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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Polydoc Newbie Ireland Joined 4196 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 8 02 June 2013 at 1:46pm | IP Logged |
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Hey everybody, I've been a long time lurker of the forum and promised myself that come
this Summer I would begin studying a language or two. I have very little experience in language learning, but I've decided to take up Spanish as it's *hopefully* a little easier a starting point than many other prospective languages. Other motives for Spanish are the availability of practicing the language, as I have a couple of friends studying Spanish in college, and I'd like to travel a bit of South America next year if I can scrape any cash together. Although I've been learning for a couple of weeks now, I decided I'd sign up and document my progress. I've worked my through Michel Thomas' foundation course and in the last few days gotten stuck into a N. Scarlyn Wilson's Teach yourself Spanish and a verb tenses workbook. I guess I can't predict the future, but hopefully I'll update this log once or perhaps twice a week. Will be sure to update the OP a bit as well with a bit more information about myself if I keep the log up. Nice to finally make a post. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Polydoc Newbie Ireland Joined 4196 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 8 02 June 2013 at 1:56pm | IP Logged |
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02/06/2013
It's a bank holiday weekend here in Ireland, so I'm going to try and get a few hours work done today. I'm up to chapter 6 (of 30) in Teach yourself Spanish and and chapter 9 in the PMP workbook. My plan for the next couple of days is simply to work through a couple of chapters from each book and compile an anki deck with all the verbs that the tenses workbook has listed me so far, I've been writing the infinitives of each new verb on a seperate list as I encounter them and have so far already listed 130~, which seems somewhat excessive, but perhaps this is simply because I'm at the start of the book. I might also listen to the first CD of the MT advanced course. 
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| Polydoc Newbie Ireland Joined 4196 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 8 03 June 2013 at 9:24pm | IP Logged |
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I made the anki deck yesterday of all the verbs in their infinitive forms I've been given
so far. Back to work tomorrow, but hopefully I'll get another 10 cards in each morning before work as well as the reviews. I'm up to chapter 9 in TY and 10 in the verbs workbook. I've loaded all the audio from Assimil's Spanish with Ease onto my phone, just waiting for the book to arrive in the post. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Polydoc Newbie Ireland Joined 4196 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 8 30 June 2013 at 12:11pm | IP Logged |
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Long time since I've updated this.
I'm upto lesson 20 in Spanish with Ease and enjoying it. I'm still working through Wilson's teach yourself, although I've slowed down a good bit and had to review a few chapters, think I have a better grasp of how I should be using it now though. It now takes me three days to get through a chapter. Day 1; Read the notes at the beginning of the chapter and translate exercise 1 L2 -> L1. I list the new words and try to learn them briefly. I then get on with my Assimil for the day. Day 2; Read the notes again, then close the book, look over my wordlist from yesterday again and then translate the L1 sentences I worked out the day before into L2. Get on with Assimil. Day 3; Read the notes, check the wordlist and translate exercise 2 which is in L1 into L2. I've been able to correspond in short sentences in Spanish with a friend on facebook about plans for the weekend etc. But nothing to write home about, if anything it perhaps frustrated me at my lack of progress, as I felt I should be able to form better sentences. Still, this is my first language and I think I also need to learn to be patient. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5377 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 5 of 8 30 June 2013 at 1:41pm | IP Logged |
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Keep up the good work. You are working with some good resources.
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| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4336 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 6 of 8 30 June 2013 at 9:13pm | IP Logged |
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Don't lose heart. The first language is always the most frustrating because you don't quite know what works for you, and what doesn't. As James29 said, you're working with good resources. Just keep working at it and don't ask more of yourself than you can give.
Sometimes, frustration can be turned into a positive reinforcement. Use it to identify where you're stalling, and work twice as hard at it. Also (and I'm saying this without ANY intention to discourage you from it), Spanish is well known for being frustrating to English speaking learners. It conjugates what English most definitely doesn't, and the pronunciation is very different. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Polydoc Newbie Ireland Joined 4196 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 8 14 July 2013 at 8:10am | IP Logged |
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Thanks guys, it's nice to know others find it difficult.
Didn't get any study done yesterday cause I was out for the day but I was on a bus trip with a friend who speaks Spanish and on the way home I was able to tell her that I wanted to try and spend a weekend in Madrid or somewhere before going back to college, but that I was afraid of not having enough functional Spanish for the trip to be worth it. It wasn't a lot, just a few sentences, but she understood me and I could understand her replies effortlessly. I'm going to pin a bit of paper to my notice board in front of my desk and write on it sentences that I come across in the Assimil dialogues that I think will be useful for conversation. Other than that I've been ticking over fine, exactly halfway through the Teach Yourself now and lesson 31 in Assimil. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Polydoc Newbie Ireland Joined 4196 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 8 16 August 2013 at 9:02pm | IP Logged |
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Spanish has been going.... okay.
I've progressed little in my TY, upto lesson 18. However, over the last 3 chapters, a short story has been introduced and I've enjoyed reading some actual Spanish. Up to 52 in Assimil and I have started the active wave. The reason I've done so little work is because I'm tired in the mornings/evenings, I work a labour intensive job during the Summers and after 4/5 months now, it's started to take its toll :/ The good news however is that next Friday is my last day, I'll try and keep my Spanish ticking over until then, an Assimil a day etc. But then my plan is to get a good few hours of intensive study a day before moving to Dublin for university. I don't know my dates yet, but I should have two full weeks, at least. My plan is to pick up a dictaphone this weekend and follow Mike Campbell's Glossika mass sentence method, I need to watch the video again one evening and take notes, but it seems like a good way to use two weeks of, basically free time. Will be sure to update again next weekend once I've finished work and go about preparing for the mass sentence approach, hopefully this thread doesn't develop into a log of good intentions and little progress! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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