I did have a log on the old HTLAL site which seems to now be somewhat relocated here but I certainly didn't make a huge amount (or any...) effort in maintaining it. That said, I have continued lurking both here and at HTLAL over the course of the past year in search of new materials or just generally to check in on others progress. Encouragingly, despite not posting I have managed to keep at my Spanish over the past year and on reflection, even if it didn't seem i was progressing at the time, I can see the strides I have made - reading is no longer a chore, I am no longer hesitant about watching a series without subtitles for fear of getting lost, and generally speaking I think my conversational abilities have improved but that's harder to measure.
Some achievements over the past year included:
- Completing FSI - this was a massive pain but i got through it, I'm sure there would be some value in re-doing at a minimum the final 10 units but realistically I'm unlikely to ever touch it again
- Finishing several books - el principto, ojos de agua, la ciudad de las bestias, amongst others
- Completed a few series - el internado, bajo sospecha, gran hotel
- Spent some time in Puerto Rico where I was generally comfortable dealing with my girlfriend's friends and family. I did find the extended use of Spanish throughout the day and having to deal with multiple people speaking in groups more exhausting than I expected though.
- Completed gramatica de uso de espanol (B1/B2)
- Listened to a range of podcasts - radio ambulante, various things on ivoox
- 1 book a month - currently reading la senal y el ruido (Native Silver) but at ~680 pages i may have to start picking out some lighter items in the future
- Write more - I've realised recently that not having spent any time dedicated to writing that this skill is severely lacking. I rarely write anything of length in English either which probably doesn't help
- Some voice recording each week - this is more to have some measure of progress than anything
- Thinking of taking the C1 exam this year but not 100% set on it just yet, somewhat depends on how demanding work ends up being
- Other items are pretty routine so don't really constitute a goal - some spanish around the house, watching some series with my girlfriend, my standing 1 hour class a week, etc.
I'll probably look to join the upper intermediate/advanced TAC team an hopefully contribute more this year. I have also been flirting with the idea of picking up french/portuguese but I think I'll probably park it at least 6 months if not 12 and I'm not really sure which - leaning towards french as i think i'm more likely to visit Montreal/France than Brazil over the short term.
Mitch