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Spanish Log (TAC 2014 Team Lobo)

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MichaelM204351
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5434 days ago

151 posts - 173 votes 
Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew
Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish

 
 Message 9 of 271
20 April 2011 at 3:16am | IP Logged 
Sweet! This was very encouraging to read. I just started Spanish with ease today. The first lesson was a little too simple/boring, but I've used Assimil before and I know it's good stuff, so I'm excited. In the beginning, did either of you do more than one lesson a day, or just stick with the one?
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Irish_Goon
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6405 days ago

117 posts - 170 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 10 of 271
20 April 2011 at 2:34pm | IP Logged 
MichaelM204351 wrote:
Sweet! This was very encouraging to read. I just started Spanish with ease today. The first lesson was a little too simple/boring, but I've used Assimil before and I know it's good stuff, so I'm excited. In the beginning, did either of you do more than one lesson a day, or just stick with the one?


I did my own kind of weird thing. I started out doing 6-10 lessons (time permitting) every day for the first few days until the lessons got really difficult that I needed to slow down. I reviewed all previous lessons that I did while continuing to do at least one new lesson per day (even if I didn't really get it) which didn't matter because it would get reviewed anyway. The 6-10 slowed down to about 2-3 lessons daily because of difficulty as well as all of the review time that I was putting into other lessons.

Also I had started the active wave early somewhere between lesson 25-30. After I had gotten comfortable with my passive abilities from all that review in previous lessons, I would switch to active and redo those lessons like an active review over and over again (like the passive review I was doing).

So all in all it was like three waves for me. The first was the chunk of lessons I was doing a day, second was all of the review (that moved from passive to active), and third was that one lesson I jumped ahead and did even if I did not know what was going on in it.

Kind of strange but it kept me going.
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dbag
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5012 days ago

605 posts - 1046 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 11 of 271
21 April 2011 at 12:56am | IP Logged 
Myself, I have been doing just 1 lesson a day. Thats not to say that I didnt think about doing more, as that could definetly be more than possible.

I think that doing just one lesson a day can seem a lttle too easy, especially when you get into the habit of trying to learn as much Spanish as you can in a day. I was used to doing around 2 - 3 hours of study a day, and I had begun to feel that this volume of study was necessary, especially with there being virtually no Spanish speakers to practice with in my area.
I read so many posts from people like Fanatic, who stress that a lot can be achieved with Assimil in only half an hour a day.

So I figured Id try it that way, but continue studying using my other methods at the same time.

I suppose the difference is, for me using Assimil doesnt seem like studying, rather just casually reading (which I love doing anyway) and listening along to some very short dialogues.

The only thing I have being doing in a different way to how Assimil suggest, is I have been regularly reading / listening to old lessons.

When youve got a few passive lessons under your belt, you can spend hours doing this as youve got so much material to recover. But I usually only do this when I feel too lazy to engage with more intense methods.

That being said, this is still probably just as effective as the more intensive methods.

I am not too sure whether I wll keep up with all this re-reading when I move on to the active phase though.

Edited by dbag on 21 April 2011 at 12:57am

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dbag
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5012 days ago

605 posts - 1046 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 12 of 271
22 April 2011 at 1:35pm | IP Logged 
Well, how best to use the Easter weekend?
So far, Ive been reading and listenening to lesson 38 of Assimil. Last night I spent about two hours reading through old lessons, then fell asleep listening to Cuentos Infantiles. They make much more sense than they did a few months ago. I feel as though Im on the verge of a breakthrough comprehension wise.

This morning I rewatched episode 7 of Destinos. I can catch the general drift, which I suppose is the point.

Occasionaly, I have been redoing some old LSLC lessons. I cant believe how much vocabulary I had forgotten.

I wonder whether my detour into Pimsleur has actually held me back?
I think I need to complete Pimsleur 3 at some point just to have a sense of completion, but it kind of seems like a waste of time. I just dont know.

It is amazing how much more LSLC covers in such a short time. You are conjugating verbs and using full length sentences right from the beginning. So after each lesson, you really feel like you have got somewhere. With Pimsleur, I would say you only get this feeling after maybe every five lessons. Thats 2 and a half hours!

My only concern with LSLC is that I will probably need to listen to each lesson several times over a long period of time to properly internalise the content.

But the lessons are very engaging, so this shouldnt be too much of a problem.
I couldnt even contemplate doing this with Pimsleur.

Strangely, I seem to make more mistakes when using Pimsleur, even though it moves very slowly, with very little content. I wonder whether this may be due to the boredom factor? I find I tend to dfift off too much.

The Pimsleur material IS very good though, but I think the tedium it induces means you end up resenting it.



Edited by dbag on 24 April 2011 at 1:30am

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dbag
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5012 days ago

605 posts - 1046 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 13 of 271
22 April 2011 at 2:35pm | IP Logged 
Oh yes!
Searching through the shed, Ive just come across a very old copy of " The concertina method, Spanish in Twenty Lessons".
I remember leafing through this book years ago. Its fantastic, and surprisingly similar to Assimil.
This is definetly going to be incorparated into the daily plan.
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MichaelM204351
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5434 days ago

151 posts - 173 votes 
Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew
Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish

 
 Message 14 of 271
23 April 2011 at 2:10am | IP Logged 
What is LSLC?
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dbag
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5012 days ago

605 posts - 1046 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 15 of 271
23 April 2011 at 11:24am | IP Logged 
Learning Spanish Like Crazy.

There is a very lengthy thread devoted to it here:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=71

As you will see, the company behind it used some very questionable marketing techniques, and things got quite heated.

There doesnt seem to be too much else mentioned about it on this site. Its a good program, although not perfect.
I would say I learnt much more in the first half of level 1 LSLC, than I did in 2 whole levels of Pimsleur.

However, as you cover so much in such a short time, I find I do forget quite a bit as well.

Im not too sure if Im on the right track, because Im using Assimil which is a Castillian accent, and then LSLC, which is Latin American. There are definetly some big differences.

But to me, one of the big attractions of learning Spanish, is that Il be able to communicate with people from all over the world. So I think its probably important to learn both.

Edited by dbag on 23 April 2011 at 11:26am

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dbag
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5012 days ago

605 posts - 1046 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 16 of 271
24 April 2011 at 1:29am | IP Logged 
Well, early yesterday, I wrote that I felt like my comprehension was on the verge of a breakthrough.

Well, flicking through the channels last night, I came across the film "volver".

Wow, the speech in this film is just so quick, I was lost without the subtitles. It made me realsise how far I have to go, because I want to get to the level where I understand Films, Tv etc almost 100%

I suppose Destinos will help with this to some degree, so Il try to make it a habit to watch 1 episode a day. From reading through other peoples logs, its seems that one thing people complain about after finishing Assimil, Platiquemos etc, is that they can speak, read and write, and yet they struggle with listenening comprehension.

So Il do what I can to avoid this problem.

Todays studies:
Spent maybe 45 minutes this morning reading and listening to lesson 39 of Assimil, plus reading through old lessons for a bit.

Then I listened to a good hour of "Radio Nacional de Espana" while reading through this site- not understanding much, but I suppose it helps to absorb as much of the language as possible.

Also, spent a good 2 hours on the train as I went to visit friends, and spent the whole time listenening to recent Assimil lessons.

I then watched episode 8 of destinos, plus spent maybe 20 minutes reading through the concertina method.

I will be reading and listenening to a bit more Assimil before bed, as well as anything else I can think of cramming in.

Edited by dbag on 24 April 2011 at 8:10pm



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