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Spanish Log (TAC 2014 Team Lobo) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 271 24 April 2011 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Today I have done lesson 40, and will probably go through it a few more times before bed.
Also listened to a bit of past LSLC in the car. Then I read through Assimil, lessons 1 to thirty-something, just looking at the Spanish side. This was a really useful exercise, as it means your spending quite some time thinking solely in Spanish. I was surprised to find that I understood maybe 98 % or more of what I read. Im gonna read up to the present lesson later, then maybe go back and do it all again. Once again, I cant believe how far Ive come in such a short time. If this method is anywehere near as good for languages with a different script, then Ill be learning French, and will never be far from an Assimil course. I just cant understand why Ive never seen this course in the UK. Perhaps I have somewhere as the logo looks vaguely familar. But its definetly in none of the major bookshops, and I've been looking in second hand bookshops and not seen it anywhere. Looking at all the positive reviews on this site, they are seriously missing a trick here. They could clean up. Well enough Assimil worship for the time being. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 18 of 271 28 April 2011 at 1:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Up to lesson 43 today. Really looking forward to getting to the Active Wave, not far now.
Also finished lesson 9 of the concertina method. I must say, I do like this method and am surprised Ive not seen more discusion on it. I only use it as a supplement though. I find that Assimil readings support those in Concertina, and vice versa. Looking at an old article in a Spanish finishing magazine, I was surprised to find that I could understand (to a large degree at least) most of it, and it was 4 or 5 pages long. I have started using a dictionary to look up words I dont know, then writing them in in pencil on the magazine. Sometimes understanding 1 word can be the key to undertanding a whole paragraph. I really dont know why I didnt start this practice from the start. Unfortunetly, I am doing a course for work, and have a large essay due in a months time. Its a pity because for a while now, all I have been able to think about is Spanish, and I enloy devoting as much time to it as I can. I'm sure I'l be able to mantain a consistent 1 1/2 a day though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 271 28 April 2011 at 9:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Hours that is.
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| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 20 of 271 30 April 2011 at 12:27am | IP Logged | ||
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lesson 45 today. 14 sentences to tackle this time.
Ive had a day off, and Ive spent most of it either listenening or reading to dialogues, as well as some new LSLC. The differences between the Spanish of Spain, and Latin American Spanish are becoming much more apparent. I watched a little bit of a columbian documentary with English subtitles. Every time I do this. I realise how far I have to go, but at the same time I want it more than ever. I have been studying for nearly 6 months now, which is kind of depressing. I think if youve never studied a language before, Spanish is nowhere as easy as its made out to be. I suppose part of learning your first language is about learning HOW to learn a language. For example I wish Id heard of Assimil before I started, I think that when the time comes to learn a new language, I will sart with Assimil after maybe the first 3 or 4 weeks. Also, I wasted a lot of time because I couldnt get my head around the fact that Spanish works in a different way to English I would say that Spanish is easy enough in that you can communicate basic ideas fairly quickly, but I would imagine that this is not too pleasant to listen to for Spanish ears. I want to get way beyond this, and be able to communicate in the Spanish speaking world as easily as I can in English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5181 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 21 of 271 30 April 2011 at 8:43am | IP Logged | ||
Don't worry too much about this. I've also been studying Spanish for 6 months. While some aspects of Spanish are easy and inviting to beginners like me, the fact remains that Spanish is a complex and sophisticated language. Anyways, Assimil and everything else you are doing sound good. Do you have plans to commence language exchanges with native Spanish speakers? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 22 of 271 30 April 2011 at 1:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Definetly. I have a very busy month ahead of me, so I wont be able to do this until at least June. But Ive been thinking about putting some cards in local colleges, to see if anyone would be interested in doing an exchange. I need to look into skype and chatrooms as well, but I need to buy a camera, and find somewhere else to put a computer, as I dont fancy doing it in the living room.
I may also try and get a couple of days in the north of Spain in the next month or to if I can afford it. I wish I lived somewhere with more Spanish speakers around me, as Im realy craving Spanish conversation, and Im not shy about chatting to strangers in the street. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 23 of 271 02 May 2011 at 1:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Lesson 47.
Loads of new vocabulary has been introduced over the last few lessons. Its scary how quickly this course moves. I think re-reading past lessons is very important. For some reason, it has just struck me as very odd that I now know some Spanish, and am so engaged with learning it. Prior to November, this would have been unthinkable. I think experiences with German at school really put me off, and I believed it was a near impossible task. So bearing that in mind, Im quite pleased with my efforts so far, and I have every reason to believe that one day il be able to call myself fluent (whatever that means). I really do have a passion for this language. It seems to express concepts in a much more concise way than English. I cant really pin down what it is that I like about it so much, but to me it really is beautiful. I am looking forward to the active wave. I have a busy few weeks ahead (a fortnight if Im lucky, a month if im not) so I will be using only Assimil in this time. This is probably the most efficent way to spend study time right now anyway. I have contacted a private tutor for help with pronounciation. I think this is the only aspect of the language that I am not comfortable learning on my own. I am going to see if I can get help with the pronounciation drills in the first 2 units of Platiquamos. Thats a course Im really looking forward to geting stuck into, but it makes a strong point that one should devote a lot of time to making sure ones accent is correct before progressing too far in the language. I see that some people are of the opinion that obtaining a good accent is not too important. I have been thinking about this a lot, and Im not sure that I agree. I am friends with several non-native speakers of English who have an amazing grasp of the language, but whose strong accents sometimes make them hard for people to understand. I think it would be a shame to invest a lot of time into learning a language, but then have native speakers struggle to understand you. I think I am looking at starting FSI in maybe September, or maybe even August. At that time I should have completed both the active and passive waves of Assimil, although I imagine that I will be working with the book in some way for most of the rest of the year. The hope is that the first level or 2 of fsi should fly by due to the practice Ive had with Assimil. Also, I think that if I started with fsi from the start, I would quickly become frustrated as it focuses on such small sections of the language. I am the kind of person who needs to have some sense of the bigger picture before focussing on the details. Edited by dbag on 02 May 2011 at 2:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5012 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 24 of 271 06 May 2011 at 12:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Started the active wave yesterday. I had been looking forward to this for some time.
I had no problems translating lesson 1 from English into Spanish. I did this verbally in the first case, but later in the day I decided to write down the dialogue from memory. A strange thing happened last night. For some reason. I found myself in a kind of semi-sleep, which must have lasted for a good 3 hours. All this time, Assimil dialogues where running through my head, and I could undertand them. Many of the sentences where ones which I wouldnt normally be able to bring to my conscious awareness. I am taking this as a sign that my subconscious is effectivly absorbing the content. I have also found since day 1 that various sentences would just pop into my head, completly unbidden. Sometimes these are sentences which I havent consciously remembered, or which I struggled with in the book. And yet when they pop into my head, I can understand them. I think in part, this is due to the fact that Assimil constantly reintrouduces old material. which supports new material. So the context of the dialogues, and the words you already know, should give you big clues as to the meaning of words you dont. I did lesson 2 of the active wave today. I decided to do everything in writing this time, and included all of the exercises. Doing it this way, you realise that there is actually a lot of content in even the simplest of Assimil lessons. The only mistake I made (twice) was writing "cansada" instead of "cansado". Doesnt this mean "married" instead of "tired"? Other than that , I was able to prouduce a complete page of Spanish text with no mistakes, which was incredibly satisfying. I can see this being a hard task in later lessons though. Later on, I will be repeating this verbally. The passive wave lessons are taking much longer to do. I like to have a good understanding of each lesson before I move on, but dont worry too much if this is not possible, as I revisit these lessons regularly. Edited by dbag on 01 June 2011 at 1:06am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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