Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish and French (and now, Esperanto!)

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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:15 am

02Aug22–04Aug22

Spanish
02Aug22: In the morning I did some more writing, this time about my commute. Then I listened to Quémese después de Escuchar for 30 minutes.

After work, I skimmed the first four chapters of Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide. I expected them to be boring, but I did learn the following:

Ser agrees with the noun that follows it rather than with its subject:

El problema son los otros.


03Aug22: I read an article about antidepressants and made flashcards. I also listened to Hoy en EL PAÍS and Niñas Bien. Later I wrote a little about my language goals this month. I also wrote an answer to the first writing prompt in Las Claves del Nuevo DELE B2.

04Aug22: I wrote a few paragraphs about going to the gym.

French
04Aug22: I listened to a 40-minute episode of Transfert. The first 10 minutes were a little difficult for me to understand, but after that my comprehension was pretty good. I learned some new words, most notably scaphandrier.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sun Aug 07, 2022 1:22 pm

05Aug22–06Aug22

Spanish
05Aug22: I read Chapters 7 and 8 of El tiempo entre costuras. I also spent some time muttering to myself in Spanish while I was in the lab at work. Hopefully none of my coworkers noticed. :lol: For my daily writing goal, I wrote a couple of paragraphs about my plans for the weekend.

06Aug22: Today I had the first of four Spanish lessons I booked for the upcoming week. It was my first lesson with this teacher, and it went really well! We spent most of the time talking about creative writing and science fiction. At the end of the lesson, she said my Spanish is very good but that I should practice using the subjunctive. I agree: I remember how to use it, but the conjugations don't come to me as automatically as they used to.

After our lesson, I spent a few minutes writing, trying to make different conditional sentences using the subjunctive. The review helped a lot, but I think I should still do some conjugation drills this weekend. I also booked another lesson with that teacher. :)
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Mon Aug 08, 2022 11:46 pm

07Aug22–08Aug22

Spanish
07Aug22: I did another activity in Las Claves del Nuevo DELE B2.

08Aug22: I don't have work this week, so this morning I had a 30-minute iTalki lesson with another new teacher. Like my lesson on Saturday, this one also went really well! We spent a lot of the lesson discussing my job, and I was able to explain the type of work I do in the lab. It helped that so many scientific words are cognates. During our next lesson, we'll discuss an episode of Radio Ambulante.

Later, I wrote in my journal about my plans for the day. Then I answered another writing prompt in Las Claves del Nuevo DELE B2. Eventually I'll go back and do the other exercises in the textbook, not just the writing ones.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Thu Aug 11, 2022 2:26 am

09Aug22–10Aug22

Spanish
09Aug22: I was supposed to have another iTalki lesson this morning, but the teacher cancelled on me. Instead, I listened to the Radio Ambulante episode "La rata que amé", which I'll be discussing with Brian (yesterday's iTalki teacher) during our next lesson. I made a list of useful words while I listened, and then I started reading the transcript out loud and writing down other useful words that I hadn't noticed while listening.

10Aug22: I had an iTalki lesson with another new teacher, Diego. It was a lot of fun. We discussed how public universities work in the US and Colombia. For our next lesson, he's going to pick out an article that we can discuss.

Later, I continued reading El tiempo entre costuras.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Tue Aug 16, 2022 2:24 am

I went on a trip with a friend from 11Aug22 to 13Aug22, but now I'm back and ready to resume my Spanish studies!

14Aug22–15Aug22

Spanish

15Aug22: During my morning commute, I caught up on my Anki reviews. I had only missed four days, but there were over 100 cards for me to review. I also re-listened to the Radio Ambulante episode "La rata que amé". After work, I had my second iTalki lesson with Brian, in which we discussed the episode. He had several questions for me to answer, which were related not only to the episode but also to my personal experiences working in a lab.

I was really glad I managed to have a lesson after work. Usually I only have them on weekends or days off, but I scheduled the lesson for 7pm which gave me time to get home from work and relax. However, I was pretty tired, which I think contributed to my speaking skills being worse than usual. (Other contributing factors: the four-day break I took from Spanish and the more difficult topic of conversation.) For one thing, I felt really tongue-tied and kept mispronouncing things. On top of that, I was also struggling to remember conjugations and common words. It's funny: I often feel that I forget really simple words, but then I remember much rarer ones. For example, it took me a moment to remember the word "cierto", but later I wanted to say "vial" and thought "la ampolla" right away. (I suppose "ampolla" is a cognate with "ampoule" in English, but I hardly ever use that word.)

One win was that I did a better job creating conditional sentences using the subjunctive. I guess the writing practice I did last week paid off! I didn't do any writing while I was on my trip, but starting today I will try to keep writing something in Spanish every day.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Fri Aug 19, 2022 2:44 am

16Aug22–18Aug22

Spanish
16Aug22: I listened to an episode of Radio Ambulante and an episode of Se Regalan Dudas.

17Aug22: During my morning commute, I listened to part of an episode of Quémese después de Escuchar. However, I wasn't completely satisfied with my level of comprehension. Later I did a few activities in Las Claves del Nuevo DELE B2. I'm still on Unit 1, but for now I'm not in any rush to complete it.

18Aug22: I'm really enjoying podcasts lately! I listened to the same episode of Quémese después de Escuchar as yesterday and understood it better this time. I also listened to an episode of Niñas Bien. After work, I had my second iTalki lesson with Diego. He never picked out an article for us to discuss, so we just talked about random topics, like cheese and coffee. I did a way better job speaking compared to my last lesson. Afterward, I wrote a few sentences just to complete my daily writing goal.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sat Aug 20, 2022 11:06 pm

This post isn't really related to language-learning, but I bought a new journal for my trip to Spain! It's from Traveler's Company Japan, and it's customizable: you can buy different inserts and put them in the journal using rubber bands. I bought four: a zipper bag for little keepsakes like ticket stubs, a calendar for planning the trip, a lined notebook for recording my thoughts during the trip, and a grid notebook for writing Spanish vocab lists. :D



(I bought the bookmark during my first trip to Spain; it's the painting Riña de gatos by Francisco de Goya.)

I can't wait for my trip! If anyone has any recommendations for things to do in Barcelona, let me know! I plan to go to some bookstores and museums, get lots of food (I've been dreaming of jamón ibérico ever since returning from Madrid), maybe spend a day at the beach... It would be fun to visit a winery or something too.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Mon Aug 22, 2022 12:00 am

19Aug22–20Aug22

Spanish
19Aug22: I didn't feel like doing anything, so I just reviewed my Anki cards.

20Aug22: I had my second iTalki lesson with Marina. I was very happy with my speaking skills! We discussed a lot of different topics: morning vs. night people, employee discounts, movie theater snacks, and Lady Gaga's new acting career. I didn't have much trouble with verb conjugations this time, except when using the imperfect subjunctive in conditional sentences. I just kept second-guessing myself and trying to translate in my head. Clearly I need more practice.

After the lesson, I made more Anki flashcards.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Thu Aug 25, 2022 12:45 pm

21Aug22–24Aug22

Spanish
22Aug22: I listened to another episode of Radio Ambulante and continued reading El tiempo entre costuras. Recently, there was a forum thread about how people balance reading in multiple languages, which is something I’ve never been able to manage. Last week I started reading a book in English, which took up all of my reading time.

Later, I spent some time researching phrases in Spanish that I'll need while traveling. It's funny that I can discuss more complicated topics in Spanish but still wonder, "Well, how exactly do I ask for a table for one at a restaurant?" Still, I want to sound natural so no one switches to English with me!

23Aug22: I continued reading El tiempo entre costuras.

24Aug22: I finished Chapter 13 of El tiempo entre costuras. Later, I reviewed my Anki cards.

Last week I felt so productive, having iTalki lessons on weeknights and everything! But this week I’ve been feeling the opposite, at least with language-learning. I’ve had a lot to do at work—I stayed in the lab until 9PM on Tuesday. Now it’s almost time for my trip to Spain.

French
I’ve been having so much fun with Spanish lately that I’m reluctant to go back to French, as I had planned to do after my trip to Spain. However, it’s probably the smartest thing to do since my French is weaker and therefore will degrade faster. In order to motivate myself to switch back to French, I’ve signed up for several events at Boston’s French Cultural Center.
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Barcelona Day 1

Postby philomath » Sat Aug 27, 2022 11:33 pm

I made it to Spain! I left Boston at midnight and didn’t get any sleep during the flight, so I arrived in Barcelona feeling exhausted. Inside the airport, everyone addressed me in English, which I expected since I was carrying a US passport and following all of the “US/non-EU” signs. However after leaving the airport, I was determined to speak Spanish! My first chance was at the bus stop, where I had to ask if there was another way to buy a ticket, since the machine was broken. Luckily there was!

I decided to stick to English with my Airbnb host, since it’s uncomfortable enough sharing an apartment with a stranger—I didn’t want to stress myself out even more. However shortly after arriving at the Airbnb, I realized that I’d forgotten to bring outlet converters. I walked to a big electronics store and worked up the courage to ask in Spanish if they sold converters, which they did! Afterward, I walked around and took some photos of the streets. It was pretty hot and there were tons of people walking around La Rambla. I wandered down a side street and found a little vegan restaurant, where I got a cappuccino and an açaí bowl. While I ate, I listened to other customers order their food and noticed that they were all using tú with the guy taking orders. I had been sticking with usted out of caution, but maybe that was too formal. I think for now I’ll continue to use usted just in case and wait for people to use tú with me.

Next I went to Llibreria Altair, which is a travel bookstore. I was hoping they might have some books related to language-learning, but I didn’t find any. They did have a really great selection of travel books though, plus a wall where people could leave messages looking for travel companions.

The rest of the day was uneventful: I took a nap and spent the evening in my Airbnb. Tomorrow I have more activities planned!

I’m happy that I’ve been speaking Spanish here. It’s not really surprising, since I’m able to have relatively complex conversations with my iTalki teachers, but I was worried my nerves would get the best of me, like during my trip to Montreal. I need to keep having French lessons, so I can feel more confident the next time I go to a French-speaking country!

But actually, I did have a conversation in French during this trip. In the Boston airport, a woman approached me and asked if I spoke French. I said “Oui, un peu” and she asked if I knew which gate the Air France flight was departing from. I was just as confused as she was, so I said “Je ne sais pas, désolée” and she walked away. So it wasn’t a very long conversation, but I was excited since I hadn’t been expecting to speak French at all!

So far, my interactions this trip (not counting conversations with my Airbnb host or any exchanges too short to remember):
- English: 2X (airport, ordering lunch)
- Spanish: 2X (buying bus ticket, finding outlet converters and paying for them)
- French: 1X (being unhelpful in finding Air France)
Last edited by philomath on Sun Aug 28, 2022 11:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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