Re: Clara's Spanish Log
Posted: Sat May 01, 2021 5:22 pm
I haven’t updated my log in a while. I ended up needing surgery in March and spent most of April recovering. Most of my goals went out the window, and I’m ok with that. I spent a lot of down time watching series and have had a hard time focusing on reading, but I’m getting back into the swing of things.
Fitness Challenge: This one totally went out the window. I am on medication that is giving me terrible food cravings, and my diet has deteriorated horribly. I’m just glad to be mostly recovered.
365 Day Challenge: Thanks to Anki, binge watching series, online lessons, and my daily conjugation app, I kept up with this and still haven’t missed a day.
Super Challenge / Reading / Listening: I haven’t read any books since my last post, so no progress there, but I did binge watch a lot of Netflix. Over 100 hours in March and 65 hours in April for a total of over 350 hours watched so far. I’ve kept up with reading news articles, but I just haven’t been able to focus on anything longer. Given that I’ve hit 2x the target on the watching portion of the Super Challenge but not even 1x of the reading, I should read more in May.
Anki: Except for one day when I just plain forgot, I have maintained my daily Anki streak. I hit my goal of 10k words (active cards) back in March. I haven’t added any new words since then, and am now spending 20-25 minutes a day compared to 50-55 before. My next goal is 10k mature cards by my one year Anki anniversary in early July. If my calculations are correct, I should learn 20 words per day to reach 10k mature cards by July.
Grammar: I binged Kwiziq and went from 70% to >90% in A2 and B1, and from <40% to >90% in B2 in one weekend. As I suspected, it felt a lot easier this time around, given that I’ve consumed so much more native input. That said, C1 does feel pretty tough, and I think it’d be better to practice some of the concepts I solidified instead of piling on more grammar right away.
Online lessons: I’ve maintained 4-5 hours of conversation practice per week. I’d like to try some new instructors on italki, but I’ll probably hold off. Thanks to my Kwiziq binge, my use of subjunctive has improved noticeably.
It may not sound like it, but I know I've been in a rut. The series I watched were mostly dubs, and I need to take the leap to native shows. The grammar binge was a good step to finally review some points I keep missing, but I know there is a lot of low hanging fruit still. Anki and conversation practice have been on coast mode. I really need to read and write which I've been neglecting. I've been putting in a lot of time, especially watching series, but it hasn't been very efficient or effective for improving my level. I am having fun though.
Fitness Challenge: This one totally went out the window. I am on medication that is giving me terrible food cravings, and my diet has deteriorated horribly. I’m just glad to be mostly recovered.
365 Day Challenge: Thanks to Anki, binge watching series, online lessons, and my daily conjugation app, I kept up with this and still haven’t missed a day.
Super Challenge / Reading / Listening: I haven’t read any books since my last post, so no progress there, but I did binge watch a lot of Netflix. Over 100 hours in March and 65 hours in April for a total of over 350 hours watched so far. I’ve kept up with reading news articles, but I just haven’t been able to focus on anything longer. Given that I’ve hit 2x the target on the watching portion of the Super Challenge but not even 1x of the reading, I should read more in May.
Anki: Except for one day when I just plain forgot, I have maintained my daily Anki streak. I hit my goal of 10k words (active cards) back in March. I haven’t added any new words since then, and am now spending 20-25 minutes a day compared to 50-55 before. My next goal is 10k mature cards by my one year Anki anniversary in early July. If my calculations are correct, I should learn 20 words per day to reach 10k mature cards by July.
Grammar: I binged Kwiziq and went from 70% to >90% in A2 and B1, and from <40% to >90% in B2 in one weekend. As I suspected, it felt a lot easier this time around, given that I’ve consumed so much more native input. That said, C1 does feel pretty tough, and I think it’d be better to practice some of the concepts I solidified instead of piling on more grammar right away.
Online lessons: I’ve maintained 4-5 hours of conversation practice per week. I’d like to try some new instructors on italki, but I’ll probably hold off. Thanks to my Kwiziq binge, my use of subjunctive has improved noticeably.
It may not sound like it, but I know I've been in a rut. The series I watched were mostly dubs, and I need to take the leap to native shows. The grammar binge was a good step to finally review some points I keep missing, but I know there is a lot of low hanging fruit still. Anki and conversation practice have been on coast mode. I really need to read and write which I've been neglecting. I've been putting in a lot of time, especially watching series, but it hasn't been very efficient or effective for improving my level. I am having fun though.