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 » Wed Mar 09, 2022 5:12 am

06Mar22–08Mar22

French
07Mar22: I tried to find some more French podcasts, then gave up and listened to InnerFrench.

08Mar22: In the morning I listened to a little bit of French Expat, and after work I watched a couple of videos from Easy French. I don't usually watch Easy French, but I picked up some useful expressions and it was interesting to learn more about what life is like in France. For example in the second video they interviewed people about what they eat during their lunch break. That also helped me learn a lot of food-related words.

Next, I reviewed some more sentences on Speechling. I haven't studied French as much in the past couple of weeks and my pronunciation already seems worse. I need to study lots before my lesson on Friday so I don't embarrass myself!

Italian
06Mar22: I read Chapters 1–3 of L'amica geniale while listening to the audiobook. I paused after every sentence to make sure I understood it. When looking up words in the Kindle dictionary wasn't good enough, I checked the English translation. My overall impression was that Italian grammar is really fun!

07Mar22: I redid Assimil Lesson 29 and then did Lesson 30.

08Mar22: I did Assimil Lesson 31.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby DaveAgain » Wed Mar 09, 2022 6:19 am

philomath wrote:
Italian
06Mar22: I read Chapters 1–3 of L'amica geniale while listening to the audiobook.
France Culture have a French radio drama adaptation of that: L'amie prodigieuse.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sat Mar 12, 2022 7:15 pm

09Mar22–11Mar22

French
09Mar22: I watched a couple of YouTube videos without subtitles, and then I wrote 152 words about learning how to drive when I was younger.

10Mar22: I started listening to L'amie prodigieuse, the French adaptation of L'amica geniale which DaveAgain recommended. I also listened to an episode of Transfert.

11Mar22: I had a 45-minute lesson with a new teacher. For the first half hour, we discussed my interests and the pandemic. Then he sent me a video about colonization and its negative impact on indigenous populations. I had a lot of trouble discussing the video because I didn't know enough words. I asked the teacher if he can send me the topic in advance next time.

This was my first time having a lesson in the evening (8pm), and it wasn't as terrible as I'd expected. I was definitely tired though, which might've impacted my speaking ability. I think I'll book more evening lessons though!

Italian
09Mar22: I did Assimil Lesson 32. I was feeling lazy so I just listened to the audio without repeating each sentence out loud.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sat Mar 19, 2022 11:27 pm

12Mar22–19Mar22

Spanish
13Mar22: I had a 45-minute lesson with my usual teacher. It was a lot of fun, but I didn't feel like the conversation was challenging enough. However maybe that's okay since I just want to maintain my Spanish skills for now.

French
14Mar22: I listened to Transfert, the same episode as the other day. This time I caught some parts of the story that I hadn’t the first time I listened. Later I spent a few minutes writing and practicing sentences on Speechling. I’m almost done with the Beginner 2 level. At first I felt very disappointed by my pronunciation, but after 50 sentences I started to feel more confident. It’s strange though: I used to think my pronunciation of the vowel [y] was fine, but lately I’ve been wondering if I’m really not pronouncing it right. I may be overthinking it.

Then I had a bad week so I didn't do anything except for Speechling for a few days.

18Mar22: I started listening to the podcast Peak TV from Slate France. I also practiced some more sentences on Speechling. For some reason it kept telling me I had three more sentences in the Beginner 2 level, but it wouldn't let me practice them. Maybe because I had so many old sentences to review? I could've just moved on but I wanted to see the gold trophy appear, so I spent a lot of time practicing sentences.

19Mar22: I had a 45-minute lesson with another iTalki teacher. She was very friendly and I enjoyed the lesson. We talked about learning languages and traveling. I hope we can talk about more difficult topics in future lessons, but I didn't get a chance to ask at the end.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Fri Mar 25, 2022 11:56 am

For the past couple of weeks, I haven't been very consistent with my language studies, mainly because of something that came up in my personal life that made it difficult to focus. But now I'm feeling very motivated again! I thought it would be nice to summarize where I'm at with my target languages. Maybe I'll do summaries like this every two or three months.

Spanish
I've been having one Spanish lesson per month, which apparently is enough to maintain my conversational skills on everyday topics like what I did over the weekend. Eventually I want to get better at discussing more advanced topics like science, social issues, etc. but I think I should focus on French for now. So one Spanish lesson per month it is. As for passive skills, those don't seem to decline no matter how long I neglect them. And as for writing... well, I should probably do some writing in Spanish once in a while, but I'm not sure how to incorporate that into my language routine. At one point I said I would practice writing every weekend, but that didn't work out. Anyway I'm pretty happy with my Spanish skills right now, and I'm looking forward to improving them more once my French gets better.

French
So far I've had lessons with four different teachers on iTalki:
  • Teacher A: My usual teacher. I've had around 40 lessons with him over the past two years, but he's switching careers soon and will no longer be offering French lessons. Also, we usually discuss the same topics like language-learning or what we've done recently, which aren't as useful to me anymore.
  • Teacher B: I had one lesson with him. He came prepared with a conversation topic (misconceptions about healthy foods) and had a topic prepared for our next lesson as well. However I wasn't sure if I would have another lesson with him because I didn't feel that he was very friendly. Now I'm considering booking another lesson though.
  • Teacher C: I had one lesson with him. He was nice and also had lots of ideas for conversation topics, but he doesn't offer lessons on weekends. I have a day off from work next week so I booked a lesson with him during the day, but I probably won't be able to have lessons with him consistently.
  • Teacher D: The teacher I tried most recently. I really liked her but I'm not sure what kinds of topics she enjoys discussing. I'll probably book another lesson with her though.

So iTalki lessons are going well, but I would like to do more studying outside of my lessons. These are some of the activities I'd like to do more of:
  • Intensive listening, especially with podcasts about current events or science, as well as TV shows with colloquial speech
  • Grammar study: drilling verb conjugations, studying other grammar rules
  • Reading: articles, blog posts if I can find some blogs I like
  • Writing: more complex topics

Italian
I haven't studied Italian in a couple of weeks, which I feel a little guilty about. Once I plan a trip to Italy, I think I'll be much more motivated to study. In the meantime, I plan to keep doing Assimil lessons, listening to podcasts, and trying to read L'amica geniale. I'm 1/3 done with Assimil, and it would be great to complete the whole book by June!
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Tue Mar 29, 2022 12:52 am

20Mar22–28Mar22

French
20Mar22: I had a 45-minute lesson with my usual teacher ("Teacher A" in my last post). It was all right... I think we were both tired and not feeling very chatty.

27Mar22: I was traveling this weekend, so I didn't have time to study French. However during the 4-hour train ride back to Boston I finally decided to try Kwiziq. I got an A2 on the placement test, which I think is fair given how little grammar I've studied. They gave me a seven-day free trial so I started doing the quizzes. It was fun and I think I learned a bit!

28Mar22: I had a 45-minute lesson with "Teacher C". I did not do a great job at speaking, which was disappointing but not too surprising given how little I've studied recently. I had trouble with the passé composé and I also didn't know enough words to discuss the topic my teacher chose (problems with the French criminal justice system). Later, I did more quizzes on Kwiziq.

Updates
Exciting news: I've booked a trip to Barcelona at the end of August! I'll be traveling alone, so my plan is to avoid English in order to practice my Spanish as much as possible. (I might also learn a little bit about Catalan, at least so I can pronounce names like Ciutat Vella correctly.) For now I will continue to focus on French, and then in June or July I'll start dedicating more time to Spanish.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Fri Apr 01, 2022 2:09 am

29Mar22–31Mar22

French
29Mar22: I may be a little addicted to Kwiziq. I started doing the quizzes almost as soon as I woke up. :lol:

During my commute, I read an article from Slate France and wrote a couple of sentences about it. Then I listened to an episode of Peak TV. It was pretty easy to understand because it was about a TV show that I've watched. I also practiced pronouncing sentences on Speechling.

30Mar22: I did more quizzes on Kwiziq and listened to another episode of Peak TV. Later, I received exciting news: I might get to use French at my job! It's not guaranteed, but it inspired me to read some articles in French related to what I do for work. They were actually pretty easy to understand because so many of the scientific words were English cognates.

31Mar22: More Kwiziq. I'm now 25% done with Level A1!

Italian
29Mar22: I did Assimil Lesson 32.

30Mar22: I did Assimil Lesson 33.
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March Results

Postby philomath » Fri Apr 01, 2022 3:29 am

philomath wrote:Anki Stats

Spanish: 596 cards, 92% mature --> 614 cards, 95% mature
French: 2358 cards, 91% mature --> 2467 cards, 92% mature
Italian: 592 cards, 42% mature --> 592 cards, 42% mature
Ancient Greek: 72 cards, 54% mature --> 72 cards, 81% mature

Goals

Spanish
[X] Have one iTalki lesson.

French
[ ] Finish Beginner Levels 1-3 on Speechling. (I only finished Levels 1 and 2.)
[X] Have two iTalki lessons. (I actually had four!)
[ ] Write 2000 words. (I only wrote 284 words. :()

Italian
[ ] Do Assimil Lessons 27-50. (Nope... I took a long break from Assimil and only made it through Lesson 33.)
[X] Start reading L'amica geniale. (I read the prologue.)

Stats
  • Spanish: 1.75 hours (57% L, 43% S, 0% R, 0% W, 0% O)
  • French: 12.00 hours (37% L, 25% S, 6% R, 6% R, 26% O)
  • Italian: 1.58 hours (0% L, 0% S, 32% R, 0% W, 68% O)
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April Goals

Postby philomath » Fri Apr 01, 2022 12:49 pm

Anki Stats

Spanish: 614 cards, 95% mature
French: 2467 cards, 92% mature
Italian: 592 cards, 42% mature
Ancient Greek: 72 cards, 81% mature

Goals
This month I'll be focusing on French. I mainly want to improve my conversational ability and be able to discuss a wider range of topics. Right now one iTalki lesson per week is the most I can manage, so I want to increase my writing output as well. Last month one of my goals was to write 2000 words, but I wasn’t very motivated and didn’t even come close to writing that much. Instead, this month my goal is to read 15 articles and write a response to each one. I think that will keep me more motivated and also help me write about different topics.

Spanish
[ ] Have one iTalki lesson.

French
[ ] Finish Levels A1 and A2 on Kwiziq.
[ ] Finish Beginner Level 3 on Speechling.
[ ] Have four iTalki lessons.
[ ] Read 15 articles and write a response to each one.

Italian
[ ] Do Assimil Lessons 34-60.

By the way, I realized I've never specifically said this in my language log, but any feedback on my language learning goals and methods is welcome! :)
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Tue Apr 05, 2022 3:06 am

01Apr22–04Apr22

Spanish
03Apr22: I had a 45-minute lesson with my usual teacher. It was fun! We talked about different professions and the problems with the healthcare system in Venezuela. However I kept making conjugation errors, which was frustrating. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I've barely used Spanish in the past month. Anyway, I'm not really bummed out about that. I know I can get my Spanish back to a high level when I start spending more time on it again.

French
02Apr22: I did some quizzes on Kwiziq and reached 50% in Level A1.

03Apr22: I did more quizzes on Kwiziq. Then I read two articles from Slate France and wrote responses. The first article was about a man in Germany who was vaccinated against COVID 87 times, and the second article was about why the T. rex had such short arms. I wrote 188 words in total.

04Apr22: I had a lot of Anki cards to review, so I spent half an hour on that. Then I continued doing quizzes on Kwiziq. My free trial ran out so I bought a one-month subscription, and I'll try to see how far I can progress in that time.

Italian
01Apr22: I reviewed my Anki flashcards for the first time in a while and deleted a bunch of them.

04Apr22: I reviewed Assimil Lesson 33 and then did Lesson 34. I wasn't really in the mood for Assimil, so I didn't do well on the exercises. Luckily the next lesson is the review lesson.

Other Thoughts
I had some fun playing with the study time calculator from Autolingual. Supposedly, if I want to go from B1 to B2 in Spanish and I study for two hours per day, it will only take me 3 months and 10 days. That's almost exactly the amount of time between my trip to Montreal and my trip to Barcelona. :D One thing the calculator doesn't take into account is whether or not you have previously reached that level in your target language. I never reached B2 in speaking but I think I did in all of the other skills. Maybe it will take me even less time to get back up to B2 in that case. We'll see...

That's assuming I can study for two hours per day though, which I'm not sure is possible. I'm also trying to balance other things like work, exercising, and my writing projects. Still, my commute adds up to two hours per day so I just need to spend my commute on language studies.
Last edited by philomath on Sun May 08, 2022 11:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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