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My Road to Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| BeBetter Newbie United States Joined 3496 days ago 18 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 36 08 May 2015 at 1:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I am so happy to finally be starting this log.
Background I have taken two years of high school Spanish at a public school. I pretty much cheated my entire way through the class. Looking back on it now, I really wish I would have tried. Fast forward to my college years. I took a spring break trip to Costa Rica and really got to see how important is to be bilingual. I spent about 3-4 months trying to learn Spanish through Rosetta Stone, which pretty much bored me to death. I lost interest pretty fast. Present day I work a lot in Miami so having Spanish under my belt will be a huge advantage. I really am looking to keep this log up, updating it weekly with my progress. I have read through about 50% of James29's log and it has really given me the motivation to set this goal. Tools I have All of the Pimseleurs All of the Michel Thomas tapes Assimil Spanish with Ease Platiquemos FSI Spanish Plan I have currently been working through the Pumselur tapes. I listen to the tapes on my and from work. I also listen to the the Michel Thomas Foundations tapes when I get home from work. I feel like they are really helpful. I do a good amount of sitting in an office, so I have a PDF of Assimil on my computer in which I read through a few of the lessons a day. I cant listen to the tapes at work however. Is there something better that I could be doing while sitting in the office? I also flip through Anki cards, but I try not to do to many. I would love to hear any advice on what to change up and what to add to my plan. Should I start listening to the Assimil tapes after work instead of the Michel Thomas tapes? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5380 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 36 08 May 2015 at 2:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi Ricky - great to see you starting a log. I'm happy to give you any advice along the way. I don't have a ton of time right now, but will write more later. It would be helpful to get an idea of how much you think you will be studying every day. Is there a time where you can commit to 30 minutes consistently every day?
I think the big key is to do something that keeps your interest. That can be different for different people. Generally I'd recommend starting with a program and working it through rather than doing a bunch of different programs (but, if you have more time than I did you may want/need to work through more than one program at a time). One thing I wish I considered at the very beginning was how important good accent/pronunciation really is. It is worth it to spend a lot of time with programs that will be good for pronunciation (Pimsleur, LSLC, Paul Noble, etc). You've probably seen my general suggestion for people working through Spanish programs: Pimsleur 1&2 -> Michel Thomas 1 x 2 -> Assimil -> Michel Thomas 2 x 2 -> Review of Assimil Active wave -> FSI. I can totally relate to the office situation sitting at a computer. That was my basic situation a while back... I never really found anything that worked too well for me in terms of things on the screen. Flashcards/anki would be the most logical thing for what you are looking for at work (I just couldn't do anki at all... it bored me to death). Anyway, good luck. We'll be following your log. Feel free to ask questions of anyone... the people here are really helpful. Edit: one other resource that is free and great (and was not available when I was learning) is the Languagetransfer.org Spanish course. It seems like it would be a wonderful place to start. Edited by James29 on 08 May 2015 at 2:16pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5267 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 3 of 36 08 May 2015 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Welcome to the forum, BeBetter! You've taken the first step by deciding to make it happen. James29 went from being a monolingual English-speaker to a bilingual English/Spanish-speaker. It's a wonderful feeling. It's like having your world expand in a way that you didn't know it could before. You can have that too but regardless of what course of action you follow, the most important thing is to be consistent and persistent in your approach to Spanish.
It's going to take time- more time than you may think right now. It requires patience, it isn't going to happen overnight. Don't let this discourage you. Being persistent and consistent will get you a heck of a long way. There are many paths to learning a language. Each one will have stumbling blocks and detours along the way. Stay on your path, but be willing to adapt to what you may encounter along the way. Since you have asked for advice, I, personally, couldn't follow a course-heavy approach and be successful. Perhaps you can. I, myself, would mix in some forays into the real world along with all the courses. If you want more information have a look at my post on the the multi-track approach. Good luck with your studies. I'll be following along. Edited by iguanamon on 08 May 2015 at 3:54pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| BeBetter Newbie United States Joined 3496 days ago 18 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 36 08 May 2015 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thank you both for the very warm welcome.
I do have ~30 minutes a day that I can commit. I have been using the the Pimsleur tapes, if that counts. The tapes have been my primary focus, I am about half way finished with Pimsleur 1. Would you sugest using languagetransfer after finishing Pimsleur 1? I am lucky enough to have a friend that is a native speaker that I see twice a week. I am hoping we can start to have small chats by next week.
I really don't mind a course heavy approach. I feel that if I do not follow a set of guidelines I will start to lose focus. I also know that courses can only take me so far and that I will eventually need to start using native material. I have taken my first step in trying out some native material. I purchased a Walking Dead comic book in Spanish. I figured this would be a nice easy transition into reading Spanish text, because I can use the pictures as context and usually the text is conversation based. Thank you very much for any advice, I love all of it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5380 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 5 of 36 08 May 2015 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't think Iguanamon and I really have different approaches. I think we just look at the same concept from a bit of a different perspective. I think beginners should/need to have a good solid course as a foundation to keep them moving along in an organized and efficient way. I usually also did other non-course things, but it was just that getting through the courses was always my number one priority and the multi-track stuff was always secondary. programs are designed by experts to be efficient and effective. That's why I support being heavy on courses. Bottom line... the good ones work. After all, it the language is still the as native material... it is not like native material is a different language.
Anyway... I'd definitely press on with a Pimsleur lesson every day until you finish at least Pimsleur 2. Randomreview who used to post here often has the best description of Pimsleur and why it is so great. he basically explains that it is the best way to get a totally automatic base in the language that you will never forget and be able to use with good pronunciation and accent (apologies to randomreview for butchering his analysis of pimsleur in summary form). Pimsleur is great. As you feel you want to incorporate native material for fun definitely do it... just don't get discouraged... it is a long journey so learn to enjoy the journey for the journey's sake and don't focus on the end game as it is always elusive. Edited by James29 on 08 May 2015 at 8:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5267 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 6 of 36 08 May 2015 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'll second James29's recommendation of Pimsleur. It is all audio so it doesn't tie you to a computer. It can be done almost anywhere. People here on HTLAL often complain that it "only teaches 900 words" but that's not the point. It helps you to get a good accent and get used to answering questions in a time pressure situation (as long as you don't use the pause/rewind buttons. You will ber what you have learned and develop some synergy with your other courses.
Ideally, if you have three volumes of Pimsleur, try to get through all three while doing your other course work. It's ideal for commuting, walking or other times when you can't read. If you are looking to add in a "professionally designed" course you could have a look at Destinos. It's free. You don't need the books with all the other courses you have. There are 52 episodes with native-speakers from all over the Spanish-speaking world. It's not native content but it does follow a telenovela format and will help train listening. Good luck with your studies. Edited by iguanamon on 08 May 2015 at 9:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4663 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 36 08 May 2015 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Congrats on the great decision to start your journey!
I will jump in here for a couple of things. 1) Language Transfer would be a very good choice IMO. 2) James' template will work very well for you. 3) Iguanamon is correct concerning using a Multi-track approach. It has been my experience that sometimes a person will get to the point in a course (Assimil, FSI, etc) where you might rather jump off a building rather than do the next lesson. Your mileage may vary but it is that way for me. I-mon has listed in various logs tons of links that can help you fill time in Spanish. You can spend as little as 5 minutes listening/reading to news or stories. There are so many different topics that they could never be contained in a single course. More exposure = more learning in my opinion. Anyway, I look forward to your progress. As I-mon mentioned, it may take longer than you think. It has taken me much longer than I thought and I have a ways to go. However, I can say without reservation that I enjoy it more today than when I started 15 months ago. I can use more of the language and that is a great thing. All the Best, BOLIO 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5014 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 36 09 May 2015 at 4:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Welcome to HTLAL, I wish you great success and lots of fun on the way.
A few ideas: The Assimil audios are short and therefore ideal to be listened to in those little holes scattered across the day. So, you can put the audio in your phone or mp3 player and just use the otherwise boring moments such as a queue in a supermarket, a ride on a bus etc. It makes a huge difference! The comic book is an awesome idea, they are a great learning tools even though mostly French learners on these forums use them. But there are great Spanish comic books as well. There are tons of other resources I could recommend but I think you've got more than enough to keep you busy already. In case of interest, check out logs of other Spanish learners. I recommend for example Stelle and than all the guys that have already posted on your log, especially James29. And there are many more. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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