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Basic fluency in 3 months - Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| talkl Diglot Groupie Israel Joined 5048 days ago 51 posts - 61 votes  Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 16 19 July 2011 at 12:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi everyone,
Enough is enough. I have been studying 6 months Spanish on and off, completing FSI Spanish Progrommatic Unit 1-22, conversing with local south americans in livemocha and maybe listening to the audiobook "el principito". I pretty much can have a fluent written chat with south americans, and i only sometimes miss a word here and there. The problem is that my goal is very different indeed. i want to know how to speak. I have no excuses why it hadn't happen yet, having all those months behind me. I did 3 skype chats with colombians during this whole time. It simply is not enough to reach basic fluency by thinking that learning variant periods of time would gain me enough practice. My university studies did not help either to this whole situation. However, since now im through with my studies and have a 3 month break till next year, i decided that no matter what i need to know how to speak Spanish by the end of the summer. My goal i hope is humble. I'm not asking to have the ability of conversing intelligently and so forth. Simply a basic conversation would suffice. Now the question that stands is: "how do i plan to do it?" And so without further due... Each day i should complete the following exercises: 1) 3 hours of FSI Programmatic 2) 40 minutes of listening to Caracol TV 3) 20 minutes of speaking to a local Any more tasks would start to be too much of a burden and i want to be feasible with myself. I think speaking to a local and insisting on finding the one that would be willing to put the effort and tolerate my broken Spanish would be my greatest challenge. I already contacted a jewish colombian guy who knows broken Hebrew. Now all i need to do is establish with him a regular schedule of mutual practice. Any suggestions would be much appreciated 17.7.2011: FSI: 3 horas de la unidad 23 Edited by talkl on 19 July 2011 at 12:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| talkl Diglot Groupie Israel Joined 5048 days ago 51 posts - 61 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 16 20 July 2011 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am pleased with my progress so far.
I am contemplating on paying for an online private lesson with a colombian teacher. I will be taking a free trial lesson with her in the upcoming week. I predict that if everything goes well, this is going to be the highlight of my Spanish studies. I think i will have no choice but to speak and it will definitely make me use the language actively. 18.7.2011: 1.5 hours of FSI unit 23 + 24 20.7.2011: 3 hours of FSI unit 24 + 25 30 minutes talking Spanish with an israeli teacher 20 minutes of listening 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DanWorld Groupie Thailand Joined 4713 days ago 40 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Thai, Spanish, Russian | Message 3 of 16 20 July 2011 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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It sounds like you are working with lots of good resources already. But I'm wondering, if your primary goal currently
is to improve your conversational ability, have you thought about Pimsleur? I'm doing Pimsleur Russian and have had a good experience. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| talkl Diglot Groupie Israel Joined 5048 days ago 51 posts - 61 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 16 20 July 2011 at 11:52pm | IP Logged | ||
When i first started studying Spanish i finished Pimsleur 1-8. It did a good job building my foundation in the language but after a while it just doesn't develop the necessary engagement that i always look for. FSI on the other hand is immensely engaging and so is speaking to people. Listening today to Caracol TV i noticed a shocking fact about my learning methods. If i know a word and have heard authentic pronunciation of the word, then i will be able to understand it as part of a speedy speech and i will understand the general idea of what they are saying. However, words that i never encountered made it extremely difficult to understand the rest of the dialog. My conclusion is that i need to add a source that will expend my vocabulary. and this conclusion is even stronger with the fact that FSI is considered wretched in terms of vocabulary building. Any suggestions? Edited by talkl on 20 July 2011 at 11:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5003 days ago 245 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 5 of 16 21 July 2011 at 8:12am | IP Logged | ||
This sounds excellent. I feel that the open ended and varied nature of conversation is something that cannot be duplicated through Pimsleur, Assimil, or any other closed system of learning materials. The fact that I don't know what the other person is about to say tends to shine a very bright light on the level of my active ability and also fosters the development of coping mechanisms so that I can keep up with the conversation in real time. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| talkl Diglot Groupie Israel Joined 5048 days ago 51 posts - 61 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 16 30 July 2011 at 11:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I feel that i am making a slow and gradual improvement in my Spanish studies.
The other day i tried one of those many free trial lessons over the internet. it was with a native speaker from Guatemala. I was very surprised to learn that i could understand 95% of the things we talked about. however, when i talked to a friend of mine from Ecuador i couldn't understand almost anything she said. It makes me think that paying for an online tutor at least at this stage of my studies is an essential step i have to take. No matter how much time i put into chatting with native speakers at Livemocha there is no substitution to a weekly structured lesson. I have finished so far volume I of Spanish Programmatic and units 26-27 of volume II. throughout all this time i still keep listening to online Spanish tv. And so When i finish FSI Programmatic i hope to be at a level that could help me listen, speak and write freely without having to pay for tutors, books and all the Miscellaneous. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4834 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 16 30 July 2011 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
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This is a very interesting log. I may have to take a look at programatic.
Do you think you will move onto to fsi basic / platiquemos after programatic? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| talkl Diglot Groupie Israel Joined 5048 days ago 51 posts - 61 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 16 30 July 2011 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Major mile stone!
Today my family hosted distant relatives from the US. One of those who were invited was raised by her mexican parents. She speaks Spanish and so i said to myself that i ought to have a chance to speak with her and practice mine. I was afraid i would disappoint myself and expected the worse. It was unbelievable... as i opened my mouth i felt some kind of strong will burning inside me. It was one of those moments when you feel you are in complete control. The words just flew out of my mouth. I understood everything she said,replied, inquired and did everything that there is to do in a conversation. Naturally i stopped for a few times, hesitated here and there, asked her in English for unfamiliar words and so forth. But the most important thing was proving to myself that after all this hard work i can actually speak Spanish. I am now even more motivated than before, seeing what i can achieve with a little bit of stubbornness. I truly believe that the day will come and i will be fluent in Spanish. What i did and still do is simple: Stick with a plan and see the end of it. On a more educational note, i do want to share with you a great way to improve your Spanish. Listening. It brings unbelievable results. I think that without constant exposure to the language in it's natural native pace it would be hard to know would i be able to speak and interact in a conversation. The main reason to listen everyday to something native is simple: you need to know what the other side is saying. The other reason but not less important is that i sometimes construct new correct phrases just by knowing the general use of words in the language. el séptimo dia is a great colombian program and you should definitely check it out.
good question. it depends on my level of Spanish. if i think that i can move to native materials, than i will skip BASIC. Let's say i sure hope that i won't need BASIC since it means a lot of work. Edited by talkl on 30 July 2011 at 5:15pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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