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James29’s Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| damonkerr Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4823 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, Italian | Message 57 of 668 20 September 2011 at 12:03am | IP Logged | |||||
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Wow! Great log!
I just spent my entire day of work reading your log between actual work. It seems you have really improved and with a lot of hard work, very inspiring. I love that you have such a passion and joy for learning. I hope to enjoy my Italian half as much as you, and if so, I will be proficient in no time. Thanks for the inspiracion and good luck! 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 58 of 668 24 September 2011 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Damon, thank you for your comment. It inspired me to go back and read much of my log. Unfortunatly, I did not read the whole thing. I read the first few pages and, you are right, I have progressed very much. It was kind of nice to think back on some of the challenges I had earlier on.
In terms of my Spanish this week, I finished FSI lesson 18 today. I am definitely going to stick with it. I am irritated at myself for being "scared" of FSI based on all the posts on this forum that say it is torture. I noticed that the audio for lesson 18 is more than an hour. I like to read through the dialogue, notes and grammar points before I do a lesson, but I don't have that much time to do all that and do an hour of audio. Plus, the lessons now do not have the conversation stimulus on audio so I feel I should read those and also read the reading sections. These lessons are simply getting longer. I really like them and still feel it is exactly what I need. I cannot wait to get to the lessons where they drill the conditional and subjunctive. I am tempted to simply skip ahead to those lessons, but I won't. I had a meetup where I saw someone who I had not spoken with in more than three months. He was genuinely impressed with the progress I had made over the last three months. It really made me feel good. I also had a morning meetup. Both meetups were pretty good in terms of learning, but I wonder how long they are going to last. I did quite a bit of skyping this week. I bet I did more than 5 hours of talking this week (much of it earlier today). I talked with some new people. It was kind of neat to learn about new countries. I am concerned that if I do skyping in the morning instead of FSI (like I did earlier this week) I will not progress as fast. Skype seems to be good for gaining fluidity and confidence in speaking, but I don't feel like I am learning too much. I listented/read several chapters in El Leon, La Bruja y El Ropero. It seems to be getting easier, but I am sure it is just because I am more comfortable with listening to the audio and following the text. I am now "caught up" and am on the same chapter (chapter 12) on both my reading wave and audio wave. I'd like to read the book again in English and then listen to it in Spanish again. I spoke Spanish on the phone a little bit for work this week. It went fine. It makes me realize I really can do it if I need to. I often tell people to slow down, but as long as they are cooperative we understand each other and we can accomplish what we need to do. I hope this trip thing works out. The closer it gets the harder it seems to be. My work is starting to concern me with planning ahead. The more I think about it, the more I would like to go somewhere different than Puerto Rico. I hope the plane tickets do not get more expensive as more time passes. Oh well, time will tell. I am surprised that I cannot remember doing anything else this week. I am still having fun. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| talkl Diglot Groupie Israel Joined 5228 days ago 51 posts - 61 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 59 of 668 28 September 2011 at 12:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
I listen to Spanish radio at work too but the fact is that most of the times it is just salsa songs that are played in the background. I feel like you that maybe we should start listening to something else. the perfect thing would be a radio station that talks about foreign affairs or a very specific field of interest that we can relate to. Until now i haven't found something close. Did you find something better to do with your time in work? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| AndrewW Newbie United States Joined 4999 days ago 29 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 60 of 668 29 September 2011 at 4:13am | IP Logged | |||||
Why not some podcasts? I've been doing that quite a bit lately. Even music podcasts are good, as you get some commentary along with music. Just pick one that fits your interests, like you say. 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 61 of 668 01 October 2011 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the comments. It does seem like the time at work could be more productive. It is tough, however, to concentrate on the radio while I am at work. My job really requires my full attention so the radio is "background" almost by necessity. The few times I tried to play talk radio in Spanish I found that I totally blocked it out and it annoyed me more than anything. For a while I was playing the Assimil dialogues on a continuous rotation instead of the radio and that was o.k., but I eventually tuned it out. Perhaps playing the same songs over and over again would be a way to go. Either way, I really do not rely on my time at work for any productive Spanish study.
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5367 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 62 of 668 01 October 2011 at 7:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Today marks the end of my second year of learning Spanish. It feels like a great accomplishment.
I finished FSI lesson 20 today. I found the first few drills extremely difficult. I could not even do them the second time through. I spent some extra time getting the drills down after I finished the second run through the lesson. I still did not get to a point where I could do the drills, but I am going to move on anyway. I am totally skipping the conversations and the readings at the end of the lessons. I simply do not have time for anything but the sections with audio. I also did some work in Assimil Spanish Without Toil, but I basically just listented to the next three dialogues several times. In terms of secondary study material, I read and reread/listened to one more chapter in El Leon, La Bruja y El Ropero. Great book for Spanish learning. On a long drive I listened to all of the dialogues in Living Language's Beyond the Basics. That is really a good course. I enjoyed listenting to the dialogues. I watched a half hour economics television show in Spanish. Once reading along with the Spanish transcript and once just listening/watching. It was great. The speech was clear and of a consistent pace. The video showed visuals of what was being discussed so it was even easier to follow along and understand. I think I may shadow the video sometime. I will definitely watch it a few more times. I spoke with a deaf Puerto Rican friend. He can understand me if I yell and allow him to lip read so we could talk quite effectively. This was really a great conversation. He was quite complimentary of my Spanish and we talked about many different subjects. This was definitely the highlight of my week. I did a couple short skype talks. They were not that great. I feel like I have such a limited amount of free time that I don't think doing language exchange is really worthwhile sometimes. I watched local newscasts on an online Univision channel three or four evenings. We do not get Univision here so it is not news for my area, but it is still interesting. I found it extremely difficult (almost impossible) to really understand. I could determine the basic topic of the story but could not understand the specifics at all. Earlier this week I was quite discouraged. Watching the news was discouraging because it makes me realize that I really have a very long way to go. I also tried listening to three new Assimil lessons without first reading the book. I could not really understand them no matter how many times I listened to the audio. Comprehension of naturally spoken Spanish is still almost impossible for me now. During the middle of the week I really did not even feel like spending time with Spanish. Having the talk with my Puerto Rican friend, however, really motivated me and got me back on track. I noticed that the FSI 4 audio is now on the FSI website. This is great! Now I am not going to have to worry about how/where to get the audio for level 4. I am definitely going to continue with FSI. I really like it. I think many of the comments on this forum are too negative. I do not think it is as mind-numbing and boring as many people say. Work is shaping up in a way that I think I will soon have an idea of my schedule for Jan and Feb. Once I get my work issues nailed down I will start to think more seriously about taking a trip. My Puerto Rican friend suggested I go somewhere other than Puerto Rico. He said I would be better off going somewhere that I can be totally immersed in the language. We talked about the options I am considering and he suggested Guatemala. Finishing my second full year has gotten me thinking about what I will be doing during my third year. I would like to finish FSI and Without Toil, but other than that I will do whatever feels right at the time. As long as I do a little bit every day I will be happy. I have progressed very far over the last year and if I continue at this pace I will be quite happy. I would really like to improve my listening abilities over the next year. 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 63 of 668 03 October 2011 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Congratulations on the milestone James!
I have just been looking at the DLI basic modular course, and it seems like its main focus is building listening comprehension. It is another massive , very comprehensive course like fsi. There are hours and hours of listening exercises there. There is a link to it somewhere on the site. I was also just talking to my Spanish tutor about listening comprehension, and I mentioned that I often listen to Radio Nacional de Espana. He suggested clicking on the station called Todas las Noticias , because the news on there is repeated in a loop, which means you get several chances to understand what you have heard. He told me he watches BBC news 24 for the same reason, in order to build his English comprehension. Edited by dbag on 03 October 2011 at 5:27pm 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 64 of 668 10 October 2011 at 2:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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I forgot both my FSI and Assimil books at work over the weekend. Fortunately, I had El Leon, La Bruja y El Ropero. I read and then listened/read a few chapters this weekend. I have now finished 15 of 17 chapters. Earlier in the week I did FSI lesson 22. One of the prior lessons (maybe 20?) was very long. It had 1.5 hours of audio. It was not hard, but it really sapped the motivation out of me for the next couple lessons. I can handle a full hour, but I think that is my limit. In a way I am kind of glad I forgot FSI at work this weekend. Assimil never gave me the feeling that I have now. It never felt like a chore. FSI is a great course, but is starting to feel a bit like a chore.
That being said, I am actually pretty excited to start a new lesson tomorrow. I think if I pace myself with FSI things will be fine. Hopefully I will do two new lessons this coming work week. Often times in the middle of lessons I think to myself how much I am learning. In addition to working on my audio book, I did a couple skype talks. I have a relatively new partner I have been working with a little lately. I have learned that skype is not really fun for me if it is focused mostly on learning. I prefer the conversations that are simply discussions without a lot of "teaching." I had a meetup. It was different. There were many new people. I was one of the more experienced Spanish speakers. There was only one native speaker. This was the first meetup I have been at where a significant amount of English was used. I do not really like that. I watched about an hour of the next economics lesson. I noticed the website now has the transcript available for the next lesson. I could not resist watching. Parts of the class I could follow quite easily. Some parts I could not follow. I love it. I will watch the series again sometime. I also watched the half hour economics TV program again. I think it could be very good for learning because of the combination of video, audio, transcript and interesting subject matter. Hopefully someday I will take a week or two and really learn it thoroughly. These are the things that are making this Spanish journey so worthwhile. Dbag, thanks for your comments above. After reading your post I spent some time and learned a bit about the DLI course. It does look like a very thorough course. I am not sure I totally understand how it works and I am shocked there is not more discussion about DLI on this forum. It is free and seems like a very thorough course. I do not see myself doing anything other than FSI and Using Spanish for a while. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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