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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 185 of 212 21 December 2014 at 10:53am | IP Logged | ||
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It's been quite a while since I updated, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been studying languages... some.
For our anniversary, my husband and I got the World of Warcraft expansion pack... now, there was this beautiful mount that you can get... a big, giant, two-headed dog. I wanted one, but I learned that you could only get it until January 5th, and you had to get up to level 100 and get your armor level up high enough to go get it first. So... I spent the last couple weeks spending a lot of time getting my character's level up, and then I went to get the mount. That doesn't mean that I haven't been doing any language... just not a lot. There were a couple of days when I forgot to do Anki, but I've been doing it on most days. I've been slowly learning the words, and my daily Anki review pile has shrunk. I like to keep it around 150 per day... and I don't like it above 200. It was going to be at 131 tomorrow, so I added 10 new words from Insurgente and Leal (when I read the book, I highlight words that I don't know). I'm up to page 186 in Leal. I slowed down in the book series partly because I was busy, but partly... this is weird... because during the 6 week challenge, I was trying to time my reading, rather than just reading. Anyway, I also have been reading some from the last issue of National Geographic. I haven't unpacked all of my desk items yet, so I just got out the one that I have. I read the first three pages without looking up a word. When I first started reading the National Geographic a year and a half ago, I had to look up multiple words in a paragraph. I haven't been doing anything in FSI. I'll have to try to find more time for that soon. While nothing major is really going on, slow and steady wins the race. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 186 of 212 22 December 2014 at 10:40am | IP Logged | ||
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I had a chance to get some reading done today. I'm up to page 230 in Leal now.
I once again added another 10 words to my Anki deck today. I still haven't gotten around to doing FSI... I want to find the box where I kept all my desk stuff before I moved; I have my FSI Spanish notebook that I was doing the excercises in... and I'm guessing that my missing National Geographic magazines are in there too. I looked through a few boxes today. I found my college Spanish book, but not what I was really looking for. Maybe I'll look around some for them tomorrow. This week I have two days of school with the kids, then I'm going to let them go on Christmas break until January 5th. It'll be a pretty easy half-week. I may have extra time for language (and looking through some boxes) over break. We'll see. When school starts up in January, the kids are going to get back into their language learning again. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 187 of 212 27 December 2014 at 8:58am | IP Logged | ||
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I hope that everybody had a Merry Christmas over the last few days!
I've been slow and steady with Spanish over the past few days. I'm up to page 274 in Leal, and I'll try to read a little before going to bed. Still haven't gotten around to doing anything from FSI, but it will still be there when I get around to it. I have been listening to some from Buenos Dias America. My parents got me a couple more Spanish books for Christmas, so once I finish reading Leal I will have the choice of reading the Los Juegos del Hambre trilogy or the Dragonlance one. Not sure which one yet. My daily Anki cards started falling once again, so I added some new cards. I added words from Leal like ferris wheel, niggling, belt loops, bristly, and a new word for racket or clatter. Only a year ago I was struggling to keep my Anki list at manageable levels, and now my daily deck is much shorter. I still highlight words in my Kindle as I read them, but it seems to be a lot less frequent. When I move on to my next set of books, it will be in print, so I guess I'll have to write down any words that I don't understand and want to look up. I gave the kids Christmas break until January 5th... so that frees up some time for me for a while. Today I did extra work. I should probably make some time to do some more Spanish, or Russian, or do some exercises in FSI. The grammar practice would do me some good. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 188 of 212 29 December 2014 at 10:49am | IP Logged | ||
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The last couple of days I had no school to teach, no NaNoWriMo, and no video game challenges that I just had to do RIGHT NOW... so I've had more time to study my Spanish. I still want to get into Russian, but that will come too.
I couldn't find my old FSI notebook, so I started a new one. I don't quite remember where I was, so I started in the middle of chapter 8. I worked on it today and yesterday, and finished chapter 9. It has helped me to be able to say, think, and understand phrases like "I have learned" or "he has bought". I had some practice with possessives as well; they weren't as challenging to me, although tuyo and suyo weren't something that I was really good at. I also read to page 305 in Leal. As I was reading, I noticed some of the "have read" and "has seen" constructions that I was doing in FSI. I was able to translate the story in my head a little better as a result. I watched a documentary in Spanish on YouTube, Abandonar el planeta Tierra, that Arthaey had linked to. I didn't understand everything, but I understood enough to know what was going on. I also did my Anki practice for the day. I added cards both yesterday and today, illustrating grammatical concepts in Anki. The ones that I added quite a while ago, where I have to figure out which version of that, this, these, or that (way over there) has helped me out quite a bit. Some were pretty easy and I won't see for a month or more, but others I sometimes have trouble with. I'm sure that many of the new cards will be easy, but a few will be more difficult. I'll get the concepts either way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 189 of 212 30 December 2014 at 9:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Today I did a little bit of FSI Spanish, Anki, and read a chapter of Leal. I watched an episode of Los Simpsons and listened to Buenos Dias America. So I did quite a lot today.
Lesson 10 in FSI so far has been covering direct objects. This will be somewhat of a challenge, but it will be useful to master nonetheless. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 190 of 212 01 January 2015 at 11:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Happy New Year!
I haven't made much progress over the last couple of days... I'm continuing to work on lesson 10 in FSI... my Anki deck has been larger than normal over the last couple of days... perhaps because I've added quite a few cards over the last week, mainly from FSI concepts. It should go down soon though. I hope that all of you meet your language (and other) goals for the new year. I don't really have any goals; I just plan to keep on chugging along with Spanish and Russian, and maybe add German in later on in the year. I'd like to complete the Super Challenge. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4088 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 191 of 212 01 January 2015 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | ||
Happy New Year, fellow Spanish-learner!
I highly recommend The Hunger Games. It's a real page-turner! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4195 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 192 of 212 02 January 2015 at 9:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Happy New Year, Stelle!
I did like the Hunger Games in English (all of the books that I have currently I've read in English first; I just thought it would be easier for me). Maybe I will read that next. I didn't get any Spanish reading done today, on the first day of the year, but I did finish chapter 10 in FSI. I didn't do the first couple of chapters, but when I started, that translations were at times somewhat challenging. There still are times when I'm stumped, and sometimes I'll need a little help at the beginning of a section, but it is getting easier. There are also times when I'm not sure if their translation is most appropriate... For example, they want to translate "Well, the drinks are ready." I thought it should be "En fin, ya están listas las bebidas." They used los tragos instead. I'm not sure if that's a Spain Spanish vs. Mexican Spanish thing, or if it's a change in times thing, but I almost never see tragos used, and even Google translate is going to come up with bebidas when I type drinks. The course is pretty old, and culture has changed a lot since it was made (I don't think that I'll ever have to tell someone to take an ash tray to the living room). I also have to wonder if the culture has changed on the use of tu/usted as well. Obviously, I would want to use usted when interacting with businesses, but it seems like this course wants to use usted as the default. Perhaps that just has to do with who this course was initially designed for though... diplomats... as opposed to people who might be speaking with their friends. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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