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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes  Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 89 of 94 30 October 2007 at 9:34pm | IP Logged |
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I finished units 36 AND 37 since 4 days ago (see how much I can do in a weekend?). Learning on loquella is becoming very annoying; the computer learning restriction makes it hard for me to find time to learn (in the midst of school work and other activities). What exacerbates that is my aversion towards speaking the drills in front of people (I mean, who wants to hear random utterances of Spanish?), so I have to take the laptop I have to some secluded place. Unfortunately the battery lasts about 9 minutes, and you can see that that is quite a problem.
On Monday, I survived through the most sad (as in extremely bad and boring) Spanish class ever this year. The teacher had to go to a conference, so there was this substitute who knew some Italian but who tried to connect to Spanish, and did so quite successfully. But that's not the worst part. A majority of the class did not get anything that the substitute was saying, which was regarding object pronouns. The class was a mess; the students wanted to learn but also thought that it was a good idea to goof off at the same time. The result? The substitute did a decent job explaining direct and indirect object pronouns (considering she only has Italian to help her), but the lack of attention among the students spoiled the explanations completely, to incoherent statements. The kids were confused like they were hearing Arabic without ever being exposed to it, and I'm not joking. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 90 of 94 09 November 2007 at 9:55pm | IP Logged |
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It has been a while since I've written here, and in this time of absence, I had finished units 38-39 and have started a brief review of units 31-39 (I finished going over units 31-32 just before writing this entry). This revision is sort of like of a "reality check"; I've been moving through the units very quickly and I don't know if I'm actually grasping the concepts and the new material as well as I would like. I have a good idea of my fluency level, and sweeping through adavanced Spanish material does not seem compatible with my capabilities.
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| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 91 of 94 17 November 2007 at 8:56pm | IP Logged |
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En estos días que han pasado, he terminado de repasar las unidades 33-39 y esta noche empecé la unidad 40. Como tengo que nadar todas las noches (con el equipo de la escuela), no tengo mucho tiempo para practicar el español.
Tal vez no sepa, pero he empezado a aprender el francés otra vez. En realidad, hace tres meses que lo aprendo. En mi iPod tengo el curso FSI para el francés; cuando tengo tiempo en soledad, aprendo un poco. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 92 of 94 22 November 2007 at 5:17pm | IP Logged |
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I finished unit 40 and a part of 41 yesterday. I'm not quite getting what is with the extremely short units; I like that there is more vocabulary content, but the grammar is sparse; usually only 1 topic per unit.
Today is Thanksgiving; I am writing in this log because currently a few of my parents' friends are over and I have nothing to do. Maybe I'll go learn Spanish. Hey, not a bad idea. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 93 of 94 25 November 2007 at 12:37pm | IP Logged |
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I am right now in the middle of unit 42. As far as the grammar, I do not think that from now to the end of the course, I will actually learn any new concepts, but I will definetly gain more mastery of these concepts from the many drills.
I have found that by reading various works of literature in Spanish (as required by my Spanish class), my reading ability has jumped tremendously. While there is still a considerable amount of vocabulary that I have not learned yet, I can generally read a Spanish article with ease. The "word-by-word" translation habit has phased away, and that makes reading more enjoyable, rather than laboring. Also, I hope to read "Cien años de soledad" by Gabriel García Márquez someday, in Spanish, but for now, for an assignment, I have to read the book in English. I have heard that the book's plot is based on the history of Chile, and that throughout the book, the author employs magical realism. I hope that it is a very good book; after all, I will have to live through 400 pages, and depending on how good it is, it will take me anywhere from 3 weeks to 4 years to read it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 236factorial Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6483 days ago 192 posts - 213 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 94 of 94 13 December 2007 at 3:38pm | IP Logged |
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I see that I haven't posted here for a while, since I have already progressed three units these busy weeks since the last post.
I just hope to finish FSI soon. I am not pleased with this once-in-a-while studying, because I feel that the discontinuity is hurting my memory of the language. I can't even be sure whether I'm spending more than 2 hours a week on the course, which is not close to being adequate for even semi-serious study. Nevertheless, I am quite happy with the progress that I have been making despite the time problems; fluency is not significantly slipping, and very few drills cause huge problems. Having a 1.5 week winter break coming up, I should temporarily have a more flowing schedule to learn, and I hope to make a lot of progress, because starting in early January, everything becomes a disaster again (midterms, etc.). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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