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Fabrizio’s Spanish, French & Japanese Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes  Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 33 of 49 18 April 2011 at 6:47pm | IP Logged |
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Hi there,
I’m just done talking via Livemocha with a new Paraguayan friend :) My Spanish is not as good as I thought it was, but I could eventually kept a conversation going on for about one hour! I could basically understand everything and the girl told me my Spanish is “genial”, which is good :) During these past days I couldn’t completely stick to my new plan, but, however, I kept watching movies and listening to my podcast as always. I’m going to read and listen to some HP later at night, I’ll take my time :) And I think I’ll write something now, but I need a topic first… any suggestion?! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 34 of 49 18 April 2011 at 9:35pm | IP Logged |
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Here is my first (very) short composition:
http://lang-8.com/253187/journals/893853/Sobre-mi-experienci a-con-el-Afrikaans Edited by Fabrizio on 18 April 2011 at 9:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vanillabean Groupie Canada Joined 5008 days ago 53 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 35 of 49 07 May 2011 at 5:11am | IP Logged |
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Nice job - are you finding lang-8 helpful? I posted a few times on there and then started using lenguajero,
although they both have their good points and bad points. I've wanted to try LiveMocha but I'm scared that my Spanish knowledge is SO low I will just embarrass myself... haha... I guess I just need to do it. I think your Spanish is pretty awesome considering how long you've been studying. I can't wait to start Italian once I have a good grip on Spanish =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 36 of 49 09 May 2011 at 12:48pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone,
I just went through the umpteenth mock test and, in all honesty, I’m only partially satisfied with myself: - Reading Comprehension: 83% (83%)* - Listening Comprehension: 83% (92%) - Grammar and Vocabulary: 85% (85%) * In brackets the percentage of correct answers of the previous test I took more or less one month ago. As you can see, a general worsening I would say, but I still virtually passed the test, so I guess I should be happy… I didn’t eventually updated my log as I was aiming to do, but I seriously couldn’t make it, I apologize. Notwithstanding, I basically stuck to the plan and I considerably increased my exposure time to the language - an average of about 4 hours a day. I’m not making use of Lang-8 actually, as I rather prefer practicing on chat and Livemocha. Every now and then I also engage in conversations with Spanish speaking people from all over the world using Skype and Livemocha again. I gave up on HP, I think I hate it. I think I’m getting better, but I still feel ensure when it comes to write formal texts/letters. I should have practiced more this aspect of the language, but in all honesty it bores me tremendously, and I rather prefer doing “something else” (watching movies, speaking and chatting informally with foreigners, etc.) than doing “nothing”. Luckily for me, my weakest points (writing and, to a certain extent, speaking) are grouped together with my strongest ones (reading and listening), so I think I’ll be able to compensate somehow and eventually reach that 70% of right answers I need to get in each section in order to be successful. I’m going to work harder this last week, keep your fingers crossed! @Vanillabean: Thank you very much, you always have good words for me :) Learning Italian is going to be a piece of cake once you’ll have mastered Spanish, trust me! Livemocha is a good place where practicing your language and believe me, there’s not reason to be ashamed of your current abilities. Just go there, break the ice and start talking randomly with someone :) Edited by Fabrizio on 09 May 2011 at 1:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 37 of 49 19 May 2011 at 5:59pm | IP Logged |
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Alright, tomorrow is the big day :)
I keep thinking I'm not ready enough, but I'll try my best anyway! Please, keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck guys! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vanillabean Groupie Canada Joined 5008 days ago 53 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 38 of 49 19 May 2011 at 7:23pm | IP Logged |
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Good luck! I'm sure you'll do great. Keep us posted :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 39 of 49 21 May 2011 at 11:52am | IP Logged |
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Hi everyone,
This is my personal review of the DELE B2 Spanish language certification I sat yesterday. - Pruebas 1 y 2 (“reading comprehension” and “writing”) 2 hours is the time examinees have in order to complete this first part of the test. 20 minutes were, in my personal opinion, more than enough to read 4 shorts and easy passages about literature, newspaper articles, interviews, etc and answer all the subsequent 12 questions – which were, by the way, absolutely unambiguous and rather pretty straightforward. The remaining 1h 40mins is indeed enough to write down 2 short essays. What really surprised me was that the candidate could chose between 4 different options (2 different topics for each essay) and the length of the articles: only 150- 200 words (which is nothing compared to, for example, the TOEFL ibt test where you are given only 1 topic for each essay and it must be of about 300 or more words). Moreover, the given topics were way less complex than I thought – in my case, “write an informal letter to a friend and tell him about a concert you’ve been to” and “write a short essay about an article of clothing you are/were particularly fond”. To summarize, this first part was fairly straightforward. I didn’t get exhausted as it has happened in past times while sitting other language certifications. - Pruebas 3 y 4 (“listening comprehension” and “grammar and vocabulary”) The listening comprehension was pretty easy as well: 4 shorts listening passages about everyday topics (art, sciences, culture and traditions, etc) and 12 questions. Nothing really hard if you can keep up the speed of the spoken language. Many candidates complained about the lack of use of proper equipment such as headphones; I do honestly believe this might be a problem depending on where you take sit in the room. As for the “grammar and vocabulary” section, 60 questions in 60 minutes seems me fair enough, but candidates must not waste time and be quick answering. To sum up, this second half of the test was pretty easy as well! As for the first part, I didn’t get any strong headache… eheheh - Prueba 5 (“speaking”) This was probably the trickiest part of the whole test. Candidates have to chose a topic over 3 possible choices and have 15 minutes to prepare their speech. I personally went for this “media and communication” subject, which was of my personal interest and competence. Subjects were of different kinds and probably more elaborated compared to the ones in the previous sections (eg. tourism, politics, etc.), but still very “manageable” since along with the topic itself a sort of outline, a path to follow, was also given. After this first part of preparation, the actual oral test takes place: it starts with simple questions about the candidate personal details (these questions are not evaluated, of course) and then moves to the first half of the real test: the four vignettes part. Many candidates – I include myself here – were quite amazed by the incomprehensibility of the cartoons and, consequently, got into real trouble trying to figuring out what was going on in the pictures. The final result was an absolutely bad performance, which, luckily for me, was probably well compensated by the already prepared and the free speech parts of the oral test. As for the examiners, everything is pretty informal and the atmosphere is absolutely chilled. To put in a nutshell, this last section of the test was the hardest one. You get to it at the very end of the day and many candidates were indeed too tired to perform well. As you probably already know if you’re thinking to go through the test, 70% is the mark you need get in each group (“reading comprehension + writing” / “listening comprehension + speaking” / “grammar and vocabulary”) in order to be successful. I honestly believe I did I good job yesterday! - Do you think you eventually passed the test? I think so, but I’ll need 3 months to be sure of that since this is how long it will take to get the result. Golly gosh… - Were 4 months enough to reach a B2 level? I believe so, especially if you already speak another romance language and you don’t study any other idioms (if you look at the first post of my log, I was also supposed to be tackling Japanese now, but…) - What’s next? Eheheh… I’m going to sit the C1 level in November and soon start with another language (probably my dear beloved Japanese), maybe two (hello French/Portuguese). Stay tuned :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| getreallanguage Diglot Senior Member Argentina youtube.com/getreall Joined 5471 days ago 240 posts - 371 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian, Dutch | Message 40 of 49 21 May 2011 at 8:46pm | IP Logged |
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Ciao Fabrizio. Glad to see you did well on your test. Shoot me a message if you ever want to practice your Spanish. ¡La mejor de las suertes con tus estudios!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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