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| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 9 of 212 29 April 2013 at 9:42am | IP Logged |
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Today I'm working on Level 3/Unit 2/Lesson 3. I should be able to easily finish level 3 prior to leaving for vacation.
This level has made a departure from the two previous levels, which I like. The first two levels focused a lot on the basics and touristy things; the third level is getting more into things that you cover in actual life, such as "who do you think is going to win the game" or "The United Kingdom is North of France." Although I have encountered Unidos Reinos (I might be spelling it wrong) when reading the newspaper, I only recently encountered it in Rosetta Stone. All of the different cases that Spanish has can be overwhelming at times. For example, today I came across the term suyo. It can be a little confusing as to when to use that and when to use su. I googled an explanation that made sense, but I'll need to see it in context a bit more to get used to it. Fortunately, if I go on vacation and don't speak with perfect grammar, it won't be a big deal. That will come over time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 10 of 212 04 May 2013 at 12:08pm | IP Logged |
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Today I started Level 3/Unit 3/Lesson 4. It almost seems in a way that the pace of learning has slowed down, but perhaps that is because the lessons have moved from things that we come across every day (cama, agua, casa, hijo, etc.) to ordinary words that people don't use every day (elefante, insecto, fresca, etc.). On a recent trip to the zoo, I read some of the Spanish animal descriptions, and did come across some of the terms that I have been learning.
I only have five more days to study before I leave. I don't plan on doing Rosetta Stone while I'm gone, although I did buy a Spanish National Geographic magazine on eBay; hopefully it will arrive in time. If I have some down time, I'll work on that. Don't know if I will. I've enrolled in the 6 week challenge. I certainly won't be at the top, but it is motivating. It also has helped me clarify my language goals for the rest of the year. I plan to continue to work hard on Spanish throughout the six week challenge (with the exception of the time that I'll be gone). That should get me almost to the end of level 5. I'll finish that out, then spend a little bit less time on the language. I'll work with Spanish materials, while at the same time start working on Russian a little bit. I have to pack up our house to move around this time anyway, so I'm going to have to spend more time on packing boxes anyway. In August, we will have finished moving, and I can start the 6WC for Russian. I'll spend the rest of the year on that and improving my Spanish. By the time I (hopefully) will get to visit family for Christmas, I should be fairly decent with my Russian and will be able to speak decently with my Russian aunt. Certainly more than the embarrassingly little amount that I remembered from my high school Russian class last time I saw her. Of course, plans can change, but it looks good to me at this point. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 11 of 212 08 May 2013 at 8:16am | IP Logged |
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I finished Rosetta Stone level 3 today, and I'll be starting level 4 as well.
I feel like I have come a long way, but there's so much farther to go. While reading an article about a recent bombing in the Middle East, and how there were a lot of fleeing refugees, I had to look up more than 20 words. Still, I know much more than I ever have, I know enough to talk to people on my trip to Mexico, and I'm sure that my friends that are going with me will think that I'm some super-fluent Spanish speaker. Then again, they've never been here. My husband is hoping to put "bilingual Spanish/English" on his resume. He's hoping to get to the level that I just finished and figures that he can add it. I suppose that if you're working for an English-speaking business and you only have to know a specialized vocabulary in order to deal with the occasional customer, then it might work. I wouldn't expect to watch and understand a Spanish movie though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 12 of 212 18 May 2013 at 8:15am | IP Logged |
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My trip to Mexico was successful. I was able to speak mostly in Spanish to the people around me, and I was complimented on my language.
There's still a lot more to learn, obviously, but it was nice to actually be able to use the language and have people understand me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 13 of 212 02 June 2013 at 10:17am | IP Logged |
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Since returning from Mexico, it's been harder to find as much motivation to study as much Spanish, however, I'm still working on it, and am now halfway through Rosetta Stone Level 4.
I'm enjoying these lessons a lot more than the earlier levels. There was one unit where a guy was going to propose to his girlfriend, and he had to set up a meeting with her through her secretary, but he wanted to keep it a secret from her. The lesson I started today had a story about this family who had just moved into a new house, but there was no electricity in the house because the wiring was damaged, and the plumbing in the bathroom leaked. The dad in the house could fix the pipe in the bathroom himself, but they had to call an electrician. I can't imagine ever being in a scenario where I'd have to actually call an electrician or a plumber, but I'm amazed that I'm at the point where I am actually learning these kinds of scenarios. One of my goals is to be able to read the newspaper in Spanish; I can understand so much more than I could even a month ago. In several of the headlines that I read today, I could understand the headline completely, without having to resort to using Google Translate to translate individual words for me. My husband started learning Spanish so he can put it on his resume, and I'm going to get my little boy started with Spanish next week. My daughter will start it when school starts again this fall; I'd like to give her a break from learning for a while; she's getting burnt out. I should still be on track to finish Rosetta Stone level 5 by the end of this month, although I won't finish it by the end of the six week challenge as I had hoped. I do plan on starting Russian in July, although my goal will not be a lesson a day for that right away... I think I'll be ready to not be so intense for a bit. I'll be ready again when the next six week challenge starts though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 14 of 212 04 June 2013 at 12:58pm | IP Logged |
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I'm currently in the process of moving, so I've been going through all of my things, making sure that they get packed correctly. I ran across my college Spanish workbook. It looks like it will come in handy, especially as I finish up Rosetta Stone levels 4 and 5. While there is a lot in there that is review, it covers it in a different way, and it covers other topics. It's geared towards a student; just flipping through it, I saw that it covers different majors that you might take and other things like that. It also might be useful to get a better explanation of some of the grammar.
I also ran into some of my old Italian books. I don't plan on studying Italian any time soon, so I packed it away. I'm writing down what I put in each box, so when I need to find them later, I'll know where they are. I dabbled a little bit into my Russian yesterday, although I have no intention of really starting up until July. There is so much that I've forgotten. I think that I'll pick up the alphabet fairly quickly, but so many other things I've forgotten. Then again, I only took it for one year in high school, so I was never really proficient in it to begin with. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 15 of 212 22 June 2013 at 9:26pm | IP Logged |
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Finished Rosetta Stone Spanish level 4 today. While I am well behind where I would like to have been at this point, I'm still making progress, and that is the most important. We're moving across town soon, and I've had to spend a lot of my time cleaning the house, getting rid of stuff, and packing.
When I started my language journey, I didn't realize how much there was to learn. It seems like you make progress so fast in those first couple of weeks. Now, with only one level left, it seems that there is so much left to do, and this will be an ongoing journey. Still, I have made a lot of progress. When I look at Mexican newspapers, most of the time I can figure out what the headline is trying to say, and some of the time I can understand every word. I have noticed that when I read bilingual packaging, I can understand much of what it says. My friends would say that I speak Spanish, and while I probably do better than most Americans whose first language is English, I have a lot more to do. I'm not sure how long it will take me to finish the next level, with this move going on and all, but I'm looking forward to more improvement. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5368 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 16 of 212 23 June 2013 at 1:54pm | IP Logged |
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I got a chuckle out of your last post... it is certainly true that at the beginning I thought it would be much easier and I did not realize how much there was to learn. In those first few months the learning curve is so steep that you think "this is going to be easy... just a few more months learning at this rate and I will have it mastered." I vividly remember after a few weeks of Pimsleur 1 thinking I would easily be fluent after a few more months. Then, unfortunately, it turns into a big snowball. The process can be overwhelming at times. I have found I love sticking with it if I really enjoy the process and don't worry about how it now feels like I am not making much progress from day to day.
I am also interested in reading you progress through Rosetta Stone as I hear so much about it on the radio and on TV, but I don't know anyone who has actually used it. Good luck. keep up the good work. Edited by James29 on 23 June 2013 at 1:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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