Aliciaftw's 2016 TAC - Spanish & Korean

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
aliciaftw
White Belt
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 4:17 pm
Location: Glasgow
Languages: English (N), Learning Spanish and Korean
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1834
x 32
Contact:

Aliciaftw's 2016 TAC - Spanish & Korean

Postby aliciaftw » Sat Jan 02, 2016 10:21 pm

Hello! I joined the forum yesterday and the TAC challenge. As an undergraduate I took classes in several languages, (Mandarin, French, and Spanish) and flirted with others. However, I've never actually focused on a language and for the most part I've forgotten everything that was taught within those classes. My only 'strong' L2 is Spanish, and I'm using the term strong very loosely here! I study Linguistics, and I think part of my issue is I'm really fascinated in glancing at the overall structure of a language but I'm a bit apathetic about learning it for communicative purposes. Such a shallow understanding of a language won't allow me to truly understand the structure and nuances of a given language and I therefore really need to buckle down and focus on something!

That being said, my main goal is going to be to brush up on the Spanish concepts I've forgotten and to improve overall. On the side I'm also going to casually study Korean, (mainly because I'm in love with Korean dramas,) but this is really going to take the backseat to Spanish. I plan to create a weekly progress post.
Last edited by aliciaftw on Fri Jan 08, 2016 1:44 am, edited 3 times in total.
5 x

Spoonary
Blue Belt
Posts: 876
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:45 pm
Location: England
Languages: English (N)
Español (Adv), Italiano (Int), Esperanto (I try)
x 1656

Re: Aliciaftw's 2016 TAC - Spanish & Korean

Postby Spoonary » Sat Jan 02, 2016 10:30 pm

Greetings Alicia! It's always great to see someone else take on Spanish. I often forget what the beginner/intermediate stages were like and I enjoy watching people work through them. Does that make me :twisted: ?

I wish you all the best in your language study and I'll be following your log with interest :)
1 x

User avatar
Elenia
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1888
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 1:22 am
Location: London
Languages: English (N), Swedish (C1), French (Massively Atrophied) German (lowly beginner, somehow learnt to read)


Finnish?!
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=708
x 3280
Contact:

Re: Aliciaftw's 2016 TAC - Spanish & Korean

Postby Elenia » Sun Jan 03, 2016 1:53 am

Hey! I'm starting Korean this year too and, like you, it's taking a back seat to Swedish and German. Good luck!
1 x

User avatar
AiyaLianxi
White Belt
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2015 8:12 pm
x 21

Re: Aliciaftw's 2016 TAC - Spanish & Korean

Postby AiyaLianxi » Sun Jan 03, 2016 7:04 am

Korean's taking a front seat for me this year, but I'm excited to go through the language growing pains and drama heart aches together this year!
1 x

User avatar
aliciaftw
White Belt
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 4:17 pm
Location: Glasgow
Languages: English (N), Learning Spanish and Korean
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1834
x 32
Contact:

Re: Aliciaftw's 2016 TAC - Spanish & Korean

Postby aliciaftw » Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:05 pm

Week 1 Log
1/1/2016
Spanish
Vocabulary on Memrise

1/2/2016
Spanish
Began Como agua para chocolate
Korean
Pimsleur 1

1/3/2016
Spanish
Vocabulary on Memrise
Korean
Pimsleur 2

1/4/2016
Spanish
Reviewed object pronouns, past tense. 30 minutes listening practice

1/5/2016
Spanish
Reviewed infinitives and the informal future
Korean
Eggbun app: Consonants- ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ Vowels - ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅐ 13 Vocabulary words

1/6/2016
Korean
Eggbun app: Consonants - ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅊ Vowels - ㅡ, ㅣ,ㅔ, ㅛ, ㅠ 19 Vocabulary words

1/7/2016
Spanish
Reviewed the present participle, the informal future, and infinitives, and the present perfect
Korean
Eggbun Consonants - ᄏ, ᄐ, ᄑ, ᄒ Vowels - ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅒ, ㅖ, ㅘ 13 Vocabulary words
KFZ!: Course 1 Lesson A

Comments
- Pimsleur may be bad for someone who isn't an auditory learner. I was having issues remembering anything, so I think I'll be switching to Korean From Zero. (Thank you Evita and Woodsei for the recommendations.) I'm also messing around with a really cute app called Eggbun, but I'm not sure how great it is since I'm an absolute beginner.
- Como agua para chocolate is taking a lot of intensive reading right now. I'm not sure if the difficulty is too much or if this is typical when starting native materials.
- A new timetable for local language classes will be available on the 18th, so I'm really hoping to join a Spanish 'improvers' class at that time.
- Next week my university classes start again and I'll be picking up some books for Spanish at the language resource center. However, there's a total of 3 books on Korean at my school so I'm out of luck there..
- I don't know if I need an upper beginners or intermediate textbook for Spanish, but I wish I had a concrete way to track progress, lesson by lesson, like I can for Korean. Maybe I need to change the way I 'count' and start counting pages read and time listened or something.
- I need to download Hellotalk and stop being afraid to speak.
- On that note, next week I also need to make a Lang-8 account. Happily, I'm considerably less afraid of poor writing than poor speaking.

Goals for Next Week
Spanish
- Review past perfect. gerunds, haber usage, and the future tense.
- DELE B1 Vocabulary on Memrise - Las personas: su física, su carácter, y sus relaciones
- Pick up a couple graded readers and maybe a grammar book at school

Korean
- Korean From Zero sections B,C, D, E, F, G
- Finish Hangul lessons on Eggbun

General
- Create Lang-8 account
- Create Hello Talk account
- Actually use these accounts and stop being so shy.
3 x

Rotasu
Orange Belt
Posts: 247
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2015 3:40 am
Languages: English (N),
日本語 (A1)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1354
x 151

Re: Aliciaftw's 2016 TAC - Spanish & Korean

Postby Rotasu » Sat Jan 09, 2016 3:20 pm

aliciaftw wrote:- Create Lang-8 account
- Create Hello Talk account
- Actually use these accounts and stop being so shy.


For HelloTalk the most annoying part is finding someone who isn't just going to wait for you to asks the questions/start the conversation everyday x.x
2 x
Gone

Rotasu
Orange Belt
Posts: 247
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2015 3:40 am
Languages: English (N),
日本語 (A1)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1354
x 151

Re: Aliciaftw's 2016 TAC - Spanish & Korean

Postby Rotasu » Sat Jan 23, 2016 9:18 pm

aliciaftw wrote:Korean
- Korean From Zero sections B,C, D, E, F, G
- Finish Hangul lessons on Eggbun


How is your Korean coming along? Have you mastered hangul yet? xP
1 x
Gone

User avatar
aliciaftw
White Belt
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 4:17 pm
Location: Glasgow
Languages: English (N), Learning Spanish and Korean
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1834
x 32
Contact:

Re: Aliciaftw's 2016 TAC - Spanish & Korean

Postby aliciaftw » Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:32 pm

Hello all, I just wanted to give a quick update from my phone because I've been so absent. (I'm still around, just busy!)

Tuesday I started the Spanish class at my university. The environment is very relaxed and there's only seven of us. We're focusing on speaking and listening during class, and should receive some homework weekly for things like grammar and writing.

School really has me stressed. I finished my assessments that I went MIA for, but my semantics class is a hardcore discussion setting. Anytime I attempt to give input I receive a condescending, "...and?" from my teacher. Save me. However, I think this will end up being my focus (cognitive semantics - prototype theory, polysemy, metaphor etc) so I really want to work on my Spanish and Korean in order to open up the possibility of research in those areas.

I had been simply maintaining what I was going over before when things became busy, but I'm going to try to give a detailed weekly update as I had planned before. I should be adjusted to the new semester now and can make better use of my train and subway time. Also, I picked up a Spanish graded reader from my school's library. I'll detail more about the readers available for me later.
2 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests