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James29’s Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 33 of 668 23 May 2011 at 2:35am | IP Logged |
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Today I finished lesson 105 on my review of Assimil Spanish with Ease. It really makes "studying" Spanish quite enjoyable.
My previous note touches on some of my highlights over the past week. Since the last post I have also watched a few more of the economics courses. I have now gone through the first 4.6 hours of the series. I basically watch each 20-30 minute segment twice, sometimes three times. I don't think I have really done much else this week. I have been giving much thought to my future studies. I am going to do Michel Thomas Advanced when I am done with Assimil. Then I will do Assimil's Spanish Without Toil. I know, I have really been swearing to myself that I would do Using Spanish. What can I say? Without Toil just seems like it will be more "fun" right now. I am excited about doing it and I really have enjoyed the last several weeks where I can do one short Assimil lesson and then some native material. Hopefully I will stay motivated enough over the next year or so to eventually get to Using Spanish. 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 34 of 668 02 June 2011 at 2:26pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I have finished Assimil With Ease and am now almost done with Michel Thomas Advanced. Today I did lesson two of Assimil Spanish Without Toil. I am glad to be doing Without Toil. I am going to stick with one lesson of Without Toil per day as my primary Spanish method and then do secondary things if I feel like it and if I have the time.
Since my last post I have done quite a bit. I LRed the first story in Cajas de Carton several times. That was quite useful. I even shadowed the whole story once. Eventually I will do more work with the book. I have been continuing to listen/watch the economics courses. The last few have been harder to understand and I have to watch them at least one time with the English transcript. It is really rewarding to watch these courses. I have read several more chapters out of my New Life Version Bible. What a great book for someone learning to read Spanish. I read very slow, but I don't have any problems understanding it. Very occasionally there is a word I don't know and I have to glance at the translation. I had a few good skype sessions. Skype is great and very helpful if I am speaking in Spanish. I had to write a real letter in Spanish at work for the first time this week. That was a big challenge and I am realizing that my written skills are absolutely terrible. I really have done no Spanish writing at all other than the "chatting" on skype. My computer died a while ago so I think I may have lost some resources I had on the hard drive. I don't think I lost anything too important or anything I did not make CDs of. Edited by James29 on 02 June 2011 at 2:28pm 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 35 of 668 10 June 2011 at 3:54am | IP Logged |
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I am updating my log because I have been doing many different things and I feel like I am already forgetting some things I did this week.
I finished Without Toil lesson 10 today. I am glad I am doing it... but, I must say, the audio is painfully slow for me right now. I really think I will like the book. I finished Michel Thomas. It was well worthwhile and I might even do it again sometime in the future even though I could do it fairly easliy... except I had difficulty with the woulds, shoulds and coulds section. I read through the first two stories in Cajas de Carton... I did the second one several times. I can understand them quite well and when I read them slowly without the audio I can understand almost all of it (partly because I have read the English a few times). I listened to both stores several times on a long drive. When I listen to just the audio I still have some challenges understanding everything. I also did a couple good long skype sessions. One was very long. Another was with someone who only had o.k. English and when speaking in English I often had to resort to Spanish to explain things effectively. This was kind of cool because I kept switching to Spanish to make sure we understood each other. I had to talk with a Spanish speaker at work for about 20 minutes. It went very well. Some of my co-workers overheard and were amazed... they, of course, don't speak any Spanish so I could have been babbling and they would have still been impressed. I had a meetup. There were only four people, but it was probably the most useful meetup I have been to. We simply had a group conversation for a little over an hour. It was very nice and it made me see how much I am progressing. I have still been working my way through the economics courses. I really like it. The last few sessions have been harder to understand. I listen/watch three times - once w/ the Spanish transcript, then with the English, then with the Spanish again. I found some US History lectures with the transcripts and will keep them in mind for later. The economics course will certainly keep me busy for while. I am starting to listen to Spanish radio again while at work. I am still listening to Assimil Spanish with Ease dialogues on the way to work. All things considered things are going great. Edited by James29 on 10 June 2011 at 4:07am 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 36 of 668 12 June 2011 at 7:43pm | IP Logged |
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I am going to update my progress to get back on the once a week update schedule.
Today I did lesson 14 in Without Toil so I am a couple lessons ahead. I think I am now past the painfully slow part. I think it is neat that the lessons are interconnected now. With the review lesson it was kind of neat to listen to them all one after another. Also, I like the exercises MUCH better than in With Ease. There are not gaps in the audio so I listen and repeat them. I did a long text chat. I find when I am text chatting I often interchange between Spanish and English without even knowing it sometimes. I also read a couple chapters out of my New Life Biblia. I am struggling with the idea of moving into native material. On the one hand I feel like it is more interesting and it is what will be most fun. On the other hand, however, I feel like I learn much more when I spend it with Assimil of Living Language. I really want to keep learning as fast as possible. When I think about how much time I have spent on these economics courses I wonder if the time would have been better spent on Assimil. Not much else new since my last post. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| supertom Diglot Groupie Joined 4986 days ago 87 posts - 114 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 37 of 668 13 June 2011 at 12:11am | IP Logged |
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Hi James!
Read most of your log over the last few days. You are doing some good work! I have a question. Why are you doing Without Toil while you have already finished and learned most of what With Ease had to teach you? In my understanding, they are about the same course, only with a different name. Why going through the same material twice when you can also do something completely different? I do think that the two courses have different dialogues, so you will learn something from it. But my guess is that there is a huge overlap in vocabulary and in grammar. Thanks! 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 38 of 668 13 June 2011 at 3:00am | IP Logged |
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Tom, good question. I am wondering if it is a mistake or not. I guess I will find out soon. My logic was that I simply wanted something easy as I move more into native materials. Also, I really fear burning out if I do something too hard. Even on my third wave of With Ease I was learning a lot so I figured I would still get something out of Without Toil. I looked through Without Toil numerous times and it does look like it has significantly different material (although, you are right, it looks like it is roughly the same level and complexity as With Ease). I just like to have "fun" and Without Toil seemed like it would be most fun... and it does seem like it is going to be fun.
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 39 of 668 20 June 2011 at 2:58am | IP Logged |
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This week I learned that my plan is working well. I had many extra things to do at work and with my family so I had very little time this week for Spanish. I was able, however, to do one Assimil lesson each day. If I was trying to do an hour a day or an FSI lesson or even Using Spanish I probably would have failed to do a little every day. Because I only needed to squeak out about 20 minutes I was able to do it. Now things should get back on track.
Anyway, I also did one very short Skype talk and a meetup. The meetup was not too good simply because I was exhausted. 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 40 of 668 27 June 2011 at 3:53am | IP Logged |
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O.K., this was another week in which I appreciated my plan. Several days I was short on time and doing one Assimil lesson worked great. I did an Assimil lesson every day and I doubled up yesterday. The lessons are getting to a point where I am learning some new vocabulary and I am getting some siginficant benefit out of learning the lessons. I am also intrigued by the way the entire book seems like one long story.
I read/listened to a short story in Cajas de Carton. I like it. It has a good Mexican accent. I went to a dinner where there were a few native speakers and I participated in a couple conversations. It was probably the best my Spanish has ever been. I still, however, realized I missed some very important things because we also spoke in English. I tested out an FSI lesson tonight. I did the entire thing. It did not seem as mind numbing as people say. Perhaps that is just me, however. I had a good skype talk. I also had a long skype text chat. I also read/listened to several more chapters of my DHH Biblia. I realized my passport has expired so I started the renewal process. Hopefully that will get me more excited to start planning a trip to Spain or Puerto Rico. Edited by James29 on 27 June 2011 at 3:54am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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