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Amy’s Spanish Viaje | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4049 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 89 of 104 08 January 2015 at 6:39am | IP Logged |
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I’ve written a lot lately about my telenovela watching, which I love because it’s just fun. But I’ve also been plugging away at FSI. In fact, this week I finished Unit 30, which I thinks means I’m a little more than halfway. That fact is both exciting (yay!) and daunting (I’ve already been doing it for six months and I’m only halfway!) I’m pretty loose with my FSI practice. I repeat each lesson four times. I don’t use the text that often except when I’m stuck on a section or am confused. Otherwise, I’m basically using it as an audio program. I’m not doing it every single day either. (And there was that wee period where my life was turned upside down so I didn’t do any FSI for a few weeks). I’m progressing at the slow pace of one or (on a good week) one and half lessons per week - which means it’s going to take me close to a year to finish. I’m not sure if I’m going at the right pace, but it feels like the best I can do right now.
I have been thinking about trying to work with some italki language partners. I loved my sessions with my tutor and it probably wouldn’t hurt me to work in some more structured speaking time. I do speak with my boyfriend here and there but it’s usually just for thirty or minutes of Spanish practice. I’d like something a little more regular with more focus. But we’ll see. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. I want it to be fun. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4249 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 90 of 104 08 January 2015 at 7:45am | IP Logged |
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Wow! Unit 30 is quite an accomplishment! I'm around unit 12. It takes a while to do a lesson though (I use the .pdf rather than the audio, and I write all of the exercises down).
I think that "write in a language but we speak in a dialect" works for some genres and even points of view, but not others. If an author is writing in the first person, they should be writing in a dialect. That doesn't necessarily means that it will be today's dialect: for example, Prodigy has it's own dialect because its setting is sometime in the distant future. But I guess that you are right if an author is writing in the third person; in that case, only the dialog will probably have the more common phrases that people are using. Keep up with the good work! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4049 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 91 of 104 19 January 2015 at 3:03am | IP Logged |
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Hi Lorren - Thanks for stopping by. I'm interested to know how you're doing FSI as a written program rather than oral. I don't really understand how you do the drills... I'd be interested to hear about your method. As far as the quotation from the book, I have to a respectfully disagree. Dialog that is written, in a novel, for example, is a completely different animal from spoken dialog in a movie or a television program. We just don't read or write the way that we speak. I think it is a fascinating truth. But if you've ever read the dialog of a screenplay, it certainly does not read like a novel! I think the linguists were staying that we express ourselves differently in writing (even in written dialog). It is the more formal version of the language. There is a different word play that comes out in the spoken language. I was not privileging one over the other. To me, it's a reason why it is so important to include a mix of resources in your language study and why the successful learners on this form, such as Stelle, frequently write about including activities that are a mix of listening, speaking, reading, writing and talking. I find that it's difficult to keep everything up at the same time. Stelle is really an inspiration to me in that regard!
And that's a good segue to my log for the week! OK, right now, I've logged a total of 771 hours of Spanish language study. I really can't believe that I've been at this for 16 months now (and haven't missed a day!). Studying Spanish has certainly become a habit in my life! This week, I've been continuing with my mix of FSI, telenovelas and Anki flash cards. I really would like to include other activities but FSI is so demanding that there really is not that much time in the day for everything. I'm up to the section where we are drilling in date pronunciation. It took quite a few times for me not to trip up over saying the years (mil novecientos noventa y nueve - 1999). I'm certainly not perfect with it yet, but I'm sticking with my plan - I go through each lesson 4 times and move on. If I waited to be perfect, I'd be waiting an awfully long time! Edited by AmyinBrooklyn on 19 January 2015 at 3:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4656 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 92 of 104 20 January 2015 at 8:14pm | IP Logged |
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Amy, I wanted to jump in here and comment on what a great log you have here. I look forward to reading more of it in the future. Your consistent effort is a really good example for all of us. Thanks for taking the time to post!
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| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4049 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 93 of 104 02 February 2015 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks so much, Bolio! I equally enjoy your log (in fact, I was just reading it!)
So my posting here hasn't been very consistent. I think that's only a reflection of that fact that I'm really just doing the same thing every single day so I don't feel like it's really that interesting. I'm spending most of my time going through FSI. As I've mentioned, I do an FSI lesson once a day, repeating each lesson four times. I watch at least one episode of a telenovela every day, and I'm never as good about Anki as I should be. But after at least an hour and forty-five minutes of daily study, it just ends up being the thing that falls by the wayside. Earlier in January, I tested my Spanish level with the site that Stelle gave on either her log or someone else's - of course, now I can't seem to find it again (Stelle, does this ring a bell?) Anyway, I tested at a B1.2 I really thought I would be a little further than that and was sort of bummed out, but I'm interested to see what happens to that level when I finish FSI. And in other news, this week I'm going to Uganda for two weeks. It's a bit of a volunteer trip + fun. (Going to see the mountain gorillas!). My goal is to still continue to work on my Spanish for at least a half hour every day. I'm very proud of my solid streak of Spanish every day for nearly a year and a half. I know it wouldn't hurt me to take a break, but I want to see if I can keep it up while on this trip. My plan is to bring one of my grammar books and just work through verbs and word lists. If you have any other suggestions, let me know! Edited by AmyinBrooklyn on 02 February 2015 at 9:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4142 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 94 of 104 02 February 2015 at 11:12pm | IP Logged |
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Here you go:
prueba de nivel You shouldn't be bummed about B1.2 - that's a solid level! Edited by Stelle on 02 February 2015 at 11:12pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4049 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 95 of 104 02 February 2015 at 11:17pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, Stelle (for the encouragement and the link)! I was looking everywhere for it. I appreciate having the link in my log so I can give it a try in a few more months! It will be interesting to see how FSI helps.
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 96 of 104 03 February 2015 at 2:09pm | IP Logged |
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In a strange way I like updating my log and not saying anything new... just the same thing over and over again... that's what is satisfying about it for me... I just keep on chugging and getting better. Every now and then go back a few pages and you'll see your progress. That will be rewarding. You have been consistent and that is exactly what you want.
I have few desires to go to Africa... it is just not on my list... but if I were to go I'd like to visit Uganda. My dad lived there before I was born and I have so many memories of my dad telling us stories. I'd also advise you not to put too much weight in the online tests. Just keep on moving with it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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