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 » Mon Feb 07, 2022 12:47 pm

05Feb22–06Feb22

French
05Feb22: I watched YouTube videos for one hour, without subtitles. Two of the videos were book reviews and one of the videos was about creative writing. I learned a few words and made flashcards for them.

I also spent a lot of time on Speechling. I really like it! I already finished the entire Beginner 1 curriculum. I could tell that my vowel sounds need some work.

Finally, I wrote for 15 minutes to prepare for my iTalki lesson the following morning. I think my writing skills have really gone downhill. I need to practice more, but it's hard to think of topics to write about.

06Feb22: I had a lesson with the same iTalki teacher as always! He kept assuring me that my speaking skills were great, but I was really struggling. I kept forgetting words, stumbling over the pronunciation, etc. :( I hope my next lesson goes better.

I also read another chapter of La familia grande while listening to the audiobook. Unlike usual, this time I tried pausing after every sentence and repeating it out loud.

Italian
05Feb22: I did Assimil Lessons 17–18.

06Feb22: I did some more Duolingo lessons. I hit a Duolingo streak and was given three days of Duolingo Plus, which is nice because it lets me test out of levels more quickly. That being said, I think all of the Duolingo I've done this week has been a huge waste of time. Instead I should learn grammar and vocab that will help me have conversations.
6 x

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

Postby philomath » Fri Feb 11, 2022 1:04 pm

07Feb22–10Feb22

Spanish
07Feb22: I listened to an episode of El hilo.

09Feb22: I finished listening to the previous episode of El hilo. It was about the use of bitcoin in El Salvador and I thought it was pretty interesting. It was also good practice for translating large numbers from Spanish to English.

French
10Feb22: I practiced some more sentences on Speechling.

Italian
07Feb22: I wrote a little bit about my family, using DeepL and Linguee to look up words. Then I posted my writing on iTalki.

09Feb22: I did Assimil Lessons 19–20. I've now caught up to where I reached during the Six Week Challenge in November!

Thoughts
I'm starting to feel too disorganized lately. I'm working on too many languages and other hobbies at the same time. Maybe a list of priorities would help me? That way when I have free time in the evening, I won't spend so much time deciding what to do.
5 x

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

Postby philomath » Tue Feb 15, 2022 1:36 pm

11Feb22–14Feb22

Spanish
12Feb22: I wrote a few paragraphs about my New Year's resolutions and posted them on iTalki. According to the two corrections I received, I only made a couple of minor mistakes. :)

13Feb22: I had a 45-minute lesson with the same iTalki teacher as last time. It was fun! I hadn't found an article for us to discuss, so instead we talked about the snow, Valentine's Day, and sports. She was very easy to talk to. However I felt like I was speaking very clumsily and struggling with verb conjugations. Reading out loud more often might help me with the first problem. Maybe reviewing conjugation tables from time to time would help me with the second? I'd rather not spend time on something like FSI drills when my real focus right now is French.

14Feb22: I wrote a little bit about Valentine’s Day.
3 x

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

Postby philomath » Thu Feb 17, 2022 5:15 am

15Feb22–16Feb22

French
15Feb22: I read another chapter of La familia grande while listening to the audiobook.

16Feb22: I continued pronouncing sentences on Speechling. I'm now halfway done with the Beginner 2 curriculum. I thought my pronunciation was better today, but sometimes my pronunciation of /y/ sounded a little bit off.

Later, I read an article from Slate France about postpartum depression in fathers. I was able to understand the article well, but there were still a lot of words I didn't know. I made flashcards for some of them: écrasé, se noyer, la rechute, soudé, etc.

Italian
15Feb22: I listened to an episode of Italiano con Amore and watched a video from the YouTube channel Learn Italian with Lucrezia.

16Feb22: I did Assimil Lesson 21, which was a review lesson. It included example sentences for the most common prepositions, which I found very helpful. I might also spend some time skimming an Italian grammar book like Modern Italian Grammar: A Practical Guide. I'm very eager to learn more about the past tense and the subjunctive. I think I've already got a decent grasp on the passato prossimo, but I've been relying a lot on my knowledge of French, and that might not be a good idea.
2 x

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

Postby philomath » Sun Feb 20, 2022 5:19 am

17Feb22–19Feb22

French
17Feb22: I listened to a few minutes of Transfert, but the train was too noisy to hear well. Later, I wrote a few sentences about my plans for the weekend.

19Feb22: Recently rdearman shared a document with a list of conversation topics. I decided to go through it and practice speaking and writing about each one. (It's a huge list, so I don't think I'll finish it any time soon.) The first question was "Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?" This was a good topic for practicing conditional sentences.

Later, I did some more pronunciation practice on Speechling. Then I spent almost an hour writing in order to prepare for my French lesson the following morning. First I wrote about health insurance and having to get my wisdom teeth removed, and then I wrote about a charity event I'll be going to. I had to look up a lot of words while I wrote. I made Anki flashcards for some of them, but I don't want to overdo it by making too many. I should practice writing more often.

Ancient Greek
18Feb22: Ancient Greek is definitely not a priority for me, but I've been continuing to review my Anki cards almost every day. I had the day off from work, so I made flashcards for the vocabulary in Lessons 5–6 of my textbook. Previously I'd been making cards using the "Basic (and reversed card)" note type, but I decided to switch everything to just the Basic type. I also decreased the number of new cards per day from 15 to 5.
2 x

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

Postby philomath » Tue Feb 22, 2022 12:10 am

20Feb22–21Feb22

French
20Feb22: I had a 45-minute lesson with the same iTalki teacher as always. We both agreed that I spoke a lot better than last time. I guess all of the writing I did the day before really paid off! However, I still felt embarrassed by the decline in my speaking skills. I made a lot of silly mistakes, like confusing the words après and avant, which was odd because I definitely know those words! I did better at conjugating verbs, but I still had some problems. For example I forgot the past participle of se plaindre. After the lesson, I practiced conjugating verbs in the passé composé and reviewed a list of irregular past participles.

21Feb22: I had another day off from work, so in the morning I practiced more sentences on Speechling and listened to an episode of InnerFrench. Then I had a 45-minute lesson with a new iTalki teacher. This was the first time in my 2+ years of learning French that I had a conversation with someone other than my usual teacher. I was a little nervous before the lesson, but it went pretty well. He sent me an image with ten misconceptions about healthy foods, and we discussed each one. I'm not used to discussing food, so I learned a lot of new words. At the end of the lesson, he sent me another image that we can discuss during the next lesson. I really appreciated that he had another topic ready right away.

Italian
21Feb22: I did Assimil Lesson 22. I haven't been good at doing Assimil regularly, or studying Italian at all for that matter. Now that I'm no longer planning to go to Italy in May, there's no sense of urgency to learn it. I keep wondering whether I should put it aside completely, but I don't want to... I suppose there's no harm in continuing to study at this snail-like pace.

I've thought of a rule for myself: if I skip my daily Assimil lesson, the next day I need to repeat the previous lesson in addition to doing the next one. That should encourage me to keep doing one lesson per day to avoid having to redo them.
7 x

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

Postby philomath » Sun Feb 27, 2022 3:06 am

22Feb22–26Feb22

Spanish
23Feb22: I read the daily newsletter from El País during my commute.

24Feb22: I listened to Hablando con científicos.

26Feb22: I listened to the same episode of Hablando con científicos and tried to take notes. It was harder than I thought! I think I should take notes more often because it forces me to pay closer attention to all of the words.

Italian
22Feb22: I did Assimil Lesson 23.

23Feb22: I did Assimil Lesson 24. I listened to the dialogue twice and repeated after the speaker both times.

24Feb22: I did Assimil Lesson 25. The rule I made for myself has really kept me motivated! I also started reading Chapter 3 of L'Italiano secondo il metodo natura, but it's so dull. I need to read something more advanced. I think I'll try reading L'amica geniale by Elena Ferrante. I have the English translation which I can refer to if I find the Italian too difficult.

26Feb22: Since I missed the day before, I redid Assimil Lesson 25 and then did Lesson 26.
3 x

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February Results

Postby philomath » Tue Mar 01, 2022 12:01 am

It's time for my February summary! I only completed one of my goals this month:

philomath wrote:Anki Stats
  • Spanish: 564 cards, 67% mature --> 596 cards, 92% mature
  • French: 2165 cards, 97% mature --> 2358 cards, 91% mature
  • Italian: 566 cards, 26% mature --> 592 cards, 42% mature
  • Ancient Greek: 80 cards, 100% mature --> 72 cards, 54% 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. (I had one.)
[ ] Practice writing on the weekends I don't have an iTalki lesson. (Nope...)

French
[X] Do two iTalki lessons! (I had three, including one with a new teacher!)
[ ] Practice speaking or writing at least two times per week (not counting iTalki lessons). (I didn't practice speaking outside of my iTalki lessons, and I wrote a few times but not as often as twice a week.)

Italian
[ ] Do Assimil Lessons 15-35. (I did Lessons 15-26.)
[ ] Read Chapters 3-6 of L'Italiano secondo il Metodo Natura. (I decided the book is too boring to read.)


Stats
  • Spanish: 4.00 hours (62% L, 19% S, 4% R, 15% W, 0% O)
  • French: 8.58 hours (23% L, 26% S, 12% R, 18% W, 21% O)
  • Italian: 2.33 hours (14% L, 0% S, 0% R, 11% W, 75% O)
2 x

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Re: March Goals

Postby philomath » Tue Mar 01, 2022 1:01 pm

Anki Stats

Spanish: 596 cards, 92% mature
French: 2358 cards, 91% mature
Italian: 592 cards, 42% mature
Ancient Greek: 72 cards, 54% mature

Goals

Spanish
[ ] Have one iTalki lesson.

French
[ ] Finish Beginner Levels 1-3 on Speechling.
[ ] Have two iTalki lessons.
[ ] Write 2000 words.

Italian
[ ] Do Assimil Lessons 27-50.
[ ] Start reading L'amica geniale.
Last edited by philomath on Sun Mar 06, 2022 2:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sun Mar 06, 2022 2:32 pm

01Mar22–05Mar22

Spanish
01Mar22: I listened to Radio Ambulante for 15 minutes.

02Mar22: I listened to Radio Ambulante for 45 minutes. The episode was about a man who was obsessed with finding palindromes. Here's a fun palindrome in Spanish: "Yo hago yoga hoy."

French
03Mar22: I listened to the podcast La Méthode scientifique.

Italian
02Mar22: I redid Assimil Lesson 26 and then did Lesson 27.

03Mar22: I did Assimil Lesson 28.

05Mar22: I did Assimil Lesson 29.

Thoughts
Last week I was more excited to study Spanish than French. There are so many podcasts in Spanish that I enjoy, like Hablando con científicos. I would probably enjoy science podcasts in French as well, except they're harder for me to understand. I know I just need to listen more and eventually I'll understand more.

My goals for March include having one Spanish lesson and two French lessons, so I went ahead and booked all of them. I always like to have my lessons at the same time: Saturday or Sunday at 11am. Having a lesson at any other time feels like a real inconvenience. However, I found a French teacher on iTalki who seems really great, but doesn't offer lessons on weekends. So I booked a lesson with him for a Friday at 8pm. Maybe I'll enjoy having a lesson at that time, and then I can fit in more lessons per week!
3 x


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