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Learning Spanish Fast! My journey | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| olgahtml Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6260 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 19 27 October 2007 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Lack of structure in my Spanish studies for the last few weeks encouraged me to start this log.
My main goal: to achieve basic fluency in Spanish by March of next year. I would like to concentrate my efforts on listening comprehension, reading, and speaking Spanish. Writing is not on my priority list as of now. I started my journey a month ago with Pimsleur that I found incredibly boring and slow-paced. I am afraid my attention spam is too short for a program like that. I need enough challenge or a very interesting source material to stick with it. For the last three weeks I spent 3-4 hours every day (on weekends more) listening or reading native source materials (TV, radio, music, books etc). I picked up Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” both in English and Spanish and the audio book. By immersing myself in Spanish Only audio for the last four weeks I achieved two things. I got a feel for the language... I started getting used to the fast speech of the natives and understanding the basic context of the news and TV shows I watch. I learnt quite a few new words too. But the most important thing.. my motivation increased tenfold and I almost became obsessed with Spanish..lol I started having dreams about how I travel to Spanish speaking country and speak perfect Spanish or read Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote.” Hopefully, my dreams will come true soon:) Now I am ready to add more structure to my studies. My plan of action is as follows: Platiquemos (at least 1-2 hours a day) Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish (as a grammar supplement) When I have a free minute at work I usually like to review grammar tutorial at http://www.studySpanish.com/tutorial.htm For listening comprehension and vocabulary builder: - listening and reading my parallel text book “Angels and Demons” (at least 30 min a day, 1-2 hours on weekends) - I found Spanish soap “Yo soy Bea” on the net ..hehe At least it can be humorous at times and has a hot Spaniard as a main hero ..lol (I am trying to watch at least one 40-min part every day) - Linguaphone Spanish AllTalk (when I have time) - I traded my viewing time of History Channel to watching Univision. I guess language learning is worth of this sacrifice :) - Reading BBC Mundo on my lunch breaks It seems I would need about 3-4 hours a day for my studies according to my plan. On weekends I will be able to dedicate at least 5 – 7 hours a day. I can not wait to evaluate my progress in a month. Edited by olgahtml on 31 October 2007 at 8:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6593 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 2 of 19 27 October 2007 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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With such dedication, I have no doubt you'll achieve your goal.
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| olgahtml Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6260 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 19 28 October 2007 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you apparition! Luckily it's easy to be dedicated when I am enjoying every minute of it:).
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| ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6902 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2 | Message 4 of 19 29 October 2007 at 7:49am | IP Logged | ||
Wow...you're hardcore! I wish I had that kind of dedication, but I usually just get bored and distracted after more than an hour and a half each day. You're going to make some amazing progress! I'll be really interested to see how far it takes you after a month. Are you starting as a beginner? If not, it would be interesting to take the test that has been mentioned in the general discussion board recently to see where you are at, and then take it again in one months time. That should give you a real evaluation of your progress, which I imagine will be quite immense with all of that work! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| olgahtml Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6260 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 19 29 October 2007 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi ymapazagain! I am a complete beginner. Few weeks ago my Spanish vocabulary consisted of “Hola” and “Gracias.” That was it. I don’t want to overdo it but it seems it’s my optimal learning speed. I am easily bored if I don’t feel challenged or don’t see fast results. I am also trying to keep my learning routine diverse and interesting to prevent burn-out.
Yesterday I downloaded 1000 most common words from www.wordsgalore.com. I tested the first 500 with 90+% accuracy. I know most of the words are in my passive vocabulary not active but it still makes me happy. I didn’t know even 10 words few weeks ago. I noticed I have trouble pronouncing Spanish sound “e?” Regretfully, I don’t have a musical hearing and I can’t figure out why it sounds so off when I shadow the tapes. I read it’s similar to English sound “e” in “pen” but it doesn’t seem to help. I guess I will just keep practicing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6188 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 19 31 October 2007 at 5:58am | IP Logged | ||
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olgahtml,
I am impressed. For a beginner, you know exactly how you will make progress and that's amazing. It took me many months of trying all sorts of things to figure out exactly what kind of language study suits me. Good luck, and I am sure with your plan and dedication you will be speaking fluent Spanish in no time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| olgahtml Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6260 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 19 01 November 2007 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Emerald,
I have a basic idea how to get there (lots and lots of work..hehe) but I still have lots to learn about my learning styles:). I studied English in a very traditional old-school way through formal education, grammar books and basic adapted texts. Now I realize it was not an optimal way to learn a foreign language (at least for me). Three years of formal schooling barely advanced me to an intermediate level. However, 2 months of intensive listening of English TV, radio and chatting online gave me so much more. That’s why I am a true believer of immersion technique now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| olgahtml Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6260 days ago 28 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 19 01 November 2007 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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This week I finished the first 4 units of Platiquemos. Now I am on Unit 5. I don’t expect to maintain the same speed of 4-5 units per week (the first 2 units had many phonetic drills that didn’t take that long) but I think I found a great way to speed up the process of going through this course effectively. Before I am ready to start on a new Unit, night prior I listen to the dialogs and write them down as I listen for the first time. It seems it helps me to internalize by writing them down. It takes only 15-20 minutes. The next day when I have a free minute I read the printed material for that Unit and try to understand new words and unfamiliar grammatical constructions. If I have doubts about grammar I like to look up a corresponding section at www.studySpanish.com. Just several stolen 5-minute breaks make a huge difference for me. When it’s time to start on a new Unit I am very familiar with a dialog and grammar. I noticed most translation and grammar drills take one or two tries. I also cut out the dialogs for fluency and listen to them before I start my lesson with Platiquemos every day. I was able to maintain 1 Unit per day. But as the difficulty increases I hope to do 2-3 Units a week and review over the weekends.
I also tried Rosetta Stone program for the last few weeks off and on. I find it incredibly easy that’s why I am not sure how effective it is. I usually do 3-4 lessons in one seat with text off and maintain 95-100% accuracy with not much effort. Is it that easy for everybody? I am already half through level 1. It seems like it’s a very expensive but good flashcard program I did learn quite a few new words in a very relaxed way. To my great happiness I inherited assimil course. There is a small problem though... It’s a Spanish course for Italian speakers “Il nuovo spagnolo senza sforzo..” lol I figured the audio is in my target language only and I will have a text of the dialogs in Spanish. I will translate them myself. Anyone tried this course? I think it’s different from assimil course for English speakers. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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