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Komma’s Log: Currently Spanish, English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5533 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 17 of 37 04 May 2014 at 3:53am | IP Logged | ||
The English narration vanishes quite early in the series. In fact, I didn't even notice it disappear. One day I was watching Destinos (while still fairly early on in the series) and it suddenly occurred to me that the show no longer had any English narration (and hadn't for a few episodes) but I hadn't even noticed the transition since I was understanding the Spanish narration well enough that I hadn't really missed it. Once that transition happens, the production credits at the end, the branding and "funding provided by" portion before the show starts, and the "An Introduction to Spanish" subtitle on the title screen are the only English portions you'll encounter in an episode. All the dialog and narration is 100% Spanish from that point on. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4057 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 18 of 37 04 May 2014 at 8:11am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey warp3,
that's good to know :) I'm currently at episode 5/6 I also sometimes don't notice whether it's English or Spanish.. Or maybe that was in the last episode, because I made a pause in the middle of it and then just didn't pay enough attention to it at all... ^^ Thanks anyway for informing me :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4057 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 19 of 37 04 May 2014 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just decided to update my log every Sunday. Like that I won't do so many posts with
nothing in them :D So, it's more fun for you to read and one can see more progress at once I think. Therefore I will post a list of goals for the week and every Sunday evening I will do a post where I state which goals I completed or maybe also more when I was motivated to do more than just the goals (However, I should set more goals the next time then) I'll start today with posting my goals in Spanish and English. The challenge starts after posting and ends the Sunday one week after that at about 18.00. Then I'll update my log. This might vary from time to time (so, updating on monday for example, or a bit late on Sunday when I don't find the time to update), but I hope I'll get in on Sundays. Sunday 4.5.14-Sunday 11.5.14 Spanish Courses (For this section I only go through the lessons as they are presented in the course. I'll do the dialogues and put every unknown word into anki. I do the exercises as long as they are not completely dull. Concerning the grammar presented in the lessons, I just read whats written there to get an impression. In the week following I then will dig deeper in the grammar topics in my practical grammar (I still have to decide on a good one to buy.. I'm quite happy with the one from library, but I don't know whether that changes when I do more grammar and I can't borrow it for ages, so if anyone has any suggestions) and do exercises in the practice makes perfect book) - Beginner Course Pons lessons 4+5 - Teach yourself (or to be precise the German translation of that course, named "Sprachkurs plus") chapters 1+2 - 'Spanish with System' (also a German course.. I really didn't want to buy anything at the moment ^^) chapters 1+2 - look into FSI Basic Spanish unit 1 and look how it is (this is more of an optional overview goal, but I think I give it a try) (The reason why I do so many courses parallel is because I don't know which one suits me, so I might stick to doing them all even if it gets boring to read the same stuff in slightly differnt forms. But I think concerning the diaglogues it might be quite good to use more courses. I also have more exercises to do then :D And the courses are just as a guideline for what to do in which order. I tried doing that on my own, but it really didn't work, so.. I mostly do it to get the basics to be able to read and watch) grammar - ser vs. estar: learn when to use what doing the exercises in the practice makes perfect book - conjugations in present tense: start with the first chapter of the practice makes perfect book (this should not be too difficult, but it may be a nice review drill stuff) (I really have not found my way to learn grammar. I think the practice book is a great start because only learning rules won't make me use correct grammar.. I even notice that in my mother tongue sometimes (I'm just using everything like i think it's right, but for example with some tenses and complex grammar structures I'm even not confident I do the right thing in my mother tongue..) How do you guys who read my log learn grammar? Just along the way? Practicing sentence structures in an SRS system? Doing exercises?) Vocabulary - review the words I put into anki every day (I should take a calendar and cross out the days I've actually done the review and not only added new cards.. probably I'll do an excel sheet, so you could also follow my consistency if you like :D EDIT: You can see my tracking here) Listening - listen to Notes in Spanish: episodes 1+2 again and more intensive (vocab, writing down useful stuff etc) and episodes 3+4 just listening (while doing laundry, waiting for the bus.. or focusing.. that really doesn't matter here as long as I listen to it) watching - Destinos episodes 6+7+8 (Ok that looks like much, but actually I think it's ok. The language courses will mostly tell some equal stuff at the beginning and I mostly do it as a guidline, so it's not important for me, that I can tell the dialogues inside out etc. I do them to get used to sentence structures in an easy way and to build vocab. And maybe to decide that I really hate one of the courses.. or actually like one.. who knows before actually doing them? ;) ) English (Ok, I'm actually only keeping track of that because of the Super Challenge :D I'm still waiting for the advanced grammar in use to be available at my library, so I can review a bit. But with all the Spanish going on I just want to get along with the SC in English. However, I'd like to ask the ones who read this: what do you do/ study in languages where you are really good at. I'm actually lacking some conversations with native speakers, but I talk to some people not able to understand German.. The problem is, I'm don't really like the idea of talking to strangers on skype.. though this would actually be very cool I think. But I'm a bit afraid of that because of internet and bad people and you know what I mean.. maybe I'm just too careful, but that's how it it..) Reading - 50 pages of HP5 Watching - Sherlock Season 3 episode 2 (I know that are only a few English goals.. But I really want to focus on Spanish.) SO, that was it for the week. I'll be updating next Sunday (and of course will gladly answer every post I get.) I wish everyone good luck and a nice study time and greetings to my LOBO TAC team members. I have to catch up reading all the logs and reply something hopefully helpful, but I'm not always good at posting helpful things :/ Edited by Komma on 04 May 2014 at 4:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4057 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 20 of 37 11 May 2014 at 8:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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So, hello everyone, it's Sunday again, so here is my review of the week and the new goals for the next
one. review of: Sunday 4.5.14-Sunday 11.5.14 Spanish Courses - Beginner Course Pons lessons 4+5 check - Teach yourself chapters 1+2 check - 'Spanish with System'chapters 1+2 check - look into FSI Basic Spanish unit 1 and look how it is (this is more of an optional overview goal, but I think I give it a try) grammar - ser vs. estar: learn when to use what doing the exercises in the practice makes perfect book (check) - conjugations in present tense: start with the first chapter of the practice makes perfect book (check) I started with both, but of course I did not the whole chapters. However, I realized that for some exercises I really need more vocab to do them. And I still need a good way to learn grammar.. Vocabulary - review the words I put into anki every day check The usp=sharing">spread sheet really helped keeping me motivated :D Listening - Notes in Spanish: episodes 1+2 again and more intensive (vocab, writing down useful stuff etc) and episodes 3+4 just listening check watching - Destinos episodes 6+7+8 check I finished everything except the FSI goal, but that was a rather optional goal of mine, and the Notes in Spanish 1+2. I would say that it was a good week. However, I might do less goals, because I really have much university stuff going on and I don't want to feel bad about not reaching my language goals and still not doing enough for university. I will drop the beginner course by Pons because I really hate it. It's badly structured, the ecercises are dull and the dialogues are crap. It's completely boring. Only good thing is that it started the perfect tense in unit 5. The other two courses are much better. The translated teach yourself course is well structured and the other one has good dialogues. I continue those. I also got the Assimil course now. For more on that see my next goals. English Reading - 50 pages of HP5 check (51/50) Watching - Sherlock Season 3 episode 2 more I did: watching Big bang theory Season07 Episodes16,17 I just didn't have time to watch the whole sherlock episode at one and I didn't want to stop in the middle, so I watched some Big Bang Theory. That was not the equal amount of time, but I'm satisfied with that. So, to sum it up, it was a good first week. I didn't reach every goal, so I will adjust that (also the post might be a bit smaller then ^^) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4057 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 21 of 37 11 May 2014 at 8:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sunday 11.5.14-Sunday 18.5.14
Spanish Courses - Teach yourself chapters 3+4 done - 'Spanish with System' chapter 3 - Assimil lesson 1 grammar - irregular verbs present tense (with practice makes perfect and anki) - general use of present tense (practice makes perfect) Vocabulary - review the words I put into anki every day done Listening - Notes in Spanish (NiS): episodes 1 again and more intensive (vocab, useful stuff etc) - NiS: episodes 5+6 just listening watching - Destinos episodes 9+10 done Reading - Lola Lago 10 pages I started this last week and with a context I realized that I do understand quite a lot.. There are still new words, so I need a lot of time for one page, but that's ok done: 14/10 English Reading - 50 pages of HP5 done: 53/50 Watching - Sherlock Season 3 episode 2 instead: The Big Bang theory episodes 18-21 from season 7 (80min) Eureka episode 1 of season 1 (90min) So this time, I tried to make it more clean without explaining everything. Most of the stuff is self-explanatory. I might also do the checking of goals in this post then and the review what I thought in a new one... These are fewer goals than last week, so I hope to get everything done this time :D Every comment is very welcome. May it be on how or what I study or some advice on how to learn grammar which I still just don't know how to attack this.. Edited by Komma on 18 May 2014 at 10:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4620 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 22 of 37 11 May 2014 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Regarding developing further in languages you're already strong in (B2+), here are my thoughts (not that I'm any kind of expert, I still make constant dumb mistakes):
Something similar to the Super Challenge/in-home immersion is good to maintain your level and to make the language more automatic. Last time I did the SC in German and it brought me from B1 to B2. This time, reading, listening, watching are so much easier and the temptation is to just passively consume. If instead, I actively note unfamiliar words, idioms/slang, tricky bits of grammar, etc., then use that as a basis for study, then there is more value. For a lower level language, everything is new, so it's just maintaining stamina and attention that is the challenge. With the new words, idioms, slang, etc. it's a matter of looking them up, then deciding if you want/need to learn them (anki, other) or not. If it's a slang term or specialized vocabulary word whose equivalent you would rarely/never use in your native language, I wouldn't bother with it. It's better to focus on more common expressions. (Example: I read a book with a lot of gardening/flower vocabulary, and while I did do a google image search to see what plants were being talked about, I didn't take the time to commit them to memory). With tricky bits of grammar, I will do exercises on that topic (Ex. indirecte Rede in German, subjunctive in Spanish). My opinion is that skype with a conversation tandem partner is really only useful (if at all) once you are at minimum a low intermediate. So now to explain the "if at all" comment. I am very lucky to have two great long-term skype partners (one of whom I met and one my son met). I went through many before connecting with these two. Same gender and roughly same age partners are good because you have more common conversation topics and reduce the odds of weird interactions. We do not really correct each others mistakes, but do feed each other words/expressions: how do you say... and our speaking to each other helps us to understand each other's cultures, traditions and takes away the fear of speaking to strangers (not completely, but the fear of speaking is definitely lessened). If money is not an issue, a tutor would probably be better to give direct instruction/correction and really the best option if you are a total beginner, but that is something you have to decide. Meetups/Stammtisch sort of settings are also worth looking into. You meet in a neutral setting with a group of people and are more likely to find at least one whose level is similar to your and with whom you have a good connection. Regarding your multi-faceted, multi-textbook approach, I think that is definitely the way to go. You see familiar words and grammar in a variety of ways, perhaps explained a little differently and they become more automatic. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4057 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 23 of 37 11 May 2014 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, BAnna for your comment.
Regarding the further development of B2+ languages (which is English for me) I'm just doing the SC to do exactly what you explained. I just also have not that much time and I'm at a level where I can communicate well enough in English and understand films and novels very well. Not that I'm finished with learning (you never will do that in anything in life...^^) but it's not my highest priority. I totally agree with those expressions, however, I sometimes like some new words and learn them even if I don't know if I might need them. That's mostly some verbs that just sound interesting or funny. But I think you're right, that one shouldn't bother with every word one doesn't know. That's why I like my ereader. I just click on the word to get the meaning (sometimes even in English-English) and when I want to memorise it, I mark it to put it into anki AFTER I read a bit and not every time I look a word up. Thanks for your skype or speaking advice. I'm also a very introverted person when it comes to talking, so for me that might really not be the right way to study. At least not at a beginner's stage. It was also what I disliked in classes, the early talking more or less freely. I like to learn grammar and vocab and get a base before I start speaking. I have also a Spanish friend who used to be a flat mate. So when I'm ready to talk, I might contact him first. Thanks for your advice and encouragement to continue my multi-approach. I really like it. At the moment I do the lessons more quickly because it's nothing new (I've already had a year of Spanish) and with more textbooks this will repeat. However, I do think that this repetition is good and every textbook has it's own focus and good and bad things. Combining more resources makes it possible to cross out the bad stuff and do this with another book. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 24 of 37 11 May 2014 at 10:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi, Lucy, great log!
First of all, I wish you all the best with your chemistry studies and with Spanish aside of it. It is not easy to put all the studies together, sometimes it is hard to open another textbook after your more pressing load for university. But you are surely on a good path and I'm looking forward to reading you during the next few years. A few things that came on my mind while reading your log so far. Having several textbooks can be helpful but it can be harmful as well, especially if none of them suits you that much, which is the impression I've got from your posts. My question is: Do you really want to follow a textbook? YOu've already got through some in your university course, you've got the basics like the pronunciation down probably etc. I think you might like some of the alternatives (most of which I'm using right now). 1.Grammar books with exercises -a great alternative to a textbook without some of the textbooks' typical faults. You choose the size of your portions and the proper order in which to study. You choose based on your needs and tastes, not because the course designer ordered it this or that way. These two series are of very good quality: http://www.amazon.de/E-L-E-espa%C3%B1ol-extranjera-gram%C3%A 1tica-avanzado/dp/846676433X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=13998397 25&sr=8-1&keywords=anaya+ele+en http://www.amazon.de/Gram%C3%A1tica-uso-del-espa%C3%B1ol-pr% C3%A1ctica/dp/8467521074/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1399839787&s r=8-4&keywords=gramatica+de+uso+del+espanol both series consist of three levels, both offer explanations, examples and exercises with key. They are less dry than the FSI, more dense than the textbooks and so on. You can get similar series of vocabulary builders, should you feel the need. 2.A source of dialogs and the "everyday" conversational Spanish. You don't need textbook dialogs, you can find alternative source for those as well. I must admit I was disappointed with the Spanish Assimil and decided not to use it. It is probably not bad but it is boring compared to the German and Swedish ones. But you are learning Spanish, there are more resources than you can use in a lifetime! http://www.spanishpod101.com/ This is an example of dialogues and similar material with high quality audio, pdf transcripts etc. I've decided not to use it in the end because I've got this covered in a coursebook that suits me well but it is a full value alternative, in my opinion. http://www.notesinspanish.com/ Another such resource. 3.Input It is great you chose to go for the real Spanish in the Super Challenge. I understand Lola Lago may not be too entertaining (I was glad to get through one or two stories and leave the series as well ;-) ) but there are alternatives, such as comic books or literature of the easier genres (I've already started and plan to restart and finish Zafón's El principe de la niebla or translations of books like the Sookie Stackhouse or HP series tend not to be hard). However, as you've already found out, it is going to be difficult at the beginning. The first book is going to be hard no matter what you choose. Reading another language becomes much easier after the first or second book. You need to persevere. If reading intensively works for you (I mean looking up words all the time), go for it. But if it is making your reading unpleasant, give it up. Extensive reading has benefits and you acquire new vocabulary as well because you encounter the words repeatedly in both the same and different contexts. 4. Listening. It is extremely important and it does have huge impact on the speaking skills. There are many beginner friendly podcasts, lessons and sources online, including the Cervantes online library someone already poited out to you. Even if you don't wish to get a conversation partner for now (which I understand and I don't get them at the beginner stage as well), you shouldn't let the contact with the writen language prevail over the contact with the spoken Spanish in my opinion. Just a few thoughts. And thanks for a great read! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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