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Slikew’s Spanish Dreams - FSI by July ’15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4650 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 41 of 51 27 May 2015 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Eres un buen ejemplo para nosotros. ¡Felicidades!
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| slikew Groupie United States Joined 4065 days ago 79 posts - 95 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 42 of 51 10 June 2015 at 8:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Unit 52 complete. I could never get good traction on this one, but I'm finally through it.
Onto Unit 53 and I'm already making good progress. I've read through the conversation twice and plan to do it 2 more times today. I'm finding more and more than listening once and then reading several times through the transcript gives me the best results. I'm hoping to finish this unit by the end of next week, giving today, tomorrow and Friday for the convesation. I like to hit 99% on the conversations if at all possible. I expected to be complete with FSI by May, but now it looks like July is a more accurate timeline. I'm also picking up steam in reading the Bible. I'm in Exodus right now and it's becoming easier and easier to understand. Perhaps I'll just change the name of this log to Slikew's Spanish Journey. I wish I could import my other log so that all of the journey was captured in one place. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rtickner Diglot Groupie AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3510 days ago 61 posts - 95 votes Speaks: English*, GermanB2 Studies: French, Spanish | Message 43 of 51 11 June 2015 at 3:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Congratulations on your progress in FSI so far, I admire your fortitude. Bet that coffee cake is going to be mighty fine when you cross the finish line of this
marathon. Wonderful that you have a series of books (the Bible) which you most likely already know in English to move on to, as well as a strong desire to read them (assuming you're religious). A few questions: 1. After getting this far in the FSI course, how would you rate this course against other courses you have done (if applicable)? 2. How would you estimate your current level on the CEFR scale? As always, following your log with interest. Keep it up! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| slikew Groupie United States Joined 4065 days ago 79 posts - 95 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 44 of 51 11 June 2015 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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rtickener- Thank you for your compliments. If hard work makes a reward sweeter, then this coffee cake is going to be amazing.
Yes, I really do enjoy reading the Bible in Spanish. I have a very strong base in it in English, which helps me know words without having to look them up. I'm sure some would call me "religious," but I am really just a life that has been saved and completely changed through faith in what Jesus did on the Cross; bearing my sins and taking my punishment, being buried and rising the third day, offering salvation freely to all who call on His name in faith. What Jesus has done in my life is the entire reason I'm learning Spanish. I want to share the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ and tell everyone I can about how he saved me and about the hope and life that is in His name alone. Answers to Questions: 1) I took all available beginner Spanish courses (4 total) at my state university several years ago and I have also completed the free Podcast Coffee Break Spanish (80 episodes in total). I would say that FSI is the most in depth course of the three and will take you the furthest. The uni courses laid a ground work, howbeit a very shallow one (remember a verb form and regurgitate it on the test). Coffee Break Spanish followed the university pattern of learning as far as the structure. This course refreshed my university learning and built more practical usage of Spanish and helped me build basic vocabulary. 2) I would rate myself as a B1 on the CEFR scale. I hope to achieve a B2 by early next year. I know that some would be much farther along than me, given the time I have studied, but I have a busy schedule. Also, I feel, like many others, that learning this second language has taught me my own personal style of learning a language. If I started to learn a third language, I believe I would progress faster than I have with Spanish. As a side note, if I ever decided to learn a third language, it would be one of the following: a Tribal language of some sort, Mandarin Chinese or Portuguese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| slikew Groupie United States Joined 4065 days ago 79 posts - 95 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 45 of 51 02 July 2015 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Unit 53 complete. I'm getting pretty tired of FSI honestly. I'm going to finish it and will be glad when I do. It certainly has been a marathon and I'm ready to be done with drills.
I'm enjoying reading the Bible in Spanish and listening to sermons a lot more. I listened to a message and was hitting around 85%-90% comprehension.2-3 months ago I listened to the same sermon with only 60% comprehension. I feel that's a pretty substantial gain. Bible Reading: Exodus 34 - I hope to finish this up in the next few days and then complete Leviticus and Numbers this month as well. If I could also throw in Deuteronomy, that would be great, as it's one of my favorite books in the Bible. Let's finish this FSI!!!!!!!! Conversational Note: I spoke briefly to a Guatemalan who was working near my place of employment. Pretty interesting as I just bought a history/tour guide of Guatemala. The one thing I notice in the history of Latin American nations is military control, deep political corruption and the killing/persecution of their own populations. It's hard to progress regarding education, infrastructure, etc when you're killing your own people. Edited by slikew on 02 July 2015 at 4:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5254 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 46 of 51 02 July 2015 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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I followed a similar path to you with the Old Testament in Haitian Creole. Genesis and Exodus were my favorites. Leviticus is very repetitive, but that's really good for language-learning.
Right now, in Kreyòl, I am using the "Thru The Bible" podcasts with downloadable mp3 audio and pdf texts. It's also available in Spanish at A Través de la Biblia. It has some music to skip over but the substance of it is a kind of Bible study of each book of the Bible in common language. You may find it useful to help train listening at this stage. After finishing FSI, you may be very close to the forum's definition of Basic Fluency.
These are simpler, less complex, guidelines than CEFR. I find them to be a little easier to grasp. Anyway, well done, Slikew! Edited by iguanamon on 14 July 2015 at 8:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5001 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 47 of 51 02 July 2015 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Slikew, I totally admire your dedication. How many units are in the Spanish FSI course? You must be really close to the end by now. I'm looking forward to reading of your goodbye to the course. Edited by Cavesa on 02 July 2015 at 8:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| slikew Groupie United States Joined 4065 days ago 79 posts - 95 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 48 of 51 14 July 2015 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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@iguanamon - thank you for the encouragement and suggestion about Through the Bible. I may use A Traves de la Biblia for my listening work after I'm done with FSI.
I don't know that I'll update my level to Basic Flunecy just yet. I changed it over to Intermediate for the time being. @ Cavesa - Thank you very much. There are 55 units total in the FSI Basic Spanish course. I'm on the last 10 minute section of Unit 54, which I hope to finish up this week. You see, these reviews could be easily skipped, but if I just skip over it, when I haven't mastered it, what's the point of going on? What have I actually accomplished if I don't get it at all down? I want to achieve fluncy one day and maybe will sit the C1 one day. Speaking of testing, I'm thinking about taking the B1 test at the end of this year or early next year. Perhaps that seems low, but I seem to be doing pretty well when I look at the practice test. I think I may be a bit further off from the B2, so I'd like to at least get one test under my belt and get a real feel for the format,build my confidence. I will be meeting up with an Ecuadorian tonight to do a lanugage exchange. This will be my first official exchange, which I'm excited to do. Also, I have a Honduran friend in town who I may meet up with next week. He is well educated and speaks clearly, which I appreciate. I just started the book of Leviticus and hope to finish it and Numbers this month. I also plan on finishing FSI this month. Just a little bit left!!!! On a somehwhat related note....My English pronunciation has become a little sloppy, my accent almost sounds different. I think it has to do with the fact that my in laws from Britain are staying with my wife and I 9 weeks (London and Manchester accents) while I plod on in Spanish. It's a weird mezcla, and often I feel like I'm speaking with a slight "latino accent." I also find myself wanting to insert Spanish words that describe the way I'm feeling or describe a situation. Kinda of like "mezcla" a few sentences ago. It's nothing forced, it just happens. Edited for spelling mistakes. Edited by slikew on 14 July 2015 at 6:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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