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Amerykanka’s Adventures - 2015 and Beyond | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4805 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 41 of 55 03 July 2015 at 2:49am | IP Logged |
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Your broken car story amused me, thanks :-)
iTalki: I have experience with the notebook part, which is awesome. Great corrections from natives for free, you don't need to exchange your corrections or anything, it's up to you. I haven't tried the people so far, I am a bit shy, even though there seems to be enough to choose from. You shouldn't have trouble finding exchange partners there, in my opinion. Or tutors, whichever you prefer. About the DELE level: my local Cervantes offers level consulation for quite a small fee, perhaps that would be a better way to estimate the level since even many tutors,who don't have that much experience with the particular exam, may have trouble assessing you correctly. So, perhaps your local Cervantes offers a similar service. http://diplomas.cervantes.es/informacion/guias/default.html That is a great guide, there are examples of each dele exam, including example solutions to the writen tasks and audio with the oral parts. I wish there had been something like this for French as well, it is a nice way to get an idea which level can you relate yourself to. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4967 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 42 of 55 03 July 2015 at 3:55am | IP Logged |
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I'm glad to hear that about iTalki - I hadn't really thought about using it for writing practice but I will definitely
try it out now. And I guess I will just take the plunge and try to find some conversations partners. I don't have a Cervantes near me (I'm planning on taking the test when I'm at school this fall), so I'm not sure if I will be able to get a level consultation, but I'll see - thanks for the suggestion. I did take their online placement exam and it told me C1.3-1.4, but then there are limitations to such tests. I will definitely review all of the information on their website - you're right, it looks very useful. I saw in your log (which I really enjoy, by the way) that you were thinking about taking the DELE this fall. Have you taken it before or would this be the first time? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4967 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 43 of 55 03 July 2015 at 5:42am | IP Logged |
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SUMMER READING CHALLENGE: DAY 18
El sueño del celta – 32 pages Stara baśń – 13 pages SPANISH UPDATE In addition to my reading, I spent 50 minutes reviewing cards in Anki. I still haven’t managed to get my main deck under 5,000, but any progress is good progress. Words are streaming back into my memory, and that is the most important thing. OPERATION VOCABULARY RECOVERY (aka POLISH UPDATE) - 6 articles - 4.5 pages of the picture dictionary - 45 minutes of reviewing in Anki I have calculated that at the rate of 3 pages per day, it will take me approximately 40 days to finish up the picture dictionary. This will put me in mid-August, right before school starts again, which is good, since who knows how much time I will have during the school year, what with classes and two jobs, especially if I decide to take the DELE C1 this fall. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4967 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 44 of 55 06 July 2015 at 5:58am | IP Logged |
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Well, it is time for a lengthy report, since I haven’t updated this log in several days. There is good news and
bad news. The good news is that my Spanish has been going very well. The bad is that my Polish, not so much. Friday and Saturday I had family commitments which took a lot of my time, and, to be honest, I picked Spanish over Polish because it was easier for me. And also because I am kind of hooked on Águila roja by now. I can’t say that I approve of all of the content, but I am enjoying the basic plot line and the character development, and it is very good listening practice. SPANISH UPDATE - 2 hours of reviewing in Anki - 62 pages of El sueño del celta - 3 episodes of Águila roja (about 3.5 hours) - 30 minutes of “Buenos Días América” - 3 writing submissions on iTalki (205, 136, and 351 words respectively) First . . . flashcards. I finally managed to get my main deck under 5,000, which is a great psychological relief as well as a good sign for my vocabulary retention. I have added several dozen new words and phrases thanks to my reading challenge, which is also going well. Since I am very interested in mission work, El sueño del celta’s account of Roger Casement’s experiences in the Congo has proved fascinating to me. I am about a third of the way through the book now; only 300 pages left! :) In the field of listening comprehension, things are a little rougher. I have little trouble understanding “Buenos Días América”, and I watched 30 minutes or so of Telemundo’s Los miserables without major issues, but Águila roja is another matter. I think it must be the Spanish accents. I have noticed some improvement, however, and since there are five seasons on Netflix (over 80 hours of listening comprehension!), I will have plenty of time to get accustomed to the pronunciation. Listening comprehension is the skill I am most worried about for the DELE, so I intend to get lots of exposure over the next few months. Finally, writing! All I have to say is that iTalki is AMAZING; thank you again, Cavesa, for recommending that I use the Notebook function! For the last three days I have posted one writing sample per day and every time I have received multiple responses within an hour of submission. This is an incredibly useful tool and I intend to exploit it for all it's worth; from now on I will write at least a paragraph per day. I was very pleased, too, with the low amount of errors that I had made. On my latest submission there was barely anything – just a few vocab adjustments and a few careless mistakes. I still have work to do, but I have certainly received a confidence boost and more importantly, I finally feel like I have a reliable source of corrections coming in. POLISH UPDATE - 1 hour 12 minutes of reviewing in Anki - 3 articles - 6 pages of the picture dictionary This is a pretty pathetic turnout and I really have no sensible excuses to make. All I can say is that I will try to do better tomorrow. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6393 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 45 of 55 06 July 2015 at 11:29am | IP Logged |
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That doesn't look pathetic at all to me!
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| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4967 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 46 of 55 06 July 2015 at 4:38pm | IP Logged |
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Haha thanks. I was referring specifically to my Polish studies though, which I sort of slacked off on.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4805 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 47 of 55 06 July 2015 at 6:22pm | IP Logged |
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I haven't taken any DELE so far, I am still in the consideration phase. But I am very tempted, I really could do with that spike of motivation to move my Spanish forward, especially now that I took on another language.
I'm not surprised you got addicted, the Spanish tv series tend to be really good. I suppose yo already know about rtve.es and mitele.es, which both let you watch tons of content even from abroad. And not everything is historical, there are some series taking place today, therefore using today's language. And rtve has a lot of other content as well, including documentaries, radio, everything you need to get your listening comprehension skill right where you want them. I admire your Anki devotion! I wish I was as persistent as you are. You're welcome, Amerykanka. Now that I think of it, I should get writing regularily again after my exam next week as well. I'm glad you're excited :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4967 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 48 of 55 08 July 2015 at 6:53am | IP Logged |
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I didn't make it onto the forum yesterday, so here's a combined update for today and yesterday.
SPANISH UPDATE - 1 hour 5 minutes of reviewing in Anki - 46 pages of El sueño del celta - 1.5 episodes of Águila roja (about 2 hours) - 2 writing submissions on iTalki (422 and 260 words respectively) I am still enjoying Águila roja immensely. I keep on telling myself that I can’t spend all my time on listening comprehension and that I am NOT justified in watching Netflix all day. We will see how long I hold out. iTalki is as useful as ever. Today I wrote a paragraph about why fall is my favorite season and I got carried away and ended up philosophizing. One day I will post some of my writing here but at the moment I don’t have time. POLISH UPDATE - 1 hour 21 minutes of reviewing in Anki - 10 articles - 6 pages of the picture dictionary - 20 pages of Stara baśń Today I relearned lots of interesting backyard vocabulary such as dmuchawa (“blower”) and zraszacz (“sprinkler”). Tomorrow is kitchen vocabulary – yikes. ************************* Cavesa, I agree that tests can be great motivators. I was feeling a bit lost where my Spanish was concerned earlier this summer because I won’t be taking any more Spanish literature classes at school and I probably won’t be visiting any Spanish-speaking countries any time soon. So I decided to take the DELE to ensure continued progress. Also it would be nice to have some sort of certification to back up my claims to speak Spanish when I’m applying for grad school, jobs, etc. I’ve used rtve.es but mitele.es is new to me – thank you for the recommendation. In the past I did not watch very much television (my listening comprehension was mostly focused on podcasts and audiobooks) so I have little experience with Spanish shows. I am looking forward to exploring. :) Edited by Amerykanka on 08 July 2015 at 6:54am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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