Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

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luke
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby luke » Fri Nov 12, 2021 11:03 am

philomath wrote:I read an article from Slate France about how Gen Z is bringing back the flip phone ("le téléphone à clapet").

Because of Big Brother (1984), or because there's a new hipster vibe or ?
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Fri Nov 12, 2021 1:49 pm

luke wrote:
philomath wrote:I read an article from Slate France about how Gen Z is bringing back the flip phone ("le téléphone à clapet").

Because of Big Brother (1984), or because there's a new hipster vibe or ?

For the hipster vibe, and also apparently to disconnect from social media.
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A Spanish Speaking Challenge

Postby philomath » Sun Nov 14, 2021 10:52 pm

I mentioned it briefly in this log, but I have most of December off from work and I’d like to do some kind of speaking challenge! I want to see how well I can improve my speaking skills in a short amount of time.

Last week I spent a lot of time thinking about the challenge, even posting elsewhere on the forum to ask for people’s input. The first thing I tried to determine was how much speaking I actually want to do in a month. I’m very introverted; chatting with strangers online is not exactly my idea of a good time. So I don’t want to make my goal too high and make myself miserable. The point of this challenge is to have fun!

The dates of this challenge are December 5 to January 1. I gave each day a rating: 1 if I won’t be busy at all, 2 if I’ll be kind of busy, and 3 if I’ll be very busy. Most of the days are 1s and 2s, but there are some 3s because I’ll be finishing up the course I’m taking for my master’s degree, visiting family for the holidays, etc. (Update: I'll also be going on a business trip for a few days.)

If I speak for two hours on all of the 1 days and one hour on all of the 2 days, that ends up being around 30 hours total over four weeks. That’s a much lower number than I was imagining when I envisioned this challenge, but I think it’s a decent goal given how infrequently I speak my target languages.

Because I want to make as much progress as possible, I’ve decided to just focus on one language: Spanish. I’ve always been ashamed of my poor speaking skills given how long I’ve studied the language, so now’s the time to fix that! I don't want to pause French and Italian; they just won't be part of this speaking challenge.

These are some other things I’d like to include in the challenge:
  • Record myself regularly.
  • Track my mood. Will I start feeling less nervous about speaking Spanish?
  • Write a summary of the day in Spanish.
In addition, I may take the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) afterward to see how well I can speak. Ideally I would take it before and after the challenge, but that would be pretty expensive.

Lastly, I'm planning to do all 30 hours of lessons through Baselang, which offers unlimited Spanish lessons for $150/month. Before the challenge, I'll try out their $1 one-week trial, and if it doesn't look promising, I'll start looking for iTalki tutors instead.

That's the plan so far! I'm really looking forward to it. Also, advice and/or feedback on my plan is welcome. :)
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Wed Nov 17, 2021 2:42 am

12Nov21-16Nov21

Spanish
I read a few articles from El País and Vogue Mexico.

French
I read some articles from Slate France.

Italian
I did Assimil Lessons 6-9 and started Mango Languages Chapter 5. I also listened to the podcasts Italy Made Easy and Con parole nostre.

Thoughts
Lately I've been feeling a little bit lost when it comes to Spanish and French. Maybe it's because I had family visiting over the weekend, which disrupted my language-learning. Or maybe it's because I no longer have a routine for either language since I spend my commute learning Italian now. I'm going to implement the following changes to see if that helps:

  • I need to practice speaking or writing every day.
  • No more making myself finish books just for the sake of finishing them! I'm going to continue reading Cien años de soledad, but I think I'll stop reading Les fiancés de l'hiver. I just find the plot too slow and the main character too unlikeable.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby M23 » Wed Nov 17, 2021 3:49 am

philomath wrote:12Nov21-16Nov21
[*] No more making myself finish books just for the sake of finishing them! I'm going to continue reading Cien años de soledad, but I think I'll stop reading Les fiancés de l'hiver. I just find the plot too slow and the main character too unlikeable.[/list]


Cien años de soledad is quite the step. Granted I haven't seen the steps leading up to it. Is that a book you will be able to read?
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Wed Nov 17, 2021 4:58 am

M23 wrote:Cien años de soledad is quite the step. Granted I haven't seen the steps leading up to it. Is that a book you will be able to read?

It's definitely challenging, but I think it's doable! Especially because I read using the Kindle app, so I can look up words if I get really stuck. I've read around 15% of the book so far.

However, even though I can understand the overall plot, I don't think I'm able to truly appreciate it from a literary perspective. I think it would be useful to watch some lectures in Spanish which analyze the text. Coursera has a course called Leer a Macondo which I may try.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Sat Nov 20, 2021 5:21 am

16Nov21-19Nov21

Spanish
17Nov21: I continued reading Cien años de soledad, but I only read a few pages. I also spent 10 minutes writing about my day and posted it on iTalki.

19Nov21: I listened to the podcast Hablando con científicos during my commute. The episode was about chimpanzees and human evolution. Later, I spent 15 minutes writing about a fun event that happened at work.

French
18Nov21: I read part of an article from Slate France, which discussed COVID transmission via aerosols. It took me 20 minutes to read the first half of the article. Later, I started reading La familia grande by Camille Kouchner. (It is written in French, even though the title is in Spanish.) I also wrote a little bit in French about the article and the book.

Italian
16Nov21: I watched the movie Sul Più Bello on Netflix. It was entertaining, but overall I was not a fan. I watched it using the Language Reactor extension and wrote down useful phrases.

17Nov21: During my commute, I listened to another episode of Italy Made Easy and continued doing Mango Languages Chapter 5. After work, I did Assimil Lesson 10. I also made more Anki flashcards and wrote the following paragraph.

Oggi mi sono svegliata alle sette del mattino, ho bevuto un caffè, e mi sono vestita. A Boston fa un po’ freddo, quindi ho indossato un cappello. Dopo ho preso il treno per andare al lavoro. Sono un ingegnere e lavoro per una società farmaceutica. Più tardi, sono tornata a casa e ho studiato l’italiano. Mi piace molto questa lingua!


19Nov21: I did Assimil Lesson 11. I'm enjoying Assimil so far! I'm glad I gave it another chance after trying it in 2015.
Last edited by philomath on Tue Nov 23, 2021 7:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Sun Nov 21, 2021 10:09 pm

French
20Nov21: I watched a couple of YouTube videos and practiced speaking for 10 minutes. Finally, I tried shadowing the InnerFrench podcast for 10 minutes. At first, I paused the audio after each sentence in order to repeat what was said. After a few minutes, I switched to speaking at the same time as the audio while reading the transcript. I thought it was a really helpful exercise, and I plan to do it again!

Italian
20Nov21: I listened to two episodes of Con parole nostre and watched the first episode of the Netflix show Baby. Then I did Assimil Lesson 12 and Pimsleur Lesson 5.

21Nov21: I had my first iTalki lesson in Italian! It was one hour long, and the teacher spoke in Italian the whole time. He asked me questions about my life, why I'm learning Italian, etc. I tried to answer in Italian as best as I could, but I didn't know how to say much. He took notes in a Google doc, and after the lesson I made Anki flashcards for all of the sentences.

I learned a lot, but I think I'll study more on my own before taking another lesson. I need to learn more grammar (especially verb forms) and a lot more vocabulary. I'm glad I had this lesson because it showed me what I should work on.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:23 am

Spanish
22Nov21: I finished reading another chapter of Cien años de soledad, and then I wrote a short paragraph about what I read. I also watched the introductory video to Coursera's Leer a Macondo course.

French
23Nov21: I reread Chapter 1 of La familia grande while listening to the audiobook. Since I'd already read the chapter once, I tried to focus on the narrator's pronunciation this time. I also wrote for 15 minutes and posted my writing on iTalki.

Italian
22Nov21: I made a bunch of Anki flashcards for the most common Italian verbs. I also started doing some conjugation quizzes that I found online.

24Nov21: I did Assimil Lessons 13-14.

25Nov21: I read Chapter 2 of Soluzioni! : A Practical Guide to Italian Grammar, which was about articles. I did a few of the exercises, but I didn't worry about learning every single thing in the chapter.

I was visiting family from 24Nov21 to 27Nov21, so I didn't have a lot of time for my languages. Hopefully tomorrow I'll start regaining my momentum.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Wed Dec 01, 2021 4:32 am

November Recap

Spanish: 6.7 hours
  • Listening: 74%
  • Speaking: 3%
  • Reading: 15%
  • Writing: 9%
  • Other: 0%

French: 5.9 hours
  • Listening: 31%
  • Speaking: 25%
  • Reading: 32%
  • Writing: 7%
  • Other: 4%

Italian: 19.1 hours
  • Listening: 34%
  • Speaking: 5%
  • Reading: 0%
  • Writing: 3%
  • Other: 59%
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