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JIK’s Spanish Log - fluent(ish) by 2014 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| JIK Diglot Groupie Bahrain Joined 4103 days ago 58 posts - 58 votes  Speaks: Estonian, English* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 1 of 33 03 September 2013 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well,
This is my third time starting a Spanish log. (Third time's the charm?) The two previous times I did this, I got seriously sidetracked so often that I completely abandoned Spanish study. Why I think/hope this time will be different is that during the previous two attempts, I was in grad school full time while working and in the process of planning for my own wedding. Now that I'm happily married and done with graduate school, I find I have a lot more time on my hands and am happy to get back into Spanish. Hopefully I can stick with it more effectively this time. Background: I've finished the basic and advanced Michel Thomas methods, but I have not yet gone through the builder. I've also done Pimsleur 1, 2, and part of 3. When I stopped last time, I was half-way through Assimil's Spanish with Ease. Method/plans: Though I liked Assimil, it wasn't quite comprehensive enough for what I currently want out of Spanish. Though I will no doubt use Assimil for any languages I try to learn in the future, right now I'm working with FSI/Platiquemos. Having read Irrationale's log about it, I'm excited to give it a go. I was able to skip the first 10 units as well due to previous study, so I started with unit 11. Goal: By January 1, I want to be comfortable holding conversations on a wide variety of everyday topics. I want to be comfortable with different forms of past, present, and future conjugation, and increase my vocabulary to the point of being able to read basic novels (like Harry Potter) and actually enjoy the reading (not feel like it is work). Also, I want to have gotten over my nervousness regarding speaking to natives. For this, I'll need to force myself to speak Spanish (especially with natives) every chance I get. Looking forward to getting to talk to some people on this forum as well! Edited by JIK on 03 September 2013 at 7:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JIK Diglot Groupie Bahrain Joined 4103 days ago 58 posts - 58 votes Speaks: Estonian, English* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 2 of 33 03 September 2013 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have now finished Platiquemos units 11 and 12. I'm not quite sure if they're supposed to be harder or
easier than this, but so far it has taken me around 2 hours for each unit. Not as much new vocab yet as I would have expected, but I look forward to that changing. I feel like I can to almost all of the translations correctly pretty easily, but certainly not in the short time the recordings give you between the prompt and the response. I actually have to stop and think about the responses. On to unit 13. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JIK Diglot Groupie Bahrain Joined 4103 days ago 58 posts - 58 votes Speaks: Estonian, English* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 3 of 33 04 September 2013 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Finished unit 13 of Platiquemos today. I have to say it was probably the easiest one yet: just a lot of work
with different possessive forms. I'm still a bit fuzzy on why I should say la casa de usted vs. su casa vs. la casa suyo, but oh well. From the text it seems like all three are acceptable, depending on how specific you want to be (de usted being more specific than 'su' or 'suyo'). It seems like Platiquemos likes to grind stuff into your head by immense amounts of repetition. Seems a bit unnecessary at times, but I suppose more practice can't be bad, especially since I'm trying to make myself able to say things without thinking. The muscle memory from it will certainly be helpful. Looking forward to unit 14 now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4252 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 33 07 September 2013 at 9:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Hola!
It looks like you've got off to a pretty good restart. I took Spanish in college, and then stopped learning it for quite a while; I started picking it up again this March, so I know about the whole putting off learning the language thing. Keep with it and I'm sure that you'll do well. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4145 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 5 of 33 07 September 2013 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck with your challenge! I think that - if you put in enough time - four months should be long enough to
have basic conversations in Spanish. I've never used Assimil, Platiquemos or FSI (and to be honest, didn't even know they existed before I started reading HTLAL!). Once you have enough of a base, I would recommend looking for a language partner. I meet with language partners on Skype most days of the week, and it's helped me improve my Spanish exponentially. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4829 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 6 of 33 07 September 2013 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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You seem to have no shortage of material, but if you are interested in another approach
to the spoken language, you might look at "Say Something in Spanish". I am doing the 1st Welsh course by the same people, and am very impressed, and have signed up for access to courses 2 and 3 (course 1 is free). I think the pricing policy on the Spanish may be different, but you do get some lessons free, and if you do decide to sign up for more, I don't think the payment is a great deal, if the one I'm doing is anything to go by. You mentioned repetition, and there is a fair amount of repetition in SSiW, but I've found it really does seem to work. I have no connection with them except as a happy user of their Welsh course. Say Something in Spanish I listened to some of the lessons that I could access without extra payment (I'm not sure if I get a few as a bonus for having signed up for the Welsh!), and the approach seems very much like what they use for Welsh. If you try it, just go with the flow, and follow their instructions exactly. It may seem very different to what you've done before, but it really does seem to work (at least for Welsh, and I don't see why it wouldn't for any other language). Anyway, whatever you do, have lots of fun with your Spanish, and try to get as much speaking practice as you can. EDIT: May also be of interest: From Learning to Using Edited by montmorency on 07 September 2013 at 4:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JIK Diglot Groupie Bahrain Joined 4103 days ago 58 posts - 58 votes Speaks: Estonian, English* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 7 of 33 07 September 2013 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the encouraging words, Stelle. Fortunately, I can already have basic conversations (albeit quite slowly sometimes), but I'm looking forward to getting much more comfortable with it. Assimil really helped me a lot, as did Michel Thomas and Pimsleur. Platiquemos is (arguably) the most helpful of all so far though. I definitely need to start doing some skype sessions though. Is there somewhere specific you went to find people to talk to? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JIK Diglot Groupie Bahrain Joined 4103 days ago 58 posts - 58 votes Speaks: Estonian, English* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 8 of 33 07 September 2013 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the encouragement, Lorren! :) Glad to hear you picked it back up this March! I'll have a look at your log as well if you have one! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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