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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5171 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 17 of 668 24 March 2011 at 2:30am | IP Logged |
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Thank you Li Fei for your encouragement. Reading your message made me think about when, exactly, I started studying. It has been almost exactly 1.5 years now. In some ways I am quite encouraged by my progress and in others I am somewhat disappointed. I am very pleased that I have been sticking with it and really enjoying it. I also feel like I am at a level where I will never lose it. I can communicate effectively and have meaningful conversations with native speakers. I am still somewhat disappointed with my listening/understanding ability. I am also a little disappointed at how much of a long process this is going to be to get "fluent", whatever that means. Some of my other important hobbies have really suffered in the last 1.5 years.
Well, I have been doing pretty well with my third wave review of Assimil. Today I did lessons 36 and 37. I skipped 35, but will do it tomorrow (I just did not feel like doing a review lesson this morning). I have been doing two lessons a day for a few days now. They are taking me about 20-25 minutes each which allows me to comfortably finish two per day if that is what I want to do. In a way the lessons seem "easy" as I am still not having too much of a problem translating them. Also, since my last post, I watched a one hour online TV show. I am trying to find something to watch in the evening. I may go back and just watch half an episode of El Internado at a time. I like that show and I definitely understand it better than the Latin American TV shows. Over the next few days I will be doing some speaking with native speakers. Hopefully it goes well. I am hoping to start Using Spanish on Jun 1. If I start it then I will finish exactly at the 2 year point in my studies. That would be a great mini-milestone and a great way to transition into all native materials. I will not, however, push it and if I am not ready to start I won't worry about it. My review of Spanish with Ease seems really valuable. I am wondering if I should try to find Without Toil. I kind of like the idea of doing a quick "easy" Assimil lesson and then spending some time with native materials. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5171 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 18 of 668 25 March 2011 at 1:56am | IP Logged |
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Today I had some major accomplishments.
I started the day in my usual way. I did review lesson 35 very thoroughly. I also listened to Assimil dialogues on the way into work. Then, at work, I spoke to a customer via phone who could only speak Spanish. We spoke totally in Spanish for about 20-25 minutes. I had to ask her to slow down a little and repeat herself a few times, but it was a very good conversation. I was able to very effectively communicate with her, give her advice, get detailed information from her and schedule an appointment. I actually felt quite confident about my Spanish during the conversation. This was a major accomplishment because I finally used Spanish for something very "important." Then, I had lunch with a Chileno. We spoke entirely in Spanish for about 1.5 hours. We went to a Latino owned restaurant and I spoke in Spanish with the owners and waiters. I could understand almost everything during the drive and during lunch. There were a few stories he told me that I only kind of understood and I am certain I missed details, but we had some very in-depth conversations about many different topics. By being "immersed" in Spanish for such a long time it really came easier and I spoke with a ton of confidence. The man I was talking with was a very good partner becasue he teaches Spanish and he gave me some extremely helpful advice. I learned a lot from him. I note that he was the second native speaker in less than a week that politely suggested I review the differences between ser and estar. In my mind I feel like I do o.k. with them, but I should take seriously the fact that two natives made the same comment. I should take some extra time and work on distinguishing them in my mind. In particular I think I need to work with the past tenses of ser/estar. Then, tonight I had the Spanish Meetup for about two hours. It was pretty good. There were quite a few native speakers. I spoke with a man from Costa Rica, a man from Colombia, a man from Chile, a woman from the Dominican, two women from Peru and a teenager (but, I forget where he was from). I also spent quite a bit of time talking with someone learning Spanish. I was kind of tired during the Meetup so I did not get as much out of it as I did last time, but it was really a great time and conversation is becoming much easier. There were a lot of people there and it was kind of hard to hear and understand with so much background noise. Today made me really see that having lengthy conversations in Spanish is what I really need in the future. It also made me feel really good about my studies. Well, today was almost certainly my best Spanish day since I started. Edited by James29 on 25 March 2011 at 2:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vanillabean Groupie Canada Joined 4804 days ago 53 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 668 25 March 2011 at 3:44am | IP Logged |
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What a day! That is so awesome. I am glad to hear you got so much practice. I can't wait until I'm at the point
where I can have longer conversations in Spanish without struggling. It must have been really awesome to speak to the person on the phone and really see how your skills are paying off. Keep it up :) I think it is a lot of work too, but worth it. Seems like you've accomplished a lot in the past 1.5 years. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5171 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 20 of 668 29 March 2011 at 3:11am | IP Logged |
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Thanks, Vanillabean, for your thoughts. That day was a turning point in my learning of Spanish.
Since my last post, I have been doing pretty well. Today I did review lesson 42. I have been doing a couple a day recently. I found the last several lessons easier. I am translating them twice now. They are still pretty easy, but I am making a few mistakes in every lesson with the initial translation. Most of my mistakes are with vocabulary that I simply do not remember or screwing up something I really should know. Anyway, this third review is very valuable. On Friday I had lunch with a man from Peru. We spoke mostly English, but did speak Spanish on and off a few times. He was a nice guy and he seemed interested in occasionally getting together to speak in Spanish to help me. I also have watched three lessons of El Internado. I am glad I went back to it. The show is really getting good. I am understanding the show better also. It is quite easy to follow. I actually found episode summaries in Spanish and I read all the shows I have seen to date (I watched the first episode of the third season tonight) and I was amazed that I have not missed anything important enough to put in the episode summary. Also, I note that the episodes are not quite as long as I thought they were. The show must have aired as a 90 minute show with commercials. Without the commercials and the credits at the end it is more like 65-70 minutes. After trying to find another show to watch and having no luck, I have decided to stick with El Internado. I thoroughly enjoyed the last three episodes so I don't think I will have a hard time sticking with it... as long as I can find the time. I am on vacation this week and we are flying out for a special family trip tomorrow. I am going to bring my Assimil book and audio with me (I have the audio on my phone), but I am NOT counting on doing any Spanish on this trip. If I do not do any Spanish for the next week that will be totally fine with me. This is a family trip we have been looking forward to for a long time and I am going to simply have fun. If I have free time when my family is asleep or something I will try to get in a lesson. I keep adding to my Spanish learning library. Now I am starting to buy the English versions of books that have a Spanish translation and Spanish audio. Yesterday I picked up the first Harry Potter. I have never read it so I will read it as I have free time and see if I like it. I am not a fiction reader so we will see. I am also thinking of picking up the first Narnia book for the same reason. When I think of all the stuff I want to do in Spanish it is somewhat overwhelming. I did a little math today and realized that at about an hour a day I probably have a couple of years of material to work with (assuming I need to go through each audio section a few times). I need to do what I did a few years back with my other hobbies and set a resolution to have "no new books for a year" and just work through what I already have on my "to read" list. Anyway, I am off on vacation. Edited by James29 on 29 March 2011 at 3:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sash2619 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4799 days ago 13 posts - 14 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 21 of 668 30 March 2011 at 3:03am | IP Logged |
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Hi James 29,
I made the same resolution this year about not buying any more new books/materials in Spanish, but i keep breaking it anyway:) I have over 10 books on Spanish grammar and I lost count how many different Spanish materials i have on my computer. I gave up on sticking to just one book or course. I think you just need to do what you enjoy. If it takes switching books, materials to keep studying - do it:) I am reading Harry Potter too for my Spanish. Let us know how it's working out for you. I've heard many good things about Assimil, but i guess it's not "my cup of tea." I just cannot keep interest long enough to stick with it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5171 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 22 of 668 06 April 2011 at 1:42am | IP Logged |
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Well, this past week was obviously very different than all previous weeks. I actually did manage to complete, on average, one Assimil lesson per day. However, I missed two days entirely and doubled up on two other days. I also skipped the review lesson because I just did not think I would have the time to get it done properly (I will do it later this week). I was quite happy because doing the Assimil lessons did not interfere with vacation at all. I did most of the lessons on the plane or at night so the learning environment was much different than what I am used to. I completed all of the lessons fully, but I had to take breaks in most of them (10 minutes here and then pick up a few hours later, etc). The lessons seem to be more challenging for me now and I am missing some vocabulary and some grammar issues, but, in general, I feel quite confident with my performance.
On the plane, after doing two Assimil lessons, I listened to about 1.5 hours of Univision. One show was a morning news-type show and the other was a daytime talk show. I was generally pleased how much I could understand, but I was far from totally understanding the shows. At various points during vacation I overheard Spanish conversations. I tried to eavesdrop whenever I heard Spanish. I knew it was Spanish because I recognized many words, but I simply could not follow the conversations at all. This was quite discouraging to me. It seems that I simply have no clue with "casual" Spanish right now. I could identify most of the words so I think with a little time and practice listenting to more TV or "casual" talk it will come. I found myself in a bookstore for a few minutes that had many Spanish books. I thumbed through many books just to see how well I could read them. I found the Narnia books quite easy to read. I found Harry Potter difficult. I thought many of the "adult" books were just as easy to read as Harry Potter. I read about the first 100 pages of the English version of the first Harry Potter book during the week. It is not bad, but I am simply not a fiction reader and I doubt I will finish it. I had a hard time getting motivated to pick it up and read from it and it seems like there are simply other things I would like to read. Well, I will get back to my regular routine tomorrow. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5171 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 23 of 668 11 April 2011 at 2:12am | IP Logged |
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I am basically back in my regular routine now. Since my last post I did an Assimil lesson every day except one. That one day I had to get up extra early for a long drive. I listened to all of the LL BTB dialogues on the drive. I used it as a listening drill. The LL dialogues are much faster than the Assimil lessons so it was good. They also seem more like Latin American Spanish than Spain Spanish. There were a few parts where I could not understand the audio, but, for the most part, I could still pretty easily follow the audio for all twenty LL lessons. The Assimil lessons are still worthwhile. The last few have seemed very easy and I whizzed through them. I am getting a lot out of the lessons in terms of grammar and vocab.
I had a meetup. It was good. These meetups are the only time I really feel like I am thinking in Spanish. It is two hours of immersion which is great. At the end a couple of people said goodbye to me in English and it seemed very strange. I watched one episode of El Internado. I started it late and I got very tired so I kind of dazed out a bit. Nevertheless, I still can basically follow what is going on even if I am not concentrating on listenting/understanding. I did a few skype sessions. One was a marathon text chat. We were going back and forth between languages and I simply found myself not even realizing which language i was in. In a way it seemed like the languages were interchangeable. I had two good and long audio chats. I have a couple good and reliable partners now which makes skype much better. One of my partners did not feel like speaking English so we talked in Spanish most of the time. I went out to dinner with my family tonight to a Mexican restaurant. I ordered entirely in Spanish (my young son loved it). I even answered a number of questions about my meal request. OK, ordering a meal is nothing big, but it was an occasion for using Spanish in the "real" world and it felt great. It felt effortless and I had no problems responding. I am finally feeling a little confidence in my abilities. I also picked up a $0.99 paperback copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at a bookstore. I now have it in English and Spanish. I have not even finished the Harry Potter book and I am already buying more resources. I do think I will eventually do Narnia. We will see about that. I have been contemplating my plan quite a bit lately. With my meetups I am feeling like I really need to practice listening to Latin American Spanish. Assimil and El Internado are great, but they are really training my ear for Spain Spanish. That is not bad and, in actuality, it is quite fun to be able to be able to totally understand my Madrid skype partner. But, it does make me wonder if I should do Using Spanish with some sort of other resource at the same time. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| vanillabean Groupie Canada Joined 4804 days ago 53 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 24 of 668 14 April 2011 at 4:34pm | IP Logged |
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Sounds like you're doing great! Glad to hear the meetup is going well. I just started one and I'm really happy with how it's going - I think having that time immersed in the language is extremely helpful. Great job ordering in Spanish! It's nice to see your hard work paying off in a 'real world' situation.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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