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Jax TAC 2013 Spanish and German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Jax Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4371 days ago 15 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 1 of 11 27 December 2012 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome everyone to my first TAC log.
Spanish Level and Goals My Spanish is around B1-B2 (probably C1 for reading). I've gone through lots of ups and downs as it's the first language I've learned. At the start I had no idea how long it took to learn a language and just threw myself into it without really knowing what to do. I learned a lot living in Spain for a couple of years but as an English teacher who lived with an English teacher and was friends with English teachers, I didn't progress all that quickly. I did a lot of studying (1-2 hours a day) but didn't throw myself into it like I should have done. I want to get to a solid C1 level all round. I've made some pretty incredible progress in the past couple of months using a variation of different methods. I want to feel comfortable using Spanish and really feel the language when it is spoken. German Level and Goals I did 6 months of German at school (17 years ago) so I'm basically starting from scratch. I've completed the first 6 units of Living Languages German Elementary and have watched a few movies in German recently. By the end of 2013 I want to have a good intermediate level. There's no rush with German but I'd love to get to the stage where I'm focusing a lot more on native resources. Other Goals I'm an English teacher who teaches online and I want to keep improving my English teaching style and the methods that I use. I will write more about this later but I feel that I am applying what works for me (and others) to my students. The results are improving and I'm happy with their progress. I am also planning on picking up French in the summer. But I'll only do this once I have escaped elementary German. I'll write more about my methods and schedule in my next post. Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear from those on my team and others on this forum. P.S. I'm on Team Schnitzel and Team Romulan. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jax Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4371 days ago 15 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 2 of 11 02 January 2013 at 1:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Hangovers hold you back but miraculously I didn't have one this morning. I also woke up with the
added motivation that it's the start of a new year. The past two months I've been committed to improving my Spanish and I'm starting this TAC 2013 (Team Romulan) with a bit of a tailwind. I'm really happy about my Spanish progress since November and want to keep the momentum going. German (Team Schnitzel) has been a bit more stop-start, but tomorrow I throw myself back into it. Here are some of the things that I've been doing today for Spanish learning (and for the past few weeks):
I'll write more about how I've adapted the Glossika method in the future. Although I haven't been using it for that long, I really enjoy doing it and also see that it's got so much potential if you do it correctly and stick with it. In terms of television, films, and books, I'm focusing on conversational material and the things that I enjoy. I'm also going to start learning about a specific topic and I'm only going to use Spanish materials to learn about it. It's something I have to do this year (more details later) so there won't be any shirking. Thanks for reading, and tomorrow I'll speak a little more about German. Jax. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tsopivo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4471 days ago 258 posts - 411 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 3 of 11 02 January 2013 at 8:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I look forward to reading about how you modified the Glossika mass sentence method and how it helped you. I did not know about that method; sounds interesting but also sounds like too much work in a language where you are a total beginner to me. I might try it later though.
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| fmmarianicolon Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4346 days ago 28 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Sign Language Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 11 04 January 2013 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Howdy, fellow Romulus team member! I'm also intrigued to learn how the Glossika method
works for you. Additionally, you mentioned mass exposure. What are your favorite topics that you will be learning about in the secondary languages? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5226 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 5 of 11 04 January 2013 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mmm. A German teammate, Spanish godchild, fellow English teacher. Good, I'll stay tuned :)
Oh, BTW: good luck with your goals, happy new year, etc. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jax Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4371 days ago 15 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 6 of 11 13 January 2013 at 3:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the comments so far.
"Howdy, fellow Romulus team member! I'm also intrigued to learn how the Glossika method works for you. Additionally, you mentioned mass exposure. What are your favorite topics that you will be learning about in the secondary languages? " In Spanish I read a lot of travel blogs. I love travelling and went away for a long time when I was younger. Reading travel blogs is really interesting for me and the language is conversational and descriptive. This is a great site for Spanish learners I also just read about topics that are related to my interests and opinion blogs about world news and current affairs. I tend to delve into a topic and stay there for a while; the last topic that I read a lot about was the shooting in CT recently. And then I watch TV shows; at the moment The O.C. is proving great for conversation (and learning how to be an angsty teenager again!). Glossika Method The Glossika Mass Sentence Method, in a nutshell, requires that you find some English -> Spanish sentences, record them using your own voice, listen to them ten times (one time writing them down), and then record just the Spanish phrases once this has been done. I started doing this a few weeks ago and although it is early, I have found that I've made some really good progress. Glossika talks about getting a phrase book and recording the sentences. What I've been doing is focusing on what I've had problems with (time expressions in Spanish) and "mining" about a dozen sentences for each grammar point. For example, "hace mucho tiempo que no..." and then adding in different endings. Then I'll take the phrase, "hacía mucho tiempo que no...," "llevo cinco años.." etc. What I've found is that now I can just reel off the above structures, and much more complex structures, without thinking. I see it as like a personalized Michel Thomas course for intermediate to advanced speakers. I also add sentences from interviews, the novel that I'm reading, the travel blogs I talked about, and from phrase books too. I'm a lot busier than I thought I was going to be for the start of the year, but I listen to the sentences while doing housework or working in the garden. I also do the dictation more than once as I love writing and find the I'm much more connection when I'm writing and listening. Nothing is forced and I'm not testing myself to remember the sentences. It's working great for me at the moment and I'm going to experiment more with this over the next few months. I look forward to reading about how you modified the Glossika mass sentence method and how it helped you. I did not know about that method; sounds interesting but also sounds like too much work in a language where you are a total beginner to me. I might try it later though. He recommends that beginners don't do this. The pronunciation is important, but recording and hearing my voice is great for where I am at the moment. I'm self-correcting a lot and finding that my pronunciation is improving. Well, that's Spanish.. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jax Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4371 days ago 15 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 7 of 11 13 January 2013 at 3:39am | IP Logged | ||
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German
I started with Michel Thomas when I started learning Spanish, and after doing the first five chapters of Living Language German (and getting a little bored of it), I have gone back to Michel. I did the first 3 lessons last night and really enjoyed it. I love the repetition, slight changes to sentences, and the relaxed atmosphere (although I remember the Spanish lessons getting quite tense at times). So, about 30 minutes a day of German at the moment (after a slow start to the year) and nothing much to report. English Teaching My students are back, we're in full swing, and I'm creating a lot more content for my students. I'm finding that even my advanced students have problems with things like, "good vs well." The difference between "wish" and "hope" was something that they loved learning and I'm looking to do more of this. I'm also going to introduce more reading for homework, using different readers, and then using it as a conversation starter or a language focus. Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. In the next couple of days I'm going to do the rounds of my two teams and see how everyone is doing. Jax. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 8 of 11 13 January 2013 at 11:54am | IP Logged | ||
hi jax!
You give them books and they actually read and talk about them afterwards? Wow, they sound like adults! Are they? My ESL students are mostly teens. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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