44 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian
| Message 41 of 44 23 April 2015 at 12:54am | IP Logged |
Today I followed a recipe in Spanish and made arroz al horno for some of my family members, and it was a success!
Converting metric measurements was more time consuming than using Spanish, honestly. Although I'm sure I
could've found a suitable recipe in English, it was fun following along in Spanish. I picked up some new cooking-
specific vocabulary, too.
Review is still going steady, I'm not making giant leaps or working too intensively, just a tiny bit a day to ease back
into studying more consistently. I have been slacking on listening/watching in Spanish, though.
2 persons have voted this message useful
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian
| Message 42 of 44 30 April 2015 at 4:49am | IP Logged |
Spanish
Lesson 7-9 FSI Basic Course
Español Podcast #25-27
Lingualia B2 Lección 11-15
Read a few articles online about the Spanish housing bubble (assigned in Relaciónate: Comunicación avanzada)
Read from ¡Asco de vida! and ¡Tenía que decirlo!
Watched a couple hours worth of video on Youtube
2 episodes of Aquí no hay quien viva
1 episode of Las que se avecina
Dissected the script of the first episode of Las que se avecina
Read a few chapters of Taxi
Lots of self-talk
Spanish could have used a lot more attention the past month than I gave it, but I did use and practice it pretty
steadily. I'm finally reading Taxi again and enjoying it more than usual. Even though I sometimes double check
and look up meanings of idioms in English, I'm finding I can figure them out on my own through context now.
FSI is painful for me to do in Spanish, but I keep doing it in hopes that later lessons will help me make tricker
tenses and combinations of tenses automatic.
Apart from that, I used an old gift card to purchase Relaciónate: Comunicación avanzada and the access code.
My main reason for getting the text was to use the access code to watch Las que se avecina with subtitles and a
downloadable script. I'm so happy to have gotten this resource as it's the exact type of show with subtitles I've
been dreaming of but couldn't get ahold of: fast-paced, dialogue heavy, full of jokes and colloquial language use,
and from Spain. It's actually some sort of spin off of Aquí no hay quien viva, and all the seasons and episodes
are available to watch for free on the network's website (although not with subtitles.) As a disclaimer, it's not
that I want to discriminate against other varieties of Spanish, but that understanding casual Peninsular Spanish is
an important part of enjoying socializing with my boyfriend and his family and friends and is therefore a priority
in my particular situation . I don't necessarily aim to speak like the characters in the show, but it is important
that I can understand them. Hopefully working through the handful of episodes alongside their scripts will make
a difference in my comprehension.
Romanian
Chapter 1-5 of Discover Romanian
Lesson 1-6 of DLI Romanian
Added about 50 words to my dictionary
Watched some of Learn Romanian with Nico's videos on youtube
Listened to a little bit of Romanian rap
Review for Romanian went really well. I didn't get as far with the dictionary as I originally wanted to, but I made
the decision to put off working through You CAN speak Romanian! until I finish Discover Romanian. It's a more
concise and challenging text, and I would rather use it as a follow up so that I can push through Discover
Romanian more quickly. Another reason for the dictionary not being so complete is that I found out some of the
declensions from "dictionare.com" were unreliable and I've since switched to using "dex.ro" to check declinations
of nouns. The language is slowly starting to build up and swim around my brain again. It's halting and slow
when I try to speak it, nowhere near as fluid as my Spanish, but it's fun surprising myself with how much I can
describe and say when I try to improvise without my texts or DLI materials. The review served me well, but it's
time to move on and make progress in Romanian. I'll continue keeping track of what I do in both languages.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian
| Message 43 of 44 21 June 2015 at 6:43am | IP Logged |
Still alive! Language learning took a back seat the last month and a half after I unexpectedly landed my first full-
time real grown-up person job. I came home every day pretty drained and without much desire to do anything
but eat and sleep, and it got me kind of down. But since then the training period has come and gone, I'm feeling
more competent, and even though I just started, I had a mini break with my boyfriend as I notified my employers
I had this planned before accepting the offer. The break was not only good for processing all that I'd learned
work-wise in such an intensive timeframe but also really nice for my language motivation. I dropped my partner
off at the airport tonight and am now taking a moment to reflect on the time.
We'll rarely use Spanish together if it's just us two but for some reason ended up speaking it for about twenty
minutes straight before bed the other night. In the past I'd had some difficulty speaking to him privately using
Spanish (a combination of it not being as convenient as English for us and my own hang ups and nerves about
sounding awkward or being a burden to communicate with) but it ended up flowing so surprisingly well. Being
relaxed and in a silly mood made a huge difference in my ability to keep the conversation going and instead of
that nervous "Oh crap I missed what was said three sentences ago and now I'm lost to the point of no return"
feeling, I felt great! That being said, I'm still not so sure where my Spanish skills fall these days. Am I at B2? On
a good day, maybe... but good days are not entirely common. Even without putting in much effort lately though,
things are improving.
Romanian was not forgotten, either! I hesitated and blurted out bunches of sentences (taking painstaking
amounts of time to think them into existence of course) to my boyfriend throughout. Some were really simple
"That is good" type sentences, some were impressively descriptive in my humble opinion, but most were just me
saying inane stuff and having fun. The reaction I get is always pure delight and encouragement from my
boyfriend, so it's easy to be eager to speak Romanian in particular when he's around. Although, I'd like to maybe
find some motivation to learn more outside of that factor, like I already had before even meeting him with
Spanish.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian
| Message 44 of 44 27 June 2015 at 10:05pm | IP Logged |
It's long overdue, but I finally finished reading Taxi! With my second book done and dusted, I decided my third
will be a return to La sombra del viento. I'm starting it fresh as I don't remember much, and I don't think I'll write
vocabulary down this time, just look it up as needed. It's more enjoyable and more likely that I'll finish this way I
think.
Besides that I went through some Lingualia lessons for Spanish during free moments at work and talked/thought
to myself in Spanish pretty frequently.
I also managed to play around with Romanian DLI, Discover Romanian, and You CAN speak Romanian!
throughout the week before going to bed. I haven't completed any new lessons but managed to start learning
them and when I feel unsure of going further, I'll just play with and review what I've completed already. It's
satisfying to come back to something that seemed tricky the last time and feel it suddenly making sense.
1 person has voted this message useful
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