AK's Log: [RU,ES,IT] "командовать парадом буду я"

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AK47
White Belt
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 11:32 pm
Location: NY
Languages: English (N) , Russian (N), Spanish (B2), Italian (Beginner)
Language Log: http://www.forum.language-learners.org/ ... =15&t=5242
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AK's Log: [RU,ES,IT] "командовать парадом буду я"

Postby AK47 » Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:31 am

Hello everyone. Welcome to my log, feel free to chime in. I'll be putting in what I'm currently doing but may throw self-assessments in as well because I'd like to use this log as a way of seeing my progress. A quick summary of my language journey thus far:

I was born in Gomel, Belarus and come over to NYC when I was young. I grew up bilingual and was always interested in languages because I spoke two, so I thought that it was cool. I remember always wanting to "learn" Spanish in school but learned practically nothing at the end. After college I decided to go after Spanish on my own, and did hardcore for 3 months, but then realized my Russian had gotten worse while I was away at uni and I have high standards for my Russian, I want it to be perfect. So I focused on Russian (just reading/listening casually) for a few years until I woke up one morning and started thinking in Russian, for the whole day, and decided I could finally go back to Spanish. I'm 7 months into Spanish, have had a great time and am now at a B1/B2 level. The hard part is now over and I'm really just living through Spanish now.

Because of this a month or so ago I started, very slowly, Italian. My dream/goal has been for many years to be fluent in these 4 languages (EN, RU, IT, ES). I probably shouldn't have started Italian just yet, but the urge was too strong. It's been a dream of mine to understand this language since I was a teenager in Italy, it's just sounds...so...awesome. So that's that.



Russian
- Just started to learn how to write script, which I've never done before. I started a daily journal where I rotate between writing in RU/IT/ES so I want to learn how to write in Russian script. Completing a practice script thing I downloaded online now. It's not too hard honestly. No set goals for my Russian or anything like that.

Spanish
-My main focus right now. I'm 20 hours away from my 500hr goal I set myself 7 months ago, give or take. The hrs are counted as anything to do with Spanish. I haven't missed one day and I'm happy with the results.

-Midway through Book 5 of the Harry Potter series in Spanish, my goal is to finish all 7. All 7 books together have over a million words, and I can really feel now how much easier it is to read compared to when I started 2.5 months ago. Will do a reading re-assessment when I finish all 7 by reading another author and judge from that.

-Audio is now podcasts/audiobooks/movies/anything at all. Just finished 2 Jules Verne audiobooks. Watched "Stranger Things" in Spanish, with no subtitles and was suprisingly easy. Helps that it's dubbed from English and they speak slower. Level still not good enough for native Spanish movies/shows without subtitles. With subtitles level of understanding around 70-95%.

-Goal is to continue reading/watching/speaking every day. Right now I'm averaging 2-4 hours per day of Spanish, continue this rate.

Italian
-One goal is to finish Assimil, which I find boring but I'm gonna power through it and then never look at "Beginner" materials ever again, other than googling grammar points/etc. whenever I have the need to while I'm consuming real Italian. 46/105 lessons in as of today.

-I'm actually getting in 30min or so of input a day now through a fantastic youtube channel, Italy Made Easy. Very good teacher, great "natural" content that I can understand with subtitles and also some good grammar-type classroom setting videos.

-My Italian/English books I ordered came and I'm nibbling away at them until I finish Assimil and then all I'll be doing is reading, reading, reading.

-Way to early to start talking but somehow I already have a Whatsapp friend from Italy, one day we text in English, the next in Italian. I can get by texting throughout the day, but it's pretty hard and I'm on googletranslate a lot. Today is only the 4th day or so. Going by the time-table of my Spanish progress with this (even though then Spanish was my only focus), in 4-6 weeks I'll start to send small voice messages and understand his voice messages, 2-4 months from now I'd like for us to be talking only through voice messages (more or less).

-Goals here will be italki lessons around March, skype convos with non-teachers around May.

General goals:

Doing the full SC's for ES and IT.

Finish translating an article from Italian to Spanish and then back to Italian. Going from Spanish back to Italian is too hard now, and I'm copying 90%. Even so I know this is helping both languages.
3 x
SC: ES : 48 / 100 Books SC: IT : 7 / 100 Books
SC: ES : 38 / 100 Films SC: IT : 16 / 100 Films

User avatar
AK47
White Belt
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 11:32 pm
Location: NY
Languages: English (N) , Russian (N), Spanish (B2), Italian (Beginner)
Language Log: http://www.forum.language-learners.org/ ... =15&t=5242
x 49

Re: AK's Log: [RU,ES,IT] "командовать парадом буду я"

Postby AK47 » Tue Jan 17, 2017 4:31 am

Quick post for a milestone I set for myself...Whoo! Finally got to 500 hours of Spanish, took 7 months. I'm pretty happy with where it's gotten me. I'm gonna keep counting hours to stay on track of an average of 2-3 hours/day.
2 x
SC: ES : 48 / 100 Books SC: IT : 7 / 100 Books
SC: ES : 38 / 100 Films SC: IT : 16 / 100 Films

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MamaPata
Brown Belt
Posts: 1019
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:25 am
Location: London
Languages: English (N), French (C1*), Russian (B1), Spanish (B1).

Long lost: Arabic and Latin.
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3004
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Re: AK's Log: [RU,ES,IT] "командовать парадом буду я"

Postby MamaPata » Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:04 am

Congratulations! That's brilliant!
1 x
Corrections appreciated.

User avatar
AK47
White Belt
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 11:32 pm
Location: NY
Languages: English (N) , Russian (N), Spanish (B2), Italian (Beginner)
Language Log: http://www.forum.language-learners.org/ ... =15&t=5242
x 49

Re: AK's Log: [RU,ES,IT] "командовать парадом буду я"

Postby AK47 » Mon Jan 30, 2017 2:24 am

Italian : Finished Assimil, now onto "native" materials. This was my first time using Assimil and I didn't do it exactly the way you should (I just read, listened, looked up new vocab, and did less and less questions as I moved on) but I liked it. Great for absolute beginners.

Listening - Just started a podcast series on Albert Einstein. 3/17 podcasts in, comprehension - 10-40%.
Reading - Dual-lingual books. Goal will be to finish all 4, on first book now. comprehension - Reading one paragraph English, then It, then another paragraph En, etc.


Spanish

Listening - Just started watching a Colombian series without subtitles which is proving difficult even though I started on episode 40. Comprehension is really low during "slang, gangster, street talk" scenes which is like a different language honestly, lol. Comprehension is mod-high otherwise. Dubbed series with no subtitles are much easier, comprehension relatively high for those now.

Reading - No update with level, on Book 5/7 of Harry Potter.
0 x
SC: ES : 48 / 100 Books SC: IT : 7 / 100 Books
SC: ES : 38 / 100 Films SC: IT : 16 / 100 Films

User avatar
AK47
White Belt
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 11:32 pm
Location: NY
Languages: English (N) , Russian (N), Spanish (B2), Italian (Beginner)
Language Log: http://www.forum.language-learners.org/ ... =15&t=5242
x 49

Re: AK's Log: [RU,ES,IT] "командовать парадом буду я"

Postby AK47 » Mon Feb 13, 2017 2:36 am

Spanish- Finished HP! Took 3.5 months. The improvement in my reading level is amazing. At least from low B1 to mid-high B2. Just starting to read La Somba del Viento now. On track to hit my mini goal of finishing my Colombian series by 3/1, I have 17 episodes left. It's getting a bit easier without subtitles now, I'm still missing things for sure but even the slang is starting to clear up sliiightly.

Oh, and I'm now a believer in huge "floods" of input every once in a while (I've seen it mentioned on this forum somewhere I'm sure). I went on a 5 hour reading marathon finishing HP and noticed, 5 minutes after I finished, I was thinking in Spanish as I was messing around the house. That's the first time it's happened to me. It faded quickly after, but it was a cool moment. Maybe I'll try to do 3-5 hour listening/reading sessions every 2,3 weeks in my languages.

Italian- Still listening to my podcast about Einstein, 10 podcasts in now. My listening comprehension is pretty good considering I'm just 2 months in. After learning Spanish, Italian is very clear, slower, and easier to make out the words. My problem is really just lack of vocabulary, so my focus now is just to keep reading and reading, and listening and listening more. Just finished up my first dual-language book, then I'll go to my next one. Once in a while I make some basic flashcards IT/ES to help get my vocabulary "snowball" going.
0 x
SC: ES : 48 / 100 Books SC: IT : 7 / 100 Books
SC: ES : 38 / 100 Films SC: IT : 16 / 100 Films

User avatar
AK47
White Belt
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 11:32 pm
Location: NY
Languages: English (N) , Russian (N), Spanish (B2), Italian (Beginner)
Language Log: http://www.forum.language-learners.org/ ... =15&t=5242
x 49

Re: AK's Log: [RU,ES,IT] "командовать парадом буду я"

Postby AK47 » Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:37 am

Spanish - Finished the last 23 episodes of Escobar el patron del mal without subtitles. My listening comprehension improved for sure, but still need many more hours of un-subtitled listening.
Reading La Sombra del Viento. Really, really good book, highly recommend it.

Italian- Reading a graded reader, my reading is showing signs of improvement. Reading texts for beginners/intermediates is pretty easy now.
Starting iTalki lessons this Friday, goal is at least one lesson a week for the next many months.

Looking for a few good mystery,crime,mafia,comedy series with subtitles to start watching. I'm having a lot of trouble finding anything with subtitles, if anyone has any recommendations please feel free to recommend me any you've enjoyed.

Russian - Handwriting practice has stalled due to school work/being lazy, but I've been typing now every single day with a friend for a month straight and my texting has definitely gotten much faster.
1 x
SC: ES : 48 / 100 Books SC: IT : 7 / 100 Books
SC: ES : 38 / 100 Films SC: IT : 16 / 100 Films

User avatar
AK47
White Belt
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2017 11:32 pm
Location: NY
Languages: English (N) , Russian (N), Spanish (B2), Italian (Beginner)
Language Log: http://www.forum.language-learners.org/ ... =15&t=5242
x 49

Re: AK's Log: [RU,ES,IT] "командовать парадом буду я"

Postby AK47 » Mon Mar 13, 2017 2:39 am

Spanish- Finished La Sombra del Viento and onto El juego del angel, the 2nd out of 4. I think I'll read all 4 of the series. Finishing el ministerio del tiempo, and after that not sure what I'll watch.

Italian- Started italki sessions, they aren't going that bad. I'll be doing one a week. Also gonna try to find some friends to chat with on whatsapp and skype. Started the new Harry Potter play on my kindle, kinda tough going right now but I'll push through. Also have to finish a graded reader book, after that I'm going to kindle for Italian and not looking back.
Started watching La Piovra, I couldn't find it with subtitles so let's see how much I'll understand...should be fun.
0 x
SC: ES : 48 / 100 Books SC: IT : 7 / 100 Books
SC: ES : 38 / 100 Films SC: IT : 16 / 100 Films


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