Sooniye's log for Spanish and wanderlust

[Sooniye]

I have been hesitating to start up a new log on this new forum. Not because I don't want to, but because I am scared I might face another burn-out. Last time I started a log was for 2015 TAC and I was SUPER excited. Albeit a bit too excited. I am suffering from bipolar disorder and I was at a high during the time of TAC planning and starting out. After a while I plunged into depression and have been struggling to keep my head above surface all year since then. Language learning has sadly not been on the table for most of the year due to this. I am hoping to be in a "normal"-state now, eg. able to make actual plans that have a chance to withstand even the bad days.

Enough about all this. Time for the log itself and my plans. My main focus will be Spanish. I will also endulge in wanderlust from time to time. Some of the projects will be more serious and long-term and others will be more of the flirting kind.

Spanish: I think I might be a high A2 or a passive B1. I am aiming for B2 of course, and my main goal is to be able to read without much effort and watch movies and TV in Spanish. I am participating in the Super Challenge and I feel that it has done wonders to my listening skills. Sadly I have not been able to read as much as I have wanted to, but as with watching TV I plan to keep doing reading even after the challenge ends.

I am doing - next to reading novels and watching TV - a complete repition of all I already have learned and hoping to make it stick even more. I am using Assimil for overall learning, Duolingo for translation and Memrise for vocabulary. I have also recently started using a grammar, "Gramática de uso del español".

As for now I don't have any specific deadlines or so, I just keep working and do what suits me for the day being. Some days I only manage to watch TV or read a bit, but I have come to realise that it is okay. As long as I do something, I will eventually get there. And the road there is filled with so much fun, so maybe it does not even matter how long it will take to reach my long term goal.

[Sooniye]

Not much new to report. I've finally finished the Spanish tree on Duolingo. Now I will use Duolingo a lot more laid-back. I will focus more on vocabulary and grammar now. And continue to watch my guilty pleasure-Telenovelas.

A bit about my other projects. I am trying out, perhaps flirting with would be more accurate, French at the moment. I have this old textbook for Swedes learning French. It is on a very basic level. I think that after completing the book you may have reached a solid A1, at most. So it is not advanced at all. I am about halfway through the book. I find that I understand a lot, thanks to English and Spanish. I think I may want to continue studying French in a more serious way, but I have not decided yet. I have always wanted to learn French, but then I met Spanish and well...

And then there is Croatian, but at the moment I am taking a long break from it. I have not felt any passion for it for a while, more the feeling that I should learn it because it would be convenient. I think I need to find some good Serbo-Croatian music to get my passion up again!

[Brun Ugle]

Yeah, sometimes TAC gets a little out of control.

I'm bipolar too (and autistic) and I've sometimes disappeared from the forum for months or even years dealing with it. So I know how that is. I'm doing the 6WC right now, but I'm trying not to let myself get too obsessed or excited.

I'm also studying Spanish. I'm using FSI. I did Duolingo, but I didn't think much of their Spanish course, especially the second half of it. I heard a rumor about some improvements though, so maybe I should have a look. Gramática de uso del español is very useful. There are a few mistakes now and then in the answer key, but usually that's easy enough to spot. I'm around lesson 80 of the first book now.