Improving Spanish

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ErinMay
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2023 2:20 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (Beginner)
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Improving Spanish

Postby ErinMay » Wed Feb 01, 2023 7:09 pm

Hi, I have a crazy idea that I want to document, and see if I can actually achieve my goal.

My Spanish has pretty much been at the same level since I did my GCSE's in 2016, (didn't fail but also didn't do the best). But my interest in Spanish history has grown massively in the past few years and I want to be able to read academic history articles and books in Spanish, and possibly get to the point where I can publish something in Spanish (even if it's to a history website).

I moved to Murcia in Spain in October 2022 to work as a English speaking teaching assistant for the academic year with a little more than no Spanish (I could introduce myself and fill in immigration forms). My understanding is definitely higher than my input and I've decided to take the SIELE exam in May, hoping for A2/B1.

In roughly 5 years I'll be doing my masters in Medieval History with a focus on religion. My plan at the moment is to do it in Sweden but looking at mediveval Spain- where I'd ideally need to be able to read resources in Spanish. But I was also looking at doing my masters in Spain, where everything I'd be doing would be in Spanish.
I know people often do degrees in other languages than their native one, but they've also often had years of school language lessons, and possibly private lessons with a focus on academia. I'm also very dyslexic and have moderate hearing loss. My family is also very against me doing my masters abroad in the first place, let alone in another language. The few people I've also told have said that it will be impossible.

At the moment I'm doing 30 minutes to 90 minutes every day. I have a tutor on Italki who I meet for 45 minutes twice a week and I'm taking adult night classes three times a week.
- For reading I'm working through the 'un paseo por la historia' series (short historical fiction books about Spanish history), and am working through the graded readers by Paco Ardit.
- For listening I use Dreaming Spanish, Easy Spanish podcast. I'm also watching Pocoyó and Bolivar but with very little understanding. And music but not studying it, just having it in the background, maybe pick up one or two words.
- For grammar I'm working through the A1-B2 Gramática de uso book, YouTube videos and in my classes.
- Speaking is just in class but also with teachers at my school and my next door neighbour.
- Writing hasn't been touched outside of short answers for my language class, I need to find a way to work on this where I'll be able to get feedback. Don't feel confident enough yet to do the write streak on Reddit.

This year I've a massive amount of free time. From next year it will go down massively as I'll start teacher training in September and then be a secondary school history teacher but hopefully I'll still be able to do at least 5 hours over a week. I hope to after the mandatory years in the UK that I can move to a Spanish speaking country to teach in an international school.

I also want to improve my Spanish as I feel it should be better than it is. I lived in Spain for two years as a young child (5-7 ish) but once we moved back to the UK my parents didn't practice Spanish with us. Then in secondary school I did French, Spanish and Latin from age 11 to 14 where I then dropped French and did Spanish and Latin to 16. I didn't put as much effort as I could have but I was also going through some stuff and there was very little support for my deafness and dyslexica (because who decided that the deaf dyslexic kid should do three languages that are very similar, I mean I did choose to do Latin and Spanish for GCSE so that parts on me). So yeah I feel my Spanish is far to low for where I 'should' be.
Last edited by ErinMay on Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Improving Spanish

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Thu Feb 02, 2023 8:01 pm

You've identified some sources for working on your deficiencies. Looks like all you got to do is stick to it.
Good luck, and welcome to the Forum.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

ErinMay
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2023 2:20 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (Beginner)
x 15

Re: Improving Spanish

Postby ErinMay » Thu Mar 30, 2023 10:22 pm

It's been almost two months and I feel that my Spanish is improving, although very slowly. It could also be my confidence as I'm focusing on practicing speaking a lot.

Monday to Thursday I do at least 2 hours of Spanish every day, a mixture of private and group lessons and self-study, Friday to Sunday I do around 30 minutes. I've been really focused on grammar, particularly tense conjugations, and have been trying to practice listening and speaking and letting conversations flow.

I'm about to go on a two-week trip around the Baltic countries so I'm not sure how much actual studying I will be doing but I've downloaded a couple of audiobooks in Spanish, the Language Transfer podcast, and a couple of documentaries on Netflix to do some general engagement. My Spanish tutor has also asked me to write a few short sentences each day about what I did.

Once I'm back in mid-April, I'm going to;
Reading- finish the 'un paseo por la historia' series and listen to the audio as well and read some dual language books from the library.
Listening- Continue with Dreaming Spanish and watching TV shows and series. I've also started to listen to songs and sing along to them to improve comprehension and pronunciation.
Speaking- I have decided to stop the group classes but I'll continue speaking classes with my tutor and the teachers at school.
Writing- Once I'm back I'll start the Reddit writing streak to practice writing as that is definitely a skill I've been neglecting.
I'm also going to be doing some practice exam papers to prepare for the SIELE exam in May. Although I don't want to purely study for the exam, I'm quite happy to just let it happen as I want an idea of where I am and which areas need improvement. Rather than needing a grade for work and other people.
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