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Komma’s Log: Currently Spanish, English | ||
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| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3854 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 9 of 37 27 April 2014 at 8:50pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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short update:
Since the last post I watched episode 4 of Destinos and reviewed anki cards. I really have to make new cards to learn more words, but I just have so much other stuff to do and I don't like the downloadable decks for Spanish... I also listened to a Spanish podcast for beginners today and quite enjoyed it. I want to go through it some more times and collect some vocabulary. short "review"/recommendation and thoughts about the book "Sprachen lernen": I also remembered a book I've read a few months ago about learning Languages ("Sprachen lernen" by Robert Kleinschroth). I made a few fotos of some interesting pages, because I had to bring it back to the library. He has some interesting methods for learning vocab and grammar and I want to try it. One thing he suggests is to start a personal language folder, where one collects everything. He suggests to start with personal stuff like a section "about me". There one writes useful phrases and vocabulary to describe oneself and so on, like Me llamo.. Tengo ... anos Me gusta ... It's a good start to learn to introduce oneself and learn new words about hobbies etc. The author calls that "ich-wortschatz" (translated maybe by "I/Me-vocabulary"). To this vocabulary are also related lexical fields like family, friends, job etc. I would start a folder like this and also include stuff about thing that interest me, not only stuff about me. And grammar rules etc. Everything I collect on my Spanish journey :D An interesting approach is the way to learn vocabulary. The author of says that reviewing vocab everytime the same way just results in being able to recall it only in that way.. So, he suggests to vary the repetition exercises. For example structure the vocabulary in world fields (search a topic and then search in your head everything that you connect to that). Or review only in your mind. Start with something and then look what connections you come up with and go on with that. I thought about combining this variation method with anki. So first learning L2-L1 and L1-L2. After a few repetitions, include an audio for the L2 and delete the text. So its audioL2-L1. If the vocab can be visualized, one can use a picture and do picture-L2. This may be some work, but it could be useful in some way. (Haven't tried it yet, though, these are just my thoughts) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3854 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 10 of 37 28 April 2014 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Summary:
New Goals for Spanish complete Super Challenge (100 books and 100 movies) -> add new vocab to anki New Goals for English complete Super Challenge (100 books and 100 movies) focusing on scientific English -> reading about Study topics in English -> watching documentaries about study topics -> add new vocab to anki -> do some grammar revisions/ drills The more elaborate log post so, I just registered for the Super Challenge for Spanish and English. I'm not really actively studying English at the moment, but I'm always trying to improve myself. (I mean I study/ speak/ read/ whatever English for 9 years now, but this is not my mother tongue, so there's always something to improve :D right?) So, this adds two more goals to the TAC 14 for Spanish: -read 100 books, 50 pages each (or 5000 pages when I'm not mistaken) -watch 100 films, 90 minutes each And two goals in English: -read 100 books, 50 pages each -watch 100 films, 90 minutes each I also want to do some grammar reviews and new vocab in English, but I haven't got the resources yet and this is not my most important goal.. Just to improve on some grammatical stuff. And while watching or reading I could add new words to anki as well. For English I'd like to add new words as following: "Look up an unknown word in a dictionary and mark it. The second time looked up, mark it again. If looked up a third time -> make a note in anki. For some word I might already do it for the second look up and if I really like a word I may also make a note directly." In English I might improve my scientific English primarily, because I need it more and more in my studies of Chemistry.. In Spanish I think I make notes in anki for every new word I come along as I want to start with graded readers and I think that most of the words are words one should somehow know. Edited by Komma on 28 April 2014 at 7:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3854 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 11 of 37 01 May 2014 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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SO, now it's May 1 and Super Challenge started.
I also signed up for the 6 weeks challenge in Spanish and think this will put my motivation up for doing grammar and vocab and everything else that's not covered by the Super Challenge. Spanish Since my last update I completely deleted my anki deck which didn't contain too much cards.. But it was bugging all the way.. showing cards with no texts and so on.. i think I have made some changes to the cards interface and that's why it doesn't work.. I started over using card types for different cards. Like simple two direction cards and single direction cards instead of the optional second card. This works much better.. I started doing the German Spanish course (currently lesson 3, but I already flipped over the first 2 lessons, they were too boring after a year of Spanish at university and even the next lessons are just to listen to the diaglogues and collecting vocab and reviewing grammar) I didn't like much, but it's at least a kind of order in which to learn and how to start. I listened to the dialogue which I find the most useful about the course.. The dialogues are not that intersting, but a bit of audio and new vocab (which I put into anki, but didn't review yet, because it's just a few words and sentences; with the sentences I tried to make my own ones.. have to ask my Spanish friend if they are correct like this, but it should be, cause I just changed a few words of given sentences ^^) For the Super challenge I watched the first two episodes of Pippi Calzalargas which I enjoyed as a kid and could follow, even if I didn't understand very much. I might watch a bit further and then go back and watch again. So, today I watched half a film (2x25minutes) English I also started an English anki deck. For English Super Challenge I read my scripts for our lab course (chemistry) which we do in English. I've read them twice, because I had to read them to get the message and had to learn the experimental stuff and theory. These were 32 pages. So, i've read half a book so far :D Plans for the next days I want to continue the German Spanish course and when I manage to get the assimil course in the library I want to start with that. I want to continue watching the Pippi Calzaslargas. When I'm at the library I borrow some easy Spanish readers like Lola Lago or something like that to start reading for the super challenge. In English I actually always find something to read. I'm still only quarter through HP5, which I want to continue (maybe not until the next update, but i definitely have to finish it during the SC :D) I don't know whether reading the forum here also counts :D Maybe I'll add some pages to the read status for reading so much stuff in the internet in English. But I rather think the forum reading as cheating :D As for films, there are countless films I'd like to watch and my boyfriend also likes english films, so we might watch the hobbit or Pirates of the Caribbean or something else. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3854 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 12 of 37 03 May 2014 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Yesterday, I finally had time to go to the library and was totally disappointed by
their novels in Spanish. I borrowed the first Lola Lago, which is a graded reader with the grade 0. I also borrowed a few books with audio which seem to be quite good, but they really hadn't much to choose :/ And the Assimil course which should have been given back yesterday is still not available -.- Stupid people who don't bring their stuff back in time.. However, I think I have enough stuff to read for the moment. I started with the Lola Lago book.. and only read the introduction of the people. And even there I had some difficulties to understand *sigh*. I really need to start with some vocab basics and grammar before I understand enough to enjoy the reading, I think. I will do the two courses for beginning Spanish and add grammar practice books etc. to my study. I'm glad that my university lab course is pausing at the moment, so I have more time to study Spanish :D I also watched another episode of Pippi Calzaslargas where I didn't really understand much and episode 5 of Destinos, which I really enjoy. However, I should maybe watch the episodes of Destinos again to get some new vocab to add to anki. With those two episodes I already watched one film for the super challenge :D I know, my log here is more about what I should do and what I want to do instead of real progress about what I DID. But I really just started to try to teach myself and that is not really easy for me. I'm just to impatient ^^ Edited by Komma on 03 May 2014 at 2:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3939 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 13 of 37 03 May 2014 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I found Duolingo very useful for learning basic vocab. When I first started, I'd keep anki open on my computer,
and just add every new word from Duolingo as I learned it. I LOVED Destinos. It was cheesy. It was inane. But I really, really loved it. I learned so much from it! After Destinos, I moved on to Notes in Spanish, a free podcast that I found very helpful in improving my listening comprehension. re: Harry Potter, I know that a lot of people pick that as their first book in a foreign language. But for me, it was just too hard at first! I was only able to read it after about 6 months of Spanish study (spending 1-3 hours per day on Spanish). The first books I read in Spanish were translations of Roald Dahl books. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was accessible to me after a few months of Spanish study. I don't like downloadable anki decks either. I have to make my own, otherwise I just don't get much out of it. Good luck learning Spanish! I look forward to following your progress! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5057 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 14 of 37 03 May 2014 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Komma, it amazes me that you have any time at all for Spanish given your busy life as a full time University student majoring in chemistry.
The Centro Virtual Cervantes in Spain has a series of short, graded readers in three levels with monolingual definitions of "difficult" words clickable. Lecturas paso a paso (Inicial). They're short enough that you could print them, along with the definitions to get away from the computer. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3854 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 15 of 37 03 May 2014 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
^^ That's exactly what I did today, right before you posted this :D I sometimes forget about Duolingo and read it in your log, so I got back to that again. I already started, but make huge gaps between. I like Duo, but sometimes it really annoys me and of course it is not a stand alone course.
I find it quite easy to understand and to follow. I just find the English explanations anoying sometimes, but that's just a small part. I like it, that Raquel reviews important things at the end. And one gets used to the Spanish sounds :) I started with Notes in Spanish, but for now I've only listend to the first podcast of the beginner level while folding my clothes. I just wanted to listen to the language, so I could use that time. But I didn't really pay much attention to it. Most of the things were not new. However, I enjoyed it and will defenitely continue with the podcasts. Maybe listening to them on the go.. and if I don't understand or get to new stuff, listen to them again at home :)
Thanks for the Charlie book tip. Yes I defenitely know what you mean with HP. I started it because I know the story inside out, but I have to learn way more of grammar, especially past tenses, so I don't have to look up everything like that. I borrowed the easy reader "Lola Lago" from the library. And even with level 0 I had problems.. I just haven't had enough of vocab and grammar yet. The university courses I took really only focused on university stuff which is not really helpful for normal reading.. I now do the 6WC to get a start in the basics of past tenses and more vocab. And then I think I get more from the books I read than now. Thanks for replying :) I will do my best to progress in some way :)
Thanks a lot for the link. That looks very interesting :) Yeah, it's just some time in the evenings when I'm home and don't have to or don't want to do anything for university anymore. I'm glad that in May I only have lectures and no practical work, so I have time for the 6WC and reading a few pages for SC etc :D In June, however, I might have even less time than I had the past months, but in in mid July university is "over". I "only" have exams to study for, but in contrast to the lab courses, it's like holidays :D I'm very looking forward to September where I'm going to spain. I don't know if I feel confident enough to talk to people, but as we go to a city where there normally is not that much tourism and people speak mainly castellano or catalan, I might have to talk spanish sometimes ^^ However, I want to watch a bit of TV when the weather is not so nice and read a bit and just have a great holiday, no matter if I get to talk or not. Talking is not always the main reason I learn languages as I'm actually a shy person :D I just like languages and other cultures etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Komma Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 3854 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish | Message 16 of 37 03 May 2014 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Today, I've only did some small things, because the weather was so nice and I spend the
day outside with my boyfriend. I just read 2 pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before the walk ^^ And in the evening I looked through lesson 4 of the beginner course I use at the moment. I came across the different use of "ser and estar" and read about it in my grammar book in German, made notes about the uses and then read nearly the same in the practice makes perfect complete Spanish grammar book. However, I am now to tired to do the exercises, so I'll do them tomorrow. I really like the practice makes perfect book so far. The explanations were very nice and understandable :) I think that was a great purchase. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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