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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 81 of 668 16 November 2011 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Randomreview. Thanks for the ideas. I have thought more and more about doing some sort of LR project. I think reading books at this stage would make the process more enjoyable. I have had a very hard time finding parallel texts that interest me and I am not willing to make them. I am also not much of a fiction reader (I rarely read fiction books in English). The biggest issue I think about is that I really can only consistently dedicate 1 hour a day to Spanish.
I am really realizing that I am not at all prepared for this trip. I have not thought of anything like shots, cell phone usage, monetary exchange, etc. I have been emailing with the school and coordinating transportation, etc. I really do not know what I will do when I am not in class. Who knows... a movie might be something worth doing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5183 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 82 of 668 17 November 2011 at 7:40am | IP Logged | ||
Aside from the shots, you could save those other items as little tasks to figure out once you get there. That way you have an opportunity to learn to navigate a new system or concept entirely in L2. Anyways, good luck, and I look forward to reading your journal updates from the Dominican Republic one day. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5014 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 83 of 668 25 November 2011 at 9:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck in the Dominican Republic James! Sometimes you just need to jump in feet first and see what happens. I cant wait to read about how it went! Edited by dbag on 28 November 2011 at 9:00am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 84 of 668 27 November 2011 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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My trip was great! What a joy. Everything worked out wonderfully. The school was great. I ended up having one on one lessons all five days. I learned much more than I ever imagined I could or would in class/tutoring. I found living in the city quite an experience. At first it was so different (to me) that I was almost shocked, but by the end of the week I was fairly comfortable with it. The family I stayed with was wonderful and I got to do quite a few "local" things. The food was amazing. I ate more this past week than I have ever eaten in a week in my life! I will do a thorough post later when I have more time and energy.
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 85 of 668 30 November 2011 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I still don't have time and energy to do a more thorough post. I worry, however, that if I keep waiting I will never to any sort of review of the school I went to. I will put some thoughts down now and then likely edit it later.
I went to CEIC Spanish School in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The website is http://www.ceic-spanish-school.com I reserved one week of classes, transportation from the airport, an afternoon tour of the city and a homestay that included three meals a day. Overall I must say that I was extremely pleased with the program. I am not going to comment on the city of Santo Domingo in this post. I will comment on that some other time. The school was much smaller than I thought it would be. There were only four students there learning. It was Thanksgiving week so that may have decreased attendance, but nevertheless, it was small. I had my private class for about 3.5 hours every morning. The school was in the bottom part of a large house. The owners lived upstairs. The back yard was a very nice garden type back yard with beautiful landscaping and three gazebo type thatched roof classrooms. It was a very nice learning environment. The great part was that there were no other students at my level so I had one on one lessons. My teacher was very experienced (she had taught for 14 years) and I was extremely pleased with her teaching ability. I have never had one on one instruction before so I do not have anything to compare it to, but I must say that I was definitely pleased. It was all business and there were no fun and games or wasted time. One of the other students had been there for four weeks. She had never studied Spanish before and started from scratch with the school. I spoke to her quite a bit in Spanish and was shocked when I learned that she had only been learning for four weeks. My guess is that she was close to a B1 level after just four weeks. I think that is a real testament to the teaching ability of her instructor. She was, however, an experienced polyglot. My family was wonderful. The food was amazing! I never ate so much in my life (and I am a picky eater). The house was some distance from the school and it would be too far and too unsafe to walk. I had to take the city bus. That was actually pretty easy, fast and cheap. They expect you to be able to do it after just one day. I definitely did not feel comfortable with that and made sure I always had someone to ride with me so I would not get lost. I did not do much in the afternoons except hang out in the house and talk with whoever was there. I did not feel comfortable/safe exploring the city on my own. I did do quite a bit in the evenings with one of the boys who lived in the house. The afternoon tour of the historic part of the city was pretty good. The school kind of pushed it as an add on. I am not sure it was really worth the price (an extra $50), but I would not have toured the historic part of the city otherwise. I did have a miscommunication when signing up and did not buy transportation back to the airport. It was largely my fault, but I really think that could have been avoided with better communication. There were some other minor communication issues about signing up that irritated me. They gave me the street address of my house before I went and I could not find it anywhere online until I realized they spelled it wrong. They also gave me the family's phone number and screwed up the number. Not being able to find the address made me nervous for a while and the screw up with airport transportation caused a problem with me getting back to the airport. These things are actually pretty minor. I was very pleased. If anyone wants additional information please feel free to message me or post a question. All things considered, I definitely recommend CEIC for a school in Santo Domingo. I am actually thinking I may go back there in a year or two. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 86 of 668 04 December 2011 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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This week I got back in my usual groove. However, I really did not spend too much time on Spanish during the week. I did one Assimil lesson each weekday except I spent two days on the review lesson. I did not do them as thoroughly as I should have as I only spent 20-30 minutes each morning on Spanish. Things were kind of hectic at work due to things piling up after my days off, but next week I should be able to get back to my 45-60 minutes of Spanish.
Today and yesterday I reviewed FSI lesson 27. I think I will also re-do lessons 28, 29 and 30. Right now I am determined to get Assimil done before the end of the year even if it means whizzing through the lessons like I did this past week. In terms of "other" things this week; I did quite a few little things. The meetup was pretty good. I am more comfortable talking in the group format. It does not exhaust me as much as it used to. I listened/read 6 or 7 chapters of my DHH Biblia. I watched three episodes of Los Simpson... The Simpsons in Spanish. I read an episode summary before watching so I could basically follow what was happening even though it was difficult to follow all of the talking. I may try to keep watching The Simpsons in the evenings as it is moderately entertaining and it is only 22 minutes per episode. I did a little skype text chatting... almost all in Spanish. I have been thinking much about my Spanish goals for 2012. I realized in Santo Domingo that my listening/understanding skills are severely limiting in the real world. I found it almost impossible to understand some people. I had many communication problems trying to buy things and I did not like that. Even with people who I was able to understand I quite often had to tell them to slow down or explain themselves again. Sometimes with the kids in my host family we would simply switch to English. The week was amazing, but it was also really eye opening as to how much further I really need to go with this Spanish journey. I know for certain that I want to finish FSI in 2012. That is the only thing I know for sure. I would also like to take another trip, if possible, but I will wait a while before deciding on that. I have been thinking of doing LR with some books I would like to read in Spanish, but I am not sure how to do it on just 45-ish minutes per day. I think the key will be to read books that I really want to read. I would like to do more with some of the economics classes online. They are quite enjoyable to me and would be entirely passive listening. I think I will again go through the 12 hour series that has the transcripts. Well, I am ready for next week and I think I will do FSI lesson 28 tomorrow. Edited by James29 on 04 December 2011 at 11:59pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 87 of 668 13 December 2011 at 2:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I have been busy lately, but I still managed to do a good amount of Spanish this week. I did FSI lessons 28 and 29. I did Assimil the other days. Today I finished Assimil lesson 98 so I should be able to finish it before the end of the year. The Assimil lessons are great. They are challenging and have a good amount of new vocabulary, but they are short enough that it is still easy to do each lesson in 30-ish minutes. I don't like the fact that they no longer have audio for the exercises. That would be nice.
I went to a new meetup. It was very good. I was the "worst" Spanish speaker there. Hopefully that group will keep going. I also went to one of the regular meetups I go to. I listened/read the first chapter of El Leon, La Bruja y El Ropero. It was remarkably easier for me to understand. I probably will not go through the book again... I was just seeing how easy it was to follow. I listened to a bunch of audio on audible to see what audio books I may try to tackle. I loved the narrator of the DaVinci Code. He has a great voice and he spoke very slowly so it seemed quite easy to follow. I have also read that book already so that is a major plus... I do not read many fiction books and I don't really like the idea of reading the book in English just to then re-read it in Spanish. I read about 50 pages in a Spanish investment guide book (the investment guide from the "Rich Dad" series). I would not read the book in English, but I find it interesting and I "forget" that I am reading Spanish when I am reading it. It is written at a pretty basic level. I bought Breaking out of Beginner's Spanish. It looks great. I think I will save it for the summer of 2012. It seems like a good book to have out on the beach or on the boat. I also had a skype talk for about 45 minutes and a skype text chat for about the same amount of time. During the text chat my partner corrected my mistakes quite often and it made me realize I really do make many mistakes. In a strange way I have been getting more and more motivated. I am liking the idea of starting up with new FSI lessons after Christmas and I am even more excited about really being able to use native material. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 88 of 668 18 December 2011 at 11:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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This was another pretty good week. The Assimil lessons are more rigorous and take more time. There was one morning where I did not have enough time to do an Assimil lesson, but, other than that, I did a lesson every day. On that other day, I listened/read a few chapters of Cajas de Carton.
The last couple weeks of Assimil Spanish Without Toil have made me feel much more favorable about the program. They are packing tons and tons of vocabulary into the interesting dialogues and exercise sections. I feel confident that Toil has more content in it than With Ease. I think it is better organized and more interesting also. The quality of the audio I have and the age of the program, however, are the limitatins. These past couple weeks have made me feel it was well worth it to do Without Toil and I am even considering doing another passive-type review of the program. I did quite a bit of listening/reading this week. In addition to the morning of Cajas de Carton, I listened to Cajas de Carton a few times on my drive to work. I only know the first two stories well enough to understand without the text. I also have continued with my reading of El Leon, La Bruja y El Ropero. I just kept doing a new chapter every night. I am about half way through now and I will try to finish it this week. I like reading El Leon so much that I am wanting to do more reading of books with audio. I have been doing a lot of searching for Spanish audiobooks. I think it is good for my listening comprehension which is where I feel I am lacking now. I did one good skype talk. I can speak fairly effortlessly now with some partners. I now have my phone set up to be able to use skype which should allow me much more flexibility with doing skype talks. I am amazed at how well skype works on a phone. I did a meetup. It was fine, but not one of the better meetup experiences for learning. I have been more and more comfortable with the fact that this is going to be a long process before I am at the level I want to be in Spanish. Understanding regularly spoken Spanish is going to be the hardest part for me. At this point I am quite excited to feel like pretty soon I will be able to comfortably listen/read regular books in Spanish. I think I will toy around with the easier books (Narnia, Cajas de Carton and maybe Harry Potter) until I am finished with FSI and then I think I will spend quite a while with audiobooks. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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