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Komma’s Log: Currently Spanish, English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3841 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 1 of 37 10 April 2014 at 8:05am | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone,
first I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Lucy from Germany, 19, currently studying at University and therefore have basically no free time. At least sometimes when lab work has to be done. When I have some free time, I often spend it on the internet, reading through things I like or just letting time pass without doing anything useful. I also like playing the piano (which I often neglect because of the internet..), go cycling and hiking. And of course, I like languages (I speak German of course and English - I think very well - and some French - but I forgot a lot..). However, I don't know where to start and how to go on, which resources are good and which not etc. But instead of just starting, I read through the forum, how to start this, how to do that and never learn a thing about my language.. This is why I started this log. I hope that I find supporting people here and that I do more, when I write my success down and get support. Even if I only do 10 minutes a day. This is at least not nothing.. So, currently I'm studying Spanish. I started a year ago at universtiy, but I didn't like the courses. However, for my studies I had to do some soft skills and learning a language was just the thing I liked to do. However, now a year later, I still can't really talk Spanish or think Spanish or write spanish. I can say my name, age etc. and what I study. The course was very student based, so everything about studies and universities etc. But I couldn't order anything in a restaurant or basic stuff like that, so I want to start all over. I borrowed some books from the library, but I don't like them very much. It's just that they don't have, what I want and I don't want to buy a course for 100€ to notice that I don't like it.. Yesterday I thought about starting with the FSI Spanish Programmatic Course and probably start today. I also bought the first Harry Potter in Spanish, because I know the story by heart and could at least follow the plot. And for the words I don't understand I look some of them up in a dictionary and mark them there. If I have to look them up a third time again, I'd put them into anki or similar, with the sentence the word appears in. For grammar, I have the practice makes perfect complete grammar, but haven't started yet. So far, so good, I have to go to university now, so I may edit this post later or just start a new one for posting how I did today :D If you find any mistakes in my English, please tell me. I've been studying it for 10 or 11 years now, but there's still so much to learn :D Greetings, Lucy Edited by Komma on 09 March 2015 at 11:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3841 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 2 of 37 10 April 2014 at 7:07pm | IP Logged |
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Day 1:
So, I started FSI Programmatic, but stopped halfway through chapter one. I found it quite boring and think this way of learning doesn't suit me. Maybe it gets better at the end. Maybe the FSI basic course is better than the programmatic course (for me). I may try the basic course tomorrow or next week (I'm not home for the weekend and on a birthday celebration I can't take my laptop with me ^^) So, basically I'm still looking for some suitable course for me. I think I try the one I borrowed and just pick, what I want to learn. And start reading a bit of Harry Potter and start building some vocab. Because vocab is something I can take with me. I want to try Assimil from the library, but it won't be available until May. And it's the old one. i wanted to save the audio and buy the book, so firstly, I support the programm at least a bit, and secondly I can write into the book. But I think where I buy it, only the new course will be available and this differs from the old ones, doesn't it? I'm also not sure if I want to try a used version of Teach yourself Spanish, which wouldn't be the brand new version, but also not the very old one. Don't know if the changes are resulting in a worse course, though... However 9€ are not much, so I could try it. EDIT: So, for reading Harry Potter, I thought of going through some past tenses and just got myself an overview over perfecto, indefinido and imperfecto. So, while reading I don't want to ignore the fact that books are written in past tenses and just try to understand what's written. I want to TRY to get when what is used in the book. Greetings Edited by Komma on 11 April 2014 at 7:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5647 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 3 of 37 10 April 2014 at 9:45pm | IP Logged |
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I think most people prefer the Basic course to the Programmatic one. The Basic course is more comprehensive, in any case.
You can find the old Spanish course (Spanish Without Toil or Spanisch ohne Mühe) at used book shops or online (for example, at Amazon). The audio can be downloaded online, since finding the records for them is probably a bit more difficult. If you've already taken a year of Spanish, you will probably find the TY course too easy, especially if you're going to use FSI or Assimil later on, but it certainly won't hurt to go through it. (EDIT: The old course is "Spanish Without Toil", not "Spanish With Ease") Edited by Crush on 11 April 2014 at 3:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5044 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 37 10 April 2014 at 11:25pm | IP Logged |
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Good to see you haven't lost interest and have started a log, Lucy :). Learning on one's own is a bit different than formal learning. There is freedom to choose. That freedom is a double-edged sword. It can take a while to find out what works best for a particular learning style.
I always recommend the multi-track approach to beginners. It has worked, and still works, for me. I know that you are a busy person and that your university studies must, obviously, take priority. Still, I think you may have the time to do a "light" multi-track approach. Try Assimil or FSI Basic and combine it with the video "course", Destinos- an introduction to Spanish on alternate days or in the morning and evening (if possible). That way, no matter how "boring" the course gets, you can have a "fun" activity to look forward to doing- and Destinos is designed for learners. Try to look at it like your chemistry classes. Lab experiments are fun. Chemistry theory instruction may not be so much fun, but you need to know it if you're majoring in chemistry. There's no getting around it. With Spanish, you have to know about verb conjugations, adjective-noun agreement, vocabulary, etc. Having a free, 52 lesson, video course, like Destinos, with a sort of telenovela to follow could be your fun, as a beginner. An analogy can be made to chemistry theory instruction and the experiments. If you never had a chemistry lab where you could do experiments to see how the theory works in the real world, you probably wouldn't like the theory and wouldn't appreciate the formal instruction. If you have something to look forward to like seeing the theory come to life in an experiment, the "dry, boring" instruction/drills will be seen as complimentary and useful. So, just try to find a course that doesn't annoy you too much with the understanding that, as a beginner, there are certain things you will just have to learn (there can only be so much "fun" in memorizing/internalizing verb conjugations and grammar points). The fun comes from exploring and playing with the language elsewhere- perhaps with Destinos, maybe the lyrics training website, GLOSS, Twitter or even human beings. (Destinos may be geo-coded outside North America, but there are ways around that, I'm sure ;) ) If I can help you, in any way, please ask. Good luck! ¡Buena suerte con tus estudios! Edited by iguanamon on 11 April 2014 at 12:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3841 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 5 of 37 11 April 2014 at 7:46am | IP Logged |
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Hey, thank you for giving me the first advice and motivation posts :D
@cruch: so, you can download the audio extra on the assimil site? Or do you mean other sites? I've never visited the french assimil site, because my norton says there would be an unnoticible malicious background download... @iguanamon: thanks for motivating me with Chemistry. That are really good parallels :D And I definitely read through that article and see if I want to try that :) I might not be able to learn much today or tomorrow, but on Sunday I should be back ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3841 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 6 of 37 11 April 2014 at 6:26pm | IP Logged |
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Day 2:
So, today I just started with Harry Potter 1, but I think it might be a bit too early to do so. I mean, I don't just want to understand it.. I mean, I know the story by heart, so of course I know, what it's all about etc. And I don't want to look up every word which I don't know to build up vocabulary.. But I found the audiolibro to the book online on Youtube, which is great. My plan for Spanish now looks like this: Trying out FSI Basic Spanish and Destinos. When available I lend the newer Assimil course from the library and do this. I don't know to which level the FSI course goes and to which Assimil, but it can't be bad to review the basics again and then continue. I also like to do vocab with Anki, however, I've not decided to do words or sentences or both and on the same or different cards then. And how to treat synonyms etc. For grammar, I try out my practice makes perfect book to practice after the grammar shows up in whatever course or I just want to know whatever... I might also chat with my Spanish speaking friend or when we manage that talk. However, I don't like talking when I don't know anything to talk about... And the plan is to do something everyday. Even if it's just reviewing some vocab.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3841 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 7 of 37 14 April 2014 at 8:29pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I'm back from the short weekend trip where I only could review a few anki cards
and because I only have 12 cards at the moment, that was not much. Unfortunately, today university kept me working very long. So, I reviewed anki and now write a log post. I joined Team Lobo in the TAC 2014. And for this challenge, I want to point out a few goals. 1. I want to do at least 10 minutes of Spanish every day, no matter what I do. 2. I want to learn the most common words to do a basic conversation (when I reach that, I'll set the goal to more) 3. I want to learn the grammar for basic conversation, including sentence building in present tense, future tense and starting past tenses. 4. I want to watch the Destinos videos. 5. When I get Assimil, I'd like to do this. For now, I start with the suboptimal course for basic Spanish I already have. 6. I want to chat with my Spanish friend. That's enough for the moment, I think. Maybe the goals are not that well formed, but I'm actually an absolute beginner on defining goals :D Edit: I just watched the first episode of Destinos. And did the vocab and grammar, which I actually already knew, but reviewing was good. This seems to be fun :D EDIT2: I want to start reading Harry Potter y la piedra Filosofal in September. That's when I'm in Spain and despite watching Spanish TV, I want to use a bit of time every day to read a section. Until then, I should know the past and present tenses which are commonly used in books. So I need to understand them and know how to build them at least for the regular verbs and common irregular ones. I also need a good basis of vocab, so I don't have to look up everything. Edited by Komma on 27 April 2014 at 1:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3841 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 8 of 37 22 April 2014 at 7:57am | IP Logged |
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So, now that the forum is back, I can post again.
Since the last entry I haven't done very much, but I reviewed my anki cards every day and watched the second and third episode of Destinos. It's really interesting and I understand quite a lot. But understanding in general is not my problem, but the active part of the language. However, therefore I often need vocabulary.. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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