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My journey in Spanish

  Tags: Spanish
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19 messages over 3 pages: 13  Next >>
watupboy101
Diglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 4905 days ago

65 posts - 81 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French

 
 Message 9 of 19
02 June 2013 at 5:57am | IP Logged 
For Assimil I don't "try" to grind the material in my head. This is my personal run through.

1. Listen no looking at text.
2. Listen looking at text, pause, look at translation read notes (for each sentence)
3. Listen, pause, repeat out loud, sentence by sentence.
4. Some form of "Shadowing"
5. Listen with book, looking for missing points.
6. Close book and listen

by the 6th listen, I don't want to keep going over the same thing, even if I don't understand it perfectly. How do I
combat this lack of perfect comprehension? Throughout the day like at school during down time, I'll listen to
past Assimil lessons, with or without the book (preferably with)
It seems to be working well so far. I wouldn't stress to much about perfect comprehension because you're going
to be reviewing multiple times.... Hopefully.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Vestis2
Newbie
United States
Joined 4809 days ago

13 posts - 13 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 10 of 19
02 June 2013 at 7:47am | IP Logged 
Thanks for all the responses.

watupboy101 wrote:
For Assimil I don't "try" to grind the material in my head. This
is my personal run through.

by the 6th listen, I don't want to keep going over the same thing, even if I don't
understand it perfectly. How do I
combat this lack of perfect comprehension? Throughout the day like at school during
down time, I'll listen to
past Assimil lessons, with or without the book (preferably with)
It seems to be working well so far. I wouldn't stress to much about perfect
comprehension because you're going
to be reviewing multiple times.... Hopefully.


This is exactly what I needed to hear, Thanks alot

just completed leccion trece and it's muy tarde para mi aqui. I'm headin to bed. Buenas
Noches
1 person has voted this message useful



Vestis2
Newbie
United States
Joined 4809 days ago

13 posts - 13 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 11 of 19
03 June 2013 at 5:32am | IP Logged 
Leccion decimo quatro finished

I know I'm still at the beginning of the course but thus far, I'm happy with it. I
reviewed leccion seis - trece prior to the leccion and understood practically all of it.
Pretty cool stuff. It is also a humbling experience. I know in my OP I stated I was
seriously lacking in Spanish after years of being around it but wow, This course has
highlighted some definite deficiencies I have within what i thought I knew. It's no big
deal though, I know now and "what you know, you won't forget" to quote Michel Thomas. I
guess that's about it, thanks to everyone who has commented with tips and suggestions, I
really appreciate it.
1 person has voted this message useful



Vestis2
Newbie
United States
Joined 4809 days ago

13 posts - 13 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 12 of 19
10 June 2013 at 6:03am | IP Logged 
Ok, Leccion Veintiuna complete.

I've had a pretty rough week. I missed a few lessons due to me just feeling to sick to get out of bed and study so I ended up doing Leccion diecinueve - veintiuna all today to catch up. It's becoming more and more apparent that I might need to brush up on my English in order to learn Spanish. As this is my first foreign language to study, and since I've been out of school for quite some time now, when I get to the notes in Assimil and they start talking about the infinitive, imperative, gerund, etc. I'm pretty much lost. I no longer know what these things mean in English. I just speak and write what I think "sounds" right. Going back and re-learning these things will probably push my completion time back but if I need to, I need to. I'm also having a time, fitting in review lessons. I'm not exactly sure how your supposed to actually review. Is listening to the audio enough. Or should you re-read the material? Both?? Do the whole lesson over? I don't know. I recently read a review where it says to review lessons seven times but again, It doesn't say how to review. Thus far, I've been reading the lesson in Spanish and making sure i still knew the meaning and If not, looking at the English side. Well, I guess that's about it, Til next time
1 person has voted this message useful



Aguacero
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 4205 days ago

10 posts - 13 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French

 
 Message 13 of 19
14 June 2013 at 9:13pm | IP Logged 
Vestis2,

My perspective is to not worry about the review. If you are consistent with your
lessons, and you comprehend what you're listening to and reading, then you are getting
what you need out of the lessons. If you retain 80% of the lesson a week later, then
you are doing well. I do not worry if I dont remember something because, if it is
important, I will see it again and again. You will learn through relaxed exposure over
time. Stay consistent, the goal is to establish a base knowledge. But Assimil will only
take you so far so do not expect perfection in your retention. I expect Assimil to take
me to an A2 level at completion.

If you make it through Assimil with 80% retention great job! Move on to something more
meaningful in the language that is more rewarding (books, movies, chats, speaking etc.)

The grammar you do not know, do not worry so much about it. Just stick with Assimil and
be consistent to the end. Grammar is great at explaining what is obvious to a native
speaker. Review the grammar when you are finished and it will make much more sense
because you will have a feel for Spanish by then.




2 persons have voted this message useful



Crush
Tetraglot
Senior Member
ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5867 days ago

1622 posts - 2299 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto
Studies: Basque

 
 Message 14 of 19
16 June 2013 at 6:38am | IP Logged 
A quick review:
infinitive:
-in English this is the form of the verb when it's preceded by "to": to run, to jump, to study, etc. In Spanish this is the unconjugated form (ending in -ar, -er, or -ir): hablar, correr, sentir.

gerund:
-this is the -ing form in English: running, sitting, eating, baking. In Spanish it ends en -ando or -iendo: cocinando, partiendo, corriendo.

imperative:
-this is just a command: Hurry! Duck! Eat quickly! In English it's just the infinitive form without the "to". In Spanish, it's a little more complicated. ¡Corre! (tú), ¡Hablad! (vosotros), ¡Duerma! (usted), ¡Coman! (ustedes). All it is is a command telling the person/people you're talking to to do something.

past participle:
-the verb type used in the "have" tenses. I think in Spanish they tend to be a bit more regular than in English. Generally these are words that end in -ed: (have) jumped, (has) kissed, (have) played. In Spanish they generally end in -ado or -ido: (he) hablado, (has) sentido, (hemos) tenido. There are irregular forms in both languages, though.

And what do you mean for the review lessons? You mean every seventh lesson? If you want to review you can just listen to the audio if that's easier, though it may help to read through them from time to time as i've found that i don't always listen as closely as i read. If you have trouble understanding a lesson when listening you can always go back and read through it later. But if review gets in the way of moving on to a new lesson, i'd put it aside for later. The most important part i think is feeling that you're making actual progress :)
2 persons have voted this message useful



Vestis2
Newbie
United States
Joined 4809 days ago

13 posts - 13 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 15 of 19
17 June 2013 at 10:33pm | IP Logged 

Thanks for the review Crush! and the much needed advice from you and Aguacero.
I was talking about reviewing the lessons that I had previously done, not every
seventh lesson. I think I'll just do a mixture of listening to the lessons over
again on some days and reading them on others. As an update, I'm up to leccion
veintinueve now in Assimil. I'm actually starting to catch alot more Spanish when
I hear it from people talking to each other. I've also started watching Destinos,
which I had previously tried to get into but didn't stick with. I'm happy to report
that so far (episode 3), I understand alot more then I did before (which was close to
nil) and I'm happy with my progress so far. I guess that's it for now. I'm gonna go hit
the books. And thanks for all of the awesome help so far guys, I really appreciate it.
1 person has voted this message useful



Vestis2
Newbie
United States
Joined 4809 days ago

13 posts - 13 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 16 of 19
18 November 2013 at 12:33am | IP Logged 
So I fell off the wagon. I haven't touched Assimil since June. The most I've done to
learn Spanish since then was listen to a few lessons of Pimsleur. I DID do some 30 minute
"sessions" with my wife where we would speak in Spanish over the phone, or rather she
would speak and I would stumble along trying to figure out what the conversation I was in
was about. So long story short, I have re-committed myself to Assimil and I have spent
today reviewing the lessons starting over from lesson 1. I have currently reviewed up to
lesson 16 and I'll just keep on going until I feel like I've had enough of reviewing. I
last left off at lesson 29 so once I get back to that lesson, i'll keep pushing on with
the new material. I just wanted to drop a line to say I'm back.


1 person has voted this message useful



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