Quinn Senior Member United States Joined 6315 days ago 134 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Spanish
| Message 1 of 3 07 May 2008 at 12:48am | IP Logged |
First, I have a confession to make - French annihilated me! :(
To be more specific, my motivation was destroyed by a lack of opportunities to apply what I was struggling so hard to learn. I realize that doesn't stop some of you talented polyglots from tackling Yoruba or Finnish, but what can I say? I hit a wall.
So that's the bad news. The good news is I started learning Spanish! I live in California and Spanish is all around me, so I purchased some materials a while ago with the knowledge that picking up some Spanish would really come in handy. So about a week ago, I finally dove in. Tonight I found the thread for the TAC which has only given me even more motivation, so I'm pretty pumped up right now! It's early still, but Spanish seems to be coming to me much more easily than French did. I believe this is attributable to several factors:
1. I have prior knowledge of a Romance language.
2. I'm immersed in an environment where Spanish is widely spoken.
3. Whereas, I studied French, in part, out of guilt (I wanted to "finish" the language
I had studied in school), I have no similar feelings to interfere with my study of
Spanish.
4. I really love aspects of Latin culture, especially the music!
I'm currently working my way through three materials: Patiquemos (FSI), Pimsleur and The Berlitz Spanish Self-Teacher. In just about a week I've nearly finished Unit Three of Platiquemos, lesson six of Pimsleur and lesson twelve of the Berlitz paperback. The multiple track approach really seems to be effective so far as I'm noticing both areas of overlap and areas where the materials complement one another.
I plan on updating this journal each week to report my progress. I'm so inspired right now, I really hope I can sustain this feeling.
Edited by Quinn on 07 May 2008 at 12:55am
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Quinn Senior Member United States Joined 6315 days ago 134 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Spanish
| Message 2 of 3 11 May 2008 at 5:50pm | IP Logged |
So far, so good. I'm spending at least an hour a day studying Spanish and seem to be making good progress.
I've just finished:
1. Pimsleur - lesson 11
2. Platiquemos - unit 3
3. The Berlitz Self-Teacher - lesson 15
I'm also reading through Essential Spanish Grammar which is a great (and super cheap!) little primer published by Dover. The author is Seymour Resnick.
I've also created a simple spreadsheet with definitions and conjugations of the 55 "most essential verbs" as compiled by 501 Spanish Verbs. BTW, if anyone wants a copy of the spreadsheet, please PM me your e-mail address and I'd be happy to send it.
¡Gracias y buena suerte!
Edited by Quinn on 11 May 2008 at 6:47pm
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Quinn Senior Member United States Joined 6315 days ago 134 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Spanish
| Message 3 of 3 20 May 2008 at 12:30pm | IP Logged |
Unfortunately, work was crazy last week, so I had less time to devote to Spanish. However, I finished Lesson 14 of Pimsleur and Lesson 17 of the Berlitz Self Teacher.
I've also been studying my verbs regularly and am now becoming more comfortable with the Tu and Ustedes forms. (I'm skipping Vosotros for now since my focus is Latin American Spanish.) Also I've been studying some grammar - specifically the use of direct and indirect objects.
I've decided to stop Patiquemos for now as I felt I was getting ahead of my true comprehension. My plan is now to finish Pimsleur first and then focus on Patiquemos.
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