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Amy’s Spanish Viaje | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 3832 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 104 09 December 2013 at 10:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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This summer I decided to confront the one thing I had always been afraid of - learning a language - or looking, at least, looking stupid doing it. The impetuous for this is that my boyfriend is from Peru and we're planning a trip there in March. Not really knowing how to begin, I signed up for a Spanish class in my neighborhood and then committed to additionally working about a half hour a day on my own (a time frame which has since ballooned). I began doing research about language acquisition, which led me to this forum.
As a complete beginner in the Spanish language, I took my first Spanish class on October 4 and didn't begin logging my time until October 25. In addition to my weekly Spanish class, I began working my way through SynergySpanish, which I found immensely helpful and would recommend to any beginner. I listened to podcasts, watched videos and listened to music. Since October 25 (when I began keeping my own log), I have about 97 hours of Spanish study under my belt. My goal is to get as close to 500 hours by the end of March as possible. (For some reason, I'm finding that it takes pressure off me to commit to fluency, I find it easier to commit to hours of study and assume that language acquisition will follow) I've found that I seem to max out at about 3 hours of study per day - it's hard for me to get to that number. I can do 2 hours per day quite easily. I've been learning vocabulary more passively (via Assimil, etc) than actively (with Anki). I feel like I need to make more of an effort there. I also know that I need to work more on conversation. I did one tutor session with my Spanish 1 teacher, but he just went over verbs (something that I'm leaning on my own anyway) and I was hoping that we'd talk more. I need to do more practice with my boyfriend. I think it would be less painful if I came up with things to talk about beforehand rather than just trying to come up things on the fly. I'd also like to spend next week working on doing Listening/Reading. I did a lot of research into the various methods this week. Namely into the idea of doing L-R for an extended period of time - so I think I'm going to give it a try this week. I tried to read a book but spent a full hour trying to complete understand two sentences (learn the vocabulary, understand the verb conjugation) - needless to say it was frustrating. My primarily method of study right now is Assimil. I'm just now in the active wave (on Lesson 5 active). I'm also working my way through Language Transfer which I found has been a good review for some concepts and made others more clear. Week 1 (14.5 until Peru!) (1163 min = 19.3 hours) 79 min. Duolingo + Mosalingo 105 min. Synergy Spanish (masterclass flashcard as well as various lessons in the section 2 of Synergy Spanish - I already finished the first course) 231 Language Transfer (finished Part 1 and now onto Part II) 367 min Assimil 101 min. Spanish TV Hulu, italki, lyrics training. reading 75 min. Spanish Homework for Class 150 min. Spanish Class + 1 hour tutoring with instructor 40 min. Anki 15 min. conversation practice with boyfriend (Yes, only 15 painful minutes. I need to get over my shyness and do more of this) Edited by AmyinBrooklyn on 10 January 2015 at 7:42am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3925 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 2 of 104 09 December 2013 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the wonderful world of Spanish study!
I highly recommend getting a language exchange partner on a site like italki.com or conversationexchange.com. If you have any money to invest in learning, I"d suggest getting a Skype tutor - you won't feel as uncomfortable with "painful" conversations if you're paying the person. It's psychological - after all, it's their job! ;) March is also my goal, since I'm heading to Spain on March 15th. I'll definitely be following along with your log! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5156 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 3 of 104 13 December 2013 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd love to go to Peru. Cusco looks like a perfect place for a future Spanish trip... safe, close to the ruins, cheap, etc.
I wish I had discovered synergy Spanish early on. It looks like a great resource. But, whenever I see people say "I have a boyfriend from Peru" or "my wife speaks Spanish" I get really jealous. My meetup has a bunch of American members who speak really well and they all learned by having a native speaking significant other. Once you get to an intermediate level that is going to be a huge asset. I don't know how long you will be in Peru, but something you could do is go to a Spanish school for a couple weeks while you are there. They are all over the place and they are cheap. That's what I did in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. You are exactly right not to track your success and goals by "fluency" or level. It is really a never ending process. The goal lines move as you advance. I just try to have fun and enjoy the process. Usually I make annual goals in terms of accomplishments (number of books, TV shows, FSI, Assimil, etc) to complete during the year. Good luck and study up on Peru so you can make the most out of the trip. Edited by James29 on 13 December 2013 at 7:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 3832 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 104 16 December 2013 at 7:01am | IP Logged | ||
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I spent about 18.5 hours on Spanish Study this week. Even though, I'd love to hit 20, 3 hours of Spanish in a day burns me out a bit. I can easily handle 2 hours but beyond that, it's tough to focus.
My primary methods of study this week were Assimil and Language Transfer. I loved Language Transfer one, but the second part of this series goes extremely quickly through future tenses of verbs. I’ve come across these tenses in Assimil or readings but this is my first attempt to commit them to memory and it’s a struggle. I made it through all of the second part of the series, but I don’t think I really got it so I’m going to give it one more go (starting from where it got difficult for me) and then leave it for a while and trust that as I see the verbs in other places, it will come together. I had another one-on-one session with my Spanish instructor. This time I was better at communicating that what I really wanted to work on was conversation and not just repeat what we did in class. I felt like, as a result, the session was much more productive. He basically just asked me questions and forced me to communicate in Spanish. I also made more of an effort to speak with my boyfriend. We spoke about four days this week - not for long but for five or so minutes. Last night, I asked him to tell me a story in Spanish and then we could see how much I understood. I totally missed a lot of things - like for example, he said that the streets in his neighborhood in Lima were named for artists and that his particular street was named for a guitar player, and I thought that what he said was that artists lived in his neighborhood and that a professional guitar player actually lived on his street. Sigh. I also kept plugging away at La Reina del Sur. The most I spent so far in one session was an hour and a half - which I know some say is not enough, but even with the English text and the audio, it’s pretty slow going, I’m hoping that it’s a good way to learn vocab., but I only note the words that really stand out at me. So far, I’ve spent about three and half hours on it and I’m not even through the first chapter. Hopefully, I’ll start to see improvement here. I’m trying to figure out what will be my secondary method of study after I finish Language Transfer. I like that the grammar is getting more advanced and I don’t want to start with another beginner course. I played with FSI for a little bit, but I think I’m going to save it until I finish Assimil. Thank you, Stelle for your encouragement! I'll check out your log! It will be fun to see your progress. A trip is a very motivating goal. James29 - Thank you so much for your comments. I am very excited about our trip to Peru. I am very into textiles and I had wanted to go there even before I began my Spanish journey. I really loved SynergySpanish. It gave me a lot of confidence. I haven't loved the more advanced courses as much, but it's great for a beginner. I think, as I move forward with learning Spanish, having a native speaker who lives with me will end up being a big help toward learning (of course, it is the primarily reason that I'm learning too!). I love the idea of a language school but there really isn't quite the time on this trip. But I'm going to save the idea for future trips. I've looked at your goal log and am trying to figure out mine for the new year. It's tough because I've only been doing this for two months, so it's difficult to know what I'll be capable of in the coming year (how many books, etc), but I've been thinking it over! Thanks again! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 3832 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 104 23 December 2013 at 5:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Week 3: 16 hours
I logged 16 hours of Spanish this week. I primarily worked a lot with Language Transfer. I listened to each episode (in Part 2) multiple times until I felt like I was understanding the different tenses. I still have difficulty with the future tenses but I think I’m at the point of diminishing returns with this course. I think I need to get this information a different way. I didn’t push as hard with Assimil this week. I’m only at Lesson 15 (active) and Lesson 64 (passive). I think I’m going to start next week with Learning Languages. I’m finding that a lot of beginner material feels too repetitive for me (of course it’s good to reinforce what I’m learning, but I don’t want to rest in the beginner stage). With Christmas this next week, I’m just hoping that I get at least my two hours per day in. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4965 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 6 of 104 23 December 2013 at 6:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi. Good luck with your Spanish language endeavor. I think you did pretty well just following the gist of your boyfriends story since you're just a beginner it's easy to get confused but you're getting some of it. I'm thinking of studying Spanish again after taking a lot of time off to and studying Japanese instead. I would so welcome a return to the roman alphabet. I totally recommend reading stuff online or using an amazon kindle with a pop up dictionary. As you read you can hear the language in your head and stuff like future tenses you just get from context and repetition. I think it's fun to read stories in your target language that you read as a kid and loved but haven't read in a while.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5313 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 104 23 December 2013 at 6:33am | IP Logged | ||
Seriously, this is all really good news. Your brain is slowly putting together the puzzle pieces, and it's definitely going to get easier. Just like with a puzzle, one you start fitting some chunks together, the rest falls into place more quickly. I'm going through this whole process again in Egyptian, and it feels strange to be so blind again. Text looks like "WORD blahblahblah word? blah WORD blahblahblah WORD." But I already know that if I keep puzzling stuff out, I'll soon be able to see the occasional complete sentence, and then I'll be able to slowly decipher 80%, and then with practice I'll be able to read more and more at a glance. At your level, it's perfectly normal to miss big chunks. You don't have enough pieces yet to see where everything goes. But I can see from your log that you're understanding more and more, which is exactly what you want. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tollpatchig Senior Member United States Joined 3788 days ago 161 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Maltese | Message 8 of 104 23 December 2013 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm jealous of all the native speaker practice you're getting in! lol!
It's great that you're able to log your hours spent so you can really get a chance to physically see your progress towards your goal. I take a more liberal approach with German as I just want to watch shows or listen to podcasts and music. I like it best when my study time doesn't feel like study time. I really think you should do more speaking with your boyfriend. Make everything you guys do together a learning experience without making it seem like homework. For example, when y’all go to the movies together try to speak only Spanish that night, you can prepare during the day if you want and then that night you can try out any new movie vocabulary you learned earlier and maybe he can teach you a few more or some more colloquial ways of speaking. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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