Dean slowly learns Spanish

[Jaleel10]

Surprised that no one has mentioned comic books (or graphic novels and manga). It's essentially native level content without the 'eyesore' that a novel gives. There is also no pressure to understand or look up every unknown word, idiom or phrase because the pictures can sometimes provide context and more often than not the vocabulary repeats many times. Oh and the most important thing? It's fun!



I am currently reading Walking Dead. It's fantastic and sometimes (can probably count them on my hand) I even forget that I am reading something in a different language Just another option to consider.

[M23]

Surprised that no one has mentioned comic books (or graphic novels and manga). It's essentially native level content without the 'eyesore' that a novel gives. There is also no pressure to understand or look up every unknown word, idiom or phrase because the pictures can sometimes provide context and more often than not the vocabulary repeats many times. Oh and the most important thing? It's fun!

There is that, too. Thanks for jumping in there, Jaleel.

The last time I was in Germany I picked a couple One Punch Man mangas to chip away at.

[Vasant12]

Spanish is one of the famous language in Europe and normally huge number of Spanish people can speak, write Spanish language easily, if any person are outside of local country then he/she should do some hard-work on Spanish take some classes for learn language and join some of language school for get better chance to learn Spanish language.

[MonoDeano]

However, I believe Anki helped an incredible amount in my building and increasing my vocabulary, and also becoming acquainted and familiar with multiple uses of a word, phrases, prepositions, and so on. Think of it this way though, although it’s true it does take time to create and build a deck, you’re essentially creating your own personal dictionary, unique to your own interests and what you find important in a language.... So overall I’d highly recommend it, despite the time involved, as creating the cards and reviewing them every day, really does help you hone in on details within the language, whether that be tricky grammatical structures such as the subjunctive, learning slang, learning subtle differences in meaning between related words, whatever. That’s the beauty of it, it is what you make it.

Thanks Chmury. That's really useful and insightful. It confirms my hope that I know what I should be doing to improve. It also confirms my suspicion that there is no shortcut. It's just going to be a really long journey of teasing out the language with exposure and taking the time to study it actively. Given that, I'm going to have to make sure to keep it enjoyable and engaging while plodding along. Thanks!

[MonoDeano]

What I did for Polish was to take a 5 minute podcast with the transcription in Polish and create a parallel text, color-coding certain words/phrases.
1) Then, I L+R using this parallel text a few times until I felt like I had a good sense of what the sentences were about.
2) Then I'd listen to that same podcast without the text a few times and make note of the places where I got confused.
3) Then L+R again, focusing on the areas where I got lost without the text.
4) Then listen again without the text.

I could easily spend an hour with a 5 minute podcast, but by the end of it, I could follow that podcast without a text and understand very well. The next day I'd listen again to see if I got lost again, and if so I'd L+R once more. Then a few weeks later return to the podcast. Every time I read or listen to something new, I then return to something old and listen again. At this point, I've done this with over 300 5 minute podcasts and listening is one of my strongest skills. I can usually follow normal-speed conversations or the news even if I'm missing some words. It takes a long time, but as long as you are consistent and patient, you will get much better!

Thanks StringerBell, This is really useful! I can see that time AND intensity are a HUGE part of the process. It’s not a matter of fumbling around and hoping for language osmosis. Your break down for time and repetition for each audio clip is really interesting. It’s actually reassuring to see that everyone starts in the same place and having to repeat and focus so intensely on a 5 minute clip is normal! It makes me think I may be missing something by moving through material too quickly for fear of getting bogged down and burned out with individual pieces. Now that I’ve got quite a few VeinteMundo articles under my belt, it’s probably a good time to go over them and focus on the audio.

[James29]

I'd suggest finding a book that is easy enough for you to read and enjoy it. Use a kindle and touch every word you do not know to see the pop up translation. By doing that the Kindle will automatically save the word and the sentence it is in into the Kindle's "vocabulary builder." The vocabulary builder is essentially an electronic flash card system. Whenever you want to read you can read and whenever you want to review vocab you have flash cards already made. This is going to be the most efficient way to do things in terms of vocab acquisition.

Can it do it with phrases too, or just single words?

Yes. That is what it does. It takes the single word and makes a flash card out of it. On the Spanish "side" it has the phrase/sentence so you see the word in context.

[StringerBell]

It makes me think I may be missing something by moving through material too quickly for fear of getting bogged down and burned out with individual pieces. Now that I’ve got quite a few VeinteMundo articles under my belt, it’s probably a good time to go over them and focus on the audio.

Everyone has a different tolerance for repetition. I mentioned on another thread that what works for me is to use both repetition and novelty; too much repetition and I get bored and can't focus but too much novelty and a lot goes over my head and I'm always working at full capacity to try to understand.

I do the heavy repetition with things that I find particularly interesting and I spend less time with material that's less interesting. I also find it unexpectedly interesting to return to material I thought was so-so many months ago (and therefore blew through it quickly). Sometimes I'm surprised to find that I no longer find it as boring as I once did, or I come across some really cool words/expressions that I had forgotten.

This is obvious, but it's worth mentioning that if you start reading or listening to something really intensively but then you feel like you're getting sick of it, you can move on to something else before you get to the end. You don't have to make a till-death-do-us-part commitment to reading or listening to anything intensively; you can LR intensively to 1 minute of a 10 minute podcast and then go on to something else, and maybe return to listening intensively later on (if you want).

Anytime I'm doing something and I suddenly feel like I just don't want to do it anymore, I change up what I'm doing. Usually, a few days later I'm mysteriously happy to finish up what I left hanging. I think the important thing is to feel like you're in control of what and when you decide to do something in Spanish and that it doesn't feel like a punishment you're inflicting on yourself or an obligation (in which case you will find ways to avoid it as much as possible). So if listening intensively or repetition isn't your thing, don't do it. Or do it for a short period of time, like 10 minutes. Even if less repetition is less effective, it's still more effective than doing nothing, so who cares if it takes little longer to reach your goal if you are doing it the way you prefer?

[iguanamon]

... I know what I should be doing to improve. It also confirms my suspicion that there is no shortcut. It's just going to be a really long journey of teasing out the language with exposure and taking the time to study it actively. Given that, I'm going to have to make sure to keep it enjoyable and engaging while plodding along.

There's some good advice above on this page. This is really good advice you gave yourself here! Daily exposure to reading, listening, plus study where needed is what it takes for it all to come together in a meaningful way. I've seen several "mono" learners here get frustrated and bounce around while seeking the ever-illusive shortcut that will be the "magic pill" to provide rapid advancement... never finding it and quitting as a result. Persistence and consistency are key. It takes months to train listening. The intermediate stage is a slog in your first second language. Don't let it get you down. You'll get there.