Fatih's Spanish Log

[NoManches]

Last week was very productive for my spanish studies. I finished Platiquemos unit 37 and reviewed units 11,12 and 13.
I somehow advanced on Harry Potter and now I'm on the 65%. I hope it'll finish before end of the next week. But I'm sure that I'm not going to continue with the 2nd book. I may be use Cajas de Carton as NoManches kindly suggested or just read Hunger Games which is an another easily accesible book for me.

Watching la reina del sur is still a burden for me. I watched 2 more episodes but really have difficult times with it. I'm now considering to change it seriously.

Last week I also started to review glossika using c files. I've already finished first thousand sentences. Using c files is really easy and fast. This even made me think making similar audio files with using my other sources on hand.

I just started watching La Reina del Sur the other day. Wow! It is such a good show, I'm so glad I started watching it. It does seem pretty tough though (although I for some reason find it easier than el Señor de los Cielos...which I have seen close to 100 episodes of ).

Have you tried watching any dubbed shows? I was against them for the longest time, but I think they could help you out tremendously. If you were to watch a few seasons of a dubbed show in Spanish (better yet, a show you have already seen in English), I bet your listening comprehension with the Telenovelas would improve significantly.

Another option (and it might take some fun out of the show) is to read a summary of the show before you watch it. That way you will know what you are looking for in the show, and if you get lost because of the language you will still have an idea of what is/should be happening.

[Fatih]

Have you tried watching any dubbed shows? I was against them for the longest time, but I think they could help you out tremendously. If you were to watch a few seasons of a dubbed show in Spanish (better yet, a show you have already seen in English), I bet your listening comprehension with the Telenovelas would improve significantly.

Thanks NoManches for all the advices!

Last night I tried to watch a new episode, again without subs, but it was so frustrating that I couldn't finish it. As you mentinoned, I suppose it's time to try the dubbed version. I'll watch it tonight and will share the results.

[Fatih]

Since last update I finished Platiquemos unit 38 and reviewd unites 15-16 and 17, each twice.
I've been also considering to continue assimil from where I left and did some reviews.
I continue to read Harry Potter but with a slower speed, now I'm on the 71%.

Also I watched a couple of Yabla videos and it seems really useful. Now I'm considering to incorporate it into my study schedule.

[Fatih]

Last week I've studied 20 hours of Spanish. I’ve started Platiquemos Lesson 42 today. I suspended the review lessons for now which I’ve did until unit 18. It was useful but it really slowed me down so much that made me think that I had to make a choice. So, I decided to halted it now. After finishing the whole course, I’ll continue to do it starting from where I left.

I’m on 81% at Harry Potter Piedra Filosofal. I’m very slow here but I’ve read some graded reades (100 pages) last week. I guess I’ll continue to read graded readers and have a break with native ones after finishing Harry Potter.

I’ve been studying assmil with ease which I didn’t like and stopped before and now I’m on lesson 58 in passive wave. I’ll do a fast active wave after finishing the whole course.

Last week, I gave up trying to watch La Reina Del Sur and nothing happend on that side. But I’m using Yabla and watching songs with subtitles. I really liked it

Also, 3 days ago, I started to read a grammar book called “Modern Spanish Grammar”. I have studied 48 pages so far. Normally, I don’t like studying grammar but I really liked this book a lot. It seems so simple yet comprehensive.

One more thing I added to my routine study materials is reading newspapers. I started to read El Pais daily. I’m not spending much time it, just one short article on every weekday.

[Fatih]

Last week I studied 17 hours of Spanish. I finished Platiquemos lesson 45. But, lately, I have a feeling that I do not learn the last lessons good enogh so that I decided to slow down a bit on the new lessons and put my weight into the reviews. I’m on lesson 19 on the review side.

I’ve also done some lessons on Assimil with Ease. Now I’m on lesson 71 passive, and 31 active.

Reading was pretty slow last week, I’m still reading Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal. I totally forgot how many weeks ago I started it! Just a small book, but somehow I’m not able to finish it as if I’m reading something like Brothers Karamozov!

I’ve also studied 45 more pages on Modern Spanish Grammar. So far so good.

[Fatih]

A quick update:

I’ve did unit 46 couple of times on Platiquemos but I feel that I still have to do it 2 to 3 times more.

Also I contine to study Spanish with ease. I’m on lesson 74 passive and 34 active.

Grammar studies also continue. I’ve studied 20 more pages since last update.

One good news for me is that I finally finished Harry Potter y La Piedra Filosofal. Also started the second book and have read 10% of it.

The book I have has 241 pages, and this morning I read 3 pages to test how many words I know (or don’t know). I don’t know whether the results are good or bad but I encountered 60 unknown words in 3 pages which totals up 4.820 for the entire book. I’m not sure how many words the spanish version has but according to the internet, english version has 85 bin words. So, seems that I know %94 of it. A more resonable guess would be %90 it if I clean the names or et cetera. But when I’m reading it extensively I feel that I’m missing too much of it.

I’m not sure now whether it is enough to know %90 of the words for extensive reading. Any advice? Do you think it’s enough of should I resort some easier matarials?

[jeff_lindqvist]

I’m not sure now whether it is enough to know %90 of the words for extensive reading. Any advice? Do you think it’s enough of should I resort some easier matarials?

There are as many opinions as there are readers, but I keep reading if I enjoy the book. 90% is not a low number. You have to start somewhere. Reading literature is a good way to increase your vocabulary. I don't even bother looking up words.

Related (and recent) topic:
Question on reading: Literature, fiction, and non-fiction

[Brun Ugle]

Before watching my first real telenovela, I watched Destinos, a telenovela for learners. It can be found online for free. I also watched Extra, which is a comedy series for learners, but it doesn't have many episodes. It can be found on YouTube.

[Fatih]

I'm on unit 47 at Platiquemos and this one is really tough. Dialogues are like a joke! very very long. I realy have to put some extra effort on it.
I'm on lesson 76 active and 36 passive on assimil. nothing new.
I also read one more chapter from second Harry Potter book, La Camara Secreta. My reading comrehension is not at the level that I want. And also my reading speed is low. 15 pages per hour. But there is also one good news, last night I look at the audiobook of La Piedra Filosafal and it looks like my comrehension has improved a lot since my last try. Now I can follow the plot and understand more than %70 of the narrator, which is I think awesome!
I also started using Gloss and it looks like a good adition to my program.
Also, in a couple of days, I'm goint to start the glossika level 3.
At the end of the november, I will have spent 80 hours on Spanish and hope to keep this momentum during the following months.

[James29]

I’m not sure now whether it is enough to know %90 of the words for extensive reading. Any advice? Do you think it’s enough of should I resort some easier matarials?

There are as many opinions as there are readers, but I keep reading if I enjoy the book. 90% is not a low number. You have to start somewhere. Reading literature is a good way to increase your vocabulary. I don't even bother looking up words.

Related (and recent) topic:
Question on reading: Literature, fiction, and non-fiction

I agree with this 100%. Read it if you enjoy it.