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Arthaey’s Spanish Log (TAC 2015) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Arthaey Groupie United States arthaey.com Joined 5038 days ago 97 posts - 155 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 45 22 December 2014 at 12:51am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Background
I'm taking a year off and spending all of 2015 in Mexico to improve my Spanish. So the TAC 2015 challenge sounds like a perfect way to stay accountable during my travels. This is my first log here, so comments, questions, and suggestions are all very welcome! Language Skill Level(s) I'm currently at a high intermediate level, albeit with differing levels if you break it down by language skill:
I took a guided "quiz" of the CEFR rubric, which placed me where I expected for my level of Spanish in the various language skills: C2/C1 reading/writing & B2/B1 listening/speaking. What I'm hoping to get out of my time in Mexico is bumping my verbal skills up into the C-level too. Language Practice There are a couple places online where I'll be putting my written (and maybe even spoken) Spanish practice, if anyone is really that curious. ;)
Study Plan Before my trip, I've been ramping up my usage of Spanish (mostly on the passive skills, unfortunately). I fly to León, Guanajuato, México on January 6th, at which point I should have much more interesting things to report here on my log. :) Edited by Arthaey on 27 December 2014 at 12:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 2 of 45 22 December 2014 at 1:39am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Interesting! Will you be studying formally in school, or informally through travel/immersion?
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| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3817 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 3 of 45 22 December 2014 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Nice! Looking forward to it. :)
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| Arthaey Groupie United States arthaey.com Joined 5038 days ago 97 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 45 22 December 2014 at 7:23am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm spending at least one week taking a Mexican cooking & Mexican politics classes at two different language schools. Other than that, I'm playing it very much by ear (heh, no language-learning pun intended) and mostly relying on travel/immersion. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Arthaey Groupie United States arthaey.com Joined 5038 days ago 97 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 45 22 December 2014 at 9:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I've put up my (first-ever!) audio clip of me speaking Spanish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80t20HIYI4s Feedback is welcome, either here or on YouTube. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Arthaey Groupie United States arthaey.com Joined 5038 days ago 97 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 45 22 December 2014 at 11:58am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Does anyone have suggestions on what to say, when recording oneself to practice
speaking? I don't enjoy "smalltalk" nor just going on and on extemporaneously. What do others do? I could read a little bit from the news, I suppose, or from a book. Or maybe from (corrected) journal entries that I wrote. Other/better/more interesting suggestions appreciated! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5857 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 7 of 45 22 December 2014 at 12:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Is there anything in particular you are interested in? I often write about things that i'm interested in and come up with short stories (that sometimes continue for a couple chapters). You can talk about a hobby, a problem you had recently, etc.
Generally i think you get a better idea of how you speak when you aren't reading from a script, if you want to talk about a news item try giving a summary of what you read rather than reading verbatim. An introduction wouldn't hurt, either, talking about how long you've studied Spanish, why, what your plans are, how you use it, etc. Perhaps thinking up a couple "Érase una vez..." stories would be interesting as well. Mucha suerte, ¡que te diviertas mucho este año (y que aprendas un montón también, claro ;))! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Arthaey Groupie United States arthaey.com Joined 5038 days ago 97 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 45 22 December 2014 at 12:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Ugh, even thinking about doing that in English sounds terrible to me. I really really hate extemporaneous talking. (Conversations with give and take are different, and generally okay — the difference being that I can judge whether the other person is bored or wants to hear more on a particular thing I said.) On the other hand...
...I think the point you make here is very true. Maybe the secret is to make myself "talking point" notes, so it's not all off the top of my head, but neither is it completed "scripted". That technique worked well when I had to give speeches in school; maybe that class was good for something after all! ;) That doesn't really address the "am I boring you?" concern, but hopefully I'll get better about that over time, as I get feedback from my friendly neighborhood HTLAL folks. :)
Muchas gracias por tus ánimos. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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