M23's Language Log: Spanish and German
Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:16 am
Why am I here?
I have been following the original site for quite some time now. In fact, I started reading it when I was a monolingual and it was one of the things that finally nudged me in the direction of taking the project of learning a second language seriously. I tried signing up a couple times but... well, I am sure you all know the story there. I am glad that this forum was created because I have been finding myself in need of a little communal support with my language learning projects as of late. I have been finding it quite challenging to break out of intermediate limbo with my Spanish, and to cross over into the upper intermediate/lower advanced stage of the journey. My German has been even worse with repeated starts that stalled out. My main challenge in both instances has been time. My work day takes up a rather large chunk of time and what I am left with is time that I am either at the gym, or on the verge of going to bed. On my weekends I can carve out an hour or so for actual study if I do not have a flurry of errands I have to get done. Needless to say I do my best to make use of all those spare moments in my day to get a little bit of something in here and there, but lately I have been finding it increasingly difficult to muster the energy for even that. My hope is that being part of this community will help give me a little extra layer of support so I can learning and growing.
German
Like I said previously, I have started and stopped trying to get the basics down for this language a few times now. I may have turned a small corner with it recently (I was in Germany in December to celebrate Christmas and while I was there I felt like I was growing a new brain) and I want to take advantage of that momentum. I am using the following materials to help me get to the A1 stage:
1. Pimsleur German audio course
2. DW Interactiv course
3. German Made Simple by Arnold Leitner
4. Duolingo
These are the principle materials, and I supplement them with some of the other materials offered by DW (e.g. the "Deutsch, Warum Nicht" podcast, and more recently the "Harry" series that they just launched) as well as picking up a little extra vocabulary and listening/pronunciation practice with some music that I picked up from my last trip to Germany.
Spanish
I cannot say I have been really studying Spanish much lately. I attend Meetup groups to practice my spoken Spanish, I listen to music/radio in Spanish, watch animated series (e.g. Star Wars: Clone Wars, Beware of the Batman, etc.) and movies Spanish, read and comment on news forums in Spanish, play video games in Spanish, and I read books in Spanish. These things have no doubt helped me maintain and perhaps improve a little here and there... but I cannot really call that study.
I had an exchange with a polyglot not too long ago where I asked him how he bridged the gap from intermediate to advanced, and his answer really stuck with me. He told me that to bridge that gap it was important to go beyond just wanting to understand. I do not have solid plans at this point - so I am open to suggestions here - but I am leaning towards picking some form of native material to utterly pick apart and not put down until I can use all the vocabulary, grammatical forms, and other conversational oddities contained within it myself.
Other odds and ends
Right now I am alternating focus on one language per week to keep things fresh. Certain things in each language happen daily regardless if it is an "on" week or an "off" week. For example I do my daily Duolingo session in German even if it is not a German week, and I talk with some coworkers in Spanish or enjoy other native materials in Spanish even if it is a German week. Since the languages are so different and since my Spanish is at a higher level (and much more ingrained in my brain) than my German I do not worry about language confusion too much. The only time I get close to this is when I am well in to my German week and have had extra time to study and really get the gears in my German mind turning. If a coworker or a friend tries to engage me in Spanish conversation at that point I notice it is a little challenging to get switched back over.
Having laid all of this out, if any of you seasoned language learners out there see that I am treading the wrong path or otherwise note that my head is not in the right place, please feel free to leave me a comment.
I have been following the original site for quite some time now. In fact, I started reading it when I was a monolingual and it was one of the things that finally nudged me in the direction of taking the project of learning a second language seriously. I tried signing up a couple times but... well, I am sure you all know the story there. I am glad that this forum was created because I have been finding myself in need of a little communal support with my language learning projects as of late. I have been finding it quite challenging to break out of intermediate limbo with my Spanish, and to cross over into the upper intermediate/lower advanced stage of the journey. My German has been even worse with repeated starts that stalled out. My main challenge in both instances has been time. My work day takes up a rather large chunk of time and what I am left with is time that I am either at the gym, or on the verge of going to bed. On my weekends I can carve out an hour or so for actual study if I do not have a flurry of errands I have to get done. Needless to say I do my best to make use of all those spare moments in my day to get a little bit of something in here and there, but lately I have been finding it increasingly difficult to muster the energy for even that. My hope is that being part of this community will help give me a little extra layer of support so I can learning and growing.
German
Like I said previously, I have started and stopped trying to get the basics down for this language a few times now. I may have turned a small corner with it recently (I was in Germany in December to celebrate Christmas and while I was there I felt like I was growing a new brain) and I want to take advantage of that momentum. I am using the following materials to help me get to the A1 stage:
1. Pimsleur German audio course
2. DW Interactiv course
3. German Made Simple by Arnold Leitner
4. Duolingo
These are the principle materials, and I supplement them with some of the other materials offered by DW (e.g. the "Deutsch, Warum Nicht" podcast, and more recently the "Harry" series that they just launched) as well as picking up a little extra vocabulary and listening/pronunciation practice with some music that I picked up from my last trip to Germany.
Spanish
I cannot say I have been really studying Spanish much lately. I attend Meetup groups to practice my spoken Spanish, I listen to music/radio in Spanish, watch animated series (e.g. Star Wars: Clone Wars, Beware of the Batman, etc.) and movies Spanish, read and comment on news forums in Spanish, play video games in Spanish, and I read books in Spanish. These things have no doubt helped me maintain and perhaps improve a little here and there... but I cannot really call that study.
I had an exchange with a polyglot not too long ago where I asked him how he bridged the gap from intermediate to advanced, and his answer really stuck with me. He told me that to bridge that gap it was important to go beyond just wanting to understand. I do not have solid plans at this point - so I am open to suggestions here - but I am leaning towards picking some form of native material to utterly pick apart and not put down until I can use all the vocabulary, grammatical forms, and other conversational oddities contained within it myself.
Other odds and ends
Right now I am alternating focus on one language per week to keep things fresh. Certain things in each language happen daily regardless if it is an "on" week or an "off" week. For example I do my daily Duolingo session in German even if it is not a German week, and I talk with some coworkers in Spanish or enjoy other native materials in Spanish even if it is a German week. Since the languages are so different and since my Spanish is at a higher level (and much more ingrained in my brain) than my German I do not worry about language confusion too much. The only time I get close to this is when I am well in to my German week and have had extra time to study and really get the gears in my German mind turning. If a coworker or a friend tries to engage me in Spanish conversation at that point I notice it is a little challenging to get switched back over.
Having laid all of this out, if any of you seasoned language learners out there see that I am treading the wrong path or otherwise note that my head is not in the right place, please feel free to leave me a comment.