Isn't it Romantic? SCMT learns Spanish and French
Posted: Thu May 30, 2019 9:10 pm
Hello all! I’m a 46 year old trying to learn Spanish, and I am starting this log to track my progress and receive any useful feedback from knowledgeable forum members. I live in the US, and my company has operations in the Spanish speaking world, so after a couple of previous false starts I have decided to learn the language to a point where I can have conversations with my professional colleagues and read work documents, news items, and literature in Spanish. I have been actively studying since January, so about 4 or 5 months.
I am on the verge of completing Pimsleur Latin American Spanish, with about 10 lessons left in unit V.
I am working through Assimil’s Spanish with Ease, currently on about unit 35. I have also been playing with scriptorum for past lessons and echoing the audio without text, although I’ve just started, so I’m not sure how effective these techniques are for me.
I try to read something every day, usually whatever article in El Pais catches my eye. I use an online dictionary to help me through readings, and I do them intensively for the first few paragraphs, extensively once that becomes tiring or tedious. I try to list any unknown words that seem important or keep recurring for later study, although I'm still working out that method.
I plan to start tutoring sessions on italki as soon as I finish Pimsleur. I have also dabbled with Spanishpod101 and Madrigal’s Magic Key, mainly for the end of section drills. I’ve looked at FSI but haven’t really engaged in it. I tried Duolingo but did not think it was helping me very much.
I believe reading is ahead of my other skills. I know I need practice producing both speech and writing, and I still have trouble parsing words in spoken Spanish, which requires conscious thought, which gets me behind in conversation. I also understand the verb tenses pretty well but confuse them terribly when producing any of them that require “haber” in any form when speaking. I’m really hoping regular italki sessions will help with these elements.
So thanks to anybody taking an interest in this project, and please feel free to contribute any comments or advice you think might be helpful!
I am on the verge of completing Pimsleur Latin American Spanish, with about 10 lessons left in unit V.
I am working through Assimil’s Spanish with Ease, currently on about unit 35. I have also been playing with scriptorum for past lessons and echoing the audio without text, although I’ve just started, so I’m not sure how effective these techniques are for me.
I try to read something every day, usually whatever article in El Pais catches my eye. I use an online dictionary to help me through readings, and I do them intensively for the first few paragraphs, extensively once that becomes tiring or tedious. I try to list any unknown words that seem important or keep recurring for later study, although I'm still working out that method.
I plan to start tutoring sessions on italki as soon as I finish Pimsleur. I have also dabbled with Spanishpod101 and Madrigal’s Magic Key, mainly for the end of section drills. I’ve looked at FSI but haven’t really engaged in it. I tried Duolingo but did not think it was helping me very much.
I believe reading is ahead of my other skills. I know I need practice producing both speech and writing, and I still have trouble parsing words in spoken Spanish, which requires conscious thought, which gets me behind in conversation. I also understand the verb tenses pretty well but confuse them terribly when producing any of them that require “haber” in any form when speaking. I’m really hoping regular italki sessions will help with these elements.
So thanks to anybody taking an interest in this project, and please feel free to contribute any comments or advice you think might be helpful!