I was able to exceed my goals for conversation practice this week due to a long conversation with one of my regular practice partners and her mother. I felt pretty good about my ability to understand Spanish spoken with a very strong Catalan accent – my practice partner had to help me out once in a while but sometimes that was due to her mother forgetting to speak in Castellano instead of Catalan. I did notice that my stamina for speaking in Spanish is still low. I think that the quality of my spoken Spanish starts to decrease a lot after 40-45 minutes. Usually my partners and I alternate languages every 30 minutes so I don’t have a problem, but I found that 1 hour of uninterrupted conversation in Spanish to be draining. Hopefully, I will see an improvement in my stamina over the next year.
I am up to episode 11 for the Argentine telenovela Lalola but have been throwing in episodes of shows from other countries to provide some variety. Los misterios de Laura, a non-geoblocked show from RTVE, is entertaining as is Vecinos from Mexico. I have also watched a few documentary/news magazine type shows from WIPR in Puerto Rico. I find the Peninsular and Rioplatense Spanish accents easy to understand but I find some of the Puerto Rican speakers very difficult to understand. The greater the number of consonants that get dropped, the more difficult it is for me to understand. I guess that means a lot more Puerto Rican television watching in my future.
My learning goals for the upcoming week are the following:
- 1. Continue to study Gramática de uso del español B1-B2.
2. Attempt to study my Anki vocabulary deck at least 3 times. I should do more, but Anki is the first thing to go when I run out of time.
3. Write an entry to post on Italki for correction.
4. Listen intensively to at least two new podcasts.
5. Watch at least 4 episodes of television in Spanish.
6. Finish listening to the Harry Potter I audiobook and start on the one for Harry Potter 2.
7. Read an average of 15 pages a day. If I finish Harry Potter 2, continue with Harry Potter 3.
8. I hope to do at least 1 hour of Spanish conversation over the next week with my language exchange partners.