Dean slowly learns Spanish

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MonoDeano
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Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby MonoDeano » Sun Jan 17, 2016 10:38 am

Happy New Year all,

After following a few blogs (James29 and Stelle specifically) I've decided to get involved and write a weekly blog to have my goals and progress written down every week. I see the accountability and the commitment to the blog as a key part of 2016 Spanish goals.

For background, I've never taken a Spanish course but was quite diligent for about 4-6 months of study. I got through Assimil Spanish with Ease, Practice Makes Perfect, a few dual language books, and was intensively reading articles from BBC Mundo and Veintemundos. I had about 3600 known words on Lingq and was able to stumble around in basic conversation. It was quite passive but enjoyable. Then I changed jobs, moved countries and the momentum fizzled. That was 2 years ago.

I've just come back from a few weeks in Mexico and realized I've basically lost all of my Spanish. I did however come back with some serious motivation. Seeing the progress people have made on these logs I'm committing to a weekly log to actively track my journey for 2016.

My goal for 2016 at this point is to get to a solid B2 Level where I can understand and communicate effectively.

I'm debating signing up for the DELE exam to make myself accountable to this.
I'm debating signing up for LingQ again – I like seeing that word count go up.

The plan of attack for the next couple of weeks is to get a good routine going, get reacquainted with the language and get my groove back through reading, some grammar review and perhaps a Pimsleur/Notes in Spanish podcast.

I can comfortably commit an hour a day to this.

My personal aim with Spanish is to keep it interesting, keep it moving and enjoy the process.

Stay tuned.
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James29
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Re: Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby James29 » Sun Jan 17, 2016 12:28 pm

I'll definitely stay tuned. It is a fun process. I did about what you are doing... starting from scratch on about an hour a day. I found the weekly blog was really helpful as it really kept me "honest" and turned a super long process into a series of one week long reports. Ask questions freely.
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iguanamon
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Re: Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby iguanamon » Sun Jan 17, 2016 12:39 pm

Welcome to the forum Dean! I think you have a reasonably good plan in place. Though I never have been a fan of "word counting". Myself, I don't need it for motivation and can't really see the point of it, but to each his own. In itself it's probably harmless, except when a learner gets obsessed with it to the point where word-count becomes an end to itself- which, believe it or not, I've seen happen from time to time.

I see something lacking, though, from your plan. Regular listening is an important element and is often overlooked. What I mean by "regular listening" is daily listening to non-course audio. You mentioned Veinte Mundos and it is still there and a good way to get in listening along with reading. It is a hugely undervalued resource. In your post you talk a lot about reading. Reading, and especially extensive reading, is great for picking up vocabulary and grammar naturally, but reading is easy in comparison to listening. So, if you want to be well rounded in Spanish, add some in. If you want more detail on how to train listening, I wrote about it in a post here.

Also, for conversation practice, a private tutor via skype can be cheaper than you may think. Two schools in Guatemala offer tutoring over skype for $10 an hour nulengua.com and plqe.org. Writing and posting for correction is great for learning and can be done on lang8.com, not so much on this site.

¡Mucha suerte, Dean!
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Stelle
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Re: Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby Stelle » Sun Jan 17, 2016 4:16 pm

I highly recommend the Notes in Spanish podcasts! I credit them with a lot of my progress in listening comprehension when I was starting out with Spanish. I look forward to following your log!
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MonoDeano
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Re: Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby MonoDeano » Tue Jan 26, 2016 6:30 am

Hola Amigos!
Thanks for the warm welcome. Your comments were happily digested over this week. This sense of community is motivating and makes a pretty solitary pursuit almost a team effort. It's very much appreciated!

I've had a busy week and managed to fit in some Spanish every day. The goal this week was to restart the quest and do the admin involved in setting up a routine to keep at it daily. I've dug out and started working through a grammar book, started using Anki, went through some VeinteMundos articles and printed off a number of them to work through for the next few weeks. They are a slog to get through at this point but they are genuinely interesting so using them to study off is enjoyable – if time consuming. I did duolingo every day, which is very basic at this point, but it did provide some daily momentum and I enjoyed it, so it served its purpose. I read Iguanamon's post and had a look at the websites mentioned.

I started Notes in Spanish podcast – It's still pretty early but that will be a good, daily routine to get into. I had a look at some Spanish news podcasts as well – especially those with transcripts. I already follow the news pretty closely so I think that will be a good way to stretch my listening ability on familiar topics. I'm looking at doing some audio courses along with what I'm doing at the moment. (Pimsleur or Micheal Thomas) I have a few gaps in my day I can fill with pockets of Spanish if I get myself organized. That time would quickly add up if I used it productively.

Iguanamon – you're absolutely right in highlighting listening as a missing component. My last attempt at Spanish involved mostly reading and I think I lost my mojo because after months of study, I was still far from comprehending native speech or even being able to have a functional conversation beyond a basic level. I couldn't understand any non-standard reply and it would end the conversation. I read the post on daily listening and had a look around the radio ambulante website. I'll be honest, It looks pretty daunting at this early stage of my comprehension. It sounds genuinely interesting, so it's something I will work up to in the next couple of weeks. I will be using skype tutor chats to my study routine as well, so those links are much appreciated. It looks like great value at that price.

I didn't sign up for Lingq and its seductive word count approach. I have enough interesting material I can work through at the moment without adding something else in the mix. I just want to keep it simple, keep it moving and keep it consistent at this point. If I work through what I have and feel I need some more, I'm open to the idea. But for now, I just need to do what I have.

After approaching Spanish from around the edges last week and seeming to be more concerned with my routine than the Spanish involved, the plan this week is to dive straight in and actively work through the material I have.

The goal for this week – keep building the Spanish base, reaquiring verbs, basic tenses and enjoyably reading and listening.

What does that look like, you ask? Well..
Keep at the grammar book –not to memorize the grammar but to use the verbs that I'd temporarily lost in a useful context.
Do Duolingo daily.
Do Notes in Spanish daily.
Work through 3 VeinteMundos articles – not over-stressing the study of them but picking up words, spending time with Spanish in an enjoyable context and having a definable goal.
Read 3 entries from my Easy Spanish Reader book.

That's it for now – thanks for tuning in.
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby Brun Ugle » Tue Jan 26, 2016 7:52 am

If you're looking for a nice audio course, I recommend Language Transfer Complete Spanish. It's free and in only 14.5 hours gives you a good overview of the language. It really helped me to put it all together. Of course, you need more than just that since it isn't very detailed, but I found it nice to have that overview so I could sort of see the whole language and how it worked at once.
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MonoDeano
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Re: Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby MonoDeano » Wed Jan 27, 2016 4:45 am

Thanks Brun,
I'll have a look into that course. It sounds interesting as well as useful, my favourite combination!

Thanks,
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MonoDeano
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Re: Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby MonoDeano » Mon Jan 15, 2018 1:53 am

Don't mind me while I sneak back in here...

I'm acknowledging this past false start in Spanish despite my best intentions and hope it gives me a little motivation to keep at it for 2018. I've had some big personal changes over the last couple of year but if I'm honest, I could have kept up some level of Spanish study if I'd been structured and more disciplined. Catching up on some reading of James29, I'm amazed at his work rate and continual efforts. It really does show what you can accomplish with some discipline and time.

I spent another few weeks in Mexico at the end of 2017 and will be there for a month at the end of 2018 so I'd love to get to that B1/B2 level by then. That is (again!) the goal.

The plan remains mostly the same but I'll get into that another time. I'm firmly focusing on keeping it simple and just moving it forward. I find Spanish gets dropped when I'm busy if I'm bashing my head against grammar books, intensively looking up every word in an article or memorization tables. I know they're important but I think just getting some daily Spanish milage under my belt with reading and listening will be fine for me for now.

So, let's get this blog (re)started and get this week's efforts on the log.

I did Duolingo every day this week. It was an easy and enjoyable start.

I read 2 stories a day from my bilingual books Stories from Mexico/Historias de Mexico. I read them twice. It definitely got quicker as I got through the book. 9 of the stories have an audio recording. I will be listening to them as I review stories next week.

Here's to a productive if not perfect 2018.
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MonoDeano
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Re: Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby MonoDeano » Mon Jan 22, 2018 10:59 am

Quick update here to say that I've had a good week with my Spanish. I've been productive and enjoyed the week.

I finished the 14 stories of Stories from Mexico last week, reading once and then reading the same story again later in the day which ends up being much quicker and more enjoyable as I recognize the vocab and grammar that had slowed me down earlier.
I started Stories of Latin America and managed to get through 9 stories last week. It seems a little more difficult. The stories are longer, use more phrases and slightly more complicated tenses. Having said that, they're more interesting so I'm enjoying it and am glad I did it in the order I did. Stories from Mexico was pretty basic.

I have noticed that my reading is getting (marginally) better. My brain is adapting to reading the grammar and prepositions without having an all-stop freakout moment demanding to know each word. I seem now to jump to the verb, understand the prepositions and pronouns as I slow down a bit and then mostly know what they mean in context. I see the power of reading a lot. You can soak up words and get used to things in a fairly enjoyable way if you're enjoying the material. I like to read anyway so reading interesting stories in accessible Spanish has been enjoyable. I can see myself getting into more history, adventure type books after this. I'm looking at ordering the next in the series, Stories from Spain as I'll finish this one by the end of the week. I'm debating reviewing these two books before starting the Stories from Spain, listening to the audio and perhaps making a list of vocab. We'll see. Again, I really want to just keep doing what I enjoy rather than getting bogged down in lists and flashcard reviews.

I'm hesitant because I had a quick review of the first couple of lessons in practice makes perfect and tried out Anki to make some good review-on-the-go flashcards with interesting sentences. To be honest, it was a lot of work setting up the back and front and by the time I'd made the cards I had run out of steam and didn't feel like reviewing them at all. I know it's a pretty valuable tool for review so maybe I'll try it when I'm studying more intensively. The positive thing is that I put in the time to figure out how to load, sync and use Anki for later. At the moment, I'm happy just moving forward and spending time reading interesting material.

I did well on Duolingo but was moving one day and it totally slipped my mind. I didn't realize until the following day that I'd missed it. I did two stories with review from my SfLA book but was surprised how disappointing it was to have broken my streak! That seems to be the power of gamification and progress trackers. They're pretty satisfying even if not the most hardcore way to study. It fits well with my January theme of progress over perfection so I'm happy to say I made up for the day and have just kept plodding along.

All in all, it was an enjoyable and productive week spent with Spanish.
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MonoDeano
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Re: Dean slowly learns Spanish

Postby MonoDeano » Sun Jan 28, 2018 10:50 pm

Quick update here for the last post of January 2018.

I did some good work on Duolingo every day. I'm finding it pretty easy but enjoying making it a concrete part of the day. It's an easy win. I hope to find something afterward that gives the same forward momentum.

I read and reviewed at least a story a day from Stories from Latin America and now only have one left in the book of 16. I'll tackle that tomorrow and make sure to have the book finished and reviewed within Jan. The more difficult stories near the end definitely take more time and need a little more perseverance to finish but they're great for vocab and re-reading them quickly without having to look much up is pretty satisfying. I also managed to find a cheap used copy of Stories from Spain. Hours of reading enjoyment and vocab for a few dollars? Yes please! I'm enjoying the act of sitting down with a book and a pencil and puzzling my way through enjoyable simple historical stories for 15-20 minutes at a time. I'm happy to keep doing that.

I'm still thinking about how to approach February. I know having a plan in place will help keep momentum. I want to include some basic audio, get through Stories from Spain, as well as review vocab from the previous two books more intensively and keep going with Duolingo. I should also have a look at some grammar to get the feel for some other tenses/structures as I move into more difficult material. Having said that, the basic goal is to actively work on Spanish every day for an hour or so.

All in all, I'm happy to have worked on Spanish every day with something to show for it.
I finished the two Side by Side bilingual books and did Duolingo lessons every day.

Bring on February.
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