Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Oct 09, 2022 9:42 pm

El camino a Macondo va bien
This past week, the run at La hojarasca was listening in English and reading in Spanish.
: 12 / 12 La hojarasca 5x

This afternoon, I added El coronel no tiene quien le escriba as a listen/shadow at 80% speed to my walks. Chapters are about 25 minutes.
: 1 / 9 El coronel no tiene quien le escriba 11x
: 16 / 16 Relato de un náufrago 2x

For Relato de un náufrago, I did a combination of read in Spanish while YouTube played the audiobook and auto-translated subtitles into English. This was helpful to see a translation here and there like cocoteros:
relato.png

Speaking of walks, last week I was listening to In Evil Hour, which is the translation of La mala hora. It's around 5 hours with 10 30 minute chapters. The translation sounded like it might be quite literal. I'll find out if my hunch is correct this coming week as I Listen-Read In Evil Hour-La mala hora in English-Spanish. It has some characters from El coronel no tiene quien le escriba and Cuentos de Macondo.

New idea for Cien años de Anki tarjetas
: 92 / 124 Cien años de soledad 14x

I finished up chapter 15 (of 20) and we're at 2198 cards. We may be over 3000 by the end.

I pasted each chapter of Cien años de soledad into the LIX calculator and made the spreadsheet and charts below. The biggest news here is the LIX difficulty index of the upcoming chapters is the highest of the book:
LIX100.png

On average, I've been adding 7 cards per day during the months I've been intensively working on Cien años de soledad. I've got a bump in cards per day for a few days. That's made me think, rather than a chapter fragment at a time, create 1-3 new cards per day. Depending on the card complexity, 1 is a very decent goal. Here are a couple new cards from this past week:
picaportes.png

requisa.png

Foreign Service Institute review continues
The FSI unit 1-45 review is in my car in the short 7-8 minute commutes to where I walk.
: 29 / 45 FSI 1-45 review

The volume 4 review takes place during walks y en el cuarto de baño:
: 6 / 10 FSI 46-55 review

The advantage of studying in two places with two different mediums (website and CDs), is that sometimes getting "good enough" on a drill takes place on different days for difficult drills. Hoping that has a long term memory benefit, since tough drills are reviewed again after they are initially "mastered".
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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

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:10 pm

ursula_watching_entierro.png
The Road to Macondo
I listened to El coronel no tiene quien le escriba this past week.
: 7 / 7 El coronel no tiene quien le escriba 11x

Relato de un náufrago is my current walk audiobook. I'm playing the audio at 80% and shadowing it. The short chapters give me time for FSI volume 4 drills. I'm trying to save time and energy so that I can finish this review before my work work drives me crazy.
: 4 / 17 Relato de un náufrago 3x
: 7 / 10 FSI 46-55 review
: 30 / 45 FSI 1-45 review

My listen-read at home is In Evil Hour-La mala hora. I like the character overlap with El coronel no tiene quien le escriba.
: 6 / 10 In Evil Hour

: 93 / 124 Cien años de soledad 14x
I would like the daily card count for this deck to be under 30, but I have a little problem adding cards. This is the 90 day forecast:
20221013_prognostico_100_90_days.png


We see below that I've spent 17+ hours on the deck in the last 30 days:
20221013 repasos_cien.png


That comes down mostly to card creation (adding):
20221013_added.png

The left scale shows there was a day in the last month that I added 44 cards. On the right, that grayish wave shows I've added about 300 cards this month.

I would like to get the card adding under control, but I found blind Úrsula watching from the window as the funeral procession of Colonel Gerineldo Márquez was passing:
ursula_watching_entierro.png

And Fernanda was thinking about seeing the doctor who will later hang himself in La hojarasca:
fernanda_hojarasca.png

Other cards speak of Fernanda considering to wear the mask of a tiger, which Aureliano Segundo - the man who became her husband - had worn when they met; so as to disguise herself to see the doctors from the banana plantation, but instead continues to seek treatment from the invisible doctors for the uterine ailment that she began to suffer after the birth of her last daughter, Amaranta Úrsula, who will play a bigger role as the novel continues...
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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

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Oct 19, 2022 1:07 pm

A couple to the finish line
Wrapping up the listen-read at home and listen/shadow while walking have opened up study spots for El Quijote:
: 10 / 10 In Evil Hour-(La mala hora)
: 16 / 16 Relato de un náufrago 3x

Something to go along with vos y vosotros
I'm into unit 53 of my FSI review, which presents vosotros. Los Quijotes use vos and vosotros. Now is the time to put Don Quijote back into rotation:
: 58 / 365 Anaya El Quijote 7x
: 2 / 97 El Quijote del siglo XXI 6x
: 31 / 45 FSI 1-45 review
: 7 / 10 FSI 46-55 review

it's in the cards
We're in the cantaleta (sing-song tirade) of Fernanda...
cubiertos.png

The forecast is forecasting a challenge. 30 revisiones per day is my goal, but the last few and next few days have had more than that:
20221019_cien_prognOstico.png

I've been wrestling to get the forecast under control by adding just one card each day:
20221019_cien_added.png
: 94 / 124 Cien años de soledad 14x

We have room now for fresh progress bars:
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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

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Oct 30, 2022 2:43 pm

El señor Quijote
I'm moving into the second Anaya reader.

My next walk will take me into the final "chapter" of the radioplay, El Quijote del siglo XXI. It's the first time I've just listened to it:

: 175 / 365 Anaya El Quijote 7x
: 86 / 97 El Quijote del siglo XXI 6x

Cien años de soledad - 16 of 20 chapters Ankied
: 98 / 124 Cien años de soledad 14x

Stats for posterity and discussion:
20221030 Cien_stats.png

The stats help inform my next decision for what to do next. 32 cards / day for the next month is a little misleading, as it's front loaded. There are 55 cards tomorrow and that will gradually go down if I stop adding cards for a while.

Speaking of card adding, we see for the life of the deck, I've been adding 7 cards per day, but in the last 3 months, it's been 9 on average, and in the last month, 12. Card adding is getting out of control. I'm liking it, but I've got a problem ;).

2402 cards so far. At 80% complete, one might project 3002 cards at the end. We shall see. I think I'll circle back to the beginning to give the deck some time to mature. Average card interval today is 112 days.

FSI moved another step forward:
: 33 / 45 FSI 1-45 review
: 8 / 10 FSI 46-55 review
My work work is really picking up. Getting all of this study stuff under control is important so I can do what needs doing.

There is a genre of art for Cien años de soledad . I used a couple of them in this card about what Úrsula has been thinking about:
primogenito.jpg

The image on the right is Jose Arcadio coming home after having sailed around the world 65 times.
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Last edited by luke on Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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

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Le Baron
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby Le Baron » Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:01 pm

It seems that sailing around the world 65 times make your arms longer than your legs. Best avoided. :lol:
3 x

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:09 pm

Le Baron wrote:It seems that sailing around the world 65 times make your arms longer than your legs.

I'm withholding judgement. That particular artist has a very attractive style. They didn't mention, "this is ...". I knew instantly.
1 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:28 pm

Le Baron wrote:It seems that sailing around the world 65 times make your arms longer than your legs.

In MMA, long arms are an advantage. Perhaps that's why ...

Hizo apuestas de pulso con cinco hombres al mismo tiempo.
He would Indian-wrestle with five men at the same time.

«Es imposible», decían, al convencerse de que no lograban moverle el brazo.
“It’s impossible,” they said, convinced that they would not be able to move his arm.

«Tiene niños-en-cruz.»
“He has niños-en-cruz.”

Catarino, que no creía en artificios de fuerza, apostó doce pesos a que no movía el mostrador.
Catarino, who did not believe in artifices of strength, bet twelve pesos that he could not move the counter.

José Arcadio lo arrancó de su sitio, lo levantó en vilo sobre la cabeza y lo puso en la calle.
José Arcadio pulled it out of its place, lifted it into the air over his head and put it in the street.

Se necesitaron once hombres para meterlo.
They needed eleven men to put it back.

En el calor de la fiesta exhibió sobre el mostrador su masculinidad inverosímil, enteramente tatuada con una maraña azul y roja de letreros en varios idiomas.
In the heat of the party he exhibited his unusual masculinity on the bar, completely covered with a blue and red tangle of tattoos with words and signs in various languages.

A las mujeres que lo asediaron con su codicia les preguntó quién pagaba más.
To the women who were besieging him with their covetousness he asked who would pay more.
2 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Nov 09, 2022 11:04 am

Marching forward without adding cards
My solution to the Anki card adding dilemma is to just read the chapter fragments and update my parallel text wherever seems appropriate. That has me moving forward again on the progress bar. I'm getting ready for another road/family trip and it always helps to ease up on Anki before I go.
: 105 / 124 Cien años de soledad 14x
: 34 / 45 FSI 1-45 review
: 8 / 10 FSI 46-55 review
: 97 / 97 El Quijote del siglo XXI 6x

I've added 18 * 2 = 36 cards to my El Quijote deck over the last few weeks that I've been rereading it.

This is the "collection" (all decks) forecast:
20221109 collection_forecast.png

I have 3 other main decks I've been working on. Rather than giving them 3 + 3 + 4 minutes, which I've been doing for the last month or two, I'm giving them 2 + 2 + 3 = 7 minutes total. That is, if one of the decks is under the threshold, I learn a new card or two that day.

: 232 / 365 Anaya El Quijote 7x

Todos los cuentos de Gabriel García Márquez
I did my first run through Gabo's first published set of short stories. They're often quite internal in perspective. Characters sometimes don't even have names. For example, there's one from the perspective of a cadaver. The stories are still good for familiarity and vocabulary reinforcement, even if I don't focus on the storyline perfectly when taking a walk.
: 14 / 14 Ojos de perro azul
: 2 / 8 Los funerales de la Mamá Grande 4x

Gabo's second set of short stories are Los funerales de la Mamá Grande, which often take place in Macondo and have some characters from Cien años de soledad, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, y La hojarasca. That makes the stories more intriguing.
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5 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Nov 15, 2022 11:32 am

Anki daylight savings statistics mystery solved
A couple weeks ago, several of my Anki statistics seemed to get quite messed up. It looked like I was studying a lot on some days and skipping others, which wasn't the case. I've been very consistent when I'm not away visiting family.

It dawned on me that daylight savings time could be the culprit. I did find some support posts on ankiweb suggesting that, but no real solution, other than use the later algorithm, which for the issue I was seeing, did nothing.

What is the solution? Change when the day starts.

I noted sometime back, Anki gets out of hand at times. That was evident in the statistics that showed I'd been doing cards in the very early hours of the morning, such as just after midnight. Midnight was the setting I had for when the day starts.

Pictures might help me understand what you're talking about
Before - cards studied looks inconsistent when it wasn't:
24_30day_repasos.png

After - cards studied reflects reality:
23_30day_repasos.png


What does the fix look like?
Before - the next day starts 0 hours after midnight:
24_setting.png

The last line of the screenshots above and below show what hour the day starts on, "hours after midnight".
After - the next day starts 23 hours after midnight:
23_setting.png


Does your theory of the fix have any other evidence?
23_hourly_distribution.png

Above is the hourly distribution for this particular deck after changing the preference so the day starts at 23:00. If we were looking at the previous setting, the hour after midnight (0 hour), as well as those leading up to 5am - 6am would all be tall, meaning lots of cards studied during those hours.

Did you do any language learning or are you just looking at Anki stats?
I hope the progress bars do indicate progress. I finished listening to Gabo's 2nd book of short stories and am listening to his third book of short stories. Book 3, La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuela desalmada (1972), also has some mentions of Macondo and fleshed out stories of some things that happen in Cien años de soledad (1967):

: 114 / 124 Cien años de soledad 14x
: 35 / 45 FSI 1-45 review
: 8 / 10 FSI 46-55 review
: 280 / 365 Anaya El Quijote 7x
: 8 / 8 Los funerales de la Mamá Grande 4x
: 2 / 8 Triste historia
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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

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sat Nov 19, 2022 2:31 pm

Recent wrap-ups
This morning, I finished off another run at Cien años de soledad , the last 4 chapters, intensively reading and massaging my parallel text without adding new cards to Anki. I also finished listening to Gabo's 3rd book of short stories:

: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 14x
: 8 / 8 Triste historia de Eréndira y su abuela desalmada
: 4 / 13 Doce cuentos peregrinos

Preparing for a road trip
The drive to visit family is about 14 hours. What's on deck?

Three months ago, I did a thorough review of Assimil Using Spanish with the manual and recordings. This trip, I'll intersperse lessons to keep the drive interesting.

Anaya's El Quijote audio covers about 1/3 of the chapters. A while back I compressed the sound with Audacity. I'm hoping the story fragments are easier to hear with road noise. I'm also taking the book to finish it up during my visit:

: 306 / 365 Anaya El Quijote 7x
: 36 / 45 FSI 1-45 review
: 9 / 10 FSI 46-55 review

I'm taking the audio and parallel text of Cien años de soledad with me. My plan is to listen to chapters 17-20 on the way up and listen-read 17-20 while I'm there. Since my intensive Anki card creation run was covering each chapter fragment 3 times, this will complete two more runs. I want to hold off on adding cards for a little longer.

Anki goes into hibernation for a couple weeks
I don't use the mobile version of Anki. I've been winding down card addition for a week or two. When I get back and catch up, the card load should be a lot lower, at least until I go back to adding new cards. :lol:

I learnt something else about Anki this past week. That daylight saving time "day starts 23 hours after midnight" shifts the day by 23 hours. That meant that there were no cards to study the "next" day unless I set it back to "day starts 0 hours after midnight" after looking at the stats. With the trip I have coming up, there are 2 upsides:

1) I can leave early tomorrow morning with pretty much 0 cards to review by leaving the setting at "23 hours after midnight".
2) When I get back, the stats will look good and it won't feel like I missed an extra day, since I'll be gone 2 weeks and the "missed day" will just fall in with the other 13 or so "missed days".
Last edited by luke on Sat Nov 19, 2022 7:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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


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