Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
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 3629

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:49 am

FSI Basic Spanish 1-55 review
I was looking back in my log to see how long it took to complete unit 50 the first time. It was about 16 days. That was about 10 months ago. Lately I've been reviewing units in about a week.
: 50 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 1-55 review

¡Sálvese quien pueda!
I finished the ¡Sálvese quien pueda! audiobook. It was written by a CNN en español journalist about 5 years ago. Pleasant and fairly easy. In the last chapter, the author summarizes his 10 key observations.
: 792 / 792 ¡Sálvese quien pueda!

The book had me thinking about a new survey/poll. Basically, to get feedback on whether folks find much difference between translated works and original works within a specific genre.

Anki
I'm looking forward to a time in the near future where 200 cards mature each week in the "Top 5000" frequency deck. About 100 matured last week. Based on how many new cards I'm seeing each day lately, that should go up pretty soon.
: 5447 / 9482 Anki Essential Spanish Vocabulary Top 5000 (Mature)
20230211 repasos_all_5000.png

A book and a new audiobook
Audiobooks fit my lifestyle better, but reading may actually be better for learning. There's more room for reflection and investigation when something isn't clear.
: 116 / 507 Batalla Cultural
The new audiobook is by the same author as the book above. I'm hoping it provides some synergy and helps my reading.
generaciOn_idiota.png

: 29 / 648 Generación idiota
Youtube helped me with a light hearted idea as to who may be in that generation.

The one above has an easy-to-read lyric translation and good sound quality.
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 3629

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:03 am

FSI Review, so far so good
I finished reviewing FSI unit 51 this week. I end up putting a fair bit of time each day into drills, since I do some in the bathroom, some on a walk, and some in the car. I'm content with how it's going.
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 1-55 review

Mr. Anki
The Cien años de soledad deck crossed the "average card maturity time" of 6 months this past week.

About a month ago, I was putting a similar amount of time into 3 decks, not sure which one to focus on. A couple weeks ago I decided on the Top 5000 card deck. This past week, about 150 cards matured. "Easy" cards mature in 12-14 days. Besides adding up 0 days + 4 days + 9 days as the early maturities of "easy cards, I noticed a pattern on the 90 day review chart:
20230219 top_5000_3_months.png

I really started cranking up the cards/time per day about 2 weeks ago and think 200+ cards will mature this coming week.
: 5618 / 9472 Anki Essential Spanish Vocabulary Top 5000 (Mature)

Agustín Laje appeared in Miami
The view count on Agustín Laje's interview a few days ago in Miami, Florida surprised me. 70k views in a 8 hours and 200k in 2 days:

Miami is known to have more Cubans that the southwestern states of the USA. Maybe that plays into the popularity of this video. The author talks about themes from the audiobook I just finished.
: 648 / 648 Generación idiota

My reading of his previous book isn't going quite as fast. It's over 500 pages.
: 229 / 507 La batalla cultural (leyendo)
I decided the audiobook is my next listen. Hoping that it compliments my reading effort. It's 22 1/2 hours.
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 3629

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Feb 26, 2023 11:36 pm

Another week, another unit of FSI Basic Spanish review completed
It took a couple of extra long walks this week, but I wrapped up unit 52 today. I'm happy this review hasn't been painful, as the original run and the first review were. Still looking forward to a time when everything is easy.
: 52 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 1-55 review

Anki Top 5000 - 205 cards matured this week :)
I'm trying to build up my vocabulary. The Top 5000 Frequency deck is helping.
: 5823 / 9468 Anki Essential Spanish Vocabulary Top 5000 (Mature)
If it were possible to maintain the current pace for 4 more months, all of the cards would be "not new":
20230226 top_5000_pie_chart.png

But Anki has a way of thwarting those who make multi-month projections.

An experiment is brewing
My listening of La batalla cultural is rapidly catching up to my reading. This coming week, it looks like I may be hearing book chapters before I've read them. I'm curious if the listening stays mostly good, as it has been, or if my reading will suddenly improve (because I've already listened to the chapter).
: 313 / 507 La batalla cultural (leyendo)
: 619 / 1177 La batalla cultural (escuchando)

About the audiobook:
* The reader is not the author. The author was asked whether the audiobook would have his voice or not and he looked surprised that someone might think he would be a better narrator than a professional reader. The author has a pleasant voice. He has an Argentinian accent.
* Audible was kind enough to split the book up into subchapters. These tend to be 30 minutes or so. I prefer shorter sections when they aren't artificially created.
* Footnotes can disrupt the flow. Thankfully, the reader skips them. I bought another book, El engaño populista along with the one above. Some Audible reviewers complain that the reader reads the footnotes. Looking at that book now, the footnotes are smaller, but a lot of them are just, Idem, which I can imagine doesn't help the flow of the polemic.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
13 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

jeffers
Blue Belt
Posts: 843
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:12 pm
Location: UK
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19785
x 2746
Contact:

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby jeffers » Thu Mar 02, 2023 2:34 pm

luke wrote:This coming week, it looks like I may be hearing book chapters before I've read them. I'm curious if the listening stays mostly good, as it has been, or if my reading will suddenly improve (because I've already listened to the chapter).


I almost always listen first then read, and I find it does make it easier to read. My reasoning is that listening comprehension is harder than reading, so I want to train myself by listening to a text while it is unfamiliar. With shorter things I will often listen 2-5 times first before reading. Because of this, when I'm reading I get a lot of "aha!" moments, when I figure out that what I thought I heard wasn't what I heard! I find these moments help me engage more with the reading, and make the learning moments more memorable. I don't find this happens the other way around (e.g. when I listen to something I've already read). However, with a few novels I have first read the book and then decided later to get the audiobook.
5 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

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 3629

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Mar 05, 2023 9:46 pm

Eight Days This Week
I think I may wrap-up FSI Basic Spanish unit 53 tomorrow. It's the vosotros unit.
: 52 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 1-55 review

241 cards matured this week
The cards are set to come in random order. It's interesting when I see a card where I don't recall ever seeing the word in the wild. Here's an example:
faena.png

I added the two sentences to help me remember the word and it's meanings. That seems to help for new words. I've been augmenting several cards this way each day.
: 6064 / 9466 Anki Essential Spanish Vocabulary Top 5000 (Mature)

Not clear if listening has helped my reading yet
I've been giving a lot of attention to the Anki vocab deck as well as trying to finish the audiobook this week. That may be why I read a little less than normal. The audiobook is done and my reading continues.
: 359 / 507 La batalla cultural (leyendo)
: 1177 / 1177 La batalla cultural (escuchando)

Upgraded Anki
This week I checked if Anki had any updates in the last 6 months or so. There is a new version and I jumped a few releases. The statistics screen is more collapsed. I was running Anki at 135% zoom with the previous version and that was good. With the new version, I have to run it at 125% to see what I want. Regardless of those two zoom levels, the Statistics page shows smaller graphs and puts them side-by-side. Here I reduced the zoom to 100% and it put 3 graphs side by side:
dash.png

That is the Top 5000 deck.
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 3629

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Mar 12, 2023 11:05 pm

Not Russian the review
Someday Russian may appear on my learning horizon, but today the topic title means I'm taking another day to finish unit 54. Tomorrow will be day 7. I'm in the final portion of the unit. There are 11 minutes of drills on the subjunctive and I still have room to improve.
: 53 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 1-55 review

276 cards matured this week
Soon I'm going to stop counting how many mature each week. The review (repasos) are beginning to take more time than I would like:
20230312 repasos_30_top_5000.png

Rather than try to keep a blistering pace, I want to allow myself to enhance cards during my Anki time like this one, which helped me understand the difference between este y oriente:
: 6340 / 9462 Anki Essential Spanish Vocabulary Top 5000 (Mature)
oriente.png

Agustín Laje y el voseo
Unit 54 in FSI Basic Spanish covered the voseo, which dovetailed nicely with my recent focus on las obras de Agustín Laje. (He's from Argentina and they use the voseo there).
: 563 / 563 Generación idiota (2x)
: 462 / 507 La batalla cultural (2x)

Sometimes when I get close to a goal, I speed up. That can reduce my focus. To help keep my current standard, I relistened to the last 55 minutes of La batalla cultural on my walk today. Perhaps that will make the final fifty pages flow.

A new audiobook
I started a modern Spanish translation of Don Quijote several weeks ago but stopped about 10% of the way in. I'm restarting from the beginning. Mario Vargas Llosa, who has since become one of the 40 French Immortals wrote a nice intro. The "translator" also did an interesting chapter on the hows and whys of his work.

: 3 / 133 Don Quijote en castellano actual íntegra y fielmente por Andrés Trapiello
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 3629

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Mar 19, 2023 11:26 pm

FSI Basic Spanish - First Review Complete
FSI Basic Spanish was getting attention in the car, on walks, and in the bathroom. I've gotten to the end of my first review.
: 55 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 1-55 review

It's still in play in Anki flashcards. It's a nice break on walks and I expect it to return, but as a smaller portion of my studies.

227 words matured this past week
The time "sprang forward" a week ago. For Anki, that meant I reset the "start of day" from 23 back to the 0 hour. That had the side effect of giving me 8 days worth of reviews in 7. You can see the bump in cards 6-7 days ago:
20230319 repasos_30_collection.png

Above is a "collection" graph (all decks). The graph of reviews below is for the collection as well. It's for the last 1 year:
20230319_repasos_365_collection.png

Life is changing in the near future and I'm taking my foot off the Anki gas pedal for a while, but I've been making good progress here.
: 6567 / 9462 Essential 5000 Vocabulary

Don Quijote in Modern Spanish is a good "walk" audiobook
Most chapters are about 15 minutes. The chapter length makes this audiobook a nice change-of-pace with FSI drills during a walk. My other Don Quijote forays are helping with the "full book". I know the structure of the story, even though the other works were abridgements. The narrator is good. He has a European Spanish accent.
: 32 / 133 Don Quijote en castellano actual

Desk work
I finished reading La batalla cultural last week.
: 507 / 507 La batalla cultural (2x)
Taking its slot at the desk is a workbook that's been on my shelf for years:
ultimate_spanish.png

I've got the 1999 edition. It's good. Although targetted at English learners of Spanish, there is a lot of Spanish in the book and its exercises. You can see from my slow start that I'm out of practice with "schoolwork". It will be helpful if I stick with it.
: 14 / 466 Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
12 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 3629

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Mar 26, 2023 9:06 pm

New FSI Reviews
I had some FSI Variation drills left on my thumb drive from back when I was doing the "random" variations. Now that folder is sharing the drive with other folders and "random" doesn't limit itself to the current folder, so I'm doing them in sequence.
: 21 / 42 FSI Variations
FSI drills are still a nice break on walks. This is my 3rd time reviewing volume 4 of 4.
: 1 / 10 FSI 46-55 review (3x)
You know you're a language nerd when you like doing FSI drills.

El señor Quijote
Don Quijote in modern Spanish is going well. I was tempted to switch to a book about globalism, based on a youtube review, but there is no audiobook, so I continue, as I probably should.
: 47 / 133 Don Quijote - Trapiello

Making time for other things
I'm lowering my 5000 frequency deck time to about 12 minutes per day.
20230326 5000_30_days_repasos.png

: 6729 / 9460 Essential 5000 Vocabulary

Assimil Using Spanish
The last time I was doing Using Spanish, I came up with the idea that doing the book and audio from the last lesson to the first might make the review lessons more meaningful, as they would be followed by the 6 earlier lessons. We'll see what happens this time. I started it this week.
: 6 / 60 Using Spanish (backwards)

Workbook
The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice is a good book for my level. That is, as a review, rather than an initial learning tool.
: 26 / 466 Ultimate Spanish Review
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 3629

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Apr 02, 2023 9:16 pm

Into the second part of Don Quijote
I'm listening to the modern translation of the second book, published in 1615. The characters are coming alive.
: 62 / 133 Don Quijote - Trapiello

FSI Basic Spanish
I do a bit in the fantastic ankiweb shared deck for FSI Basic Spanish. Below are the current progress bars:
: 29 / 42 FSI Variations
: 2637 / 7741 Anki FSI Basic Spanish (Mature)
: 2 / 10 FSI 46-55 review (3x)

Visuals for an Anki taper
: 6856 / 9458 Essential 5000 Vocabulary
: 14 / 60 Using Spanish (backwards)
: 31 / 466 Ultimate Spanish Review
I'm planning to move closer to family so I've been tapering Anki for a while. Here in four images, we see the cards per day drop precipitously from 90 days ago to 30 days ago to the 30 and 90 day forecasts:

20230402_collection_repasos_90.png

20230402_collection_repasos_30.png
20230402_collection_30_day_progOstico.png

20230402_collection_90_day_progOstico.png

Promedio means average. For the last 90 days, I was doing an average of 206 cards per day. That dropped to 177 over the last 30 days. The forecasts show 89 cards per day for the next 30 days and 64 average for the next 90.

All that means is that if I don't add too many cards, the average cards per day will have dropped by about 2/3s over the course of 6 months. Looking more granularly, 3 months ago I was doing 250 cards per day and 3 months from now it may be about 50. That's actually an 80% drop in cards per day.

The idea is that I'll accomplish things related to moving by controlling my language learning pastime. Once I get moved and settled in, I hope to let the hobby run wild again.
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 3629

Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Apr 11, 2023 8:31 pm

FSI Reviews
I'm doing the variations in the car and the volume 4 review from the Live Lingua recordings on walks. Have been able to continue moving forward about 1 unit each week.
: 35 / 42 FSI Variations
: 3 / 10 FSI 46-55 review (3x)

Mr. Anki
These two images are from the 5000 word frequency deck. There is almost 2 years of data here (vida del mazo). The Time (tiempo) box is selected. You can read that if I studied the deck every day, I might have spent about 8 minutes per day on it.
20230411_repasos_freq_5000_todo_tiempo.png

This image shows that I've been through about 75% of the deck:
20230411_5000_freq_conteo.png

: 6967 / 9458 Essential 5000 Vocabulary

Listening/Bathing
Not certain that starting on the last lesson and moving towards the first makes much difference. Perhaps as I get towards the shorter lessons in the beginning I'll get more excited.
: 22 / 60 Using Spanish (backwards)

Don Quijote is about 40 hours. He's talking to me in the background as I'm doing chores around the house.
: 98 / 133 Don Quijote - Trapiello

Saving for later
To help me focus on my priorities, I'm setting this aside for now:
: 31 / 466 Ultimate Spanish 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


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests