James29 wrote:Last week I was traveling but I kept up with my Spanish. I feel like I've already started on my Spanish goals for 2017. I really want/need to boost my Spanish up a level. I am quite pleased with my Spanish and never really dreamed of being able to use the language for so many things. For the first few years of my Spanish journey my goals were to be able to read adult level books and have meaningful conversations at what would roughly be the B2-ish level. I can say I have definitely met and exceeded those goals.
My Spanish is acceptable for what I need. I want to use my Spanish for business purposes and be able to feel like I can completely dominate the language in the sphere of my business. I don't think I can do that right now. I can certainly conduct all aspects of business in Spanish, but I'd say I am at the lowest level of dominating Spanish for business purposes. I have quit French because improving my Spanish is really my top priority and will really be beneficial for me in the long-term. So, manos a la obra!
What do I need? Well, I need to get from what I guess is a low C1-ish level to a comfortable level where I can dominate the language and have little difficulty when I speak with a new customer. My customers often have little education and they often have terrible cell phone connections. They are emotional and excited. They can be from any part of the Spanish speaking world so the accents are often very new to me. All of these things creates a perfect storm of difficulty for understanding them.
This past week I had a number of conversations with some of my current Spanish speaking customers. I definitely miss some things in the conversations. This is not good. I need to improve my receptive skills for these types of conversations. I also sometimes struggle with saying things I have never said before. Talking through hypothetical situations with new vocabulary is difficult. I need to use my "study" time to get a ton of input and simply get more comfortable with the language so it becomes second nature. The more advanced I get I am noticing something of a "sixth sense" that allows me to understand things even when I don't "understand" them. It is hard to explain. Somehow I have been able to pick up on patterns or uses of the language in my subconscious brain and I am able to understand just by feel.
For the first time I am feeling like my speaking skills need some focused work. I've always felt if I really focus on the receptive skills that the output skills would naturally follow. I think that is true, but I need to help the active skills along. I am getting tongue tied too often. My Spanish flows wonderfully when I am having a one on one conversation or if I am at the weekly meetup. But, if I am speaking about a new topic or with a new customer I often get tongue tied and have to "talk around" subjects in ways that are a bit cumbersome. I have not worked actively on producing Spanish for years.
My top priorities in life do not include Spanish. Family, work and my health are much more important. I see Spanish as a sub-set of of my work right now. It is a long-term investment. It also helps me stay sane... especially when I am stressed out... so it helps with my health side of things.
I am going to try to fit Spanish into my life as best as possible so my goals for 2017 are not really set in stone. I am going to be doing quite a bit of treadmill running for the next few months and I am going to take advantage of that to watch TV in Spanish. My hope is that I can easily get through 100 hours of watching TV in Spanish while running on the treadmill. Right now it is working fine. I am just watching TV shows I have on DVD. Soon I'll probably get netflix and start in on a telenovela. Celia is on my short list as I really want to focus on the Caribbean accents, if possible.
Reading is doing wonders for my comfort in the language. I read quite a bit in Spanish. The kindle is great. My speed is improving too. Right now I'm working on the first Jack Reacher book. I'm about 27% done and that is just in the last several days. I think I can read 2 million words before the end of 2017. When possible I'm going to "read" books with audio as I think that is helping more than just reading on my kindle. 2 million words is pretty ambitious for me and it will require me to improve my reading speed. I'll really start focusing on reading during the summer. For some reason I read much more in the summer.
I have the wonderful habit of listening to the VOA news every morning on the way to work. I have probably been doing that for a year and a half or so now. It is not going to stop. I really like it and it is super easy. I will keep doing this through 2017.
I definitely need to do some active out put and grammar studying. I have the C level grammar book that I have been eyeing for quite a while. I absolutely loved the B level book and the C level book is set up the same. I'll get it done in 2017. I'll probably start in on it when I am done with treadmill running. We'll see. Maybe I'll just work through it periodically as I feel like it. I definitely need to do it. I think it will really help boost my Spanish.
I will continue to go to meetups too. That is just for fun now.
I thought about hiring an online tutor. I have decided not to. There is something appealing about studying at an advanced level and not spending any money to do so. Eventually I'd like to hire a tutor, but I'd like to press my level a bit more. A tutor might be in store for 2018. We'll see.
So, my goals for 2017 are:
1) Watch 100 one hour TV episodes in Spanish (45 minutes without commercials)
2) Read 2 million words in Spanish novels
3) Complete the C level Spanish grammar book
4) Listen to the news (or something) every day on the way to work
In terms of this past week or so, I've been doing ok. I've been watching TV while running and I've been reading Jack Reacher. I am happy I found the Reacher series. He seems like a good character that I'll be able to read for a while. It only looks like there are five books translated into Spanish.
Well, I am motivated to push my Spanish to the next level. Here comes 2017.
Sorry for quoting this whole section, but I really like what you are doing and how you are progressing.
A few questions:
How do you measure how many words you read? I normally read with my kindle and think it would be cool to say: this year I finally read x amount of words.
Has running with the TV been working for you? I think I mentioned to you before that I'm not a particularly good runner (yet). I'm a bit out of shape but have an athletic body type and can get back on track pretty soon. I've noticed that with my audiobook (that we talked about before) I can really focus when I'm doing an easy run. On a tougher run I can still focus (to get my mind off the pain) but it can be hard. Can't wait for the day when I can run 5 miles again and consider it "fun" rather than a workout. I think this is when the podcasts and audiobooks will really be helpful....I'm sure you already have that level of running. I figure that the telenovelas will help you out a ton!
In a previous log of mine I mentioned that the VOA news in the morning was sort of unappealing to me. I found myself losing focus for some reason, which I attributed to news stories that I wasn't particularly interested in. The truth is, the show is relatively short and I think there is some need for me to force myself to listen to things that I may not find 100% fun and entertaining (although I do enjoy 85% of the show). What I'm getting at here is that you just motivated me to start listening to the news again. At the very least it will serve as that ONE thing I do EVERYDAY no matter what. So thanks!
Congratulations on everything, it seems like you are progressing at a great pace. I feel like we have similar levels in Spanish so it's always cool to see your posts or look at your log to see how things are going for you. I wish you the best of luck coming into the new year.