slikew Groupie United States Joined 4065 days ago 79 posts - 95 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 17 of 43 04 November 2013 at 6:00pm | IP Logged |
Keep it up! How are you feeling with the language? Is it comfortable? Are you having an easy time? Challenges, etc?
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4044 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 18 of 43 04 November 2013 at 11:47pm | IP Logged |
Thanks slikew :)
I don't know if I'm noticing huge leaps ahead in fluency or anything like that. But I'm not sure if I would notice it even if I were making very fast progress. It's a bit like the fact that when you see someone every day, you don't see them ageing, if that makes sense.
I am find it difficult to practice quite so many hours, however. I may have been over-ambitious, but I'm too stubborn to give up quite yet.
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4044 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 19 of 43 11 November 2013 at 1:11am | IP Logged |
This week I realised quite how little I understand the preterite / imperfect distinction in Spanish. I know the how to form these tenses, and I understand certain use cases (e.g. using the imperfect where in English you would say "used to ..."), but I get the wrong answer a lot of the time.
I don't know whether I just have to learn all the use cases, or whether there is a definition or explanation of the distinction from which all the use cases follow clearly and logically. The Michel Thomas "line/dot" distinction doesn't seem to work all of the time.
On the bright side, I had a conversation over skype about cryptography and Internet security, which I never would have expected to be able to talk about. I'm sure my speech was riddled with mistakes, but I think I succeeded in making myself understood.
I can't give my time data for the week, because toggl is malfunctioning at the moment, but I hit my 20 hours.
Edited by samfrances on 11 November 2013 at 1:16am
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4044 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 20 of 43 11 November 2013 at 8:55am | IP Logged |
Toggl is working again. Here's my time data for the week beginning 4th November.
02:05:11 Assimil
00:56:53 Duolingo lessons
00:47:05 Flash cards
00:38:18 Free reading
00:50:42 Free writing
01:26:00 Evening class
01:31:48 Evening class homework and follow-up
00:13:23 Learning with Texts
00:16:18 Michel Thomas
03:29:48 Misc. grammar study
00:31:43 Notes in Spanish
02:31:33 Pimsleur
02:00:37 Skype conversation / lesson
02:42:36 Writing flash cards
20:01:55 TOTAL
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Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog
| Message 21 of 43 11 November 2013 at 12:58pm | IP Logged |
20 hours a week is a commitment! You'll progress amazingly fast at that rate!
I know that your plate is full right now - but I personally found Notes in Spanish more useful after I'd already
watched Destinos. Then I was able to jump right into the intermediate NiS podcasts with absolutely no problem. I
love both Destinos and NiS for improving listening comprehension.
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Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog
| Message 22 of 43 11 November 2013 at 1:03pm | IP Logged |
I saw that you mentioned watching Spanish movies on another forum. I've found that watching Spanish TV shows is
much more doable than movies, because you can get used to how individual actors/characters speak. The first few
episodes are always much harder than the last few episodes!
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4044 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 23 of 43 11 November 2013 at 2:27pm | IP Logged |
Stelle wrote:
20 hours a week is a commitment! You'll progress amazingly fast at that rate! |
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Thanks, I really appreciate the encouragement :)
Stelle wrote:
I know that your plate is full right now - but I personally found Notes in Spanish more useful after I'd already watched Destinos. Then I was able to jump right into the intermediate NiS podcasts with absolutely no problem. I love both Destinos and NiS for improving listening comprehension. |
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That's good to know. I've been struggling to transition from the Notes in Spanish beginners' podcasts to the intermediate, so maybe I'll try watching all of Destinos first and then see if it's easier.
Edited by samfrances on 11 November 2013 at 2:28pm
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4044 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 24 of 43 17 November 2013 at 11:49pm | IP Logged |
Not a particularly good week for language learning. After seven weeks, I've missed my target of 20 hours for the first time. I achieved my "back up" target of 15 hours, however, so all is not lost.
Week beginning 11th November
00:23:19 Assimil
01:55:29 Flash cards
02:50:11 Free reading
01:25:00 Evening class
01:11:38 Evening class homework follow-up
00:44:51 Misc. grammar study
01:05:55 Pimsleur
01:16:36 Schaum's grammar
02:12:12 Skype conversation / lesson
01:57:48 Writing flash cards
15:02:59 TOTAL
Edited by samfrances on 17 November 2013 at 11:51pm
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