Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
Le Baron
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3511
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:14 pm
Location: Koude kikkerland
Languages: English (N), fr, nl, de, eo, Sranantongo,
Maintaining: es, swahili.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18796
x 9390

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby Le Baron » Mon Jul 18, 2022 2:59 pm

Is this the patient version of: 'don't nitpick'? :)
1 x

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Aug 03, 2022 1:07 am

Back in Black
Had a bout with that bug that's been going about. It was the sickest I've been in quite a while. I'm better now.

On the way to visit family, I listened to El coronel no tiene quien le escriba from el Camino a Macondo. While there and on the way back, listened to some short stories.

Heard some podcasts and read some Gramática de uso del español lessons during the visit.

: 75 / 101 Count von counting Ruzzarin, César H., Tri-Line, el hilo
: 47 / 116 Gramática de uso del español

Back into focus
I currently have three tracks on my favorite novel:

: 42 / 124 Cien años de soledad (13x)

The bar above is now counting the intensive read fragments. Other tracks are a new "fragment while walking" and our old friend Anki, which just got tamed again after the vacation break:

2022-08-02_100_repasos.png


Tomorrow, Cien años de soledad card count goes down to 35, which is a final small spike. Now we're down to just 600 cards per month instead of the previously stubborn 1000+ cards for this deck.

2022-08-02 cien_prognostico.png

The average interval is now 91 days per card. :)

Assimil jumps into the bathroom slot
: 17 / 60 Assimil Using Spanish

It's all a lot of stuff
I also have three little tracks of FSI going. Anki, early units on the USB, and Live Lingua drills from Volume 4 (of 4).

Steve's post that mentions, "I tend to use 3 general combinations of methods once I get to a somewhat familiar level." rung familiar with me. He may have been talking about a serial approach. Right now, I have some simultaneous three-ways underway.

My work-work will be ramping up soon, so I'm trying to squeeze in a grand consolidation. I seem to have put a lot on my plate once again. Hopefully we'll see things get accomplished and the Pyramids of Giza begin to take form on the horizon.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
9 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:17 pm

The belles of the ball
There has been some exciting discussion in StringerBell's log on extensive reading. I feel StringerBell. Although our methods are different, I've been getting a lot of satisfaction from my intensive read of Cien años de soledad.

: 76 / 124 Cien años de soledad (13x)

That's a convenient place to drop in the progress bar. What it means at the moment is that the intensive read of the parallel text I've been working on has completed chapter 1-13 of 20. That's also where my Anki intensive vocab gathering left off several weeks ago. I've added more words to the Anki deck since then, but they've all come from earlier chapters. What we see below is cards added during the last 90 days. These have all been "cleanup" from chapters 1-13:

20220817_cien_anyadidas.png

That's not a lot of "adds" over the last 3 months. Chapter 13 got more than most, as it was where the previous grind got grounded.

I'm taking a week away to visit my sister. When I get back, I get to start chapter 14 and we'll be back to adding lots of cards then. Not sure right now if I'll just plow through or set a limit like "only add 6 cards per day". I'll decide when I get back.

Extensive listening
Podcasts will come off my progress bars for a while. They are great when I'm working on the "5000 most frequent word" decks, but as mentioned above, I've got my work cut out for me with the remainder of Cien años de soledad.

: 101 / 101 Count von counting Ruzzarin, César H., Tri-Line, el hilo, Juan Villoro

Other stuff
Gramática de uso del español has been pleasant so far. I'm only doing the single "teaching" page, not the exercises on the facing page. My goal for the moment is just to get through the teaching part, understand better the layout of the book, maybe learn something, etc.

: 74 / 116 Gramática de uso del español

Assimil Using Spanish
Good old Assimil Using Spanish from 1996 is coming with me on the trip. I won't have the recordings, but I can do some further familiarization on the upcoming lessons.

: 45 / 60 Assimil Using Spanish

One thing that has been making this run pleasant is that the cultural lessons are sprinkled thoughout. Lessons on autonomous communities, authors, movie-maker Luis Buñel, painter Goya, etc are made richer using Wikipedia, image sites, and YouTube. The more finite lessons, like dialogues, or special verb focus don't lure me into a bottomless rabbit hole. That's helping me make regular progress on this run.

Back to intensive/extensive reading
A bird will carry me to my destination for the staycation with my sister. I'd been thinking, "what should I bring for the plane ride"? It's too short to get in 500 hours of extensive reading, and I am excited to try a big, extensive goal like that sometime during my Spanish sojourn, but today will not be a 500 hour day.

I'll bring 3 books. Using Spanish, El escándalo del siglo, and our old friend, Cien años de soledad, which I can start at chapter 14, as prep for Anki going into overdrive a la vuelta.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
8 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Fri Aug 26, 2022 12:29 am

Back so soon?
I returned from a week away visiting my sister yesterday. Some of this won't look like a lot of progress, but the bars will help focus our discussion:

What did you do with Gabo?
I very happily read chapters 14-20 of Cien años de soledad. Usually, I listened to the audio while reading. A lot of this was on the plane trips. Some was just lying in bed or sitting around.

: 76 / 124 Cien años de soledad (13x)

That bar didn't change, as it's tracking the about to start back up intensive read and anki card aquisition.

Some stats from Anki. The average card interval days for the Cien deck is now 101, which is up 10 from earlier this month. I added 96 cards in the last 30 days.

Below is the "collection of all decks" review counts for the last 90 days. You can see my 18 days away to visit my brother and mother and the 6 days away to visit to sis. Tomorrow, the reviews will be back to normal, which I expect to be under 30 minutes.

20220825 collection_90day_reviews.png

Note that the gods of numeracy have blessed the number of reviews (repasos) with an attractive value.

What do you want, good grammar or good taste?
That's a slogan from an old, well, you can see here:
Image

I did about a teaching lesson each day I was away:
: 83 / 116 Gramática de uso del español

Assimil assimilated me
I did the planned "study ahead" of lessons 46-60 during the stayca. I've just reset the bar back to reflect my intention to go through those lessons with the audio, etc, now that I'm back home:
: 50 / 60 Assimil Using Spanish

I also read through the grammar/verb review at the end of the book for the first time. It's pretty good.

Today an idea came to me for a new approach to a future review of Using Spanish. Each 7th lesson is a review, grammarish lesson, as is typical of Assimil. The sixth lesson in this course sometimes does a vocabulary recap of terms introduced in the preceding lessons. What's this new idea on how to review Using Spanish?

Start with that 7th lesson. Watch for the language features it reviews as you go through the previous lessons. Do that with the 6th lesson vocabulary as well. Basically, do each lesson week backwards.

What's up with your walks?
If you negate the agility fail a couple weeks ago, todo va bien. Reviewing early FSI lessons on the way to the walkway. Each walk generally has 2-3 components. FSI drills from volume 4 (of 4), Cien años de soledad or an occasional podcast. Basically, I'm doing some "backfills". Down the road, FSI may end up in a progress bars again.

You had some other idea or insight, right?
It came to me that one can conceptualize using a particular material in a variety of difficulty levels. Familiarization, skill building, mastery, etc. It's not so much the "difficulty level" that I think is important here, but rather allowing yourself to have varied goals, sometimes simple, sometimes more lofty, with the same material. I'm not saying this is good for everyone, but when the material is good or great, why not milk it for all it's worth?

This is probably only pleasant or effective for someone who's listened to a song they like 500 times or more on purpose. :mrgreen:
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
11 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Sep 04, 2022 12:01 am

It's half past 4 and I'm shiftin' gears
Cien años de soledad has 20 chapters. Half of that is 10. 10 + 4 = 14. I'm just wrapping up my chapter 14 intensive study.



: 85 / 124 Cien años de soledad (13x)
: 96 / 116 Gramática de uso del español
: 60 / 60 Assimil Using Spanish

So what are you learning?
Four months ago I speculated on how many cards will end up in luke's Anki deck for Cien años de soledad? We don't know the answer yet, because that hypothesizing was about when I finish, and I'm 70% into it. From where I'm at today, the 4th speculation seems like it may be the one:
luke wrote:4) More than 2500. I like sentence cards. The later part of the book has the longest sentences. I won't be able to control myself.


How much trouble are you in?
Before we check if any trouble is brewing, let's just look at one amazing card that got created today:
la_abrasO.png

What makes you think that is special?
abrazar = to hug
abrasar = to burn

Gabriel Garcia Márquez' mastery in this novel continues to reveal itself every day. This is in the context of Meme's feelings for Mauricio Babilonia. I'm not one to want to give away too much of the story, and that's silly, because es inagotable, but this sentence has made me happy today.

Earlier we saw where Mauricio met Meme's Mother:
mauricio_meets_fernanda.png

You were talking about trouble though. Let me guess, the Anki forecast?
I'm doing something sort of new with the chapter fragments. There are about 6-7 fragments per chapter. Basically, in the morning I read the next fragment and make cards for anything I want. The following day is the next fragment. Later in the day, I re-read the previous fragment and if I want to make more cards, I do so.

What's so good about that?
Anki cards have 2 sides. On day 2, I see "the other side" of the card. I also read that fragment for the second time later in the day.

Anything else?
Yes. At the end of the chapter, I'm going through each chapter and fragment again. If I make more cards, fine, but I've been pretty thorough in the 1st and 2nd times through. Oh, and this fits in with Anki reviews. It takes about a week to do a chapter this way. By that time, the Anki cards I made in the earlier fragments have come up for a couple of reviews. The "end of the week" read should be the easiest and also the most fullfilling. It should also be a period during which very few cards are created.

Any other ideas, Einstein?
Audible.com has a 36+ hour version of Don Quijote de la Mancha Puesto en castellano actual íntegra y fielmente por Andrés Trapiello. I listened to the sample and it sounds good and pretty easy. Now, I've read various versions of that first chapter several times, so it should be fairly easy.

Here I'm thinking if Anki bogs me down again, I can bring in this Don Quijote, which jives with my long-term goals and will also create a time space for Cien años de anki to settle down.

One last chart
20220903_anyadidas_cien_vida.png

And?
There are 130 days between days -245 and -115. That's when a lot of chapters 1-13 were put in Anki. The burst at the very beginning came from all 20 chapters. The last two bars on the right-hand side are chapter 14.

For those who like math and think it can aid in predictions: 1880 cards / 70% complete = 2685 cards predicted at end of the odyssey.

I'm hoping to finish up Anki intensive on Cien años de soledad this year. It has been taking longer than I anticipated, but overall, it's been rewarding.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
10 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Sep 11, 2022 11:21 pm

How is everything going in your house?
I have a lot going on, but I've had good focus.

One of Gabo's favorite novels is:
: 2 / 7 El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (4x)

This past week I read it for the first time. Before, I was listening to the audiobook.

I've been highlighting unknown words and making vocab notes in an e-text.

And modern Don Quijote?
: 10 / 133 Don Quijote Puesto en castellano actual íntegra y fielmente por Andrés Trapiello

The modern Don Quijote in Spanish from Audible is good, but I plan to save it for later.

Another progress bar is getting ripe, isn't it?
: 113 / 116 Gramática de uso del español

The "read the teaching page" in Gramática de uso del español is almost complete. The initial "familiarization" phase has taught me a few things, but mostly it's been understanding the format of the book and deciding how I might put it to more use down the road.

And FSI?
I'm into unit 22 (of 55) where I'm lightly studying the early lessons on my way to walks. I've been keeping anything that is the least bit challenging on the memory stick for later study.

The walk and CD in the bathroom tracks are into unit 50 now. (Units 45-55 on this track).

Do you have a pretty picture for me?
I like this interpretation of Arcadio Buendia facing the firing squad as painted by Kandinsky:

arcadio_buendia_facing_the_firing_squad_as_painted_by_kandinsky.jpg

My "listen to fragments while on a walk" passed the "intensive Anki wave". I'm tracking the faster wave now:
: 106 / 124 Cien años de soledad (13x)

Below is a 90 day forecast for the Cien años de soledad deck. Note the number of cards per day declines a lot through the 90 days. That means there will be room for new cards as time goes on.
20220911_cien_prognostico.png

Above we see there will be about 40 cards per day for the next 10 days.

We can put that in context of the recent past by looking at a graph below of the last 30 days of reviews. The orange bars for new cards are shorter on the right of the chart. That means I've been creating less cards for the last few days:
20220911_cien_rapasos.png

Above, we see that recently the number of cards per day was about 60, which is about 30 minutes per day for this deck. With 40 cards per day in the forecast, I hope to be okay to begin adding another chapter intensively in the next day or two.

What's up with that Anki 7 day follow-up wave?
This past week the follow-up wave has been a fragment in the morning and the next fragment in the afternoon. The following day, I go back one fragment, to the one done the previous afternoon. Chapter 14 had 9 fragments. The follow-up week lets me add any missing cards and also lets the cards from the previous week start to mature.

You can see the orange bars are smaller for the last 7 days or so. That's because I'm adding fewer cards during this "follow-up" wave.

Here's a card that covers a grammar point I hadn't previously been aware of:
para_y_duracion.png

Finally?
The Camino a Macondo, stories about Macondo and some characters from Cien años de soledad has been fitting in well this past week. I see better how it supports the whole goal and provides extra insights. Tonight is Un día después del sábado, which is a story of Rebeca Buendia y el Judeo Errante. They were threads in the Cien años de soledad fragments I listened to on my walks today.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
7 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Sep 13, 2022 5:40 pm

Breaking News
This sounds like the start of an exciting PeterMollenburg post.

Instead of moving right into chapter 15, as I planned in the previous post, it came on me today that the Cien años de soledad reviews still look pretty formidable when seen in the context of the last nine months:
20220913_cien_repasos_todos.png

The bars on the right are almost as tall as those in the middle, when the project was becoming daunting.

For several days, I've been getting up in the middle of the night and working through a few Anki cards. That's an indicator that I'm already in trouble. You can see that here in the hourly study distribution:
20220914_cien_distribution.png

If we looked at the whole year, we wouldn't see so much study time before 5am.

: 116 / 116 Gramática de uso del español

I have enough fragments in my "take a walk on the wild side" listen/shadow to last a few more days:
: 113 / 124 Cien años de soledad (13x)

Looking at the deck's full forecast, it will be about 20 days before there's a precipitous drop in reviews.
20220913_cien_full_forecast.png

What will you fill the time with?
I'm enjoying coming to understand better the coronel who led the mule by the cabestro into the carpa remendada to deliver el oro de la Guerra de los Mil Días in the Treaty of Neerlandia:
: 4 / 7 El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (4x)

About six months ago, in March, I listened to it twice.

These last several days, I'm reading and re-reading the story, making vocabulary notes, etc. I listened to some Rafael Escalona songs for background, etc:


By the time I finish this next read in a few days, I'll be ready to start using the audiobook again for walks. It will be a good idea to glance at my vocabulary notes beforehand and use that "night and day" double listen I did six months ago:

1 | 1, 2 | 2, 3 | 3, 4 | ... | 7

I'm thinking that will give me about a 10 day breather before I return to the Battle of Anki.

Maybe I can find another delay tactic after the one above to carry me out a bit further.

It crossed my mind that the "Don Quijote in Modern Spanish" was an omen that I need more time to finish 100 Years of Solitude. It also came on me that returning to the Camino a Macondo will fill the bill.

In other news
Gramática de uso del español comes off my to-do list for a while.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
4 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Sep 20, 2022 2:09 pm

It's getting bumpy
It came on me in looking at the Anki decks where I've been adding new cards when the daily time spent is below a threshold, that I could do the same with our old friend, Cien años de soledad . I've just started approach. On the right of the chart, you can see there were a lot of cards added when I did the first fragment of chapter 15 (of 20):
20220920 cien_repasos_30.png

I'll move on to the next fragment when the "time spent" for the deck has a low day.

: 86 / 124 Cien años de soledad (14x)

No one writes to the Colonel
El coronel no tiene quien le escriba is starting to come together nicely. I'm currently in a read-only pass.
: 1 / 7 El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (8x)

And there's a leaf storm
I started listening to La hojarasca this morning. It's been a long time.

: 2 / 12 La hojarasca (3x)

FSI can be bumpy too
This is the FSI deck 30 day review chart. It is also "bumpy", meaning I'm doing new cards (the orange bars) when the time I put into the deck is low. That way, overall, the time commitment each day is pretty even, even if the number of "new" cards varies. Notice I checked the "Tiempo" (Time) box:
20220920 fsi_repasos_30.png

: 24 / 45 FSI early drill fill
: 5 / 10 FSI volume 4 review
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
6 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Sep 25, 2022 11:16 pm

Mixing it up
This past week, I was reading No one writes to the Colonel while listening to El coronel no tiene quien le escriba. I think that was a helpful change-up.
: 7 / 7 El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (9x)

Hay una película en YouTube:


I watched it. The story is a little different. Salma Hayak shows up as the girlfriend of the Colonel's deceased son. I don't recall any mention of her in the book. I think I'll watch it again in a few weeks.

The leaf storm has been blowing
I have the audiobook in both English and Spanish. I've been listening to a chapter in English and then in Spanish on my walks.
: 11 / 12 La hojarasca (3x)

The story is told from the perspective of three different characters. The audiobooks are good. I particularly enjoyed the voices of the Colonel and Isabel in the English version.

I'll listen to the last chapter in Spanish tomorrow during my morning walk.

I'm planning to listen to the English while reading the Spanish at home in the coming week.

There are some characters in La hojarasca who are in other stories as well as Cien años de soledad. As I was walking and listening this week, I thought about Lord of the Rings, which is not only a trilogy with the Hobbit as a predecessor, but apendices and other writings providing a coherent view of Middle Earth. Gabriel García Márquez does not constrain himself with consistency between various Macondonian writings, but there are anecdotes, characters, and stories that cross paths. For me, this is both mysterious and attractive. Like La hojarasca, it's as if there is a collective that tells the stories, and each narrator has a unique perspective.

The most proximate story to La hojarasca may be Monólogo de Isabel viendo llover en Macondo, a short story first published in 1955 in the magazine, Mito. I want to listen to it during my walk this morning.

Not doing the same thing over and over
There's a maxim about insanity, that it is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I introduced an Iversen inspired trick to learning some difficult vocabulary this week. Many months ago, I started writing out Anki words from Cien años. I brought some of those pieces of paper along with me on errands and circled difficult words while waiting in line, etc.

Iversen has his 3-column technique for learning words. I put about 6-7 of the challenging words in one column, a very short definition in the next, and then folded the paper for later back and forward reviews.
: 87 / 124 Cien años de soledad (14x)
: 26 / 45 FSI early drill fill
: 5 / 10 FSI volume 4 review

Podcasts on deck
I plan to do podcasts for the next few days during walks to change things up.
7 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:55 pm

Feels like progress
I feel like I'm making good progress. I have a couple thoughts about that notion:
1) Maybe I'm actually making progress.
2) When things that were once difficult are now easier, it feels like progress. :shock:

One component of that sense of progress came from a run and a half through La hojarasca:
: 9 / 12 La hojarasca (5x)

A week ago I was finishing up listening to the audiobook in English and Spanish. During this past week I listened to it in English while I read it in Spanish. Now I'm listening to it on my walks and is more comprehensible and interesting than ever before.

Completed a listen track
: 17 / 17 Relato de un náufrago

Relato de un náufrago is a new Gabo work for me. Originally it was a 3 week series of newspaper articles. Later it was published as a novella. It's about 3 1/2 hours of audio. One thing I like about it is the chapters are consistently about 15 minutes long. This is a nice bite sized chunk during a walk.

I may be getting saturated now on El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, or maybe other tracks are more captivating at the moment. This past week I've been listening in Spanish and reading in Spanish:
: 6 / 9 El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (10x)

FSI progress
Brushing up on these two tracks. It's nice to see a little progress each day. The progress bars don't move fast because there are a lot of drills for each "notch" in the progress belt:
: 27 / 45 FSI 1-45 review
: 6 / 10 FSI 46-55 review

The big baby
Although I haven't finished a full chapter of Cien años de soledad this past week, I've had some enjoyable insights and have created some Anki cards I like:
acuartelada.png

I like the card above because I changed interpretation of acuartelada from "confined to their quarters" to a reference that seems more relevant in the story, quartering troops; which, by the way, the third amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the citizenry from.

The card below I like because grillos also means "crickets". Here, Gabo uses the word that comes from the sound of the shackles.
grillos.jpg

I found a very relevant "Saturday psalm" (Salmos 37:7) for the point at which salmos del sábado is used:
a_coro.gif

: 90 / 124 Cien años de soledad (14x)
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
9 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests