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*Revised* Spanish B2 By November 2014 | ||
Tags: Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Caymane Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3895 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 24 20 January 2014 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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So, a new update for January!
Things are going well =), I'm managing to keep up my 1 hour a day language exchanges, and had my first italki lesson yesterday. The teacher commended my vocabulary but said that my verb tenses need work. I'm also half way through the Notes in Spanish gold pod-casts and I'm starting to wonder when I should go back to the native materials. It's kind of difficult to go back to native audio when they are much harder than prepared podcasts! Starting the final 5 lessons of Assimil, and planning to start FSI once I've finished up reviewing them. So: I need to practice verb conjugations somehow, (FSI drills? I hear they are good) and do more writing! I've been pretty lazy recently when it comes to new texts, as I keep running out of things to write about. ;( Hasta luego 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3931 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 18 of 24 20 January 2014 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | ||
With daily one-hour Skype sessions, you're going to progress amazingly fast!!! I'm using both NiS podcasts and native materials simultaneously. It doesn't have to be one or the other. I listen to NiS in the car during my commute, and watch native materials in the evening. I think that NiS is amazing for building listening comprehension. But it isn't enough of its own. No matter what, the jump from NiS (or other Spanish learning resources) to native materials is going to be daunting. As far as I'm concerned, it's best to jump in and just try! re: writing - like you, I'm pretty lazy. Writing feels like work. But I know it's important. Here's a useful thread for writing ideas: essay ideas I like FSI! I find it very useful for grammar drills. I have to do it while walking - there's absolutely no way that I'd sit at a desk and do FSI. I also practice grammar using a self-made anki deck with conjugations and sentences pulled from the Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Verb Tenses book. Best of luck learning Spanish! I'm enjoying your log! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Caymane Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3895 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 24 23 January 2014 at 11:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the encouragement Stelle! It helps, especially when your having an off-day. I should start giving more encouragement to people on the forum studying Spanish. :) I'm going to keep that list in mind when writing a essay, it's quite comprehensive. Hope your own mission is going well! Edited by Caymane on 23 January 2014 at 11:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Caymane Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3895 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 20 of 24 11 February 2014 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Both good news and bad news today.
The bad news is that my nearest Cervantes center have decided that they aren't going to hold exams according to the official dates, but only in May. Seeing as this will short-change me by a few months I'm going to have to look further afield for a center. It might have to be in London. Also due to the storms in the UK my house was without access to the internet last week, which was a huge pain for trying to keep to my schedule. But on the good side I've managed to hold it together for the rest of the time, still keeping up my listen/speak/write routine (That essay list was very useful Stelle!) while fitting it around college work. I'm also using FSI now, while revisiting Assimil to try and get the most out of it. One thing that has stuck me recently, is that when you're learning your first foreign language - You aren't just learning it, you're also learning how to learn a language. So what I need to to do now is book a tutor on Italki for a regular basis, and make up for lost time! :) Edited by Caymane on 11 February 2014 at 2:12pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Caymane Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3895 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 21 of 24 03 April 2014 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well - this is a long overdue post! I've been kept busy by my college work and also
been applying for various jobs in the meantime. However I think my Spanish has been progressing at a fairly decent rate, I've still had to take days out though so I'm just looking now to get my immediate future sorted out before being able to focus fully on my language learning. So, here's what I've been up to recently! Speaking: For the most part I've been keeping up with my daily language exchange that I've had for the past few months. 30 minutes a day of practise, also there's been 3 x 1 hour Italki lessons I had in March. Listening: I'm still using Podcasts to build up to listening to the radio – still going with Notes in Spanish gold re-runs and Spanish-podcast.org. Writing: I haven’t written anything for some weeks now. It’s so easy to fall out of the habit. I will start doing it again this month though! Studying: Assimil for the second time, and I’m up to lesson 9 on FSI Spanish. So many replacement drills! It is great stuff though, makes you feel like you are thoroughly learning grammar. ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------- After looking through the list of centres that offer the exams I’ve come to the conclusion that I will probably have to take it in London. None of the other close ones in the UK offer the exams outside of the set course that they run. Unfortunately this means I will have to change my deadline date as the only possible dates they run the exam are April, July and November. As I don’t want to lose time by taking it in July, I’ve decided to go for the November date. It’s my own fault for assuming that the official exam dates on the DELE website would be the same for all of the centres, rather than checking beforehand! I did have this moment of realization the day when I was having an exchange, of the fact that I can hold a conversation - even when I have to extrapolate a meaning or ask for an explanation. It feels great! The only main issue I’ve identified with my speaking is that I’m not good at correctly explaining myself when I get confused – I tend to rely on saying “No entiendo bien” or “¿Cómo?”. So – I have to put more work into my writing but generally I think I’m on track! Edited by Caymane on 03 April 2014 at 1:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Caymane Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3895 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 22 of 24 30 April 2014 at 6:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Another update for April
I’ve been really focusing on writing recently; I did many entries over the half-term on Lang-8, at the same time though my speaking has suffered due to bad scheduling. Speaking: Less than normal, one of my conversation partners has had to drop having sessions for now, so I’m trying to re-arrange my schedule.:( I did have another Skype lesson last week though. Listening: I’ve started listening to the news in Spanish on the RTVE website. I can understand mostly everything that I hear with some help from the dictionary. Writing: I’ve done around 6 - 8 short pieces of writing through the past 2 weeks. It’s much easier to sit down and do it when you’ve got a good routine going. Studying: Assimil and FSI. I think these two combined might be able to carry me over for B2, given that FSI has so much depth to it! I’m still going over the first 10 units for FSI, and starting unit 11. Reading: I had quite a happy moment yesterday when I passed back over my La ciudad de las bestias book (by Isabel Allende) which I hadn’t read for months, and realized I could understand the majority of it! I’m going to go over it carefully with a dictionary and see if I can get more or less 100% understanding. Just need to keep going… :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Caymane Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3895 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 23 of 24 19 June 2014 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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June update! Time is flying by...
Well I have mixed feelings about this month, ever since I started work my Spanish time has been difficult to "pull together". Especially speaking. I just need to push and work around it. Speaking: Apart for weekly Spanish lesson, I've found it difficult to find regular partners at times that are convienient. Listening: Again not too much really. One of the advantages of public transport was being able to listen (mostly) distraction free, but in the car you have to focus.I'm going to start carrying an MP3 player with me to make the most of those spare minutes. :) Writing: Quite a bit. As and when I have free time at work, I can add a bit more to a Lang-8 entry and it's easier to get started than speaking. 11 short 150 - 300 word entries so far this month. Studying: Up to unit 14 with FSI. Flashcards: I have found this very useful site called readlang. It lets you upload or copy texts from a website then read them with the aid of a translator. Finally it automatically saves the words you had to look up in flashcard form so you can study them later! ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------ Also well done to Stelle for completing her mission! I found it very encouraging to read about your progress. :) http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=36521&PN=0&TPN=1 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Caymane Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3895 days ago 29 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 24 of 24 27 July 2014 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Already July has nearly passed. Where did the summer go? :)
I’m ambivalent about whether setting a deadline for a language learning is a good idea. On one hand it pushes you to stop procrastinating and get busy, but on the other hand it saps some of the enjoyment and puts on pressure. :) I think it’s been a good thing for me this time around - but I'm not sure if I'd do it again. Speaking: I’ve settled into doing a language exchange 3 - 4 days a week for 1 hour 50/50 English/Spanish. I also have an Italki lesson one day a week. Listening: I’m only using native podcasts now, RTVE, en sintonía con el Español etc . I also discovered a very useful trick which was on the website howtolearnanylanguage which involves getting a Spanish radio station to play as soon as your computer starts! http://www.iwillteachyoualanguage.com/how-to-do-more-listeni ng/ Writing: I’ve started timing how long it take me to write out entries, I can manage a 150 - 200 word one in about 35 – 40 minutes. Studying: I’ve been using Memrise and Readlang. Over on Memrise some people have put up courses based on the “word frequency” idea – learning words based on how frequently they appear in a standard newspaper or TV show. Edited by Caymane on 27 July 2014 at 6:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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