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42 Day Spanish Challenge | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Bastet Diglot Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 5913 days ago 28 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 19 12 January 2010 at 6:15pm | IP Logged |
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In 42 days I'm leaving for a short vacation in Seville, Spain. I will only be there for five days, but I thought I would use this trip as a short-term goal to kick-start my Spanish studies for this year. I've been studying Spanish for many years, including a month studying in Spain, but I often suffer from repeated stops and starts.
So, my goal this year is to be much more focused in my language study and advance my Spanish to the next level. I've been reading a lot of posts here and on other blogs to gather inspiration, ideas and to create a plan. I've decided to try to immerse myself as much as possible in Spanish over the next 42 days prior to my trip and let my trip serve as my "test" at the end of this period. I in no way hope to be fluent, but, rather, hope to observe a noticeable improvement in listening comprehension. I'm hoping that posting on this log will be an additional incentive. As for French and Latin, I'm going to limit my French to what I need to do for class and Latin may be put on hold or limited to one time per week. Methods (Rotate the following "excercises"): Pimsleur Listen to my Spanish language music Watch only Spanish language TV shows (news channels, DVDs, etc.) Spanish language Podcasts Read only Spanish News websites for my news. Read a Spanish language novel. SRS - using Flashcard Exchange site Well, I have my Spanish music playing right now and I've gone through my 501 Spanish Verb card file. I even changed my running music mix to Spanish music. "Officially," my 42 days start tomorrow. Wish me luck! MTA: My current level is about B2 or Intermediate. Edited by Bastet on 12 January 2010 at 6:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bastet Diglot Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 5913 days ago 28 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 19 13 January 2010 at 9:31pm | IP Logged |
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More on my Goals:
Like many of you, I studied Spanish in grammar school and university, but without much success. My first two Spanish courses in High School were taught completely in English. When I started my third year, which was suddenly taught entirely in Spanish, I didn't understand a word. I cried a lot that semester. I continued taking courses over the years, but the emphasis always seems to be on grammar. At the end of the day, I want to be able to understand and speak fluent Spanish, not regurgitate grammar rules. The last few weeks I've been reading a lot about language learning (on this site and others) and I've decided it is time that I really push past the B2/C1 level and get fluent! My number one priority is greatly improving my listening comprehension. I can follow news stories, but I have to really concentrate. As for movies, sometimes I can follow them and sometimes I really can't. More about my plan
Today's work 10:00 to 10:30 - Watched EuroNews in Spanish 11:00 to 12:30 - Listened to Spanish language music while going to the gym 17:00 to 18:00 - Read Spanish language news articles and then read them aloud 18:00 to 18:30 - Listened to music on LoMasTv (has subtitled music videos) Other comments I didn't quite meet my goal today, but I did have other appointments planned. I want to spend as much time as I can "in Spanish." I'm a student and recently lost my part-time job, so I have some time on my hands. This week will be tough as I have a paper due in Data Communications, which I can't very well due in Spanish. However, outside of my classes, I want to mainly read and write in Spanish. Oh! I also changed all of the language settings for my computer and browser to Spanish. My husband is going to love that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bastet Diglot Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 5913 days ago 28 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 19 14 January 2010 at 10:05pm | IP Logged |
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Today's Work
07:40 to 08:40 - Watched EuroNews in Spanish 09:00 to 09:30 - SRS - sentence review 13:20 to 15:00 - Watched movie: María llenes eres de gracía 15:00 to 15:30 - Read articles in Spanish about the movie 17:30 to 18:30 - listened to 2 chapters of Pimsleur while making dinner Comments The EuroNews is on a loop, so after about an hour it replays the same stories. Normally annoying, but it gives me a second chance to hear the story when I listen in Spanish. I can even listen in English, after, to check my comprehension, but I didn't today. I want to limit my English exposure, somewhat. As for the movie, it was heartbreaking, but very good story telling and thought provoking, too. I have to admit, I toyed with the idea of playing the English subtitles, but I resisted. I did, however, put on the Spanish subtitles after a few minutes. The Colombian accent was very difficult for me. Even with the subtitles, I often couldn't "hear" the words. I don't know if I was relaxing and "getting into" the Spanish, but by halfway through I started to hear better. Of course, the second half of the movie takes place in NYC - perhaps the accents of those characters were easier for me? As for Pimsleur, well, I put it on while I was cooking dinner. I thought it would be a good way to get in some sentence review, but I find Pimsleur way too easy. Plus, there is too much English. I don't have level 3 at home and was listening to level 2, so maybe I should try level 3? Don't know if it is worth it... I'm toying with the idea of labeling everything in my house with note cards. I did it in Spain, while I was studying there. I know a lot would be basic vocabulary, but some would not and I just have this idea that I should surround myself with Spanish. I like the idea of seeing the Spanish word for everything, everywhere I look. As for the time in between my little schedule I've posted above - I make sure and have Spanish language music playing in the background. My goal is to study intensively between the hours of 0800 and 1700 - when my husband is at work. My husband tried to use my laptop today and wanted to know if it was okay to "eliminar an email" - that makes me laugh. Progress notes Reading has become fairly easy for me. I still come across words or phrases that I don't understand, but usually I can figure it out from context. Overall, I understand most of what I read. MTA: I meant,"reading is fairly easy for me." Don't mean to imply my reading has improved greatly since yesterday ;) I think that I understood more while listening today than yesterday. Is that possible after only one day? I really don't know. I'm curious to see how I feel after one week. Edited by Bastet on 14 January 2010 at 10:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bastet Diglot Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 5913 days ago 28 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 19 15 January 2010 at 10:11pm | IP Logged |
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Today's work
10:00 to 10:30 - Watched EuroNews in Spanish 11:00 to 12:45 - LingQ - reviewed articles w/ audio and vocab 13:00 to 14:00 - Anki - reviewed grammar cards 14:00 to 16:00 - Watched tv show La Señora on RTVE Comments I tried the LingQ site today, for the first time. It is a new way (for me) to study and build vocabulary, and I think I'll use it in that manner. As for grammar, I said that I would concentrate with this log on listening skills, but I've been studying grammar for so long, I can't bring myself to avoid grammar review completely. So, I downloaded a Spanish grammar set on Anki. The tv show on RTVE is great - a nice break from the telenovelas I've been watching on Netflix. La Señora is a historical drama and I'm really getting into it. I'm still continuing with Spanish Music in the background when I'm not actively studying (while on the treadmill, cleaning house, walking to town, etc.). I've loaded a couple of "Learn in Your Car" CDs in my car's CD player (idiomatic expressions and past tense verbs today). I've been searching this forum and the internet for information on progressing past the advanced level. I'm at this level, where I can hold conversations, my accent is very good, I can read most things and I have a good basic grasp of Spanish grammar. However, it seems like I still need to climb a mountain to get to the next level. My goal is not to "pass as a native," but I do want to say that I am fluent. Right now, I don't feel like I am. I can have long conversations with my tutor or people from my class, about pretty much any topic, but there are still great holes in my usage and vocabulary. When speaking to native speakers, I still struggle with different accents or very rapid speech. Sometimes I can understand movies and TV very well and sometimes I really struggle with details. Plus, it seems like most of the study material out there is geared to get the beginner to the level I'm at right now. So, how do I structure a study play for an advanced level? Any suggestions? One thought I have is that I need to read more novels. Right now my reading is mostly news and internet articles. I have read a few novels in Spanish, but I need to make it more a part of my daily life. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7169 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 5 of 19 16 January 2010 at 11:04am | IP Logged |
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Pleased to meet you, Bastet! Thanks for the kind message. The weird thing about "Atlas Shrugged" is, I have read the book so many times that I know it very well. Hence, when I listen, it's like I have a bilingual text in my head, if that makes any sense. Whenever I get to a part where I don't understand the Spanish, I compare it to what I know to be the English sentence. So it's kind of like I can 'cheat' a little. My true level, don't worry, is definitely Harry Potter (possibly a little lower, to be honest). Thanks for asking about my progress! I actually listen to good portions of it on Spanish days, as it is rather easy to let it play while I do other things (I'm listening to it now, in fact.). I was just debating whether I should write an update about my progress in that area, so your comment is timely.
There is one issue though: I am unabashedly a visual learner, so I feel that if I had the Spanish text in front of me, it would be easier to actually start putting some of these expressions that I'm understanding into my active repertoire. Oh, "Advanced Spanish Grammar" (from the "Practice Makes Perfect" series) is literally the title of the book, but as we language learners know, "Advanced" is just meant to make the buyer feel better about himself. It's more like: "Oh, you're one of the few who have decided to actually learn Spanish beyond describing your family? This is how real, educated speakers say things" grammar. It does, however, include useful information about details of usage specifically geared to avoid the traps that native English speakers tend to make. Topics include indirect speech, problematic prepositions, modal constructions, adverbs, etc. But if you want the real deal, I recommend "Manual de gramática" by Iquina and Dozier. It's unfortunately not cheap because it's often used as a college textbook, but it is honestly worth it. I actually had to buy it for a college course, so it's sitting in my dorm room (I'm currently on winter break.). But once I return, I intend to internalize that book. Other than that, I know that one factor separating my German from my Spanish is the fact that I just know a heck of a lot more words in German. All of these nouns--at the very least, I can recognize them. I mean, grammar is vital if you want to produce. But if you want to understand, the most important thing is to be able to recognize a lot of words (specifically nouns and verbs). (That insight is due to Steve Kaufmann, who created LingQ, by the way.) In Spanish, I'm currently working through a 4,000 word vocabulary book and it's like, "liver is 'hígado?' Wow, how embarrassing." Best of luck with your studies! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bastet Diglot Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 5913 days ago 28 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 19 17 January 2010 at 12:22am | IP Logged |
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Sprachjunge: Thanks for the comments. We have a few learning styles in common, it seems. I am also very visual
when it comes to learning - which I think contributes to my lack of listening skills in my languages. I find it very helpful to read a text as it is being read or to watch TV/Movies/Etc. with subtitles in the target language. However, I'm trying very hard to wean myself from this as I'm trying to really improve my ear. I looked up that grammar book on Amazon. I was thinking I wanted a grammar IN Spanish, but not sure if that is a wise idea... Your book looks very thorough. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bastet Diglot Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 5913 days ago 28 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 19 17 January 2010 at 12:39am | IP Logged |
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Today's Work
08:00 to 09:00 - Watched episode of La Señora 10:00 to 11:00 - Listened to Spanish music on the treadmill 11:00 to 11:45 - Listened to expressions CD in car Comments Went to the movies today with husband and friends, so didn't get a lot of language exposure in. I also went a little wild with the notecards and covered my kitchen with Spanish labels. Now a lot is review or words I firmly know, but I want my brain to be confronted with Spanish everywhere. I learned the verb "bullir" for "to boil" but my Berlitz children's picture dictionary has "hervir" as the verb "to boil" (Yes, I have picture dictionaries, I love them for foreign languages). I have the Real Academia Española monolingual dictionary, Oxford bilingual and the 501 Verbs book, but I'm still not sure what a native speaker would use when saying, "The water boils in the pot." My references are slightly contradictory. Now I must get back to my paper on computer hacking - in English, I'm afraid. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bastet Diglot Pro Member United Kingdom Joined 5913 days ago 28 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 19 17 January 2010 at 7:33pm | IP Logged |
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Today's Work
09:00 to 10:15 - Watched episode of La Señora 17:00 to 18:00 - LingQ Comments Most of today has been spent in English, writing my paper on computer hacking. Only one and a half pages left to go! I would much rather be studying Spanish, but that is neither here nor there. I had more trouble following today's episode - don't know if my brain is tired from the studying in English or what. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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