samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 1 of 43 22 October 2013 at 12:44pm | IP Logged |
I'm currently somewhere between A1 and A2 (probably A2 grammatically, but I lack vocab).
I feel this is pretty ambitious, however I am currently clocking up 20 hours of study/practice each week, which according to this guy (http://www.languagesurfer.com/2012/08/21/how-long-does-it-t ake-to-become-fluent/) ought to be enough, as long as it's quality practice.
On the way, I aim to:
- Do some Spanish practice every day without exception
- Aim for 20 hours a week, but definitely no less than 15 on a bad week
- Move beyond Notes in Spanish "inspired beginners" podcasts onto their intermediate podcast, and work through at least 30 intermediate podcasts
- Complete Pimsleur Spanish 3
- Learn the 1000 most common Spanish words using anki
I'm very open to suggestions of other goals I should adopt in order to reach my overall goal of B2 by November 2014.
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 2 of 43 22 October 2013 at 12:51pm | IP Logged |
I'll start by posting my progress for the past month. I use a time management app called "toggl" to precisely time how long I spend practising / studying.
Week beginning 23rd September
01:51:02 Duolingo lessons
03:16:19 English Grammar for Students of Spanish
01:12:57 Flash cards
01:29:17 Free reading
02:16:59 Free writing
01:21:12 Learning Spanish Like Crazy
01:08:34 Michel Thomas
01:21:01 Notes in Spanish
00:43:36 Pimsleur
00:49:38 Verbarrator
02:48:28 Writing flash cards
01:45:24 Misc
20:04:27 TOTAL
Week beginning 30th September.
01:10:19 Duolingo lessons
02:29:48 Flash cards
01:46:26 Free reading
00:32:37 Free writing
00:35:37 Learning Spanish Like Crazy
01:35:15 Michel Thomas
03:38:39 Notes in Spanish
00:30:41 Schaum's grammar
01:13:56 Spanish Subjunctive Up Close
00:04:01 Verbarrator
06:27:13 Writing flash cards
20:04:32 TOTAL
Week beginning 7th October.
00:19:12 BliuBliu
02:17:26 Duolingo lessons
03:40:11 Flash cards
02:04:05 Free reading
00:44:11 Free writing
00:33:30 Learning Spanish Like Crazy
01:30:00 Evening class
01:15:45 Evening class homework etc.
01:02:42 Michel Thomas
01:03:01 Notes in Spanish
02:40:07 Pimsleur
00:33:05 Verbarrator
02:33:54 Writing flash cards
20:17:09 TOTAL
Week beginning 14th October
00:06:58 BliuBliu
01:02:30 Duolingo lessons
00:05:52 Duolinguo translations
01:31:56 Film without subtitles
01:54:25 Flash cards
00:36:18 Free reading
00:38:34 Free writing
01:30:00 Evening class
03:09:46 Evening class follow-up
00:27:22 Learning Spanish Like Crazy
02:42:15 Learning with Texts
01:41:39 Michel Thomas
00:39:58 Notes in Spanish
00:15:51 Schaum's grammar
03:47:41 Creating flash cards
20:11:05 TOTAL
Edited by samfrances on 22 October 2013 at 1:09pm
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 3 of 43 22 October 2013 at 12:52pm | IP Logged |
I've also signed up for the 6 Week Challenge for November 2013. I don't think I can fit in many more hours than the 20/week I'm already doing. Instead of upping the hours too much, I'm going to cut back on the number of courses I'm working through and really go for it with two or three courses for those 6 weeks. I'm thinking Notes in Spanish, Pimsleur 3 and Assimil Spanish with Ease (which is in the post). I'll keep going with my Anki cards as well, so I don't get too far behind.
I've registered a new twitter account @Sam6wc for the challenge (I don't have a general purpose twitter account).
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 4 of 43 24 October 2013 at 10:47am | IP Logged |
I'm thinking of using the 6-week challenge to really break through my slight fear of speaking Spanish in real life.
I might try to have four 30-minute speaking sessions with a professional teacher on italki each week for the 6-weeks of the challenge. I might try to have 50/50 language exchanges on the other days, or I might rest, I haven't decided yet.
Edited by samfrances on 24 October 2013 at 10:47am
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Ramblurr Newbie United States binaryelysium.com Joined 4341 days ago 30 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Egyptian), German
| Message 5 of 43 24 October 2013 at 11:24am | IP Logged |
Might I ask what you're doing with the grammar texts? Just reading them, or are there
exercises inside that you do?
Also congrats on maintaining the 20 hr per week!
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 6 of 43 24 October 2013 at 11:40am | IP Logged |
Thanks Ramblurr.
I just read "English Grammar for Students of Spanish" cover to cover. I found it a really enjoyable and illuminating read. I made some Anki flash cards on demonstratives and object pronouns, as well. This book doesn't really have any exercises, although it does include study advice.
With Schaum's, I've been working through it and doing the exercises, and then making many of the exercises into flash cards.
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James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5376 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French
| Message 7 of 43 26 October 2013 at 9:46pm | IP Logged |
With 20 hours a week you should be able to reach your goal. Good luck. The stretch between B1 and B2 is a very long stretch and can be discouraging. Are you going to work in FSI? If you want to accomplish your goal as efficiently as possible, spending a significant amount of time on FSI (maybe an hour a day) would make a HUGE difference.
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samfrances Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 81 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 8 of 43 26 October 2013 at 10:11pm | IP Logged |
Thanks James29. Its good to know where to expect a plateau, so as to avoid becoming too discouraged.
FSI is certainly on my to-do list for this year. Currently I'm working through Pimsleur 3, Learning Spanish Like Crazy, MT Vocabulary and Notes in Spanish (Beginners), so I think I'm probably a bit overloaded with courses! I need to finish a few and add them to my "occasional review" playlist ASAP.
I was planning on cutting back and working through just a few courses during the November 6-week challenge, so maybe I'll try to bite a chunk out of FSI then (I'm undecided between FSI and Assimil at the moment).
Edited by samfrances on 26 October 2013 at 10:47pm
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