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

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

Postby philomath » Sat Jan 01, 2022 6:03 pm

Happy New Year! As always, I've made a new language log. My previous ones can be found at the links below:


This year, I plan to continue learning Spanish, French, and Italian. I'd like to improve my active skills in each of them, but I still haven't figured out how to manage multiple languages. I'll probably focus on Italian for the first half of the year because I want to go to Italy in May.

In order to keep myself focused, I'm going to set monthly goals for myself. I also thought it would be fun to track my Anki stats throughout the year. My next post in this log will be a table of contents, where I will link each month's post when it is written.
Last edited by philomath on Wed Nov 09, 2022 4:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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philomath
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Monthly Posts

Postby philomath » Sat Jan 01, 2022 6:18 pm

Last edited by philomath on Sat Dec 31, 2022 4:43 pm, edited 17 times in total.
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philomath
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January Goals

Postby philomath » Sat Jan 01, 2022 7:21 pm

Anki Stats
  • Spanish: 531 cards, 45% mature
  • French: 2116 cards, 96% mature
  • Italian: 565 cards, 17% mature
  • Ancient Greek: 80 cards, 95% mature

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

Spanish
[ ] Review Anki flashcards.

French
[ ] Book another lesson on iTalki.
[ ] Review Anki flashcards.

Italian
[ ] Review Assimil Lessons 1-19.
[ ] Do more listening practice.
[ ] Review Anki flashcards.
[ ] Continue reading L'Italiano secondo il Metodo Natura.
Last edited by philomath on Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Fri Jan 07, 2022 4:25 am

01Jan22–06Jan22

Spanish
I listened to two podcasts: Español with Juan for 15 minutes and Radio Ambulante for 25 minutes.

French
The last season of Plan Coeur came out on Netflix! I decided to rewatch the show from the beginning because it's not very long. I've already finished the first season. I had trouble deciding whether I should use French subtitles or not. I like being able to write down interesting words and phrases, but I know I'm not improving my listening comprehension by reading the subtitles. I ended up watching around half of the episodes with subtitles and the other half without.

Italian
I reviewed Assimil Lessons 1-5.
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:16 am

07Jan22–09Jan22

French
07Jan22: I read through the subtitles for Episodes 1-2 of Plan Coeur and took notes. There were lots of words and phrases that I didn't know, so I only wrote down the ones that seemed the most important.

Italian
08Jan22: I watched half of The Hand of God using the Language Reactor extension. I didn't find it interesting enough to finish, but I learned a lot of words.

09Jan22: I reviewed Assimil Lessons 6-7.

It's only the second week of 2022, but I've already changed my language plans. As I mentioned in my first post, I was planning to focus on Italian for the first half of the year and go to Italy in May. However, due to the pandemic my boyfriend and I have decided to travel to somewhere closer instead: Montreal! So I'll be studying a lot of French in the next few months. I'm really looking forward to speaking French while I'm there and I'm really, really looking forward to visiting Librairie Michel Fortin. :D
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Wed Jan 19, 2022 2:20 am

10Jan22–18Jan22
I haven't been feeling well these past few days—first COVID and now tooth pain—so it's been difficult to focus on language-learning.

Spanish
13Jan22: I read an article from Vogue México and made a few Anki flashcards.

14Jan22: I listened to an episode of Quémese después de Escuchar.

18Jan22: I read an article from El País about the pandemic.

French
10Jan22: I watched Season 2 Episode 1 of Plan Coeur. For the most part I watched without subtitles, but sometimes I turned them on to understand what was happening.

Later, I listened to InnerFrench for 10 minutes, and then I did Lesson 1 of Pimsleur French II in order to improve my pronunciation. Whenever I take a long break from French, my pronunciation gets a lot worse. I think Pimsleur helped though. Finally, I made some flashcards and wrote for 10 minutes.

13Jan22: I watched another episode of Plan Coeur, without subtitles.

18Jan22: I listened to an episode of Transfert. I understood it really well, which was exciting!

Italian
10Jan22: I reviewed Assimil Lessons 8-9.
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Cerebral_Arbitrage
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby Cerebral_Arbitrage » Wed Jan 19, 2022 11:15 pm

philomath wrote: I haven't been feeling well these past few days—first COVID and now tooth pain—so it's been difficult to focus on language-learning.


Hi Amanda, I just wanted to stop by to say I'm so sorry you haven't been feeling well and I hope you're on the mend. It's impressive how much you did accomplish despite not feeling your best.
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:28 am

Cerebral_Arbitrage wrote:
philomath wrote: I haven't been feeling well these past few days—first COVID and now tooth pain—so it's been difficult to focus on language-learning.


Hi Amanda, I just wanted to stop by to say I'm so sorry you haven't been feeling well and I hope you're on the mend. It's impressive how much you did accomplish despite not feeling your best.


Thank you! I feel a lot better this weekend. :)
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:30 am

Lately I've been trying to figure out how I can balance learning multiple languages and working on my writing projects. These are my current priorities, listed from most to least important:

  1. Writing (non-language-related)
  2. Improving my French before I go to Montréal in mid-May
  3. Learning Italian
  4. Improving, or at least maintaining, my Spanish active skills

If I were being practical, I would focus on my top two priorities only. But... I want to work on all four. I think it's doable if I stay disciplined. My biggest question is: what's the minimum amount of effort I need to put into Spanish in order to maintain my active skills? I've read a few threads on this forum about maintaining target languages, and most of the comments recommended listening and reading for maintenance. However I think my speaking skills will decline if I only do that. Instead I'll try this:

  • Continue listening to podcasts and reading articles whenever I feel like it
  • Have an iTalki lesson every two weeks
  • Practice writing on the weekends I don't have an iTalki lesson

We'll see how it goes!
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stell
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby stell » Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:58 am

While reading and listening are great for maintenance, I find that I definitely need to keep speaking if I want to maintain my productive skills. I’m currently trying to de-rust-ify my Spanish after some neglect, and while my reading and listening comprehension are still strong, speaking is definitely the skill where I saw the biggest decline. I think that planning on a few conversations per month is a great idea.
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