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Mitch’s Spanish log (TAC 2015) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| mitcht Newbie Australia Joined 3523 days ago 32 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 28 29 November 2014 at 7:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I have spent the last 18 months learning Spanish on and off but never really formed good study habits. Anyway, I am
in the process of relocating to a new job overseas so have plenty of time on my hands and am also spending some time with my girlfriend's Spanish speaking family - therefore there's no excuse not to improve. My intention is to use this log to keep me honest with useful study and logging some time each day. Plan wise I intend to use Anki daily for vocab, 2-3 italki classes a week, daily grammar study (say 30 mins) from the practice makes perfect series, and the notes in Spanish podcasts. I also have the FSI Spanish course but I'm not sure how well i can stick to using that. All interspersed with having to interact (partially) in Spanish each day. The plan isn't rigid at the moment so will just see what motivates me and try and direct things from there. Any comments, advice, extra motivation is much appreciated. Edited by mitcht on 28 December 2014 at 8:54am 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 2 of 28 29 November 2014 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the forum, mitcht! In the beginning stages of studying a first second language, I have found that I get the most benefit from a private tutor when I have advanced beyond the basics of conjugating verbs and learning gender agreement.
English-speaking Spanish learners are blessed and cursed with a plethora of resources. The good news is you don't need all of them to learn Spanish. If I had it to do over again, I'd start out with two formal resources- a good, basic course and the video based Destinos. Since your girlfriend's family is Spanish-speaking, you are already getting exposure to the real thing outside of "course-world". I would also, "play around" with native material. Lyrics training is a site where you can practice with songs and pick up some vocabulary along the way. It can be a fun way to get used to listening. Also DLI GLOSS (US Defense Language Institute Global Language Online Support System) has free listening and reading exercises using native materials that can be a good supplement. Select "Spanish" and level 1 exercises. Obviously, these aren't your main learning materials but it helps to add in variety and can provide good synergy with your main resource(s). The main thing is to keep in mind And remember that there is indeed a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. There will be obstacles in your way and rough patches to get through, but we can and do get through them. You just have to keep your eyes on the prize. Starting a log here is a great idea because you can get helpful advice along the way in close to real-time. Try to use SRS as a "boost"to your memory instead of as a prime resource. It can become a seductive trap. If the link I gave you to Destinos won't work in Oz, try a US based proxy server or search around for the videos elsewhere. Also, don't worry about accents, it's all Spanish. ¡Bienvenido al foro! Suerte con tus estudios. Edited by iguanamon on 29 November 2014 at 1:00pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mitcht Newbie Australia Joined 3523 days ago 32 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 28 29 November 2014 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks very much Iguanamon. My Spanish isn't too bad, probably around a B1 on the CEFR scale but certainly some
way off fluency and it has been at this level without much noticeable improvement for some time... I have watched some destinos in the past but found it a bit slow (perhaps because i came to it with intermediate Spanish) and dated but maybe worth another go. At the moment my biggest issues are around speaking/conjugating slowly and keeping up with the pace of native speech - my reading/writing are OK, obviously not perfect, but ahead of my speaking/listening. I have ample opportunity to practice at the moment but you do feel bad asking for things to be repeated or slowing a conversation down as you search for vocab/tense/conjugation, etc. Her parents speak better English than my Spanish (though by no means fluent) so its easy to use that as a crutch. Tal vez debo escribir este blog en español para practicar... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5314 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 28 29 November 2014 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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At your level, there are some relatively pleasant ways to improve your listening comprehension. One trick that worked for me and Cavesa was watching easy TV series—just buy a multi-season box set and start watching. This works because you get used to the voices and the subject matter, which gives you an extra boost, and because the images on the TV provide hints. When you finish the box set, start another. Repeat this a few times, and there's a good chance you'll be able to channel surf and understand most of what you hear. (Of course, you need some comprehension to begin with—maybe a bit less than half. Below that, TV requires other methods.) And of course, lots of reading will also help with listening comprehension.
Of course, there are lot of other ways to tackle listening comprehension, and tastes vary. But working on listening at the intermediate level can be a lot of fun. 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 5 of 28 29 November 2014 at 6:49pm | IP Logged | ||
No hay de qué, mitcht. Thanks for clearing up your level. At this stage FSI and private tutors will help a great deal. This changes my recommendations. I'll still recommend DLI GLOSS, but check out the intermediate levels. Also for some really good exercises that explain usage and grammar quite well, in monolingual Spanish- try the Centro Virtual Cervantes Aveteca scroll down to B1. You are probably too advanced for Destinos, check out Veinte Mundos which has free, downloadable mp3's and pdf's of their magazine articles exploring different facets of the Spanish-speaking world. The audio matches the text and difficult words/idioms are defined by mousing over. Besides italki, good private tutors can be found for around $10 US per hour at PLQE.org and nulengua.com, both out of Guatemala. Edit: As usual, emk has really good advice. If you can find a good, relatively easy, TV series to start on and work through, you will learn quite a lot, even a dubbed series, animation is less jarring to watch than the out of sync lip movements of live action can be at times. Edited by iguanamon on 29 November 2014 at 8:08pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mitcht Newbie Australia Joined 3523 days ago 32 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 28 30 November 2014 at 12:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Gracias a todos por el consejo.
I had a tutor I was using regularly on italki though he is quite expensive, it might be worth seeing if i can do better. I'll also seek out a series I can start watching with my girlfriend. I know i have a copy of el principito floating around so i'll see if i can find that. As to logging what I have done today - I caught up on my several month anki backlog, worked through a unit of FSI and read through a work book to make flashcards of worthwhile things I have forgotten. Hasta mañana! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5157 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 7 of 28 30 November 2014 at 3:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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For what it's worth I'll offer my two cents also. Different things work for different people and as has been pointed out by the other posters there are TONS of resources available.
At your level, and for what you are looking for (getting your spoken Spanish up to par with your other skills), the FSI Basic course seems like exactly like what you need. Certainly FSI is not for everyone, but there are numerous posters on this forum who had a ton of success with it. It won't help a lot with listening/vocabulary/etc but it will definitely get you conjugating verbs quickly and speaking more fluently. Good luck with your studies. 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 8 of 28 30 November 2014 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it will help with listening, you won't have to think about what conjugation or tense a verb is when you hear it, for example you'll know what tengo, tendríamos, tienen, and tengan are without having to think so much about it. It definitely makes understanding what you hear much easier when you don't have to process it as much. There's still a pretty big hole in vocab, though. If you can stick it through, FSI is a great course. Luckily though there are a variety of options with Spanish if you don't like it so much.
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