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Spanish Log (TAC 2014 Team Lobo) | ||
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| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5020 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 129 of 271 03 June 2012 at 11:12am | IP Logged |
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Just a quick update to say that I finished Level 6 last night so I will be moving on
to level 7 today! I'm pretty happy about this, as there have been times that I doubted I would get this far. I'm under no illusions though, things should be starting to get pretty hard, pretty Quick, and the units start to get much bigger. I'm bracing myself for unit 47! I'm also making good progress on the Programmatic workbook. I haven't really ran into any challenging material yet, but it won't be long. Looking through the contents, I think they cover topics perhaps not touched upon by Plati. I'm going to push myself through the two workbooks as I think it's about time I got a better hold on the grammar. I also looked at some former B1 test papers, and I think I could (just about) pass. Maybe. I actually think identifying and working on weaknesses would be a better tactic than blindly pushing through courses at this point, but I really need to get Platiquemos comfortably under my belt, which will still take a lot of work. Edited by dbag on 03 June 2012 at 6:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5020 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 130 of 271 06 June 2012 at 12:12am | IP Logged |
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I am well into unit 45 already. Somehow, it turned out that units 43 and 44 were
ridiculously easy. In fact, I only went through the units twice, because I was already very familiar with the material. I do however need to do the variation drill in unit 43 again. Unit 45 is also pretty easy, but I'll probably do it a few more times. I've already glanced at unit 47, and I see it has loads of massive response drills. I hate response drills!! I usually skip them, but this time it looks like I'm going to have to soldier through. Even though I haven't been doing the conversation stimulus's for a while, I am disappointed that they didn't record them past unit 43. I have no idea why. They now have recorded readings of the basic sentences for the readings- I'm skipping these for a little while, but I'll be back to them before the end. Readings: Around Christmas, I did all the readings for level 5 and 6 several times, now I think I need to make a start on those for level 7. I notice that lots of new vocab is being introduced, and I don't want to miss out on it. My goal, which I hope is realistic, is to finish Plati by the end of the month. I am thinking that when I get to unit 50 or so, I will go back and do all the conversation stimulus's and the unit or 2 on commands which I skipped. When I reach the end, I want to know in my heart of hearts that I have covered a good 98% or so of the material. Probably not the most efficient approach, but I been working on this for over a year now, and it means a lot to me to do it right. So, 2 goals for June really: 1) Finish Platiquemos 2) Finish FSI Programmatic workbooks 1 and 2. It goes without saying that I will be trying to get as much quality input as possible on top of this. Let's see how it goes... Edited by dbag on 08 June 2012 at 11:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5020 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 131 of 271 07 June 2012 at 11:54pm | IP Logged |
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Okay, so tomorrow I am going to move on to the fabled Unit 47.
Unit 46 was definitely harder than the previous several, and the audio quality took a turn for the worse. I run through the material with Platiquemos a couple times, then remembered that Randomreview had left a comment somewhere saying that the audio for this portion of the course, which can be found for free on the FSI site, had been cleaned up and was significantly better. It's true, it's much easier to use, so I ran through that a couple times as well. There where actually several very easy drills on the flexibility of Spanish word order, which I see no need to pay too much attention to. However, there were some on comparisons of equality which were really tricky, because they involve multiple tenses, irregular verbs etc. And the response times have decreased. I feel pretty comfortable with the material, but I will need to go over it again. At the minute, I'm just eager to move on to the more challenging units. I'm actually pretty disappointed that there haven't been many multiple tenses drills yet, I think lots of these as early as possible would be the way to go. Also, still making good progress on the programmatic workbook. I have already filled up an entire notebook. After these, I expect I will do the PMP books out of principle, although I'm not too keen on the way they're laid out. I've been scoping out some of the grammar books used to prepare for the various DELE courses which are entirely in Spanish. I think it's important at this point to be thinking of post- Platiquemos life. I feel pretty good about my level of Spanish now, like I'm somehow much more competent than I was only a couple of weeks ago- and this despite the fact that I haven't actively used it in a while. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5020 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 132 of 271 08 June 2012 at 11:46pm | IP Logged |
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Started unit 47, spent well over 3 and a half hours on it. Be under no illusions, this
unit is big and tough. Surprisingly though the audio quality has not been a problem. The basic sentences build up is over half an hour long, but is split into two. So today, I have been listening to the first half, as well as occasionally listening to the "dialog for fluency" which is on a separate track. There is a 15 minute drill which illustrates how to use the past subjunctive. I have been repeating the first half, and will go onto the second tomorrow. The various substitution drills have not been too much of a problem, but I've not hit the response drills yet. Based on time spent today, I reckon I need to spend another 6 or 7 hours before I can move on. I want to be really comfortable with this material before I do. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5020 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 133 of 271 15 June 2012 at 1:27am | IP Logged |
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I will be moving on to unit 48 tomorrow. I didn't work anywhere near hard enough on
Saturday, and found it hard to get into my stride with this unit. I think I have the material down fairly well now, but I will need to come back for review at some point. This unit is simply to big to continually sweep through. I passively listened to some of 48 while having a nap- when I woke up, I listened to some really easy drills on the conditional, which is a tense I already know quite well. The only trouble is its another unit with a 30 minute sentence build up. I wonder if my goal of finishing Platiquemos by the end of June is too optimistic? A few more units like 47 and there's no way I'll make it. In the last couple of days I've read about half of Carlos casteneda "Journey to Ixtlan" in Spanish. I think this may be the first time I have read an adult book purely for enjoyment- Sure, I'm still missing a lot of words, but I'm following the narrative and enjoying it. It helps that I read the English a few years ago. Edited by dbag on 15 June 2012 at 2:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5020 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 134 of 271 23 June 2012 at 4:59pm | IP Logged |
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I've been slacking of a bit on the FSI front of late. Still on unit 48, which is
actually quite an easy unit. I pretty much have it down, but certainly not overlearned to the extent I like. I think I'm going to move on tomorrow, just to keep the ball rolling. I've nearly finished "viaje a Ixtlan" which I've been enjoying. I'm going to follow Prof. As advice of only looking up "known unknowns", words which keep coming up and you. know you don't know them, if that makes sense. I need to do this with "cifra" and "rescate" soon. I find it very interesting that Prof. A has never done any focused vocabulary work, no anki, no wordlists, just reading. I am thinking of drastically changing my study habits once I finish FSI. I need to do things differently to keep making progress and keep the passion their. I continue to rue the fact that skype is not available on my tablet. For any one reading this, I do not recommend getting a blackberry playbook! If I had of known that I wasn't going to be able to skype on it I would never have brought it. I should be taking an extended trip to Malayasia and surrounds in the next few weeks, so the Spanish will probably be in maintenance mode during that time, perhaps just doing some LR type stuff. When I get back, if all goes well, I will make a break for B2, and will be preparing to: a) Take a long trip to South America And B) Find a way of living in Spain afterward, perhaps by doing a CELTA course. Yep, I just need to get some Asia out of my system, and then, life permitting, it's going to be all about Spanish!! Edited by dbag on 23 June 2012 at 5:00pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5020 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 135 of 271 10 July 2012 at 1:02am | IP Logged |
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Okay, so the playbook has had to be sent back to be repaired already. So that means that if I want to use the internet, I have to use this barely functional home computer. As such I think im going to take a break from the forum for a week or two. Im spending way to much time here anyway, and it feels like I stopped realy learning new things months ago.
Hopefully in a couple of weeks there will be some new reading material on here, and I will have finally finished fsi. Ciao for now! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5020 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 136 of 271 24 July 2012 at 12:07am | IP Logged |
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Okay, so I'm back after my two week "sabbatical". I'm glad I took a break, I feel that
constantly checking in on the forum can become a very unproductive habit, and much like face-booking, is something that needs to be kept in check. Well, I can't say I've made any progress on the Spanish front. I've not done any new FSI for sometime, but I have revised a few of the earlier units. I've also wrote a little on the lenguajero Facebook Page. A good tip actually, if you "like" a Spanish Page on Facebook, you will receive updates in your newsfeed, which means you get to read a little Spanish everyday. I have also read several articles in "el pais". I feel like I'm at a danger-point with my Spanish, I imagine many people drop out at around this stage of learning a language. I feel like most courses available don't have that much more for me to learn, but at the same time native material is enough of a challenge that's it's not really "fun". I guess this is how marathon runners must feel about 10 miles in. Exhausted, and daunted at the prospect of the long and painful road ahead. I guess a change of tactics is needed, something new, but habit forming. Edited by dbag on 07 August 2012 at 11:09pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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