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

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

Postby garyb » Wed Sep 07, 2022 1:37 pm

Just been catching up with your log and wanted to say again that I'm loving the travel updates!

I'm getting memories of sitting at the bar of a tapas restaurant in Barcelona and soaking up the atmosphere. At least I got served though! In other parts of Spain I found that I sometimes had to be extremely assertive to get the bar staff's attention at the smaller and more informal kinds of tapas bar. In Seville I remember standing there for the best part of an hour being ignored and trying to get someone's attention just to order a snack and a drink. It's a bit of a culture shock compared to the UK where the staff will assume that if you're standing at the bar it's because you want to order something and will get to you, and even in more crowded places eye contact or a hand signal is enough to make it sooner rather than later.. And finding accommodation with cooking facilities is usually the way to go if you're staying somewhere for more than a couple of days, which has often limited my choices.

I've found Barcelona to be a mixed bag for practising Spanish. People there do tend to speak it more slowly and clearly than in many other areas, but they can also be quite quick to switch to English. And while I've heard stories of people reacting badly to being addressed in Spanish rather than Catalan, it's never happened to me.

I can relate to your post-trip reflections, and some of these thoughts about knowledge gaps and awkwardness have been on my mind since I'm visiting Italy soon. To an extent I think you can't be too hard on yourself because there are just so many situations and words that only come up when you're in the country, and you can't cover everything in advance. I can speak with Italian friends for hours about all sorts of topics yet then get stuck in a simple everyday interaction in Italy just because it's not something that's ever come up.

Your ideas for filling in these gaps sound solid, and the thought of future trips is certainly good motivation, but again it's not something I'd put too much pressure on yourself about and I'd keep in mind that speaking the language isn't the only or main reason to travel; it's just a nice bonus! In the past I was too fixated on using the language as much as I could during a trip and saw it as a failure when I couldn't handle a situation or someone switched to English, and it just created a lot of bad feelings around what should've been a pleasant experience and break from normal life.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Fri Sep 09, 2022 3:35 am

garyb wrote:I've found Barcelona to be a mixed bag for practising Spanish. People there do tend to speak it more slowly and clearly than in many other areas, but they can also be quite quick to switch to English. And while I've heard stories of people reacting badly to being addressed in Spanish rather than Catalan, it's never happened to me.

I wasn't sure what to expect concerning Spanish vs. Catalan, but I actually didn't hear much Catalan during my trip. At least not in conversations—there were definitely announcements in Catalan in the subway stations.

Your ideas for filling in these gaps sound solid, and the thought of future trips is certainly good motivation, but again it's not something I'd put too much pressure on yourself about and I'd keep in mind that speaking the language isn't the only or main reason to travel; it's just a nice bonus! In the past I was too fixated on using the language as much as I could during a trip and saw it as a failure when I couldn't handle a situation or someone switched to English, and it just created a lot of bad feelings around what should've been a pleasant experience and break from normal life.

You're right, I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to practice my target languages when I travel! I think that actually did negatively impact my trip to Montreal earlier this year. Next time I should probably go easier on myself and not keep score of every foreign language interaction. :lol:
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Fri Sep 09, 2022 3:54 am

06Sep22–08Sep22

Spanish
07Sep22: I listened to two episodes of Hoy en EL PAÍS. I also continued reading El tiempo entre costuras.

French
06Sep22: During my commute, I started to catch up on my Anki reviews. I hadn’t gone through my French deck in around a month, and I definitely forgot a lot of vocab. Next week I’m going to a speaking event at the Alliance Française, so I need to get my French back up to speed! Later, I did Chapter 2 of Phonétique essentielle du français.

07Sep22: I reviewed more Anki cards. I didn't want to get burnt out, though, so I stopped before doing all the reviews that were due.

08Sep22: I listened to the same episode of Peak TV twice, once during my morning commute and once during my evening commute. I also did Chapter 3 of Phonétique essentielle du français. So far I haven't learned much, but repeating after the audio is still good pronunciation practice. I think the later chapters might be more useful.

Notes
This weekend I'm going to Maine with some friends, so I probably won't have time for languages. Maybe I can read El tiempo entre costuras during the car ride though!
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby garyb » Fri Sep 09, 2022 10:25 am

philomath wrote:I wasn't sure what to expect concerning Spanish vs. Catalan, but I actually didn't hear much Catalan during my trip. At least not in conversations—there were definitely announcements in Catalan in the subway stations.

I've visited Barcelona three times in the last ten years or so and had different experiences each time. The first, I barely heard any Catalan except when I ended up an underground-ish punk gig at a social association where it seemed common and the organisers spoke it with everybody; fortunately I understood enough! The second time I heard it a lot more while out and about in streets and bars and so on. I also hung out with a Columbian who was learning it as his boyfriend was a local and he complained about people replying in Spanish, which after my previous post just goes to show that anything can happen :lol: The most recent time I was just there for a couple of days for an interview at a fairly international company so it was mostly English and Spanish, although at lunch one of the staff did chat with the waitress in Catalan. But I got the impression that it's a growing language, at least among a certain segment of people, and you hear it more if you end up being around more locals like in the situations I mentioned. Anyway I apologise for the big tangent when you've only been talking about Spanish!

You're right, I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to practice my target languages when I travel! I think that actually did negatively impact my trip to Montreal earlier this year. Next time I should probably go easier on myself and not keep score of every foreign language interaction. :lol:

This is probably a case of do what I say not what I do! On my last trips though I've gone a bit too far to the other extreme and I've not bothered to speak my foreign languages in situations where I easily could have. I'll see how it goes in Italy.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sat Sep 17, 2022 2:49 pm

09Sep22–11Sep22

Spent the weekend in Maine. Acadia National Park is beautiful! I also heard a few people speaking French while I was there. :)

12Sep22–16Sep22

Spanish
This week I listened to the podcasts Quilo de Ciencia and Radio Ambulante. I also continued reading El tiempo entre costuras. I've been reading it pretty slowly, maybe because I've already read it once, so I know what happens. If I want to finish it this month, I need to read around 30 pages per day.

French
12Sep22: I listened to Ça s'explique and did Chapter 4 of Phonétique essentielle du français. Afterward, I practiced speaking for a few minutes, but I got frustrated and stopped. My speaking skills have definitely deteriorated during my break from French, as expected.

13Sep22: I listened to an episode of InnerFrench.

14Sep22: I listened to an episode of French Expat. It was the first episode in a series about French immersion programs for children. The school they discussed is in Milton, MA, which is right near Boston. I wish my school had had a French immersion program! It sounded really cool. Anyway, I also listened to an episode of another podcast called Témoignage, which was pretty interesting.

Later, I did Chapter 5 of Phonétique essentielle du français. Afterward, I still didn't feel satisfied with my pronunciation, so I practiced pronouncing sentences on Speechling.

15Sep22: I was supposed to go to a conversation event at the Alliance Française, but I ended up skipping it to hang out with my coworkers at happy hour.

16Sep22: I started listening to a podcast called Elles sont. Unlike Ça s'explique, the people in this podcast actually speak with a Québécois accent. Honestly, I really like the sound of Québécois—more so than Parisian French. However, I don't think it would be worth the effort to focus on Québécois specifically. All of my iTalki teachers are from France, too, and they probably wouldn't approve. :lol:
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:05 am

17Sep22–22Sep22

Spanish
17Sep22: I had a 45-minute lesson with Marina. It was my first lesson in twelve days, so I was a little rusty. We discussed our ideal houses, my trip to Spain, and learning French. She recommended an iTalki teacher from Quebec, since I mentioned I like the accent there.

21Sep22: I was supposed to have another lesson after work, but I cancelled it because I was too tired. Having lessons on weekdays was nice when I wanted to get a lot of speaking done before my trip to Spain, but now I don't have an upcoming trip to motivate me.

Besides what's listed above, I've also been reviewing my Anki cards and reading El tiempo entre costuras every day. I've now read 45% of the book.

French
18Sep22: I had my first French lesson in two and a half months. We talked about my new apartment and The Rings of Power. I did a better job speaking than I expected. :) I also spent more time reviewing my Anki cards.

23Sep22–25Sep22
I went away for the weekend and didn't spend any time on languages. To be honest, I'm feeling a little burnt out. Balancing Spanish and French is hard because I never know which one I should work on. Maybe setting some more defined goals would help. In the upcoming week, I'm going to have two more Spanish lessons and try to finish El tiempo entre costuras. Then I'll make some better goals for October!
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby galaxyrocker » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:58 am

philomath wrote:I went away for the weekend and didn't spend any time on languages. To be honest, I'm feeling a little burnt out. Balancing Spanish and French is hard because I never know which one I should work on. Maybe setting some more defined goals would help. In the upcoming week, I'm going to have two more Spanish lessons and try to finish El tiempo entre costuras. Then I'll make some better goals for October!


It's very easy to feel burnt out with one language at a time, let alone two! One thing I might suggest is that, instead of setting goals, you set 'microhabits'. Just something as simple as 'read 10 minutes of Spanish a day' or 'listen to a short news clip in French'. I've done this with some other aspects of my life, and I've found it does great wonders for keeping you on target and at least doing something. Then, if you feel like it, you can do more. But at least no day was wasted. It also helps with language learning as you can use it to do things you're interested in, like reading or watching/listening to something. I wouldn't start with the habit of, say, doing Anki daily, especially if there's lots of reviews to catch up (don't be afraid to turn off those new cards for a while as well; I do this when needed to allow myself to catch up if feeling stressed), as it's really not that fun, but listening to 5 songs in French? Much better.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Tue Sep 27, 2022 2:15 am

galaxyrocker wrote:It's very easy to feel burnt out with one language at a time, let alone two! One thing I might suggest is that, instead of setting goals, you set 'microhabits'. Just something as simple as 'read 10 minutes of Spanish a day' or 'listen to a short news clip in French'. I've done this with some other aspects of my life, and I've found it does great wonders for keeping you on target and at least doing something. Then, if you feel like it, you can do more. But at least no day was wasted. It also helps with language learning as you can use it to do things you're interested in, like reading or watching/listening to something. I wouldn't start with the habit of, say, doing Anki daily, especially if there's lots of reviews to catch up (don't be afraid to turn off those new cards for a while as well; I do this when needed to allow myself to catch up if feeling stressed), as it's really not that fun, but listening to 5 songs in French? Much better.

I've never had much luck maintaining language habits—I'm not sure why! Reading an article every day is a habit I would like to pick up though.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:50 pm

26Sep22–30Sep22

Spanish
26Sep22: I decided to buy the audiobook version of El tiempo entre costuras in the hope that listening along would help me read faster. Based on where I left off, I had 11 h 26 min left in the audiobook, which is around how long my commute is for the whole week. Looking at it that way was very motivating, and I ended up reading six chapters (55 pages) during my morning and evening commute.

27Sep22: Before work, I reviewed my Anki cards. I think this would be a good habit to build: reviewing my Spanish cards before work and my French cards after work. (If I review one after the other, I mix them up too much.) During my commute I continued reading El tiempo entre costuras while listening to the audiobook.

28Sep22: I continued reading El tiempo entre costuras during my commute. After work, I had a 30-minute lesson with Brian. It was at 7:30 instead of 7, so I had more time to get home from work and relax beforehand. Still, I really didn’t feel like having a lesson. I think I’m done with Spanish lessons for a while.

29Sep22 and 30Sep22: More reading El tiempo entre costuras. I'm now on page 490! There are 615 pages in total.

French
29Sep22: I listened to another episode of French Expat. I also realized I've been forgetting to update the Super Challenge Twitter bot about my listening! Fortunately I keep a pretty good record on this log and in a Google spreadsheet. Based on that, I calculated that I had forgotten to log 3 hours and 20 minutes worth of listening. Oops...

Other
I found a new language-learning resource: Hearling. You can enter a paragraph of text, and it uses AI to generate a recording. I checked it out for French, and there were multiple voices to choose from, from either France or Canada! I'm intrigued by this resource, although I'm still skeptical of relying on AI for pronunciation advice.
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September Results

Postby philomath » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:58 pm

September Results

Spanish
[X] Have four iTalki lessons.
[ ] Finish reading El tiempo entre costuras.
(Not quite: I reached page 490 out of 615.)
[X] Keep up with Anki reviews.

French
[X] Begin doing the exercises in Phonétique essentielle du français A1/A2.
(I did Chapters 1–5.)
[ ] Have two iTalki lessons.
(I only had one.)
[X] Keep up with Anki reviews.
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