|
 |
Spanish LR Log | ||
Tags: Listening-Reading (L-R) | Spanish | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5559 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 73 of 88 16 July 2011 at 3:27pm | IP Logged |
|
Super summary, supertom! You've put in consistent structured effort, made rapid progress, and all whilst having fun. Good on you mate! I think you've hit the nail on the head about finding an optimal balance point between passive and active study and learning to cope with speed and uncertainty. I look forward to your next 100 hours and wish you every success in reaching the next milestone. :) Edited by Teango on 16 July 2011 at 3:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5025 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 74 of 88 16 July 2011 at 6:19pm | IP Logged |
|
That was a very interesting post. I think Im going to have to give this LR busisness a go, although I dont know much about it as yet.
I literally just finished watching a Mexican film with English subtitles, and its scary how little I understood. Its made me realise Im going to have to put in 100s of hours of comprehension work on top of my active study. Have you tried any fsi yet? Its fantastic for getting you speaking. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| supertom Diglot Groupie Joined 4997 days ago 87 posts - 114 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 75 of 88 16 July 2011 at 11:16pm | IP Logged |
|
Thanks Teango and dbag. I haven't yet tried FSI, but I do intend to do so in the future. Just not the near future, as I first want to exhaust Assimil and not put my eggs in too many baskets. But after I complete Assimil (which will take me a lot of hours), I will certainly look into FSI or another method like it to further enhance my comprehension and speaking ability!
Día 33/60 0.75 horas Assimil lección 26 + recap 0.5 horas Michel Thomas Advanced CD3, 15-22 2.15 horas LR L2-L1 Harry Potter y la Prisionero de Azkeban Capítulos 6,7,8 Total 1: 54,75 Total 2: 104,75 Assimil covered some more familiar stuff grammar wise, but vocab and idioma wise, it was very helpful. Also, I tried the method of ymapazagain today. This meant that you learn the lesson very well, just as I did before. But in addition to this, you try to memorize the dialogue. Not the whole dialogue, but single sentences at the time. So I read aloud the first sentence, then try to repeat that sentence from memory. Once I manage to repeat the sentence perfectly, I go to the second sentence and repeat the process. This may seem easy and trivial, and it is for small sentences. But for sentences like 'a las personas a las que quiero mucho me gusta regalarles algo hecho con mis propias manos', this isn't so easy for my level. I really need to know what I want to say and then be able to reconstruct it. So it is a little bit active, but since I don't expect myself to be able to recite the whole dialogue from heart, I think it is a very good addition to my current method for Assimil. I will keep using this in the upcoming lessons to see if I really find it helpful. I do at the moment, so thanks ymapazagain! For Michel Thomas, I finished the third CD today. It was again a good CD and we covered a lot of ground. Also, it helped me unravel the mystery of fui/fue etc. I couldn't figure it out by myself, but now I finally know! Reading is becoming more and more fun. Where it did feel like work to LR L2-L1 when I did my 50 hour LR experiment, now all the stress and concentration it takes is gone. Because of the 20 hours of L2-L2 I put in, I am now able to distinguish between almost all of the words. I can hear all the little pronouns and he/ha/hemos'es even though I don't read them. Starting also to hear the endings of the verbs, so I can start to make sense of their tenses. I am nowhere near fast enough to do this at the moment, but being able to identify them is a good step. Also, the narrator of this third book is very nice. Especially when compared to the second narrator. She talks really clearly and very slowly. She takes a little pause after every 5-6 words so that I can easily read a little ahead without missing any of the spoken Spanish. I guess this may not be really 'street worthy', but for the time being, I enjoy the fact that this book just seems way easier than the previous ones. This may be helped by the fact that this time, I have the Dutch translation at my lap.. :P Anyway, the book is really awesome and I can't help but noticing that reading an unknown book really helps the motivation as during the whole day today I was disappointed when I had to do different things than reading the story.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6962 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2 | Message 76 of 88 17 July 2011 at 5:52am | IP Logged |
|
Hi Supertom,
It's fantastic to see you summarise your work so far and to see just how much can be achieved in such a short time. Well done! I'm glad to see you're trying out my memorising step with Assimil! I do find this to be the most useful step in each lesson, as it really solidifies everything before moving on. I hope it works as well for you! Keep up the good work :o) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| supertom Diglot Groupie Joined 4997 days ago 87 posts - 114 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 77 of 88 17 July 2011 at 6:16pm | IP Logged |
|
Gracias ymapazagain! I really like your method for Assimil so far :)
Día 34/60 0.75 horas Assimil lección 27 0.50 horas Michel Thomas Advanced CD4 tracks 1-6 3.75 horas LR L2-L1 Harry Potter y el Prisionero de Azkeban capítulos 9-13 Total 1: 59.75 Total 2: 109.75 Assimil introduced the future tense for the first time this lesson, but in an informal way. So without explanations. Good thing is that I already learned the framework from MT, so that didn't give me too much trouble. A more thorough introduction will be given in the next lesson. It also contained some nice vocab and idioms, so all in all a good lesson. Did the memorization thing again, really like it. Michel Thomas introduced the past subjunctive this lesson, which was nice. Doesn't sound too difficult, but I guess it will be once I have to start using it actively. Reading was a lot of fun. I am at about two thirds of the book now and really flying. The story is really fun and exciting! Will probably finish it in two days and then continue to the fourth and largest of the Harry Potter book, el cáliz de fuego. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Just a Dreamer Groupie Egypt Joined 5014 days ago 59 posts - 62 votes Studies: English, French | Message 78 of 88 18 July 2011 at 1:24pm | IP Logged |
|
Hello :)
I must admit my admiration to you, and all what you've done in this period of time, I wish you the best of luck in Spanish and wish you to reach C1 soon :) I heard that MT + Assimil is a deadly combo ! I read that someone here passed A2.2 test in German language after he studied MT + 50 lessons from Assimil, and he found himself in B1 class after that! He said that he failed to pass B1 test in this day not because Grammar but the lack of vocabulary (which I see that you're doing good job at!) Again, I wish you the best of luck! Robert 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| supertom Diglot Groupie Joined 4997 days ago 87 posts - 114 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 79 of 88 18 July 2011 at 8:15pm | IP Logged |
|
Thanks Dreamer, really appreciate it. It is funny that when I just started, I was really impressed and inspired by others and hoped that I would one day progress as well and as fast as they have. As it turns out, I too can make the progress. And from that, I think that I learned that most people can, as long as they manage to put in the hours.
To be honest, I have no idea at what level I am at the moment. Perhaps I can't hack a B1 exam, perhaps not even a A2.2 exam. C1 just seems like so far away at this point, but hopefully I will one day reach that level. When that day comes, I will surely treat myself to a trip to Spain! But to be honest, I think the most deadly combo is the combo that one can keep up. Surely, FSI would be more effective than Assimil+Michel Thomas. However, I also know that the moment my Spanish studies become a strain, I quit. So I only do the things I really like and the things that feel like work (Assimil and Michel Thomas are still work or active as you may) for only a short period each day. Día 35/60 0.50 horas Assimil lección 28 0.50 horas Michel Thomas Advanced CD4 tracks 7-13 1,25 horas LR L2-L1 Harry Potter y el Prisionero de Azkeban chapters 14,15 Total 1: 62 horas Total 2: 112 horas Lesson 28 of Assimil was off course a review lesson. It was good to see the future tenses and the past simple on paper, instead of having to figure it out by myself from Assimil or hearing it from Michel Thomas. Didn't took that long to finish the lesson, but it was very useful. I also looked at the upcoming review lessons for a little bit. It seems that I have now done most of the 'hard' grammatical lessons. As in, the biggest and most important parts are now covered (most common past, future and present tenses). The future lessons will probably cover much new vocabulary and idioms along with some small new grammatical points. This will give me all the time I need to solidify the things I already have learned. Michel Thomas Advanced I now almost finished. Only 15 more minutes. I really think MT is a great method and should be used by most. For now, I am a little bit tired of it, but that is because I have almost completed the foundation + advanced disks back to back. This is 13 hours of listening to him and paying real active attention, pretty exhausting. Tomorrow I will finish the advanced course and will write a short recap about it. Reading was really nice, although very short. I really wanted to read more, but one of my room mates just came back from Greece. Hence, I spend the rest of the day reminiscing with him and stuff. I will make it up tomorrow, I promise. This way, I never reach the 200hour milestone before the end of this 60 day period! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| supertom Diglot Groupie Joined 4997 days ago 87 posts - 114 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 80 of 88 19 July 2011 at 1:20pm | IP Logged |
|
Michel Thomas Review
So here is my short review of Michel Thomas Spanish. I just finished the Advanced disks 15 minutes ago and decided to write a review right away. First of all, let me say that I really like Michel Thomas. Although he can be quite boring at times and despite his accent and focus on some unnecessary things (haaaaaaaaablo for I speak for example), his course is quite good. Let me begin with the foundation course. This course focusses on the present tense for the first 5 out of 8 disks. This is quite a lot of time (5 hours) to spend on only the present tense. But for people who haven't done any Spanish before, it really helps ingrain the present tense. And I must say, the present tense comes very naturally to me, which may have something to do with the fact that he spends so much time on it in the beginning. He goes quite slowly on these 5 disks and let's you think things out for yourself. Very helpful in my eyes and a nice introduction to the language. After these first five disks, he starts on the future tense in the next three disks. Future tense is quite easy, but he spends quite some time on it to slowly let everything sink in. All in all, the foundation course is pretty slow going with a very stupid male character. I wouldn't recommend it to the intermediate student, as it would simply be a chore. But to everyone who is just starting out, the pace would be just right and the foundation course would be a great start! The advanced course is a very different animal. The pace is quicker, the students smarter and there is quite a bit more grammar. It goes on to teach most of the present, future and past tenses along with the subjunctive tenses. Quite a lot of grammar to put into 5 hours of lessons, but he pulls it off. I found it sometimes hard to switch between all the tenses at speed, but towards the end, I started to really get it and stop making rookie mistakes. The advanced course gives you a great overview of the most important grammar. For a five hour course, it beats any other method I have seen so far in terms of time/quality. So to finish this 'review', I would like to make a recommendation. Everyone that has no previous knowledge of Spanish should start out with the foundation course. Everyone that has previous knowledge of Spanish, should skip the foundation course and jump straight into the Advanced course. The advanced course is helpful for everyone, except the very advanced. For all those who still have some problems conjugating verbs will get benefit out of the course. As for myself, I have now completed the foundation and advanced MT course. I will now stop using it for a while, but in about 50 hours, I will probably go through the advanced course again for a quick (five hour) refresh course to see if I am better at it 50 hours from now. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
