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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 25 of 668 18 April 2011 at 3:16am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for your post Vanillabean. I just sent you a message. Good luck with your meetup. You motivate me.
It is kind of neat to see that people actually read this log. A while back a fellow sent me a message saying he had purchased LL BTB because of my recommendation on this log. I hope it is going well for him. Well, this was a pretty good week. I did lesson 63 today so I am keeping on pace. A couple of the lessons this week I found quite difficult. I actually felt like I hit a wall on lesson 60. I had a hard time translating it. Maybe I skimmed through it the first time through?? The lessons now feel less like a review and more like challenging work. For at least a couple of the lessons this week I spent some extra time and reviewed them in much more detail. I think right now I would have a hard time doing more than one lesson a day. I do need to double up a few more times because I would really like to finish this before June so I can start Using Spanish on June 1. As I have been doing this third wave of Assimil I have wondered if it would make sense to do a fourth wave some time in the future. After this week I am seeing that I could really spend much more time with the second half of the book and a fourth wave could be useful. That being said, I don't think a fourth wave is necessarily advisable. I also had a pretty good week with my extra resources. I had a long drive again and I did the two review discs from the Michel Thomas foundations course. That is really a great course and it is really amazing how it covers so much. I watched several episodes (I believe 3) of El Internado. I used high quality headphones and it was amazing. The sound and stereo effects are great and really added a lot to the show. For a couple of the episodes I simply found myself with some free time and simply "wanting" to watch the show (as in I would rather watch El Internado than anything that was on regular TV). This was a pretty cool feeling because it really does not feel like studying or effort anymore to watch the show. I don't even mind doing it with background noise (e.g. kids around) anymore. I picked up my bilingual version of the Dios Habla Hoy Spanish/English Bible just to see how well I can read it now. This was the first time I could really read it quite well. I read one chapter and listened to one chapter with the audio I downloaded online. I was extremely encouraged that I could really follow it quite well now. I still continue to listen to Assimil dialogues on my way to work. I probably listen (and sometimes shadow) dialogues about three times per week. I also note that I have skipped my Spanish course for three weeks now and it is over. I am glad I did it, but I won't do another. When I compare the cost of the course ($75) to the cost of Assimil ($33) I chuckle at how great a deal Assimil was. I have been reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to my son (in English). It is a great book. I have never read it. My son likes it too so we have fun talking about what might happen next. I find it more interesting than Harry Potter so I am going to stick with it and maybe eventually do the Spanish version with the audio book. I think I have basically quit Harry Potter now that I obviously like Narnia better. I spent a little time looking at Spanish schools in foreign countries. I would like to go to Spain for a week or two, but it looks so much more expensive than Puerto Rico I don't know if I can justify a trip to Spain. I have been thinking very much about what to do when I finish this review of Spanish with Ease. I would like to go through Michel Thomas's advanced course before moving on to Using Spanish. Hopefully I can double up on Assimil lessons enough that I will be able to finish it and MT Advanced before June 1. If I start Using Spanish on June 1 I will finish by October 1 which will just about exactly mark my two year Spanish study mark. I have convinced myself that when I am done with Using Spanish I am going to simply have "fun" and do whatever native materials I want (but I will stick with the routine of doing something in Spanish every morning for at least 30 minutes). I am going to have a year of Spanish "fun" as my third year. Hopefully this will involve a nice trip somewhere and reading several books. I am also going to watch several economics courses in Spanish (wow, doesn't that sound like "fun"?). I must note that this week made me feel like I am at a stage where I could simply abandon "courses" forever and dive totally into native material. If I ever feel like I want to do that I will do it. I do want to stick with courses for now, however, because I feel I am still really learning a ton from doing these courses and I feel it is the most efficient use of my time. I have to believe that Using Spanish will really turbo charge my Spanish development more than reading and watching native materials. Also, I fear that once I go into native materials I may never go back to courses so I feel like if I don't do Using Spanish now I may never get it done (and I really do want to do it). Well, I am hoping this coming week is another good one. I have another long drive and I don't yet know what to listen to (these long drives are incredibly boring). I also have another meetup. 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 26 of 668 25 April 2011 at 3:30am | IP Logged |
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What a great week. I feel good. In terms of Assimil, I not only stayed on pace, but I doubled up one day. I finished lesson 71 today. The lessons are definitely challenging now. I make several mistakes during the initial translation. I can do a general meaning translation pretty well, but I miss many of the idioms and much of the grammar and vocabulary. The last couple weeks make me feel like another wave through the second half of this course would be well worthwhile. I don't think I will ever do that, but it certainly would be useful. This upcoming week is the hardest week of the course so I think I will stick to one lesson per day and then try to double up a little after the lessons start getting shorter again.
In terms of secondary sources it was a good week also. I had a meetup. It was fine, but my Spanish just did not flow quite right. Also, I did not speak too much with native speakers. Non-natives seem reluctant to correct me or to try to teach me things so I don't think this week's meetup was too useful... but it was fun and I am starting to get to know many of the "regulars." I read a lot from the various Spanish versions of the Bible I have. I worked on Chapts 1, 19, 20 and 21 of the Gospel of John. For each chapter I listened to the audio of the Dios Habla Hoy while following along with the Spanish text, then I read the English, then I read the Spanish out loud and checked any words I did not understand against the English, then I listened to the Spanish audio again, then I read out loud the Spanish of the New Life Version. I also read Chapt 1 from the Hamiltonian literal interlinear translation text I found online (thanks to a post in a different thread). I, of course, did not do all of this in one sitting. The most encouraging thing was that I could almost perfectly understand the New Life Version when I read it. I checked a chapter I have not read in a long time and I could very easily understand it also. The New Life Version is, by far, the easiest to read Spanish Bible out there (note: definitely easier than New Living, Message or DHH). It did not even really feel like work to read it... it was quite fun. It felt like a milestone in my Spanish learning. Even if I quit studying now, I would be able to easily read a real (but easy) verion of the Bible in Spanish. Today I watched an episode of El Internado. It is still good and I hope to finish the series this year. I still listen to Assimil dialogues most mornings on the way to work. I had a long drive for work. I did not feel like Spanish for the drive, but I did listen to more than half of the LL BTB dialogues. This week I again started listening to Spanish radio as "background" while at work. It has been a long time since I have done this. They still played many of the same ads and now I could understand them much better. I could also understand the slower songs a little better. I ordered new Using Spanish audio. I don't really like the audio I have (well used tapes) and I figured I will be spending tons of time with the audio. Unfortunately, I received a reply email that they are out of stock and back ordering it and there will likely be a 6 week delay. I have not skyped in a long time nor have I been to my class for a long time (my class is over now anyway). I think my Spanish at the meetup really suffered as a result of limited use. I have been doing a lot of Assimil, but I have not been having regular conversations. I will have to remember this... that skype really does have some significant value. I am starting to get the urge to do more native materials. There are so many things I want to read and I would love to read them in Spanish. My experience with the Bible this week made me realize I really could just start using only native materials. I also feel like my other hobbies are really suffering because of my Spanish. This has been weighing on me more and more lately. In a strange way this is motivating me more to do Using Spanish because I feel like once I do it I will be "home free" and will be at high enough of a level that I will be able to read the things I want to read without feeling like it is too hard. That was really my goal... to be able to read and understand Spanish well enough that I could do things in Spanish that I would otherwise do in English. Oh well, this post is long enough already. I looked back at a few prior posts and I am amazed how long these weekly summaries are. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 27 of 668 02 May 2011 at 3:32am | IP Logged |
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O.K., this was a good week. I think this log helps me stay motivated. Anyway, with Assimil I doubled up a couple days so I finished lesson 80 today. The lessons are getting much shorter so I may double up a few more times before I am finished. Interesting side note: the lessons are shorter, but they are not "easier" as I had remembered. Anyway, I am now on pace to finish before June 1 which feels good.
I watched the second economics class I have online. I watched it twice - once with the Spanish transcript and the second time without the transcript. I then translated the transcript in Google translate and read the "English." I missed many nuances and details, but I definitely got the general thrust of the class and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I still think it would be quite difficult to watch these courses without the Spanish transcripts. I went through two more chapters of my Bibles. This is quite interesting because I read the super easy New Life Version which I totally understand and then I read/listen to the Dios Habla Hoy. By reading the easy version first I know what happens in the chapter and I can spend most (or all) of the time reading Spanish. I do still read it in English because the DHH is tricky for me and has new vocabulary. Anyway, I feel like I may have figured out a way to learn more efficiently... have two versions of the same text in Spanish (one easy and one more challenging) and by reading the hard one after the easy one I seem to pick up so much more because the hard one seems to fall into place because I know the story already. The New Life Version is great because it has a controlled 850 vocabulary words, it follows textbook grammar, avoids using words that could have two meanings under the circumstances and the Spanish is translated directly from the English (though it is not a literal word for word translation). I feel like it is very good for the "structure" of the language and I actually feel it is very good for my speaking because I read it out loud and I really "know" what I am saying and it is mostly vocabulary I am fairly comfortable with. I also watched at least one episode of El Internado. Interesting show. I don't think I did anything else this week in terms of actually learning Spanish. I went to my local Borders to buy a gift for someone. I have been there tons of times, but I never realized they had a small foreign books section. I had asked on previous occasions, but they always just directed me to the language learning section. Anyway, it was pretty motivating to see that they had a decent (but very small) selection of Spanish language books and also had a few Spanish audio books. Watching the economics course this week really got me thinking about how I should start doing more "fun" and useful things. I did the course in the morning after doing one Assimil lesson and it seemed like a good combination because I still feel like I should be doing some sort of language course to keep my learning progressing. I also had a wonderful message exchange with a member of this forum who is also learning Spanish. As a result, I am now thinking of doing Spanish Without Toil when I am done with this third review of With Ease. I am also thinking of doing Using Spanish as planned, but only spend about 20 minutes a day on it and doing it in a very passive manner. I am thinking that if I did Without Toil or Using Spanish with a light touch I could spend about 20 minutes on a language course every morning and then do something "fun" like a book or an economics course. We will see. I will look closer at Without Toil idea and think about it. Anyway, that is it until next week. Edited by James29 on 02 May 2011 at 3:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 28 of 668 09 May 2011 at 3:28am | IP Logged |
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I am still on pace with Assimil and did not miss any days this week, but I don't think I doubled up at all either. I feel like this is a great course and maybe sometime in the future I will go through the second half again. The lessons are going pretty quickly now because they are shorter. I make a number of mistakes in the initial translation, but by the end of the lesson I feel like I have really learned a lot and I have everything down solid.
I watched a couple of my economics courses. It is surprisingly easy for me to understand when following along with the transcript. For the last one I did not even bother to read the "English" translation, I just watched it twice in Spanish. I think it is because much of the technical language is similar to English and I know generally what the Prof is going to say and he speaks clearly and usually pretty slow. I like the feel of doing an Assimil lesson and then following it up with 20-30 minutes of a course. I did a couple skype talks. One of them was entirely in Spanish. I am definitely coming around on the value of skype. It is definitely something I need to do and it helps quite a bit. I have three good and reliable partners now and it is not too hard to set up a talk. One of my partners can usually speak in the morning which is great for me. I went to a meetup for cinco de mayo. It was good and I really liked the cultural aspect of it. I did a lot of speaking with native speakers and felt fairly comfortable. I did have one conversation that kind of got me down because the person was not very tolerant of my mistakes. It seemed like I was making some sort of minor grammar mistake in every single sentence even though I was feeling like I was doing pretty well. It made me realize that I am really a long way from where I want to be with my conversation ability. I read a few more books of my New Life Version of the Bible. I wish there were more books written in this way - with a controlled vocabulary. I am almost finished with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (in English). I really like it and think I will likely get the Spanish audio book. I was at the library and looked through Living Language's Ultimate Advanced course. I looked through it about ten months ago and remember thinking then that it was incredibly advanced. Looking through it this week made me feel great because I read through some of the same dialogues and I actually felt they were not very hard. It made me realize how far I have come with my Spanish. The course looked very good and I would not mind doing it some day. I have been looking closer at my Spanish Without Toil course. The audio seems interesting and the speakers seem like they are really "acting" out the dialogues which is really nice. The lessons are all pretty short. I am thinking more and more that I may do Without Toil when I am done with this review of With Ease. I really like the idea of doing a short fast lesson of Without Toil and then some sort of native material every morning. Edited by James29 on 09 May 2011 at 3:33am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| vanillabean Groupie Canada Joined 5000 days ago 53 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 29 of 668 09 May 2011 at 4:37am | IP Logged |
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Sounds like you're doing a great job. Sorry to hear about the conversation with someone getting you down - I had
that happen to me a few weeks ago as well. When I'm speaking with someone who isn't tolerant of mistakes it makes me even more nervous and I probably end up speaking even more poorly. :( Anyway sounds like the group is going well for the most part! Glad to hear the Skype is helping you out too... I need to start doing those. When you first started, did you find there were any awkward moments where you were searching for how to answer/confused about what was said? Your level is much higher than mine but that's what's holding me back... I'm not sure if I can really sustain a long conversation. Keep up the god work! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 30 of 668 15 May 2011 at 2:48am | IP Logged |
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I did a lot of Spanish this week. With Assimil I doubled up a few times so today I finished lesson 96. I will be done with it soon. I am happy I did this review as it is giving me exactly what I wanted and needed. I am really consolidating everything I have learned and I am getting more confident with my abilities. It is also fun and does not feel like work or "studying". Doing this review was very well worth it.
I did a bunch of other things this week also. I had a long drive and overnight trip for work and I listened to the first five short stories in Cajas de Carton during the drive. I could follow the first one pretty well because I had gone over it a few times. The second one was a bit more challenging and 3-5 I really could not follow very well at all. It was actually somewhat discouraging that I could not follow 3-5. I realized that the narrator of the book speaks quite fast. I think the combination of the Mexican accent, the fast narration and the fact that it has been a long time since I read the stories made it very difficult to follow. I had free time on the overnight so, in addition to doing extra Assimil lessons, I also read quite a few chapters from my Spanish New Life Bible. It is quite rewarding to read it because I really do understand almost everything. I realized, however, that I read incredibly slow. I have to think about every single word. I also watched quite a bit more of the economics courses. The website automatically scrolls the text of the transcript as the professor talks so it is impossible to lose your place during the class. I found that the website has a google translate function that allows the viewer to have the automatic scrolling with a google translation. It is great because I was able to watch the class listening to Spanish while I was following along with the automatically scrolling English transcript. I realized that I really could understand most of what was going on and it was a great feeling. It makes me want to do more because this is exactly what I wanted to do with my Spanish... something "productive." I am quite curious why it seems so easy for me to understand these courses... is it the professor? the content? because I have a transcript? because I intuitively know the subject matter? because I am so interested in the subject? Who knows, but I really like it. The only problem is that I am going to run out of classes with transcripts and I am sure my Spanish is not good enough to watch the ones without transcripts. I watched an episode of El Internado. I consciously tried to see how much I really understand. I am surprised at how much of the actual dialogue and words I do not understand while at the same time I can follow what is happening because of the context. I like watching the show even though I certainly would never watch an English equivalent. I did some good skyping. As noted last week, I am really seeing the value in skype. I need to try to do it more often because it really helps the "real life" speaking factor. I finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I like the story and it seems like it would be relatively easy to read in Spanish. I bought the Spanish audio book. Hopefully I will do it this year. I feel like I did some more things this week, but I cannot remember anything else right now. I feel more and more like doing Without Toil when I am done with With Ease. I figure if I don't do it now I may never do it. I have been listening to some of the audio and it really seems like it is a very high quality course. I also would like to continue the current feel I have with this review of With Ease. I simply like doing my Spanish every day. I genuinely have fun and look forward to it. I don't ever want to lose that feeling. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 31 of 668 15 May 2011 at 3:15am | IP Logged |
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Regarding Vanillabean's questions about skype... it is an amazing tool. I am not too shy so I don't mind just diving into a conversation or introducing myself to new people. I have had a few awkward conversations, but I think that is all part of the learning process. Once I was talking with a partner who could not speak any English and their Spanish was so fast that I could not understand... it was basically a total waste of time for both of us. Finding good partners is the key. I did have one terrible misunderstanding with one of my partners. If I don't understand something I sometimes just smile and nod instead of constantly saying I don't understand. My misunderstanding made me feel absolutely awful, but luckily it all worked out fine because my partner was so understanding about my ignorance.
Reading Vanillabean's post about skype got me thinking about doing Michel Thomas again. I really rely on the "structure" and basics that Michel taught in his courses. The things he teaches feel like my "security blanket" during conversations. Assimil teaches a great volume of vocabulary and grammar, but I feel like it is Michel Thomas that makes things all fall into place. I think I am going to do his advanced course when I am done with this review of Assimil and before Without Toil. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 32 of 668 20 May 2011 at 2:46am | IP Logged |
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I had a mini-milestone-type day today. I woke up extra early by mistake and could not fall back to sleep so I did an extra two hours of Spanish this morning in addition to my regular one hour. I watched half an hour of one of the economics courses and I switched the transcript from English to Spanish because I felt like it would be easier for me to follow... it was. I think I will be able to watch the whole series without needing to read the English translation.
Then, at work I had to meet with a customer who could only speak Spanish. It went great. We met for about an hour and a half and spoke no English. She had her daughter there who was fluent in both languages so I had to explain two or three very important things in English to her and ask her to make sure her mom understood. We found it was easier for everyone to speak Spanish. I was amazed how well it went. It was a somewhat complicated discussion. This sort of meeting usually takes me about an hour in English so Spanish did not slow us down too much. I now feel I could really do my work in Spanish, if necessary. I have to remind people to speak slow and they have to be patient (and not mind that I still butcher their language). Doing my job with Spanish speaking natives was one of my original goals and I can finally start to see that as a real possibility. Then, I had a meetup. It was great. Spanish was still in my head from my earlier meeting so things flowed quite well. I know most of the people fairly well now so it seems easier to talk to people. I got more than one comment that my Spanish is improving. All together I think I spoke Spanish for more than six hours today... that is crazy! But, it was great. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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