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Stelle Speaks Spanish and Tagalog | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4044 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 177 of 384 27 January 2014 at 6:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Stelle -
Just wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed your log. It's so inspiring for me. I have a question for you about reading materials. I think I tried to push myself to read things that were much too hard so I'd like to back up and read something easier. Do you suggest Despereaux or was there something you'd suggest before that? Also, you do the same counting hours thing that I do (I know you originally did it for TAC) but do you think it helped you (focusing on the hours) Thanks! amy 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4137 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 178 of 384 27 January 2014 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
Hi Amy! Thanks! Counting hours made sense for me when I was starting out, but now - not so much. Now that I'm using a lot of native materials, I prefer to count "stuff" (TV episodes, pages of books, etc) rather than hours. I do think that tracking in one way or another is key for my motivation. If I don't track, I tend to spend less time on the language. So yes, counting minutes helped me (even though I'm not doing it anymore), because it motivated me to spend a lot more time on Spanish. For books…let's see…the first two books I had copies of in another language, so I could refer back to them. I had also read them in the past, so I was very familiar with the stories. I've really enjoyed all of the books that I've read in Spanish so far (except for the ones that I abandoned for one reason or another. Life is too short to read books I don't enjoy.) Here are the novels that I've read in order: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl) Despereaux (Dicamillo) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - I abandoned this one because it was way too hard for me Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Dahl) The Witches (Dahl) The BFG (Dahl) - I abandoned this one halfway through because of all of the mispronounced words and dialect HP and the Philosopher's Stone - this time I was ready HP and the Secret Chamber Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief - I'm about halfway through this one now I used tandem copies for the first 2 books, so I could refer back to them when I got stuck. By the third book, I found that I didn't need tandem copies anymore. Hope this helps! I love reading in Spanish! But I don't feel that I gain much from reading books that are too hard for me. I prefer to read extensively, just for pleasure, without having to stop too often. Edited by Stelle on 27 January 2014 at 11:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4044 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 179 of 384 28 January 2014 at 2:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks so much, Stelle. That was really helpful. I requested Despereaux in both Spanish and English from the Library. I can't wait to get started with something that is more my level and see how I feel.
Thanks again! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4137 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 180 of 384 28 January 2014 at 11:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm a bit late with this update. It hasn't been a great week for Spanish, what with major stress and upheaval at
work. I hope that things will settle down this week. 2014 Spanish challenge, week four: 100 45-minute TV shows: 3 (16/100) 1 episode of Buffy (3.11) 2 episodes of The Simpsons (2.5, 2.6) - counts as 1 for tracking purposes 5x Notes in Spanish Gold - counts as 1 for tracking purposed 100 Skype conversations: 2 (9/100) 2 hours with an italki tutor 100 short texts: 1 (6/100) text for italki tutor 14 novels: 0 (1/14) up to page 127 in the first Percy Jackson book (only 40 pages this week! That's terrible!) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4137 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 181 of 384 02 February 2014 at 10:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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This week was really tough. We've had some major upheaval at work. Basically, the school that runs my contract
suddenly declared bankruptcy two days before my pay was due. I still have a job, the same contract administered by a different school. But I haven't been paid in six weeks. I'm trying not to panic. Lots of deep breathing. As you can imagine, Spanish took a backseat to frantic budgeting and number crunching. But I'm surprised at how much Spanish I still managed to fit into my week! I guess it's become an ingrained habit. My two hours of conversation practice this week mainly revolved around me explaining my work situation. It was very good practice, since I needed a lot of complicated vocabulary and the topic was an emotional one for me. I was pleased at how well I was able to articulate the situation. I've posted a one-month challenge update on my blog: month one 2014 Spanish challenge, week five: 100 45-minute TV shows: 3 (19/100) 4 episodes of The Simpsons (2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10) - counts as 2 for tracking purposes 5x Notes in Spanish Gold - counts as 1 for tracking purposed 100 Skype conversations: 2 (11/100) 2 hours with italki tutors 100 short texts: 0 (6/100) Oops. I have to put more effort into this. 14 novels: 0 (1/14) up to page 185 in the first Percy Jackson book (58 pages this week) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4351 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 182 of 384 02 February 2014 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I hope things work out soon.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tomgosse Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3985 days ago 90 posts - 143 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 183 of 384 03 February 2014 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Best of luck with the job situation.
Tomás 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4137 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 184 of 384 03 February 2014 at 12:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks to both of you! I know that everything will work out! :)
1 person has voted this message useful |
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