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 » Thu Jan 27, 2022 4:46 am

19Jan22–26Jan22

Spanish
I listened to the podcasts Hablando con científicos and Radio Ambulante.

French
I listened to the podcast French Expat and watched a few YouTube videos: some from a YouTuber in France and some from one in Quebec. I feel much more comfortable with the Québécois accent now, but maybe I'm just used to that one YouTuber.

I also read a little bit of La familia grande by Camille Kouchner. I'm 13% done with the book, but I'm not sure if I'll finish it.

Italian
I listened to the podcast Italiano con Amore and watched a few videos from the YouTube channel Learn Italian with Lucrezia. Besides teaching Italian, she makes vlogs about her life in Italy which are fun to watch. I used the Language Reactor extension to watch with English and Italian subtitles at the same time.

I also redid Assimil Lessons 10-11 and read Chapter 2 of L'Italiano secondo il Metodo Natura.
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lemonbird
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby lemonbird » Fri Jan 28, 2022 2:14 am

philomath wrote:I feel much more comfortable with the Québécois accent now, but maybe I'm just used to that one YouTuber.

Salut Amanda! J'ai monté ce document où je liste plusieurs chaînes YouTubes québécoise: https://beneficial-macadamia-9d4.notion.site/Immersion-Qu-bec-6ca43f3c75fc43e1ac49801ccddae3d2 ça te permettra peut-être de tester ta compréhension orale et de voir si tu comprennais bien juste le youtubeur que tu connaissais déjà ou si tu comprends bien l'accent en général :)
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sat Jan 29, 2022 5:58 pm

lemonbird wrote:Salut Amanda! J'ai monté ce document où je liste plusieurs chaînes YouTubes québécoise: https://beneficial-macadamia-9d4.notion.site/Immersion-Qu-bec-6ca43f3c75fc43e1ac49801ccddae3d2 ça te permettra peut-être de tester ta compréhension orale et de voir si tu comprennais bien juste le youtubeur que tu connaissais déjà ou si tu comprends bien l'accent en général :)

Salut, merci pour la liste de youtubeurs !
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:31 pm

27Jan22–29Jan22

Spanish
29Jan22: I had a 45-minute iTalki lesson. This was my first lesson with this teacher, so we spent the whole time talking about general topics. I spoke better than I expected, but I still made silly mistakes: mixing up los and las, ser and estar, etc. Even though I knew when to use which one, I was speaking too quickly and the wrong word would come out. I think I did a good job with verb conjugations though, which was nice. For our next lesson, my teacher said I can send her an article or a short video that I want to discuss. I think that'll be great for improving my speaking skills, so I'm looking forward to it!

Later, I spent 30 minutes writing about the blizzard in Boston today. I posted my writing on iTalki and got a lot of corrections. I don’t really know how to discuss the weather in any of my target languages besides simple sentences like “It’s hot”, “It was raining”, etc.

French
27Jan22: I listened to an episode of Kiffe ta race during my commute. Compared to previous episodes, I was able to understand this one pretty well. I also reread Chapter 2 of La familia grande while listening to the audiobook. I noticed a few phrases I had been mispronouncing when I read the chapter the first time. Then I read Chapter 3 while listening along. I had to pause a couple of times to look up words, but overall reading is easier when I listen simultaneously. Since it was less tedious, it made me more interested in the book.

Edited to add:
Italian
29Jan22: I reviewed Assimil Lessons 12–14. There are a lot of typos in my book! I don't mind them because they're easy to figure out, but it's surprising given how popular the Assimil books are...
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January 2022 Summary

Postby philomath » Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:12 am

Below I've quoted my post from the beginning of January and added my progress in blue text.
philomath wrote:Anki Stats
  • Spanish: 531 cards, 45% mature -> 564 cards, 67% mature
  • French: 2116 cards, 96% mature -> 2165 cards, 97% mature
  • Italian: 565 cards, 17% mature -> 566 cards, 26% mature
  • Ancient Greek: 80 cards, 95% mature -> 80 cards, 100% mature

Goals
Currently I'm feeling a bit burnt out, so I'd like to take it easy for the month:

Spanish
[X] Review Anki flashcards.

French
[X] Book another lesson on iTalki. (Technically I booked two lessons, but I didn't actually have them: I had to cancel one and then my teacher cancelled the second.)
[X] Review Anki flashcards.

Italian
[ ] Review Assimil Lessons 1–19. (I only reviewed Lessons 1–14.)
[X] Do more listening practice.
[X] Review Anki flashcards.
[X] Continue reading L'Italiano secondo il Metodo Natura. (I finished reading Chapter 2.)

And here's how much time I spent on each language, with the percentage of time I spent on listening, speaking, reading, writing, and other activities:

Stats
  • Spanish: 3.25 hours (68% L, 18% S, 8% R, 0% W, 6% O)
  • French: 9.25 hours (70% L, 1% S, 8% R, 3% W, 18% O)
  • Italian: 3.33 hours (55% L, 0% S, 0% R, 0% W, 45% O)
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February Goals

Postby philomath » Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:27 am

Anki Stats
  • Spanish: 564 cards, 67% mature
  • French: 2165 cards, 97% mature
  • Italian: 566 cards, 26% mature
  • Ancient Greek: 80 cards, 100% mature

Goals
Last month I took it easy and didn't set very high goals in any of my target languages. In February I'd like to step it up and do more speaking and writing.

Spanish
[ ] Do two iTalki lessons.
[ ] Practice writing on the weekends I don't have an iTalki lesson.

French
[ ] Do two iTalki lessons.
[ ] Practice speaking or writing at least two times per week (not counting iTalki lessons).

Italian
[ ] Do Assimil Lessons 15-35.
[ ] Read Chapters 3-6 of L'Italiano secondo il Metodo Natura.
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:42 am

01Feb22–03Feb22

Spanish
01Feb22: I listened to an episode of Quémese después de escuchar.

French
01Feb22: I wrote about the weather for 10 minutes and posted it on iTalki for corrections.

02Feb22: I tried Glossika for 30 minutes. More on that at the end of this post.

Italian
01Feb22: I did a few lessons on Duolingo and had fun, although I didn’t learn anything new.

03Feb22: I did more Duolingo and finished Assimil Lessons 15–16.

German
01Feb22: I did a few lessons on Duolingo.

02Feb22. More Duolingo...

Thoughts on Duolingo, Glossika, and Speechling
In general, I've never been a big fan of Duolingo. It has less to do with the app itself and more to do with the fact that so many people use it as their only language-learning resource. Still, the other day I suddenly wanted to download Duolingo and give it another try. I ended up doing a few Italian lessons and then switching to German for a bit. It was a lot of fun, but I didn't really learn anything. I was being too much of a perfectionist, trying to complete all of the levels for a given unit before moving on to the next one. Duolingo is so repetitive! I need to change my approach and move on if a topic is too easy.

Another website I tried this week is Glossika. Lately I've been wanting to improve my pronunciation in Spanish and French, and I don't think Pimsleur is very useful past a beginner level. So I signed up for a free trial of Glossika and spent around 30 minutes drilling French sentences. I set the speed to 0.9X and tried to repeat after the recording. It was all right, but I don't think it's worth the cost of the subscription.

Then today I found out about Speechling! I haven't tried it yet but it looks very promising. Has anyone else used it?
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby lingua » Fri Feb 04, 2022 6:05 am

I used Speechling a lot for Italian and a little for German and French a couple of years ago but let my subscription lapse. I just paid for a year so I can use it for German again. You can use their sentences/vocabulary or create your own. A native speaker will correct you. I think it's useful especially if you target words or phrases that you know you have trouble with. There is an old thread about Speechling on this site.
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Super Challenge 2022-23:
DE: books: 0 / 2500 film: 1654 / 4500
IT: books: 3065 / 5000 film: 5031 / 9000
PT: books: 2921 / 5000 film: 5010 / 9000

Output Challenge 2023:
IT: write: 0 / 50000 record: 84 / 3000
PT: write: 0 / 50000 record: 0 / 3000

PT: Read 100 books: 28 / 100

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

Postby lemonbird » Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:29 pm

philomath wrote: I was being too much of a perfectionist, trying to complete all of the levels for a given unit before moving on to the next one. Duolingo is so repetitive! I need to change my approach and move on if a topic is too easy.


I recommend that you try the rainbow technique for Duolingo. Try having one line of lessons at level 4, the next line at level 3, and so forth. This assure that you have enough variety and make a pause before reviewing a topic. (I can't imagine what a bore it would be to do level 1 to 5 of a topic consecutively)

Captura de Pantalla 2022-02-06 a la(s) 12.23.52.png

(I think the image is appearing really big, I don't know how to make it smaller… My rainbow is not perfect but you get the idea.)
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:52 pm

lemonbird wrote:
philomath wrote: I was being too much of a perfectionist, trying to complete all of the levels for a given unit before moving on to the next one. Duolingo is so repetitive! I need to change my approach and move on if a topic is too easy.


I recommend that you try the rainbow technique for Duolingo. Try having one line of lessons at level 4, the next line at level 3, and so forth. This assure that you have enough variety and make a pause before reviewing a topic. (I can't imagine what a bore it would be to do level 1 to 5 of a topic consecutively)

That's a good idea! I like having a structure to follow.
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