ss) said only today. 'You will never need to buy a skirt”. The basic lessons are great, if a bit too tourist orientated for my taste. But the necessary tools are there to be applied to other senarios. 

Good luck south of the border gringo :-)

 

I hear you on reboot, mine is also quick and I have to remind myself to do it once in a while (I usually just let it go to sleep). I do agree the website is sometimes slow to load. I have found I have to sometimes hit refresh to get it to load, so some hiccup on their side is my guess.

Wow, how awesome!  Then level 2 for you should be much easier. You have the vocabulary, so you just need to practice the grammar. To quote Mauricio, “Aí, gramática!”

Petax,

Most spanish learning programs are geared towards future tourists. You're not likely to get much workplace lingo or real world else unless it's a specialty course.

RS is little like the potty mouth, slang slinging mexicans I've been around on the job over the years…

I don't bother with the speech recognition for several reasons, one of them being that the spanish I do speak has a mexican accent from way back. Some of them (mexicans) get freaked out that a guero can sound like that.

You'll probably have little trouble with using the grammar in level 2 and three.

A glitch I have is I often don't understand language science, jargonistic explanations of grammar until I understand the usage of the grammar itself.

As an aside concerning language proficiency I think the spanish spoken in news broadcasts can be quite different than the spanish spoken on the sidewalk in front of the broadcast station.

Ultimately which one is more correct? It depends where you're at and what you're doing.

As for your significant other telling you that you don't need to buy a skirt, you could reply “ok, I'll just borrow one of yours…”

Hi A122 and Scott,

Thanks for your replies.

A glitch I have is I often don't understand language science, jargonistic explanations of grammar until I understand the usage of the grammar itself.

I know this too well, I have the same glitch with the grammar stuff is a real head spinner, it has been made much too complicated by educators in general, English being a prime example. I teach English to young people and adults - in Spain it is all about grammar, as the language is essentially phonetic so spelling is easy. We barely touched grammar in English when I was at school, it was all about spelling. Grammar was just picked up naturally.

Well educated adults I know in Spain love using Mexican and Argentinan slang, I don't know why. Doing a Mexican accent is from time to time in a conversation seems to be a fun thing to do. Calling un coche un caro happens, it is like English people putting on a cockeny accent and using rhyming slang, or an American drawl.

I chose Rocket as it is the best methodolgy and best value, I do really like it. All the stuff is adaptable for sure, I would have to be an idiot not to appreciate that. I am curios how you get along with out using the speech recognition. Surely a mexican accent is perfect for this course, I have to keep remembering to use Spanish pronunciation, which is recognised no problem.

I will borrow a skirt, that will be funny!

Scott … indeed it is all down the grammar. I just reboot when I need to actually reboot for other reasons. 

Nos vemos :-)

Petax,

Grammar.

I don't know about now, but american high school spanish in years past was about grammar with the emphasis on castilian spanish. A criticism was that it is very heavy on grammar with all the conjugations and rules, I've heard the quote about conjugating verbs all day long without being able to communicate in spanish as well as some general derision about trying to talk to mexicans with high school spanish.

Not enough exercise with realistic conversational vocabulary.

There are often some cultural issues between mexicans speaking spanish and the american descendents of mexicans who speak spanish. It is my observation that a mexican can usually tell right away that someone grew up in the us by how they speak spanish, even if they grew up in a spanish speaking home with parents straight from mexico who resist learning and speaking english..

There is more to it, some of which is unpleasant, but I'll move on.

It was a long time ago, but I recall that I wasn't interested at all in 7th grade english grammar.

Maybe some of the emphasis on spelling you describe would have to do with the french influence in english Example: beau. We have beaumont and beautiful pronounced differently. Otherwise, one shoots a bow, takes a bow and and tries to sew a silk purse out of a sow's ear, it can be so confusing. There's plough and plow which is the same thing spelled differently. It goes to infinity with one having to know what spelling goes with what word under which context. It would have to drive an english learner batty.

Calling un coche un carro in spain might be fun to do from time to time like how an american might use a briticism  or briefly put on a irish accent from time to time, but too much of it becomes pretentious. A white american politicion from the north midwest garnered much mockery for trying (and failing) to talk in a black southern accent to a mostly black audience while constructing stereotypical dialog no one from the south would ever use.

Cojer has a different meaning in mexico than in spain. No tratas de cojer un taxi en mexico df.

A cookbook by penelope casas describes a restaurant in spain called “el chorro,” which I take “el chorro” to be the water flowing from a fountain.

In mexico “el chorro” means diarrhea. No one's going to eat at a restaurant named “el chorro” in mexico.

One can see how the mexican version developed.

However, when a mexican recipe calls for a “chorito” of something, it means “a splash,” like asking for a splash of coffee in your half filled cup.

Then there's el charro.

As for using the speech recognition: I'm not about to talk to google speech recognition. Google is already too far up my ass with everything else. I might be missing the intended proxy conversation learning, but that's how I'm going to play it.

Hasta la próxima vez.

Allan

¡Hola a todos!

Thanks very much for getting in touch with us about the problems you're experiencing with the busy voice recognition and slow page loading! I'm not aware of this being a known issue at the moment, but I've passed this on to our technical team for them to look into as soon as they can.

Our apologies for the inconvenience this causes! Hopefully we'll be able to sort this out soon.

Saludos,

Liss

Hi Allen,

Sorry I don't get notification of forum posts by email, not idea why not.

That is very a very interesting post, thanks for the information. You have expanded my understanding of the difference between castellano and Mexican.

Cojer has a different meaning in mexico than in spain. No tratas de cojer un taxi en mexico df.

This mistake is well known in Spain! I am pretty sure that the etomology comes from Conquistadors “taking” the local women. To “take” someone is the same in English, but the context defines the meaning, so there is no confusuion.

I agree about the pretentious nayer of using slang, Argentinian seen to be used by the “posh” people, an is very irritating. I thnk they are trying to illustrate that they are well travelled or something.  Such as “che” for hello.  Mexican more the younger croud, but they don't over do it.

Thanks again, most illuminating.
cheers
peta

Thanks Liss,
It is nice that Rocket people are reactive to this forum. 

Peta, click on your icon (with your picture) in the upper right of the computer screen and click profile. Then see if “Email me when someone replies to a forum topic I have commented on.” is checked. Oddly, mine is not checked and I still get the emails, so something is not perfect with it, but something to check.

Liss, I just learned about mine not being checked and still getting emails, so something to send to the team. Thanks for all you do!

Petax,

The conversations of mexican men among themselves that I have worked with and heard talking tended to revolve around endless derivations of chingar, ubiquitous exclamations of "puta madre" and "pinche" something or another, and I believe mexicans can carry on a whole conversation using the word "pedo" in every sentence with every utterance meaning something different.

I've heard some mexican women fling it out too.

I'm not saying all mexicans are like that nor do I believe it to be so.

There are also quite a few nahuatl loan words, sort of like how the mix of mediaval, peninsular, vulgar latin with arabic  eventually evolved into early modern spanish.

I think the spanish word for owl is buho, in mexico it's tecalote.

I once commented to a former girlfriend that if I opened a small restaurant I might call it "The Tecalote Grill." With a typical mexican response she said "It'll have to be open all night then."

The mexican word for grass is "zacate,"  I don't know the spanish term.

The term "que chévere" used in RS isn't known to anyone I've asked so far. When I first saw it I thought it to be - rightly or wrongly - like snooty americans who use the italian word "chiao" and do the fakey air kissing next to each other's cheeks.

I've heard "que padre" and "super" for "cool."

To get back to the profanity:

I usually stay away from it and most slang because what or who you don't know while shooting your mouth off can lead to unpleasant consequences. It doesn't hurt to be reasonably polite.

"Chingar" is listed in the royal spanish academy, but it has much stronger and more extensive meanings in mexico than spain from what I understand.

Here are a couple of interesting links:

https://www.speakinglatino.com/verbo-chingar-the-most-important-word-in-mexico/

https://www.speakinglatino.com/list-of-spanish-slang-expressions-chingar/

I've read the book by Octavio Paz referenced in the first link, and the chapter listed goes much farther than the quotes from Paz in the link. "Los hijos de la Maliche" in it's entirety particularly struck me.

As I understand it a "chingaso" is a beat the hell out of each other fight, eye gouging, kidney punching, crotch kicking and all.

I don't get the parents who dress their toddler in a tshirt with the word "chingón" emblazoned across the front.

Pedo:

"Qué pedo?" What's up, homey?

"Qué es tu pedo?" What's your problem?

When someone's drunk on their ass, "está pedo."

In "gritty spanish" there is a scenario where a belligerant drunk is thrown out of a bar by security. Immediately after the ejection there are sounds of first a loud splash and then a fart.

The ex is a product of of an earlier migration from mexico.

I had given her a vehicle. She gave a spanish nickname to everything around the house and she dubbed her ride "the pinacate," the stinkbug, because it, like a stinkbug, was black.

I mentioned this to a broken english speaking mexican far more recently arrived than the ex's parents  and he thought I was talking about a sexual position. I managed to put two and two together, a stinkbug often goes about with it's posterior sticking high in the air.

The word “pinacate”  might sometimes be some sort of a reference to “doggy style,” but I'm not entirely sure.

Broken english mixed with broken spanish isn't clear to anyone. Sometimes I understand everything being said in the spanish around me, other times I haven't a clue.

I understand what it literally means but not why it was said: everyday at quitting time a former mexican coworker would say "vamos a la verga!"

Allan.

Hi Allan,

Thank you for your further illuminatio on south american Spanish. 
Pedo is indeed fart in Castellano, kids say a word I have never seen written, sounds like “perreuche”.

"vamos a la verga!" LoL - the English translation is commonly used at the end of the working day in England. Along with at the end of the evening.

I wil check those links out, thank you.

Back to my studies.
Un saludo cordial 
Peta 
(a name which was unfortable for a kid in France in the original spelling).

I learned quite a bit today Allan. Thanks?

It is fascinating how the same language can have such different meanings, or at least impacts. Shag is one example where I suspect few Americans think of it as having sex, but if they do, it is likely seen as a substitute word. But in the UK it it is vulgar (although not up to the level of f***). 

Even more extreme is the use of the C Word by the Brits. While still a curse word, it doesn't even come close to the offensiveness of that word in the US. Who knew languages were so complex!?

Scott

What ho Scott and Allan,

Indeed,  the C word in the UK is thrown about willy nilly. In Spain even a grandmother says the Spnaish equivilent (I don't want to offend anyone), even school kids in the classroom and mums to their children! Swearing in Spain does not seem to be a big deal, calling someone an idiot is much more offensive, fighting talk. In the Basque country (my local), the Basque language does not even have any swear words, just religeous blasphemies. All swear words are borrowed from Spanish, Basque not being a latin language.

I did a quick bit of research with my family, pedo is used as drunk in Spain, not a concious import from Mexico, and I was correct perouche is a colloquialism.

Thanks Scott I got the email notifications working, I think.

Have a good evening.

cheers
peta

Scott and Petax,

I much appreciate the low down on swearing and all in spain, I'm much interested in the cultures and history of the former spanish speaking empire.

I have never been to either spain or mexico, but while there are close similarities there are also great differences from what I hear, read and learn through video of regular people living their lives and their community events.

I'm intrigued with the spanish parades with bands and floats featuring the Virgin Mary carried on the shoulders of many bearers  equally with oaxacan villagers entertaining themselves by dancing the zapateado and eating tacos in the plaza in the evening.

Ditto with the horsemanship of the picadores and the super highly trained horses in a bullfight in spain and also the same of mexican charros and their horses in their rodeos and exibitions.

I want to discuss all this more but I have to get the following out of my system…

Shag and “c word”

I was first introduced to “shag” as the carpet that seemed to be everywhere in the 70's, “shaggy” as in unkempt or someone needing a haircut, it was virtually a low cut jumaji jungle in the living room. It could hold and conceal all kinds of dirt and small debris and maybe harbor some smallish creatures.

 I think I first heard the uk term about the time Rick Moranis played some sort of english secret agent in a comedy movie, I think it was “The spy who shagged me.” I don't recall seeing it.

The c word could probably also be called the “sea word” because, putting two and two together, I believe it was part of sailing ship terminology. Sailing ships have plenty of rope for rigging.

Picture a 3 strand rope. The inner sides of the strands are called  “c word lines.”

Let's say we're going to put an eye in the end of a rope. Untwist the end enough to make at least 6 tucks and some to leave e untucked, then bend the rope back to itself however big you want the eye or loop.  Then untwist the rope where you want to begin the splice, which will expose the “c word lines” and create a “c word hole” in which a strand from the end is inserted and pulled through, making a tuck. Continue for at least six tucks and leave some strand sticking out.

Now imagine an unbathed and randy 18th century sailor who had been swabbing decks and splicing rope for months at sea being turned loose on the town with a pocket full of pay after docking at port. 

He's going full sail straight to the combo bar/brothel and spend all of his money.

The imagery of splicing rope presents itself in the brothel with the strand inserted into the "c word hole."

Much of my employment has involved rope, rigging and structure probably derived or parallel to the above deck technology of sailing ships.

Some etymology going back to indo-european

https://www.etymonline.com/word/cunt

Regards, Allan

Interesting Allan,

Not sure about the nautical application - I find that confusing.

As for the link you kindly posted, that was what I understood of the etemology.

There was one thing at the end of that page, genuinely surprised me.

"Alternative form cunny is attested from c. 1720 but is certainly much earlier and forced a change in the pronunciation of coney (q.v.), but it was good for a pun while coney was still the common word for "rabbit": "A pox upon your Christian cockatrices! They cry, like poulterers' wives, 'No money, no coney.' " [Philip Massinger: "The Virgin-Martyr," Act I, Scene 1, 1622]

also from 18c. "

The Spanish vulgar word is coño - which I understand means mountan rabbit, well the more you know! Conejo being a standard rabbit.

cheers for now
Peta

ps. here is some further reading
https://www.elcorreo.com/bizkaia/sociedad/201512/14/cono-otras-palabras-significan-20151214075728.html

and another

https://etimologias.dechile.net/?con.o#:~:text=La%20palabra%20co%C3%B1o%20viene%20del,del%20mismo%20significado%20cunnio%2C%20cunnionis.

 I think I first heard the uk term about the time Rick Moranis played some sort of english secret agent in a comedy movie, I think it was “The spy who shagged me.” I don't recall seeing it.

That was Mike Myers who played Austin Power. AND many other roles (Dr Evil, Fat Bastard and Goldmember), which made it interesting to watch, if you enjoyed trying to compare how he played the various roles.  There were 3 of the Austin Powers movies and I have to admit they were unbelievable sophmorish, but I found them funny.

This is possibly the most sophmoric of the gags, but I had a good laugh. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHRRcyl5XJE

The continuance of the

 off topic portion of this

 thread has been moved

to

“spanish slang and more”

in “spanish conversations.”

The continuance of the

 off topic portion of this

 thread has been moved

to

“spanish slang and more”

in “spanish conversations.”

¡Hola a todos!

Just jumping in at the end of the dicussion here to let you know that I have passed the issue with the forum notification checkbox on to the technical team, Scott_C - thanks very much (to you and to Petax) for pointing this out to us! 

Saludos,

Liss