Zac29's Spanish Platiquemos FSI log

[Zac29]

First, I want to thank 3 people who've never heard of or interacted with me:

James29
Iguanamon
Crush

You see, while doing some Google searches for terms like "platiquemos" and "FSI Spanish", I came across James29's spanish log and didn't think I'd go through much of it. Turns out, taking a bit of time here and there for the next few weeks, I waded through all 130ish pages of his log between here and the HTLAL forum.

It was captivating to see his progress over the years. It was like enjoying a sneak peek of what I hope my own journey with learning spanish is like.

If you'd like to go through it as well, here's a link to the first page of his log on HTLAL:

http://www.how-to-learn-any-language.co ... PN=4&TPN=1

Most importantly, the 3 members I've mentioned above (And a whole lot more who I can't remember) dropped so many amazing pieces of wisdom throughout that log! Pieces of wisdom I'm sure are going to provide short-cuts towards picking up spanish as a second language.


So, I'm going to start this log with 3 sequential posts with different pieces of information/introduction.

Post 01) This one. My background, how I'm planning to learn spanish and what to expect if you choose to follow this log into the future

Post 02) With so many different logs, what I hope will make this one a bit different and fun enough to justify coming back and checking-in on it from time to time

Post 03) A full post with all the different pieces of advice/tips I've picked up from the 130ish pages of James29's spanish log.
While it was a spanish log, I'd say 90% of the advice is applicable to any language. And any new language learner (Myself included) would benefit incredibly, while shortcutting their own journey towards new language proficiency, if they simply heed these pieces of advice from the beginning of their own journey.


So... Let's commence post 01: My background.

I'm a freelance marketing consultant and copywriter here in Australia.

This job gives me freedom to work from anywhere as long as I have an internet connection.

I'm lucky that in my city there are people from all over the world. For years I've had many south american friends. I"m firmly entrenched in their culture. I drink mate every morning (Even more than most of my argentinian friends). While most people might have bottles of whisky, gin or vodka in their kitchen, I have bottles of fernet, cachaca and pisco sitting (Normally half empty) on my shelf.

Last year, I spend 6 months living in South America. 2 weeks in Santiago, Chile and the rest of the time in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There were some month-long trips around to other parts of the country. Plus a 5-day visit to Uruguay to "reset" my Argentinian tourist visa.

I timed it to be in this beautiful country for the World Cup. I did my part of being there. Thankfully, they did their part of winning it. This month and then the next week of fiestas will likely be tattooed on my brain as the most memorable moments in my entire life.

The fact is, before travelling there, I never really had any interest in learning the language. But after just a few weeks, I knew spanish would become my next learning-challenge and goal.

Where I'm starting with this spanish log:

[*]I've done all 5 levels of Pimsleur...
[*]I've done Michel Thomas' beginner and advanced course...
[*]I'm now doing unit 20 of Platiquemos (FSI)...

I'm listening to normally a minimum of 1 hour of spanish news podcasts each morning from the "news in slow spanish" website.

Currently, I'm on episode 34 of the Colombian Escobar telenova "Pablo Escobar El Patron Del Mar". I decided to watch this with spanish subtitles. I'd say I'm about to understand around 40% of the general dialogue and maybe 3 times out of 10 when a "big event" happens which is important for the show. I'm not worried about my understanding. It's just great to learn some new phrases and vocabulary from Platiquemos and almost immediately "notice" them next time it pops up in the T.V. show. Again, kudos to iguanamon for his multi-track learning philosophy. I also wanted to go through a series much too "advanced" for my current level so it'd give me a good yard-stick in a year or two's time when I go through it again.


My study plans into the future:

You'll see in post 03 below that one of the key pieces of advice that repeats itself time and time again by some of the incredible members of this board is to jump into native materials as soon as possible.

So, with that said, I really only want to base my "structured coursework" around Platiquemos.

I'm thoroughly enjoying every moment of the course. It seems to take me 5 days per unit at the moment to really get almost everything down. Sometimes I'm inspired to do the lesson on the weekend, but not often. For ease of calculation, I'm saying 1 week per unit

So, I'm giving myself until Xmas 2024 to finish the course. In reality, it should be a lot closer to 35 weeks (Current unit 20 > last unit 55). This puts me around the end of September. Hearing the rumours of how exponentially difficult the course becomes from unit 47 onwards, I'm happy to allow extra time in my "predictions". Either way, if I've finished Platiquemos any time before Xmas 2024, I'll be super content.

Then, just as James29 went through FSI a second time, I can definitely imagine myself going through it a 2nd time a year or two after finishing my first run through... Except using the actual FSI course audio instead of platiquemos. I've read that the original FSI audio is a bit faster and the dialogues slightly different, so that'd probably prove beneficial as a 2nd run through. Though this thought is at least 2 years into the future, so we'll see how that pans out.

Apart from this, I have Living Language's "Beyond the basics" course. I've got Glossika's "Mass Sentences - Complete Fluency course which makes huge promises regarding fluency and at between 20 - 40 extra minutes per day, I'm fully intending to go through it as well.

The only other course that has constantly popped up and been talked about in glowing fashion is Assimil's 'with ease' and Assimil's advanced 'using spanish' courses.

The advanced Assimil course would be the only other official "course" I'd even consider thinking about taking by the time I've finished Platiquemos.

The others I have, I think I'd be able to complete them as a structured "additional study" in spare moments along-side platiquemos. I'm particularly excited by the Glossika course because of it's promises. As a copywriter, I'm overtly sensitive to marketing material and overhyped promises... But having picked a few of the audios out for a quick listen, I think immersion in those materials would definitely be a huge benefit over the course of months of repetition.

Finally, I'm also going to buy the intermediate Gramatico Del Uso book and work through it from about June onwards.

Again, you'll note in post 03 below a few users talking very positively about this particular grammar book. You'll also notice they pointed out at some stage Mcgraw Hill republished it and started selling the same book at about half the original price. I've found a store in my city selling new copies for about $50. I'll pick it up from there at some time if I don't find a cheap 2nd hand verison floating around the internet over the next few months.

Again, a special thanks goes out to user Iguanamon for his detailed post on the Multi-track approach.

I've jumped into the "News in slow spanish" website and put about 10 hours worth of 30-minute segments of their intermediate level podcast on my phone.

It has been amazing how quickly and enjoyable I've taken to the habit of listening to normally 1-2 hours of these podcasts during the morning/lunch time in between my work projects. What Iguanamon says about the captivating experience of seeing phrases and sentences you've "learned about" being used in totally different context and forms of media is so true. This approach really does help to engrain what you learn inside a course into your head by seeing the language used in different ways and different mediums.

Finally, I plan to jump into native books as soon as possible.

Again, as you'll see in Post 03, there's a lot of advice about interesting books to do R/L sessions with. So, I'm hoping with the next 6 months I'll start following along some books with the spanish audiobook version ringing in my ears.

In that post below, you'll also see a lot of highly recommended TV series to use for listening comprehension.

I've already picked up my first 3 spanish books because they happened to be topics I know I'll find interesting when I'm at a level to actually read and comprehend it...

[*]"El Hombre En Busca De Sentido - Viktor Frankl" (A book I've always meant to read in english anyways, so when I saw it in the book store it was definitely destiny screaming at me)

[*]"Iluminados Por El Fuego - Confesiones de un soldad que combatio en Malvinas - Edgardo Esteban" (Argentina has my heart and will definitely be the spanish I'll focus my learning towards in the future, so it was nice to find a book by an argentine author)

[*]"En Marcha Con Fidel - Antonio Nunez Jimenez"

I'm not sure if James29 ever floats around this forum, but I have a feeling we'd have gotten along well if I'd have started my spanish journey a decade ago and found/participated in his thread while he was maintaining it.

We both love Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I've read it 1x. He's read it at least 3x although 2 of those times was in spanish which I think is a truly cool goal to have for the future.

He's an enjoyer of libertarian economics.

Each time I go overseas for a living-abroad experience, I tend to take 1 "big book" to work my way through. When I was living in South America, I started on a personal mammoth goal of reading Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. I got half way through it while there (I was too busy having fun to read too much) and only just recently finished here in Australia.

I've got Mises' Human Action book sitting on my shelf. I was planning on making it my next "living abroad" book which it will probably end up being. Though I'm starting to daydream about being able to do it with the spanish version of the book. I'm starting to daydream about going back to south america early in 2025. I'm not sure if I'd be ready to read an intense economics book like that in spanish in a years' time but we'll see.


Final Notes:

I think the biggest inspiration for this thread is 2-fold...

1) To give a big thanks to a few people who've never met me, interacted with me or even heard of me...

Yet, through stalking their forum posts, I've saved some incredible nuggets of language-learning information which I truly believe will help me a lot during my own language-learning journey.

I also hope by posting this "collection" of great post below in post 03 of this thread, the single centralised location for almost a decade's worth of wisdom from successful "been there and done that" language learners will also prove to help/inspire anyone else who reads that post below.


2) My own (Enjoyable) accountability...

2 things that really stuck out like a sore thumb as I made my way through the 130ish pages of James29's log was:

a) Constantly enjoying the process

This is a feeling I'm still really resonating with. Sure, I've only been "studying" spanish for technically 1 year and 1 month now (That's when I started Pimsleur). But even in the last 3ish months when I've gotten "more serious" and jumped into Platiquemos and consuming native content podcasts, TV etc, it's only felt like "fueling the addiction" rather than a "chore". I've never once found any of the Platiquemos FSI drills boring or tedious. Quite the opposite, in fact. I think the drills in particular are the best parts of the entire course!


b) Just doing a little bit consistently

That dude probably only had 2 or 3 months worth of days where he didn't do ANY spanish material over the course of 8 years!

For context, that's between 60-90 days over a minimum of 2920 days.

That's incredible. Sure, sometimes it was only listening to a 20 minute news segment in the morning, but he still did it. I want to have the same stick-to-it-iveness and at least do some spanish in some form every single day as well.

Luckily, I'm pretty technologically savvy. So, the only reasons I'd fail to do some spanish in any given day is from a lack of willpower to simply click a few buttons on my phone and start at least listening to a news podcast. When it's written down like that, it seems almost absurd to think I couldn't at least do something with spanish each and every day.

Since James29 was successful in his path to spanish fluency, I figure I may as well mimic his path and see if any of the advice gleamed along the way can help even "shortcut" the journey to success. I write this sentence very lightly because I know there is neither a "finishing line" nor a true "shortcut" to learning a new language. Besides, it's all about enjoying the ever-lasting journey, like most other things in life.

So, I am going to at least do something in spanish every day.

I am going to post in this log once per week for accountability purposes, each Sunday.

That way, if even 1 person who wants to learn spanish comes across my log in a few years time and takes inspiration... They'll then be able to benefit from not only my compilation of amazing advice from other people's success (James29, Iguanamon, Crush, et al which you can see below in post 03)...

But hopefully I'll leave some of my own clues which I hopefully develop during my journey which will help them be even more successful as they go down their own path.

(That's also why I've put the terms "platiquemos" and "FSI" in the log's title. While this log obviously won't be dedicated to solely those resources, it will provide some "SEO" juice and help future curious language learners either find this log and this website with more ease in the future if they're ever searching for those particular resources)

Anyways...

I promise that after these initial "laying the foundations of what can expected from this log" introductory posts are finished with, the subsequent posts won't be crazy walls of text like these!

Kindly,
Zac29

[Zac29]

What Makes This Particular Spanish Log Different

As promised in post 01 above, I now want to make a 2nd post explaining why, with so many different logs, what I hope will make this one a bit different and fun enough to justify coming back and checking-in on it from time to time!

First:

I'm a religious believer in studying how to do things better, quicker.

While I believe anyone can succeed in just about anything with just 2 ingredients - Consistency and perseverance - I belive adding a 3rd ingredient, intelligent direction, makes a world of difference in any journey anyone takes in life.

Basically, that's a prolongued way to describe the pareto principal...

20% of X will produce 80% of Y.

So...

My goal is post 03 below will hopefully provide a strong collection of the "20%" of tricks, tactics and strategies proven by a few successful language learners to help get beginners (Like me) to whatever level of language-learning success they desire, faster.

I've found great success in a few other "life challenges" I've undertaken in the past. And it has always included the 3rd and most important ingredient I mentioned above, "intelligent direction". Basically, spending a bit of time going deep into the rabbit hole and picking up as many tips, tricks and pieces of wisdom from people who have already successfully walked the path I want to take.

Not every tip will be your cup of tea. But I'd much prefer rotating between a handful of "previously-proven-successful" tactics and see what suits me, as opposed to forging my own path blindly from the beginning.

Besides, what's collective wisdom for, if not to learn from and utilise it in your own journey to help make it more successful, faster?

But, there's always more effective ideas waiting to be discovered and shared!

I'm sure that over the next few years as this particular language log goes on, I'll come across my own effective learning methods which I'll also be able to share and help improve the collective knowledge!


For example - Here's a tip for adding a whole lot more listening comprehension into your own routine which I've found very easy to implement and I've not heard others say before:

If you're a fan of any sport, next time you're watching it, try muting the volume and chucking on a podcast you have prepared and really know you should be finding time to listen to, but haven't...

What benefits are you really deriving from the sports commentary anyways?

You're seeing all the actions with your eyes!

You're not missing out on much, but think of what you're gaining!

For me, I'm a football fan and religiously watch Man Utd. Which nowadays is to say, I'm basically masochistic. But, suddenly 90 minutes of general pain and torture have been replaced with a "free" 90 minutes of comprehensible listening input. I've only started this strategy in the last weeks. But, if I can keep it going for about a month (The time it normally takes for a new habit to start solidifying itself)... Well, over the course of a "season" (38 matches plus extra matches in other competitions - For ease of math we'll say 50), I've just "found" 75 hours of "free" listening comprehension each year without taking away from my free time - I was going to spend it watching football anyways, now I'm simply adding extra productivity to it.


Here's another tip I've found super effective for studying FSI Platiquemos:

(Which I'm sure would be applicable to FSI courses of other languages.)

I'm long past the days of using "perfectionism" as an excuse not to do anything or advance...

But as I said in post 01 above, at the moment I tend to do each unit 5 times before moving on. Most of the time, by the 5th run through, I'm not struggling with anything except parts of the conversation stimulas final section.

What I do on "run 5" is keep a book next to me. Any drill or section I'm still not completely happy with, I write down the name of in my book. Then, next time I'm on my computer, I transfer that exact drill/section onto a seperate folder on my phone called "Platiquemos extras to study".

So, in the evenings when I'm cooking dinner, chopping vegetables, cleaning dishes, etc...

I just go into that folder and run through each drill/section I wasn't previously 100% happy with. This method gives me "permission" to move onto the next until even if there's 1 or 2 things I'm not totally happy with.

This gives me even more exposure to the problem parts and let's me master it at my own rate. And then, when I'm finally happy with it, I cross it out of my little notebook and delete that drill/section from this "extras" folder. Sometimes I'll have a run or 3 or 4 units I don't have any problems with by the 5th "run through" of study. This gives me 3 or 4 weeks of time to practice these "extras" when I have spare time and "clear out the folder" and keep it manageable.

I hope that tip helps someone else move past the feeling of needing to be "perfect" when doing their own FSI studies.

I know a lot of people, especially language learners who are normally quite intelligent, are particularly susceptable to "perfectionism" and over-kill... To the point of it holding them back! Well, this is a great little method to get past those feeling and not feel "guilty" as while you do it.


What else? What else?

Mmmmmmm...

Well, it seems to me a lot of people struggle to find/make friends with whom they can use and practice their new language with.

Now, this will vary person to person and language to language. But I'd suggest for Spanish especially, most everyone has near endless opportunities around them to meet and befriend spanish speakers who they can interact/converse with.

Since this forum's principle language is English, I'd suggest it's fair of me to assume a large portion of members here will be from countries who either speak English natively, or who are lucky enough to be taught english to an advanced level throughout their formative school years (Here's looking at you, a large portion of Europe!).

My (Highly generalised) point is this:

You're probably living in a place that has a much stronger currency/level of economic security which attracts a lot of tourists and people who come to your country to work and play.

Shit, 5 or 6 years ago I was living in Sofia, Bulgaria for some months and heard spanish a fair bit there as well (And they don't even use the Euro. Though their currency is pegged to it, providing some security). My point is, you'd be hard pressed to be in a place where you don't have spanish speakers around you.

So...

Why is this a particular reason to return to this language log?

Well, 1 thing I really spent a lot of years working on was killing my social discomfort and anxiety.

Nowadays, I have absolutely no shame in talking to strangers in general and making friends. Especially nowadays, I have no shame in jumping right into my terrible spanish and making new friends this way.

Luckily, as I said in post 01, where I live is has a very popular destination for south americans in particular for working holidays and to come and study english.

I can't walk through the streets of my city without throwing a rock and hitting a spanish speaker.

I'd say 60% - 70% of the girls I date are native spanish speakers. This ranges from very good english (Argentinians need a tested B1 level to get a visa here) to basically no english at all (For some Colombianas or Chileanas I've met, their first day of english class here is the first formal time they've studied english). I'm lucky enough that I've got a lot of friends who don't feel comfortable speaking in english and are more than happy to put up with my average spanish as a means of knowing "a local".

I know this isn't a forum made to share dating and relationship war-stories. Plus, I certainly don't want to write things that people here find distasteful.

But if anyone resonates with what I've just written and would like pointers in how to go about being more open and social in a way to help them meet the people around them who'd surely love to help with your target language... If only they knew you were trying to learn/speak it... Then I'd be happy to assist in any way I can.



In conclusion:

I just hope this proves to be a log that people who resonate with my writing will come to enjoy and find a benefit in returning here from time to time.

As I said at the bottom of Post 01, I promise after these initial "laying the foundations of what can expected from this log" introductory posts are finished with, the subsequent posts won't be nearly as long walls of text!


Next post:

The accumulation of knowledge, incredible tips, tactics, strategies and proven-useful resources from already-successful language learners whose posts I've devoured and "electronically stalked" over the last few weeks.

Keep an eye out for it

[Zac29]

.

Post 03) A Monster Collection Of Language-Learnings Tips From Proven Successful Members Both Past And Present...

As promised in my first post...

This post 03 will be a full post with all the different pieces of advice/tips I've picked up from the 130ish pages of James29's spanish log.

While it was a spanish log, I'd say with a modicum of thinking and extrapolation, 90% of the advice is applicable to any language.

Any new language learner (Myself included) would benefit incredibly, while shortcutting their own journey towards new language proficiency, if they simply heed these pieces of advice from the beginning of their own journey.

Do remember - This is the accumulation of over 8+ years of learning and wisdom from a guy who became fluent in his target language, with input from other members who are fluent in their target languages as well. This is incredible powerful information with huge insights not to be taken for granted!

I've been thinking about how to make this post because it consists of around 80+ screenshots. It'd be way too awkward and slow-loading to directly embed every image here in this post.


So, here's what I've done:

I've uploaded all the different pieces of advice to the imaging hosting website Imgur in 1 super-long post there.

Here, below, I'm going to simply write all the image "titles" that are included.


What you should do:

Skim down this post and see if any image title name catches your eye as a piece of information you're curious about. If you are, click on the Imgur link in this post.

My imgur post has been make alphabetically, just like the following list of names in this post. It goes [image], [name], [image], [name]

So it should be really easy and fast for you to find the specific piece of information you're curious about!

Without further adieu...


The imgur post with all the images/pieces of language learning advice:

https://imgur.com/a/DQJz9eJ

(Copy and paste that link into a new tab in your browser)

The titles of every image you'll find:


1 year 2 year 3 year in spanish
Advanced courses as prerogatives
Advanced spanish podcast
Another good TV show 20 seasons
Another tv show spanish
Argentina tv series
Assimil AFTER Platiquemos for more vocab
assimil spanish
austrian economic sources en esp

b1 to c with kindle
beginner spanish tv show
Build listening comprehension
Building vocab fast
consistently listening to short audios
correct asimil course to get
Courses after FSI
da vinci code book narrator name
Doing FSI a second time

From intermediate to fluent
FSI 47 onwards - how to study them
fsi and reading listening in spanish
FSI plus Assimill
FSI tip
Get a kindle for spanish books
good intermediate podcast to use
gotta buy kindle
Grammar books usage.PNG
Great book to read and listen watch movie as well to get idea.PNG

Hitting C1 and 2
How long to get conversational
How to get new vocabulary
How to improve with a tutor
How to listen to your TL
How to use FSI course
If he could do it all over again, what to really focus on
Iguanamons important steps after FSI or DLI
info on DLI and other advanced spanish courses
Input and improving comprehension and listening
Interesting vocabulary building idea 2
Interesting vocabulary building idea 3
Interesting vocabulary building idea
Intermediate spanish course
intermediate spanish podcast

Kindle settings for reading
language immersion schools
Listening with a transcript
mastering subjunctive
maybe an advanced assimil course in the future
multi track learning opportunities
Netflix with audio description for more spanish
On noticing your intermediate progress
On Tutors
Other great spanish tv show
overall spanish input

Platiquemos and other material for full learning
Platiquemos and Repaso book
platiquemos and some reading
Platiquemos helpful
Platiquemos Pimsluer Michale Thomas
Platiquemos then FSI for comprehension
Podcasts and constant all spanish listening
Re-reading easy books
read listen technique read english listen spanish audiobook
reading idea to test your improvement over months
Really focus on the grammar
Record and listen to yourself for learning
Review with FSI for faster listening comprehension

Setting reading goals
Some good books to read
SPanish book when intermediate
SPanish fluency
Spanish resources once you're advanced
Stop using the beginner material here
To improve listening comprehension
tutoring idea 02
tv spanish english spanish english

Use Multiple Courses to complement each other
using la lo le
Using Platequemos
Vocab building
Where platiquemos and Gramatica del uso takes you
WHy listen to spanish news
why you should use native material
Writing short paragraphs to solidify new learnings


-------------------------
Also:
-------------------------

Ok, so there was 7 images that were WAY too big to include...

Like, these are either 1 huge "authority post" or a full conversation between members on a topic.

So, not to "clutter" up that post of "shorter, more concise" images above...

Here's a 2nd post on Imgur with 7 much longer pieces of advice:

https://imgur.com/a/RwP5ZXy

(Once more - Copy and paste that link into a new tab in your browser)

Again, the image titles:


After 3 years of study
Getting to advanced spanish
Huge TV series list from different countries
Learn spanish this way

Platiquemos learning method
REALLY learning a language
Subjunctive in depth post



I genuinely hope you, the person reading this post right now, finds something that proves useful and helpful for you on your language learning journey as well...

If this post helps even 1 person, I'll be very pleased!



Well...

That's the 3 long introductory posts I promised.

From here, it'll be simple updates and hopefully new pieces of advice I personally discover along the way...

Cheers,
Zac29

P.S.

I already picked up a neat new trick... Which I'll share in the next update post...

[emk]

First, welcome to the forum!

Where I'm starting with this spanish log:

[*]I've done all 5 levels of Pimsleur...
[*]I've done Michel Thomas' beginner and advanced course...
[*]I'm now doing unit 20 of Platiquemos (FSI)...

These are all very solid course choices!

Currently, I'm on episode 34 of the Colombian Escobar telenova "Pablo Escobar El Patron Del Mar". I decided to watch this with spanish subtitles. I'd say I'm about to understand around 40% of the general dialogue and maybe 3 times out of 10 when a "big event" happens which is important for the show.

This is really great news. 40% comprehension of any TV show means that you've made really solid progress with listening, which is usually one of the hardest skills for many people.

But I have a question: If you had a transcript for an episode of your telenovela, how do you think your reading comprehension would be? There are two possibilities here:

1. You still miss large chunks of the episode when reading. (This was the case with my Spanish, because I'd artificially boosted my listening comprehension beyond my vocabulary.)
2. You can more-or-less understand 80-90% of an episode transcript. Not perfectly, but a lot better than when you're listening. This was the case with my French, where I could already read books reasonably well, but lagged on listening.

In case (1), you might benefit enormously from reading a book or two. But in case (2), you might be able to advance your listening comprehension dramatically by binge-watching 5 seasons of your telenovela.

You'll see in post 03 below that one of the key pieces of advice that repeats itself time and time again by some of the incredible members of this board is to jump into native materials as soon as possible.

So, with that said, I really only want to base my "structured coursework" around Platiquemos.

This is very likely the right plan at this point!

In the A1/A2 levels, courses are super useful, because they allow you to learn the language one piece at a time. But after going through a couple of courses, some people occasionally fall into the temptation to do more and more beginner courses, endlessly. Yes, a few courses, including FSI, can be very useful while working on B1/B2! And as part of a "multitrack" approach, then it's totally reasonable to use an intermediate course or a good grammar workbook for advanced students.

But B1 is when using your language starts to pay ridiculous dividends. For example:

• My first real book in French started out as a (fun) struggle. By the time I finished 500 pages, my reading had become vastly more comfortable. By the time I'd read 5,000 pages, reading in French was second nature. By 7,500 pages, I was reading 40 pages an hour with one completely "opaque" word every few pages or so.
• My first two episodes of Buffy contre les vampires required multiple watches with a transcript, and I could maybe follow 40%. By season 5, I had ~95% understanding without a transcript. (But only for Buffy. More on this below.)
• For writing, I wrote 100 words per day in French for 30 days, and got them corrected using a correction-exchange site. This was ridiculously useful for the time invested. In particular, writing 100 words a day and getting them corrected was a huge boost for speaking.
• For speaking, I forced myself to use my very modest B1 French to speak to my wife. I spent about 2 weeks with my brain melting out my ears. But after 6 weeks, I was comfortable with basic conversation, even if I used a lot of workarounds.

The obvious common theme here is that once I started using my language skills, they improved unreasonably fast. The B levels can be delightful, because you're immersing yourself in a culture, you're using your new skills for real, and your abilities improve dramatically.

(But there's a second, less obvious, trick to how I tackled comprehension: I used a trick called "narrow" input. Instead of watching a hundreds of 5 minute YouTube videos, I watched 5 seasons of a single series, and then switched to another series. And another. Similarly, I was always happy to find a big, interesting book that I could enjoy. The reason that this can be helpful is because when you stick to a single TV series or topic, you quickly get familiar with voices, with specialized vocabulary, etc. And this provides a very helpful boost when native media is still very challenging.)

You might also be interested in the first page of my log, which summarizes my original log, covering A2 through B2+. In particular, the second first post summarizes my old log, and my second post on "Cheating and Consolidating" is my best attempt to explain why native media seemed to be so helpful.

Apart from this, I have Living Language's "Beyond the basics" course. I've got Glossika's "Mass Sentences - Complete Fluency course which makes huge promises regarding fluency and at between 20 - 40 extra minutes per day, I'm fully intending to go through it as well.

The only other course that has constantly popped up and been talked about in glowing fashion is Assimil's 'with ease' and Assimil's advanced 'using spanish' courses.

If you can understand 40% of a telenovela, I would probably skip With Ease. Or skim it quickly. None of the entry level Assimil courses go much beyond A2. The Using courses are OK, but they're mostly just interesting bits of content with translations. There's nothing magic to them, and you can learn the same stuff by reading books and watching TV.

(Something like Assimil Business French could probably form the backbone of getting to B2, but it's very different from the Using courses. It's an extreme case of "narrow input" combined with serious writing exercises.)

But again, my recommendation here would be to devote, say, 25% of your "tracks" to course-like study, and 75% of your "tracks" to just diving in and using your skills for real. (The exact proportion isn't important, and it will shift over time.) You're already leaning in this direction, and it may feel like a struggle now. But once the ball gets rolling, it rolls faster and faster.

The "study-like" tracks will always be useful in moderation, but as I approached B2, studying felt more and more like a "support" activity. Using my skills for real felt like main show, if that makes sense? Our brains are designed to do this. It's our fundamental birthright as humans, and it's the trick that we built a civilization around. The machinery might be slightly creaky in adults, but if you oil it and put it to work, it's still amazing.

I promise that after these initial "laying the foundations of what can expected from this log" introductory posts are finished with, the subsequent posts won't be crazy walls of text like these!

Kindly,
Zac29

Good luck on your voyage, and I look forward to seeing your progress! So many people who I watched started with a log like yours have reached a solid C1.

[iguanamon]

I add my welcome to the forum too, Zac 29. James29 was a forum friend of mine and I miss him not being around here these days. Since you thanked me, I must say you're welcome. If anything I have written here has helped you, I am glad. That's why I did that.

Going through all of James29's log you see how hard he worked to make things happen. "90% of success in life is just showing up" as the Woody Allen quote goes. This is especially true in language-learning. Being persistent and consistent is a major part of learning.

I am years away from actively learning Spanish. I just use it now. It's part of my life. With the plethora of resources out there these days to learn and improve the language, you can't go wrong with FSI/Platiquemos and a multi-track approach.

...(But there's a second, less obvious, trick to how I tackled comprehension: I used a trick called "narrow" input. Instead of watching a hundreds of 5 minute YouTube videos, I watched 5 seasons of a single series, and then switched to another series. And another. Similarly, I was always happy to find a big, interesting book that I could enjoy. The reason that this can be helpful is because when you stick to a single TV series or topic, you quickly get familiar with voices, with specialized vocabulary, etc. And this provides a very helpful boost when native media is still very challenging.)...

I highly agree and second emk. I've seen a lot of learners jumping from short youtube video to short youtube video like a hummingbird flits from flower to flower. Watching a series, then another one, then another one, helps tremendously in language-learning... for all the reasons that emk lays out.

There are ways to "cheat" as emk calls it. Almost every telenovela has episode recaps somewhere online. So do other series. This is a good place to start. A paragraph or two of a synopsis is useful when you're at 40% comprehension. TL Subtitles can be a helpful tool, especially if they are accurate, just don't grow too dependent upon them. Use them to aid you, not to do the work for you.

We're fond of saying here that there are many ways to learn a language, which is true. Ultimately, to learn a language beyond the basics, one has to use the language. Read and read widely. Listen, speak, write. Make it happen. You are giving yourself a big gift. ¡Suerte! Si quisieras mi consejo y/o ayuda, déjeme saberlo.

[Zac29]

First, thank you both for your kind and thoughtful replies.

Currently, I'm on episode 34 of the Colombian Escobar telenova "Pablo Escobar El Patron Del Mar". I decided to watch this with spanish subtitles. I'd say I'm about to understand around 40% of the general dialogue and maybe 3 times out of 10 when a "big event" happens which is important for the show.

This is really great news. 40% comprehension of any TV show means that you've made really solid progress with listening, which is usually one of the hardest skills for many people.

But I have a question: If you had a transcript for an episode of your telenovela, how do you think your reading comprehension would be? There are two possibilities here:

1. You still miss large chunks of the episode when reading. (This was the case with my Spanish, because I'd artificially boosted my listening comprehension beyond my vocabulary.)
2. You can more-or-less understand 80-90% of an episode transcript. Not perfectly, but a lot better than when you're listening. This was the case with my French, where I could already read books reasonably well, but lagged on listening.

In case (1), you might benefit enormously from reading a book or two. But in case (2), you might be able to advance your listening comprehension dramatically by binge-watching 5 seasons of your telenovela.

I hope I didn't misrepresent myself.

The majority of this 40% probably comes from focusing on the spanish subtitles of the show.

I would absolutely put myself in case #02 you describe. I'd say reading is my strongest point. If I paused the subtitles piece-by-piece I'd understand a great deal more of each episode.

I do like your idea of going through a transcript of each episode afterwards to see what else I can pick up.

You'll see in post 03 below that one of the key pieces of advice that repeats itself time and time again by some of the incredible members of this board is to jump into native materials as soon as possible.

So, with that said, I really only want to base my "structured coursework" around Platiquemos.

This is very likely the right plan at this point!

In the A1/A2 levels, courses are super useful, because they allow you to learn the language one piece at a time. But after going through a couple of courses, some people occasionally fall into the temptation to do more and more beginner courses, endlessly. Yes, a few courses, including FSI, can be very useful while working on B1/B2! And as part of a "multitrack" approach, then it's totally reasonable to use an intermediate course or a good grammar workbook for advanced students.

But B1 is when using your language starts to pay ridiculous dividends. For example:

• My first real book in French started out as a (fun) struggle. By the time I finished 500 pages, my reading had become vastly more comfortable. By the time I'd read 5,000 pages, reading in French was second nature. By 7,500 pages, I was reading 40 pages an hour with one completely "opaque" word every few pages or so.
• My first two episodes of Buffy contre les vampires required multiple watches with a transcript, and I could maybe follow 40%. By season 5, I had ~95% understanding without a transcript. (But only for Buffy. More on this below.)
• For writing, I wrote 100 words per day in French for 30 days, and got them corrected using a correction-exchange site. This was ridiculously useful for the time invested. In particular, writing 100 words a day and getting them corrected was a huge boost for speaking.
• For speaking, I forced myself to use my very modest B1 French to speak to my wife. I spent about 2 weeks with my brain melting out my ears. But after 6 weeks, I was comfortable with basic conversation, even if I used a lot of workarounds.

The obvious common theme here is that once I started using my language skills, they improved unreasonably fast. The B levels can be delightful, because you're immersing yourself in a culture, you're using your new skills for real, and your abilities improve dramatically.

Thanks for this fantastic extra motivation to jump into books especially.

I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and jump into a book sometime next month when I've got free reading time away from what I need to do for work.

I'll just force myself to look up all the words I don't know until it gets to a stage where I'm doing more reading than I am researching the words.

From your experience and hindsight, which do you think would be a better option...

>>> Jumping into a probably way too advanced book I have sitting on my shelf which is about topics I know will interest me...

>>> Or jumping into a graded B level reader. I have no idea if it'll interest me nearly as much story wise, but maybe the vocabulary/word research will be more forgiving and let me arrive at a more fun "reading experience" faster than a more advanced book

(But there's a second, less obvious, trick to how I tackled comprehension: I used a trick called "narrow" input. Instead of watching a hundreds of 5 minute YouTube videos, I watched 5 seasons of a single series, and then switched to another series. And another. Similarly, I was always happy to find a big, interesting book that I could enjoy. The reason that this can be helpful is because when you stick to a single TV series or topic, you quickly get familiar with voices, with specialized vocabulary, etc. And this provides a very helpful boost when native media is still very challenging.)

You might also be interested in the first page of my log, which summarizes my original log, covering A2 through B2+. In particular, the second first post summarizes my old log, and my second post on "Cheating and Consolidating" is my best attempt to explain why native media seemed to be so helpful.

Your narrow-input advice is fantastic and something I'm strictly following (Apart from listening to random music for fun).

Also, thanks a lot for linking to your posts in your original logs. I've given them a read through once and they contained some great ideas and advice. I'm going to go through it all again more seriously and take notes soon.

But again, my recommendation here would be to devote, say, 25% of your "tracks" to course-like study, and 75% of your "tracks" to just diving in and using your skills for real. (The exact proportion isn't important, and it will shift over time.) You're already leaning in this direction, and it may feel like a struggle now. But once the ball gets rolling, it rolls faster and faster.

The "study-like" tracks will always be useful in moderation, but as I approached B2, studying felt more and more like a "support" activity. Using my skills for real felt like main show, if that makes sense? Our brains are designed to do this. It's our fundamental birthright as humans, and it's the trick that we built a civilization around. The machinery might be slightly creaky in adults, but if you oil it and put it to work, it's still amazing.

I'm going to use this as permission to skip the Assimil stuff and just focus on Platiquemos, Glossika's stuff at some stage, the gramatica del uso books as my "study tracks" moving forward and native material/speaking with friends more often, as soon as possible, as my majority of other "language usage" track.

I sincerely appreciate you giving me some good guidelines on how to organise and optimise my time usage regarding language learning.

It's supportive people like yourself and communities like this which really add a whole new dimension to challenges and life-goals like this.

Thanks once again for stopping by this log and taking your time to share such fantastic insights.

I highly agree and second emk. I've seen a lot of learners jumping from short youtube video to short youtube video like a hummingbird flits from flower to flower. Watching a series, then another one, then another one, helps tremendously in language-learning... for all the reasons that emk lays out.

Thanks for backing up emk's great advice and adding extra weight to the concept.

There are ways to "cheat" as emk calls it. Almost every telenovela has episode recaps somewhere online. So do other series. This is a good place to start. A paragraph or two of a synopsis is useful when you're at 40% comprehension. TL Subtitles can be a helpful tool, especially if they are accurate, just don't grow too dependent upon them. Use them to aid you, not to do the work for you.

As I said to emk above, I hope I didn't misrepresent myself because I'd say my 40% of comprehension comes from the subtitle reading.

But now I'm curious how I'd go with only the audio. I think I'll watch 1 episode with only the audio then rewatch the same episode with subtitles and estimate how much more comprehension I get with them.

We're fond of saying here that there are many ways to learn a language, which is true. Ultimately, to learn a language beyond the basics, one has to use the language. Read and read widely. Listen, speak, write. Make it happen. You are giving yourself a big gift. ¡Suerte! Si quisieras mi consejo y/o ayuda, déjeme saberlo.

Un million de gracias senor.


Once again, thank you both for such thoughtful responses and for taking the time to not only stop by this log but share your insights as well. It's truly appreciated.

[emk]

The majority of this 40% probably comes from focusing on the spanish subtitles of the show.

I would absolutely put myself in case #02 you describe. I'd say reading is my strongest point. If I paused the subtitles piece-by-piece I'd understand a great deal more of each episode.

OK, this is useful to know! If you're getting about 40% comprehension reading the subtitles while watching at full speed, then it might really help a lot to go through 1-3 episodes more systematically. Either a transcript or generous use of the pause button may help. Take the time to read them. You don't need to look up every word. But it's usually worth looking up any words that you see over and over (unless they start making sense on their own). Then once you've read through the transcripts, watch the episodes again with the subtitles, or even just the audio. Only do this as long as you're enjoying it. After going through a couple of episodes in detail, it's OK to watch the rest casually!

I'll just force myself to look up all the words I don't know until it gets to a stage where I'm doing more reading than I am researching the words.

My favorite trick for this (with a paper book) was to take a super-faint pencil, and underline any words that I wanted to look up later. Then I'd keep reading. Every couple of hours of reading, I'd go back and look at the underlined words, and I'd look up any that still seemed interesting. Or ignore them, if I was feeling lazy. But while I was actually reading, I didn't want to keep stopping constantly.

With an ebook reader, lookup can be near instantaneous, so I would look up more words. Sometimes I would highlight a sentence containing a particularly interesting word, and export my highlights later to make Anki sentence cards.

From your experience and hindsight, which do you think would be a better option...

>>> Jumping into a probably way too advanced book I have sitting on my shelf which is about topics I know will interest me...

>>> Or jumping into a graded B level reader. I have no idea if it'll interest me nearly as much story wise, but maybe the vocabulary/word research will be more forgiving and let me arrive at a more fun "reading experience" faster than a more advanced book

There are two schools of thought here! Many language teachers would recommend picking a book with no more than 5 unknown words per page.

But my personal rules of thumb are:

1. Can I understand enough to figure out more from context?
2. Am I enjoying the process?

So I wouldn't just start watching Mandarin TV, because of rule (1). I don't know any Mandarin at all, so I can't figure much out from context! But I was happy to watch Buffy in French with 40% listening comprehension, and with ~90% reading comprehension of the transcript. That gave me enough of a "beachhead" so that I could figure out quite a bit more from context.

The other important factor is whether you're enjoying yourself. Even if half the book is going over your head with a whooshing noise, it's OK if you're enjoying the process. My second book in French, I understood maybe 60% solidly, and I could puzzle out another 30%. But I really liked the book even without that last 10%, so it was all good.

But for people who find that idea maddening, then go with a much easier book instead.

Another great trick is if you have a book that you've re-read many times in English, then you can get a translation. "Artificial" understanding like this will still get "consolidated" by reading.

I think a huge chunk of the reason "extensive" reading (fun, volume-oriented) works is that it takes words that you can "puzzle out", and slowly upgrades them until you understand them as naturally as you do in your primary language. Sheer volume helps a lot, even if you're not looking much up.

You'll probably need to experiment a bit before you find books and TV shows that work. And if everything turns out to be an unpleasant struggle, well, then it's fine to lean more on your courses!

Good luck!

[zac299]

Hey all, I"m back!

Except, I'm not back as Zac29.

My laptop's harddrive had a critical failure. My login details and password weren't backed up.

I first tried to reset my password, since I know and have access to the email I signed up my original account with. But the website keeps giving me an error message saying i'm not allowed to request a password reset.

So, I've created this new account. I used the 'contact us' page to send a message to staff explaining this situation and asking for advice on what my next steps should be.

I guess it's such a non-issue compared to what they are normally dealing with (Which I totally understand and appreciate) because I haven't heard back from them.

So I figure...

May as well just get right back into things with this new account.

(As a note to staff if they read this, if you actually think something needs to be done, please contact me and I'd be happy to further assist/explain anything).

Anyways, with that out of the way... Let's get back into it!

------------

Thanks once again emk for such a thoughtful reply.

Do excuse how long it has taken me to respond. As you can read above, I've had some recent tech issues.

OK, this is useful to know! If you're getting about 40% comprehension reading the subtitles while watching at full speed, then it might really help a lot to go through 1-3 episodes more systematically. Either a transcript or generous use of the pause button may help. Take the time to read them. You don't need to look up every word. But it's usually worth looking up any words that you see over and over (unless they start making sense on their own). Then once you've read through the transcripts, watch the episodes again with the subtitles, or even just the audio. Only do this as long as you're enjoying it. After going through a couple of episodes in detail, it's OK to watch the rest casually!

Please, correct me if I'm wrong...

But I'm assuming you suggest going through 3 episodes slowly and methodically studying it until I understand almost all of it with the subtitles, is working with the theory that I'll probably pick up 80% of the dialogue that's going to be used throughout the rest of the episodes?

So, that intense study of 3 episodes will pay meaningful dividends for my comprehension for the rest of the series.

Does that sound correct?

Because it wouldn't be hard for me to create a few transcripts and really study them as you suggest. Heck, getting a line-by-line translation wouldn't even be difficult nowadays with the immense AI technology available.

I'll just force myself to look up all the words I don't know until it gets to a stage where I'm doing more reading than I am researching the words.

My favorite trick for this (with a paper book) was to take a super-faint pencil, and underline any words that I wanted to look up later. Then I'd keep reading. Every couple of hours of reading, I'd go back and look at the underlined words, and I'd look up any that still seemed interesting. Or ignore them, if I was feeling lazy. But while I was actually reading, I didn't want to keep stopping constantly.

With an ebook reader, lookup can be near instantaneous, so I would look up more words. Sometimes I would highlight a sentence containing a particularly interesting word, and export my highlights later to make Anki sentence cards.

Out of curiosity, in hindsight, between the faint pencil underlining in a real book VS the instantaneous look-up from a kindle, did you find 1 method to give you considerably more bang for your buck?

But my personal rules of thumb are:

1. Can I understand enough to figure out more from context?
2. Am I enjoying the process?

So I wouldn't just start watching Mandarin TV, because of rule (1). I don't know any Mandarin at all, so I can't figure much out from context! But I was happy to watch Buffy in French with 40% listening comprehension, and with ~90% reading comprehension of the transcript. That gave me enough of a "beachhead" so that I could figure out quite a bit more from context.

Because honestly, continuing the thought from the previous message quote above, I'm beginning to lean heavily towards starting with a graded reader book.

I figure even if the story is hit-n-miss with my interest, at least going through 1 or 2 full books like this will give me a HUGE head-start before jumping into a native book that interest me. It would probably make the already-enjoyable experience of reading a book that interest me, even more enjoyable by having built a stronger foundation beforehand and not having to stop every chapter or two, to go back and research all the underlined words.

Another great trick is if you have a book that you've re-read many times in English, then you can get a translation. "Artificial" understanding like this will still get "consolidated" by reading.

I think a huge chunk of the reason "extensive" reading (fun, volume-oriented) works is that it takes words that you can "puzzle out", and slowly upgrades them until you understand them as naturally as you do in your primary language. Sheer volume helps a lot, even if you're not looking much up.

You'll probably need to experiment a bit before you find books and TV shows that work. And if everything turns out to be an unpleasant struggle, well, then it's fine to lean more on your courses!

This is a great idea though!

I can't think of any book that'd fit this description.

But, I can think of a few tv series which I would totally be able to leverage that advantage.

So, here's another question if you don't mind...

If you were to choose between watching a native series which you didn't know previously... Or watching a familiar english series dubbed in your target language (With the obvious distractions that arise from dubs/lip syncs etc) with which you'll have, as you say above, an 'artificial understanding' of...

Which way would you personally lean?

Cheers once again for your thoughtful responses.

[emk]

But I'm assuming you suggest going through 3 episodes slowly and methodically studying it until I understand almost all of it with the subtitles, is working with the theory that I'll probably pick up 80% of the dialogue that's going to be used throughout the rest of the episodes?

So, that intense study of 3 episodes will pay meaningful dividends for my comprehension for the rest of the series.

Yup! The idea is that a little bit of "intensive" study goes a long way—it can help boost your baseline a bit, get you used to voices, help with vocabulary that's common to a series, etc. Then you can benefit from that.

I know I posted this image lately, probably in your old log? "Intensive" study is what turns an opaque wall of text into something you can decipher. "Extensive" listening and reading is what turns things you can decipher into things that are nearly effortless.

cheating-consolidating.png

In the absolute beginning, you need lots of intensive work. But the more advanced you get, the more you can learn directly from extensive input. And once you start working towards B1 and B2, your ability to learn from extensive input will snowball rapidly. And then you can reduce your intensive efforts, and start to focus them on the hardest parts.

Out of curiosity, in hindsight, between the faint pencil underlining in a real book VS the instantaneous look-up from a kindle, did you find 1 method to give you considerably more bang for your buck?

Kindle plus a pop-up dictionary is amazing, and probably the better option. But if you find a great book in paper format, the faintly underlining and then going back later to look up some words will do the job.

I figure even if the story is hit-n-miss with my interest, at least going through 1 or 2 full books like this will give me a HUGE head-start before jumping into a native book that interest me. It would probably make the already-enjoyable experience of reading a book that interest me, even more enjoyable by having built a stronger foundation beforehand and not having to stop every chapter or two, to go back and research all the underlined words.

Yup! That's a totally valid approach. There was once a pretty amazing language-learning paper by a researcher who has been teaching immigrant women how to speak English. He'd brought in a series called "Sweet Valley High", which has early books aimed at native student in low grade levels, and more advanced books for older students. And apparently these students really got into the series, and they made ridiculously good progress.

Sometimes you can find (or make) "parallel" books, with two different languages on facing pages. There are lots of tricks like this to give you an early boost. Honestly, almost any devious trick that artificially boosts your comprehension will work.

Like I said, what matters the most is that (1) you understand enough of what's going on that your brain can guess a bit more, and (2) you're enjoying the process. That enjoyment can come from either interesting content, or from the sheer joy of figuring something out. As long as you have both (1) and (2), you should be able to make significant gains from extensive reading.

If you were to choose between watching a native series which you didn't know previously... Or watching a familiar english series dubbed in your target language (With the obvious distractions that arise from dubs/lip syncs etc) with which you'll have, as you say above, an 'artificial understanding' of...

Which way would you personally lean?

This depends on the person and the series! For example, the French dub almost everything from other countries, but they tend to do a pretty amazing job at it. And lots of French dubs have clean enunciation. So in that case, I was happy to start out by watching two dubbed series straight through!

On the other hand, maybe there's a native telenovela that you're really into, and the actors speak clearly. If so, go for it!

But at first, it's usually best to avoid "gritty" stuff, where people speak very rapidly and use tons of slang. That's usually better to put aside until you're around C1. Although, again, if you happen get amazing subtitles which actually match the speech, then you could make good use of more challenging series.

Really, the goal is to read a lot, watch a lot, and enjoy the process. Getting a huge amount of comprehensible or even semi-comprehensible input can lead to a dramatic improvement in your reading and listening. But at first, you'll need to experiment, to find things that you can enjoy and understand at least somewhat.

I absolutely guarantee, however, that if you read 2,500 pages of Spanish and watch 10 seaaons of fun, easy television, you'll see big gains. And this will be true even if you're pretty lazy about looking stuff up. But the beginning will require a bit more experimentation, to find things that are easy and fun. And a few intensive study sessions here and there can help you get past various sticking points.

Good luck, and have fun!

[Chmury]

Welcome to the forum Zac29! Another person who's super psyched on Spanish. Love it! I just went through your posts and I can already tell that you're loving and are going to love this process and journey of learning Spanish and that you'll no doubt reach very high levels in the language. If you can maintain this energy and interest and zeal for Spanish, then you'll go far. And how could you not! Spanish is such an incredible language with so many amazing cultures and countries and peoples who speak it as their mother tongue.

You remind me a little of myself when I started learning Spanish back in 2009 (full of psych and motivation), and I'm still absolutely enthralled with it and still enjoying learning new things and engaging with the language daily through people and culture. Going to South America that first time and subsequently on returning to Australia and learning Spanish, has completely changed my life and enriched it in so many obvious and profound ways. I'm really excited for you and looking forward to reading about your journey with the language and seeing your skills and confidence in Spanish grow.

Sounds like you've already got una barbaridad de (heaps of) fantastic and proven ways to make progress in the language, so just slowly make your way through those Platiquemos books (where do they aim to get there students to? B2 level? C1?), get lots of listening in, read articles, books, instagram posts, whatever you enjoy reading, and if you don't have many opportunities to speak or simply aren't ready for that yet, which I don't think applies to you since you've already spent 6 months living in Buenos Aires, I'd recommend writing (I'd recommend it in any case). Keep a journal in Spanish, as writing is essentially thinking deeply in a language, producing the language, and unlike speaking, you have as much time as you want to express things in the best way that you can. I've found it to be very helpful in my own learning as I always discover holes in my vocabulary and understanding of grammar. I'd also highly recommend getting a kindle if you don't have one already and read books in Spanish on there, as you can easily look up Spanish words and get a translation instantly, and also make lots of notes and highlight things which you can then get sent to your email later. But the most important thing, is simply to enjoy the process and enjoy Spanish. Mate, so excited for you!