|
 |
Spanish in Seven Months | ||
Tags: Linguaphone | Flash cards | Michel Thomas | Listening-Reading (L-R) | Audiobook | Pimsleur | Spanish | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes  Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 49 of 62 27 May 2010 at 9:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Thank you, I have added it to my Amazon wishlist. I will move on to trying Spanish literature eventually, but in the beginning I plan to focus only on English books that I enjoy, to make the process easier on myself. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 50 of 62 27 May 2010 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Getting back into proper language learning has brought back my desire to learn more
languages with vengeance, so today I indulged myself a little by some of Prof.A's posts in the Polyglot forum. While I have to restrain myself from branching out at the moment, since besides Spanish, I am also working very hard to be a writer (all dreams have to be pursued outside working hours), so I don't want to stretch myself too thin, or lose the balance. However, it was great to read through those posts, and it has inspired me to come up with more structured approach to my studying. One thing I could start doing is keeping a more detailed log. My approach to goals is task orientated rather than time, so I have no idea how much time I have spent learning Spanish. I just focus on what I need to. Yet, a detailed off-line log might be useful to find what works for me and what doesn't. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Wise owl chick Senior Member Ecuador Joined 5309 days ago 122 posts - 137 votes Studies: English | Message 51 of 62 27 May 2010 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Hi Emerald,
I'm happy that you loved the song which I put on Teango's log. Good luck with your studies :) Wise owl chick 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 52 of 62 28 May 2010 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | ||
|
SPANISH TODAY:
ANKI Vocab Practice Harry Potter R&R Started Pimsleur II - Unit 1 Listened to Harry Potter Audio Tracks 69 to 85 Linguaphone Disc 4 (Tracks 1 - 19) Sonnet 7 - SP/EN MT Foundation Scriptorium Also registered on Shared Talk for Language Exchange, though a lot of people from Spain seem to be teenagers. No offence to teenagers, but I doubt I have anything in common with them. But still hoping to find a good language-exchange partner eventually. I am not in hurry because it will be a while before I am confident writing in Spanish, so for now, happy to to keep going on my own. After finishing Scriptorium with MT, I plan to do Scriptorium with Harry Potter. That should be a good practice in Spanish writing, along with its way of using quotations, punctuations etc. Edited by Emerald on 28 May 2010 at 10:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 53 of 62 29 May 2010 at 12:34pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Today so far:
ANKI Vocab Practice Watching Sentido y Sensibilidad (Jane Austen's Sense and Sensbility in the background) But it's only the beginning of the day so more later. I just wanted to write about Spanish studies so far. It has been the most organised language learning I have embarked on so far, and I do feel its benefits. I have much more passive understanding than active ability to actually use the language on my feet, but I am working on that. Alongside the usual learning, now I want to increase focus on things like Practice Makes Perfect etc. which force me think of the answers and practice them. One thing I have found to be absolute truth is that variety is the key. Using a mixture of methods and resources is not only exposing me to more material but also making me comfortable encountering the language through different mediums. I no longer find Spanish words jumble of rapidly spoken sentences (okay, not most of them). I may not understand everything, but for the most part, I am able to distinguish words. Despite my wandering mind, it is therefore much easier to follow the story when listening to just the audio of Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal because I can pick up the words soon enough. Being able to measure some sort of progress is encouraging. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 54 of 62 29 May 2010 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | ||
|
On Vocabulary
I know some people choose to lean vocabulary through context and others religiously follow vocab lists. I fall into both camps, but I do find vocabulary lists to be invaluable. There is only so much you can learn through context, and not to mention a word might mean different things in different contexts, so unless you looked it up, you wouldn't know that. Professor Arguelles' Airplane Test post mentions that to get through a good book that one would put into literature category, you need about 20000 words of vocabulary. Of course it can't be just any 20000 words, not some specialised subject that may not be good for anything else. My ANKI list currently has only 1305 new words, of course there are some words I know that I didn't have to include in the list, but even so, it's not even enough for basic fluency. But I keep adding new cards at regular intervals so building that collection. But another experiment to work on would be to ensure that learning the words is not the mere end. Those words then must be used in a context for them to be truly embedded into mind. That's more difficult, because it also requires learning Grammar. One way to get around is - only on temporary basis while in the early stages of language learning - is to do scriptorium exercises. I find this method very useful. Not only it gives writing practice, but as you write slowly sentences, you pay attention to the words and the context, thus becoming more familiar with both grammar and vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 55 of 62 30 May 2010 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Today my productivity plan went out of the window when Laptop decided to get infected
with a virus, so spent most part of the day backing up stuff. Anyway, still working on Spanish though. Today: Harry Potter R &R Harry Potter Scriptorium - I am really enjoying this. Practice Makes Perfect VERB TENSE Workbook ANKI VOCAB Practice For today, I am just going to focus more on Practice Makes Perfect book, and Harry Potter. Generally I save audio lessons for working days as they are an excellent way to make best use of commuting time. So from Tuesday, it will be back to Pimsleur and Harry Potter audio. Also background TV Practice Yesterday and Today: Charmed (with Spanish subtitles) Sense and Sensibility (with Spanish subtitles) Pan's Labyrinth (without subtitles) Most interestingly, I watched Pursuit of Happiness for the first time ever, in Spanish with Spanish subtitles and I understood and was able to enjoy the whole movie.Of course I think it was probably bit easier because it was American and thus it was easy for me to just "get" stuff, which might be bit more tricky watching genuine Spanish movie as I might not get cultural references etc. But it's a good start anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 56 of 62 02 June 2010 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Today so far:
Pimsleur II - Unit 3 Harry Potter Audio MT Foundation Scriptorium ANKI VOCAB PRACTICE Practice Makes Perfect Basic Spanish Harry Potter R&R I am increasing the work on active output now, and Practice Makes Perfect books are great for this. I am also trying to train myself to think in Spanish, to remember to use Spanish in my daily life wherever possible, i.e. journal entries. Much hasn't happened in that area yet, but hoping to get into the habit. Also daily practice with ANKI VOCAB is ensuring my exposure to new words and exposure to repetition keeps increasing, so I don't have to sit and memorize anything, but I simply remember either by looking (if they are easy), or by repetition over a few days (if they are bit difficult.) 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
