Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French

[SCMT]

3 more italki lessons over the past week. The structured lessons have still focused on imperfect, and when to use it as opposed to preterite. It doesn't seem like this should be an area where I get bogged down, but that is what it has been for me. In conversation lessons, we discussed Casa de Flores episode 10. I am supposed to focus on describing emotions in 11 for the next conversation. Season 2 is supposed to be released soon, which is good. I''m nearing the end of season 1, and I like this resource.

I have read articles in El Pais 3 or 4 times over the past week. In looking at my log from last week, I should go back and finish the fairy tales at fablecottage.com. I have done minimal reading in Con Agua para Chocolate. Maybe I can get some done this weekend, and I really should probably replace most of my newspaper reading with the novel, as it is more challenging and I am having trouble finding time for both.

I have been doing exercises on imperfect in spare moments on spanishdict.com. The exercises are pretty good if i can make myself remember to use accent marks. I have also acquired Gramatica de Uso Espanol B1-B2 but haven't opened it yet. I should find exercises relating to imperfect.

I am on Assimil 92/42. Hopefully I can finish it next week.

In Gold List, I have 43 headlists, 35 1st distillations, 23 2nds, and 12 3rds. I'm still not sold on the method, but it's still a way to list and review new vocab, so I'm still doing it.

[SCMT]

I finished Assimil Spanish with Ease this week, completing all 100 lessons in passive wave and 49 active, as well as going back through every review. I will use the audio in different ways as the mood strikes, but I'm done with the book part of the course. There were things I liked and things I didn't about the course, but overall I'm glad I did it and glad it's over. I will consider Using Spanish at some point, but I'm pretty sure I will use it differently.

Next up is Linguaphone Advanced and Con Agua para Chocolate.. I would like to do a lesson and chapter per week, but i will see how that goes. I'm traveling next week, so I probably won't dive back into the course until I return.

I had 3lessons with tutors, discussing episode 11 if Casa de Flores and practicing past tenses. I also did some reading in El Pais and read Hansel and Gretel and Tres Chivitos at fablecottage. I listened to podcasts from spanishpod and elexplicador for listening practice.

I have 45 gold list headlists, 36 1sts, 26 2nds, 15 3rds.

[SCMT]

I have been traveling quite a bit over the last two weeks, so traditional study has been interrupted. It will probably be erratic through October. I have not restarted Linguaphone Advanced, but I need to do so. I will put it on the list for this weekend.

I have read in El Pais fairly regularly, and I have finished Chapter 3 in Como Agua Para Chocolate. The reading is already much easier, and the book is a bit crazy, which I like a lot. I am trying to pay special attention to past tenses, to make sure that I register imperfect or preterite correctly, but it is still something I have to consciously remember.

I have had 3 lessons over italki during the past two weeks. My structured classes have actually been conversations in past tenses. My conversation class was a review of episode 12 of Casa de Flores. My homework is to write out predictions for each character in the season finale and then compare to what actually happens. Season two drops tomorrow, I think; right on time!

I have played around with GRUDE B1 with a couple of exercises.

Gold List: 47 HL; 39 1sts; 30 2nds; 18 3rds. Probably time to list all of those remaining words in some sort of vocab study method.

[SCMT]

A busy travel schedule hasn't really helped my organized studies lately, but hopefully I can get back in the groove starting this week.

My travel and my tutuors' vacations have brought about a two week hiatus in italki sessions, but I do have two lessons booked for this week.

Reading has been in fits and starts, with concentrated effort followed by periods of no activity. Overall, I have read several articles in El Pais, and I am finished with Chapter 5 in Como Agua Para Chocolate.

I have completed Chapter 7 in Linguaphone Advanced, although I probably need to review the audio chapter 6 again.

I keep a notebook with info i consider to be important from italki sessions. I usually construct this within a day or so of the session, using the notes in skype and my memory to reconstruct salient points. I have let this fall behind, and this break is a good opportunity to review and catch it up. Also, this would be a good chance to go back through Gold List vocab to see what I have retained or lost.

[SCMT]

I got back on the horse this week, returning to something like regular studies.

I had two lessons on italki, one concentrating on pluscuamperfecto, the other practicing past tenses again. I should find exercises related to pluscuamperfecto in GRUDE; it's not a difficult tense, but practice never hurts. The tutor that discusses Casa de Flores is on vacation, so it will be a while before I know if my predictions for the season 1 finale come true!

I reviewed lessons in Linguaphone 2nd through unit 7 and am ready to move on to 8 now.

I have completed chapter 7 in Como Agua para Cholcolate. I also read articles in El Pais several times; I have begun to notice that articles in Spanish that seem interesting to me are not the same articles I would choose in a newspaper written in English. There are sections in El Pais that regularly feature articles on Latin American archaeology, Spanish and Latin American art, and popular science that I don't think I would ever choose in my native language, but in my unscientific method of deciding what looks interesting enough to read in Spanish, often it is in one of those categories.

In my Gold List notebook, I now have 51 headlists, 42 1st distillations, 36 2nds, and 24 3rds. I have started (and by started, I mean I've done 1,) creating new headlists from the 3rd distillations and just sort of rolling the lists forward, so that headlist #50 is actually comprised of the words from the 3rd distillation of lists 1, 2, and 3. It's a modification of the method, but it keeps me from having to keep up with another "silver" notebook. I guess this is the neverending Bronze List method, but I will see how it works. I've also been doing some light reserach in the wiki and Iverson's threads about word lists to try and see if there is a better, deeper way of making vocab lists, but I haven't changed anything yet. Going back through these 3rd lists just reminds me of how many good words I don't yet have at my disposal.

[SCMT]

Encontré el tocado international.

¡Ahora, puedo escribir á, é,ñ, ¡ y ¿ !

[MorkTheFiddle]

Encontré el tocado international.

¡Ahora, puedo escribir á, é,ñ, ¡ y ¿ !

Ta, da!

[SCMT]

I had a week that was, more or less, in keeping with my goals:

--2 lessons on italki, concentrating on prepositions, particularly those that are used differently than English and those that are used in specific circumstances or with specific verbs.

--finished Chapter 8 of Como Agua para Chocolate. I also read several articles in El Pais.

--completed Unidad 8 in Linguaphone 2nd Stage.

--completed all of the exercises in GRUDE on pluscuamperfecto, as well as a couple of others on prepositions. I also did some listening practice, using "El Explicador" podcast.

GL vocab: 54 headlists, 45 1st distillations, 37 2nds, 25 3rds. The headlists include the new "silver" lists, which I'm just going to lump in from now on.

[SCMT]

Last week was fairly typical and on schedule. I had two italki lessons. The first was in the form of a trivia game on Mexican history and culture. Although I have been to Mexico many times, there is a lot of basic information that I just don't know. I would like very much to brush up on the basics of the history of Mexico, important figures in Mexico's past, and the cultural knowledge that everybody in the country probably has but few people who live elsewhere even know exists. Anyway, the lesson was fun and productive, and it gave me another item to put on my "things I would like to find out more about" list, which is reaching mammoth lengths.

The second lesson was interesting for different reasons; my teacher and I discovered a weakness I have in a simple concept, namely changing the indirect pronoun la/le to se before the direct object pronoun lo/la. I understand this concept, but the problem is that I don't do it, either in exercises or speech. There is something about having to come up with the correct pronoun and then convert it that makes my brain quit before the second step. The best part of the lesson was my tutor explaining to me that "You can't say la lo; it sounds funny," to which I replied, "It's Spanish; it all sounds funny to me!" Anyway, time to find the appropriate exercises in GrUdE, I think.

I finished Chapter 9 in Como Agua para Chocolate. I laughed out loud at Rosura asking Tita to cook her something to cure her flatulence so her husband would sleep with her again while Tita might be carrying his baby. I tried to explain this to my wife, but I'm not sure I got it across. It must be funnier in Spanish.

I completed Unidad 10 in Linguaphone 2nd. Unidad 9 was one of the audio lingual chapters, and I breezed through it, so it might be worth revisiting.

I read several articles in El Pais.

I did some work in my Gold List notebook, but I don't have it with me now so I will post my score later.

Edit:. GL= 56 hl, 45 1st, 38 2nd, 26 3rd.

[SCMT]

I had a good week with my Spanish studies, aided by some free time around the US Thanksgiving holiday. I had two italki lessons, mainly concentrating on the use of double pronouns. I did a lot of work around those lessons, completing all of the relevant exercises I could find in both the yellow and blue GrUdE books, as well as on spanishdict.com and some other random sites that google found for me. I haven't mastered the Castillian placement and selection of DO/IO pronouns and am still likely to make mistakes, but I am much better in practice than I was, and I feel a little proud of that.

I am also aware that since my "conversation tutor"has been gone, I am not getting enough listening and conversing practice. That's 1/3 of my Spanish speaking time that isn't happening, plus I'm not watching the show we discuss 2 or 3 times weekly. She will be back some time around Christmas, but I can tell the difference, especially when trying to turn on my Spanish with my main tutor. I'm not going to do anything about it just yet, but I am aware of the shortfall.

I finished chaper 10 of Como Agua Para Chocolate. I have noticed that sometimes I can read it in Spanish and sometimes I have to translate the words in my head into English. I've gotten pretty fast and seemless at doing that, but if a passage is difficult, or if there is new vocabulary, or if there are distractions in the room, or if I am tired, I can't seem to make the words make sense in TL and have to decode them into English (who posted that TL isn't code for English? Sometimes it is ) Anyway, I wish I didn't have to do this, and I wonder if it will naturally diminish over time, but I am aware of it. There was a thread that may or may not have been about the question of translating in your head while reading in the forum, but other than knowing that others share my troubles, I can't say that it helped me.

I completed Unit 11 in Linguaphone Advanced. I like the course, but I'm not getting as much out of the AL exercises as I think I can. I may go back and do them almost as a separate course after I've finished.

I have begun tinkering with bi-directional translation, using Assimil Using Spanish as source material. The plan is to do today's lesson from Spanish to English and yesterday's lesson from English to Spanish, but I will just have to see how the timing works. I know a lot of people like the colloquial language in Assimil, but it might actually get in the way in this case. For instance, the first lesson seems to be about the 52 different ways to use andar. There is common usage, and there is getting into the weeds of the dark corners of the language at the expense of more useful expression, and while I hope to have a general understanding of the first, I hope the book avoids the second.

I listened to perhaps an hour of El Explicador podcast, and I did light reading in El Pais.

Gold List: 59 HL, 47 1sts, 41 2nds, 29 3rds