Spanish B1 Level by May 2016 (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Spanish B1 Level by May 2016
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haziz Bilingual Triglot Newbie United States Joined 3850 days ago 28 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian), English Studies: Spanish	Message 1 of 4 15 November 2015 at 1:34pm \| IP Logged
	I started learning Spanish last year in May. After a couple of months of very enthusiastic self study, I took two poorly run and very hectic courses (they were trying to cram 1 semester of material into 1 month) at a local community college that managed to utterly crush my enthusiasm and led me to abandon my studying of the language. I restarted two weeks ago, I am back at self study. I would have set myself a goal of B1 level of comfort with Spanish by 6 months, but I then noted that there is a sitting for the DELE exam available in late May of 2016. I figure that what I did last year probably does count for at least one and a half months of study, even if I do have to revise the material again. I have always found in my professional career that choosing to take an exam, as opposed to being required to take one, generally focused my goals and aided in motivating me to self study. I, therefore, am setting myself the goal of taking the DELE in May of 2016, preferably at the B1 level, but the A2 level would also be acceptable. I will decide on the level when the window for registering opens up in February or March using their sample test papers as a rough guide. I will generally aim for about one level above my comfort zone, hence setting myself up a goal to aim for. Living in the USA, I am trying to pick up a fairly neutral Latin American pronunciation, and focusing on the commonality within the Spanish language. My study material so far has been focused on the following: 1. Assimil Spanish with Ease, current (2014) edition: I am up to lesson 37, having again restarted from lesson 1. I am struggling with it at this point and am wondering if I am trying to go too fast. I just wanted to get beyond the first 15 lessons or so, having fallen into the rut of repeating them over and over again with my failed attempts last year. With the lessons at this point, I am finding that I understand very little of the Spanish if I just read it without the translation, but will still have significant difficulty even as I read the English translation a couple of times over. I also have the 1987 Edition of Assimil, and the 1950s Spanish without Toil, but am working only with the current edition. I know some people think this edition is dumbed down, but I am struggling even with this "dumbed down" material! I may try to go through the 1987 Assimil edition and the 1950s "Without Toil" edition after I am done with the current one. 2. Using Learning Spanish Like Crazy (LSLC) in the car. I am again up to lesson 20 having done about the same last year. I do find it useful and it does help with my pronunciation but find their emphasis on the tu form of address irritating. I do have opportunities to use Spanish at work and wish to remain fairly formal. Indeed I would prefer to remain fairly formal when traveling in Central America which I do occasionally do. I do also have the full Pimsleur course but find it quite slow going in terms of how quickly they are covering the language. I have also used Michel Thomas in the past. 3. Easy Spanish Step by Step: I use it to review some grammar rules and review verb conjugation. I do find that I need to understand some of the grammar, and find it difficult to pick up the grammar purely by assimilation either from Assimil (even with the explanations) or with the LSLC "tapes", even after I read the grammar explanation in Assimil. 4. Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish: Useful for picking up many cognates shared with English and as another review of the grammar. I am still really early in the book and am using it only intermittently. 5. Ultimate Spanish from Living Language: Up to lesson 4, but I am tackling it only intermittently. 6. Watching Destinos while having dinner. I am only watching it, and have finished episode 5. I do have the book and workbooks but do not have the time to also go through these. I can probably devote about 1-2 hours a day to my studies but am already wondering if I will burn myself out before I reach my goal. I have plenty of other material around the house, but do not have the time or patience to go through it all. Maybe later. I did finish about half of Teach Yourself Latin American Spanish last year but found it a little tedious. I may use it for review later. I hope I do not burn out in a couple of months. Edited by haziz on 15 November 2015 at 3:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful
haziz Bilingual Triglot Newbie United States Joined 3850 days ago 28 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian), English Studies: Spanish	Message 2 of 4 17 November 2015 at 12:03am \| IP Logged
	I am up to lesson 39 in Assimil, I also jumped ahead and read the grammatical review lesson 42. I think one reason I am having a little difficulty with Assimil, is that since it does try to give you some real life conversations, it does throw at me numerous verb tenses, some of which I am still struggling with. Reviewed the present subjunctive and imperative and future tense in Advanced Spanish Step by Step. I had to go to the advanced book to find these tenses covered. I am up to LSLC lesson 24, but will probably have to repeat and review lessons 20-23 again. 1 person has voted this message useful
Mike_405 Newbie United Kingdom NoneRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3283 days ago 13 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*	Message 3 of 4 18 November 2015 at 9:22pm \| IP Logged
	Please keep us updated. I am using assimi learning Spanish with ease the new one and find it very good. Would like to see your progress. 1 person has voted this message useful
haziz Bilingual Triglot Newbie United States Joined 3850 days ago 28 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian), English Studies: Spanish	Message 4 of 4 22 November 2015 at 6:57pm \| IP Logged
	I just finished lesson 50 in Assimil Spanish with Ease. I am also using the recordings more, now that I have uploaded them onto my Amazon library, through the Amazon Echo/Alexa. It definitely helps. I got a little impatient and started the active phase a little early and am up to lesson four of the active phase. My translation is not bad but there is the occasional sentence where I draw a complete blank. I do try to go back to the earlier lesson and both read the Spanish, listen to the recording (often for the first time) and read the grammatical explanation. I have not used most of my other material this week other than reviewing one or two verb tenses in "Madrigal", and listening in a somewhat absent minded fashion to LSLC. I will need to repeat lessons 20-29 in LSLC with a transcript in hand since I find their coverage of verb conjugations somewhat difficult to follow. I joined a local Spanish conversation group at the library for the second time this weekend. I am still pretty dismal at it but the fact that I am able to come up with anything meaningful is still great. Edited by haziz on 22 November 2015 at 10:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful

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haziz Bilingual Triglot Newbie United States Joined 3850 days ago 28 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian), English Studies: Spanish	Message 1 of 4 15 November 2015 at 1:34pm \| IP Logged
	I started learning Spanish last year in May. After a couple of months of very enthusiastic self study, I took two poorly run and very hectic courses (they were trying to cram 1 semester of material into 1 month) at a local community college that managed to utterly crush my enthusiasm and led me to abandon my studying of the language. I restarted two weeks ago, I am back at self study. I would have set myself a goal of B1 level of comfort with Spanish by 6 months, but I then noted that there is a sitting for the DELE exam available in late May of 2016. I figure that what I did last year probably does count for at least one and a half months of study, even if I do have to revise the material again. I have always found in my professional career that choosing to take an exam, as opposed to being required to take one, generally focused my goals and aided in motivating me to self study. I, therefore, am setting myself the goal of taking the DELE in May of 2016, preferably at the B1 level, but the A2 level would also be acceptable. I will decide on the level when the window for registering opens up in February or March using their sample test papers as a rough guide. I will generally aim for about one level above my comfort zone, hence setting myself up a goal to aim for. Living in the USA, I am trying to pick up a fairly neutral Latin American pronunciation, and focusing on the commonality within the Spanish language. My study material so far has been focused on the following: 1. Assimil Spanish with Ease, current (2014) edition: I am up to lesson 37, having again restarted from lesson 1. I am struggling with it at this point and am wondering if I am trying to go too fast. I just wanted to get beyond the first 15 lessons or so, having fallen into the rut of repeating them over and over again with my failed attempts last year. With the lessons at this point, I am finding that I understand very little of the Spanish if I just read it without the translation, but will still have significant difficulty even as I read the English translation a couple of times over. I also have the 1987 Edition of Assimil, and the 1950s Spanish without Toil, but am working only with the current edition. I know some people think this edition is dumbed down, but I am struggling even with this "dumbed down" material! I may try to go through the 1987 Assimil edition and the 1950s "Without Toil" edition after I am done with the current one. 2. Using Learning Spanish Like Crazy (LSLC) in the car. I am again up to lesson 20 having done about the same last year. I do find it useful and it does help with my pronunciation but find their emphasis on the tu form of address irritating. I do have opportunities to use Spanish at work and wish to remain fairly formal. Indeed I would prefer to remain fairly formal when traveling in Central America which I do occasionally do. I do also have the full Pimsleur course but find it quite slow going in terms of how quickly they are covering the language. I have also used Michel Thomas in the past. 3. Easy Spanish Step by Step: I use it to review some grammar rules and review verb conjugation. I do find that I need to understand some of the grammar, and find it difficult to pick up the grammar purely by assimilation either from Assimil (even with the explanations) or with the LSLC "tapes", even after I read the grammar explanation in Assimil. 4. Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish: Useful for picking up many cognates shared with English and as another review of the grammar. I am still really early in the book and am using it only intermittently. 5. Ultimate Spanish from Living Language: Up to lesson 4, but I am tackling it only intermittently. 6. Watching Destinos while having dinner. I am only watching it, and have finished episode 5. I do have the book and workbooks but do not have the time to also go through these. I can probably devote about 1-2 hours a day to my studies but am already wondering if I will burn myself out before I reach my goal. I have plenty of other material around the house, but do not have the time or patience to go through it all. Maybe later. I did finish about half of Teach Yourself Latin American Spanish last year but found it a little tedious. I may use it for review later. I hope I do not burn out in a couple of months. Edited by haziz on 15 November 2015 at 3:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful
haziz Bilingual Triglot Newbie United States Joined 3850 days ago 28 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian), English Studies: Spanish	Message 2 of 4 17 November 2015 at 12:03am \| IP Logged
	I am up to lesson 39 in Assimil, I also jumped ahead and read the grammatical review lesson 42. I think one reason I am having a little difficulty with Assimil, is that since it does try to give you some real life conversations, it does throw at me numerous verb tenses, some of which I am still struggling with. Reviewed the present subjunctive and imperative and future tense in Advanced Spanish Step by Step. I had to go to the advanced book to find these tenses covered. I am up to LSLC lesson 24, but will probably have to repeat and review lessons 20-23 again. 1 person has voted this message useful
Mike_405 Newbie United Kingdom NoneRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3283 days ago 13 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*	Message 3 of 4 18 November 2015 at 9:22pm \| IP Logged
	Please keep us updated. I am using assimi learning Spanish with ease the new one and find it very good. Would like to see your progress. 1 person has voted this message useful
haziz Bilingual Triglot Newbie United States Joined 3850 days ago 28 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian), English Studies: Spanish	Message 4 of 4 22 November 2015 at 6:57pm \| IP Logged
	I just finished lesson 50 in Assimil Spanish with Ease. I am also using the recordings more, now that I have uploaded them onto my Amazon library, through the Amazon Echo/Alexa. It definitely helps. I got a little impatient and started the active phase a little early and am up to lesson four of the active phase. My translation is not bad but there is the occasional sentence where I draw a complete blank. I do try to go back to the earlier lesson and both read the Spanish, listen to the recording (often for the first time) and read the grammatical explanation. I have not used most of my other material this week other than reviewing one or two verb tenses in "Madrigal", and listening in a somewhat absent minded fashion to LSLC. I will need to repeat lessons 20-29 in LSLC with a transcript in hand since I find their coverage of verb conjugations somewhat difficult to follow. I joined a local Spanish conversation group at the library for the second time this weekend. I am still pretty dismal at it but the fact that I am able to come up with anything meaningful is still great. Edited by haziz on 22 November 2015 at 10:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful