NoManches - Spanish: B2-->C1 Log

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tastyonions
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log (Super & 100 day challenge)

Postby tastyonions » Fri Jul 01, 2016 3:40 pm

También me pasa a mí a menudo pero en mi caso es cuestión de "calentamiento." Es decir que después de hablar por treinta minutos o una hora acabo alcanzando un buen "ritmo" y puedo hablar con más fluidez y menos reflexión. Normalmente hablo español sólo una vez por semana pues cuando empiezo una conversación me siento bastante torpe por "falta de práctica" pero tengo en cuenta que esta sensación va a pasar pronto.

¿Escribes en español con frecuencia? Quizás te resulte útil, aunque sea una forma menos exigente de práctica.
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log (Super & 100 day challenge)

Postby NoManches » Fri Jul 01, 2016 4:00 pm

tastyonions wrote:También me pasa a mí a menudo pero en mi caso es cuestión de "calentamiento." Es decir que después de hablar por treinta minutos o una hora acabo alcanzando un buen "ritmo" y puedo hablar con más fluidez y menos reflexión. Normalmente hablo español sólo una vez por semana pues cuando empiezo una conversación me siento bastante torpe por "falta de práctica" pero tengo en cuenta que esta sensación va a pasar pronto.

¿Escribes en español con frecuencia? Quizás te resulte útil, aunque sea una forma menos exigente de práctica.



Muchas gracias por tu respuesta. Sólo escribo por mensajes de texto con unos amigos Mexicanos. La verdad, debería escribir más seguido pero no tengo tiempo. Te entiendo perfectamente bien cuando te referiste a "calentamiento". Cuando leo u escucho a un podcast me ayudan bastante como un "calentamiento", pero sigo teniendo problemas con hablar. O sea, me parece que la boca no quiere moverse después de unos días de descanso. Solería decir que no tengo suficiente práctica con el idioma, pero he estado practicando español hace 4 años. :roll:
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log (Super & 100 day challenge)

Postby tastyonions » Fri Jul 01, 2016 4:21 pm

Jaja, sé muy bien a qué te refieres con "la boca no quiere moverse." Es verdaderamente una sensación física, ¿no? Una vez dije a un hombre francés que los idiomas germánicos son todos "torpes" comparados a los romances. Como angloparlantes tenemos que ejercitar contínuamente nuestras lenguas perezosas.
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log (Super & 100 day challenge)

Postby NoManches » Fri Jul 01, 2016 5:57 pm

tastyonions wrote:Jaja, sé muy bien a qué te refieres con "la boca no quiere moverse." Es verdaderamente una sensación física, ¿no? Una vez dije a un hombre francés que los idiomas germánicos son todos "torpes" comparados a los romances. Como angloparlantes tenemos que ejercitar contínuamente nuestras lenguas perezosas.


Algo interesante me pasó....me di cuenta de que escribiendo así me hace enfocarme más y pensar muy duro en español . O sea, cuando escucho o leo está bien pero esos son actividades pasivas. Cuando tengo que escribir, es algo más activo. Ya es hora que comenzar escribiendo para desarrollar diferentes aspectos de mi español....y tal vez me ayude dejar de tener días"oxidados".
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log (Super & 100 day challenge)

Postby MamaPata » Sat Jul 02, 2016 8:58 am

Hey - it is always much easier to say so from the outside, but I think you are doing an incredible job! You have exceeded your goals and you are managing to have extended conversations with natives. You should be proud of where you are!

I definitely understand what you mean about speaking. I am focusing on input at the moment, which is great but I should probably up my speaking! Have you tried the app Hello Talk or something similar? Then you could record short messages, when you only have five minutes. It might be a way of introducing small bits of speaking.

Anyway, good luck! How long until your trip?! It sounds amazing!
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log (Super & 100 day challenge)

Postby NoManches » Sat Jul 02, 2016 2:27 pm

MamaPata wrote:Hey - it is always much easier to say so from the outside, but I think you are doing an incredible job! You have exceeded your goals and you are managing to have extended conversations with natives. You should be proud of where you are!

I definitely understand what you mean about speaking. I am focusing on input at the moment, which is great but I should probably up my speaking! Have you tried the app Hello Talk or something similar? Then you could record short messages, when you only have five minutes. It might be a way of introducing small bits of speaking.

Anyway, good luck! How long until your trip?! It sounds amazing!



Thanks!

I use HelloTalk but due to some bugs I usually find a few reliable language buddies on there and then continue talking to them on WhatsApp. I enjoy doing this because we can send voice recordings (the same as with Hello Talk).

My trip is at the end of this month, so I really need to push myself to the next level. I'll only be gone for a week so I see it as a time to use my Spanish in order to have a good trip. Unfortunately, I don't think the trip will help me out too much for advancing my Spanish since I will be using English a lot with my girlfriend.
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log (Super & 100 day challenge)

Postby NoManches » Sat Jul 16, 2016 5:31 pm

The last few days/weeks have been very hectic for me. I've spent a little time south of the border so I have been practicing Spanish quite a bit. The problem though, is that travelling and interacting with people as a tourist isn't the greatest way to improve your skills when you are already fluent in the language. I'm sure the extra communication with people is helping to solidify certain things, but I'm at the point where I need hours of in depth conversation to make real progress. I do try to speak with shop keepers as much as I can, and try to make the conversations interesting and more than the typical "tourist talk".

I'm giving myself 10 more days to finish my challenge (since I did raise my goals since I already met some of them).

I have 393 more pages to read (39.3/day)
350 more minutes of Spanish TV (8.75 more telenovelas)
466 more minutes of YouTube videos (46.6 minutes/day)
7 more conversation hours

I think these are very realistic goals (except for the YouTube videos, that will be tough). In order to make that goal more reasonable I will lower it to 750 minutes...which is about 21.6 minutes/day. If I keep it at 1000 I know I won't have time to finish it and will not make as much of an effort....at 750 minutes I know I can reach that goal if I try a bit each day.


Language learning should be fun, and I am having a ton of fun learning Spanish. All of my numbers/goals might seem like too much for some people, but for me they are necessary. Without these goals I might just watch TV when I feel like it, or read a little bit here and there. That is fine when you aren't in a rush to learn the language. I want to reach a solid C1 level by the end of the year (a very realistic goal, some friends say I'm already there). The point it, these goals make me stay disciplined and prevent me from slacking off.

good luck to everyone else with their language learning goals!
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log (Super & 100 day challenge)

Postby NoManches » Tue Jul 26, 2016 1:55 am

As many of you know, I basically completed my "100 day challenge" a little while ago and decided to increase the standards (which is why it is now a 100+ day challenge).

I still have a few hours of conversation left (which I plan on knocking out tonight with my language partner), and I will finish the night off by reading 50+ pages so that my challenge is officially complete! (excluding the YouTube portion :roll: ).

The totals:

Reading done: 1500 pages
TV Shows: 1600 minutes [26.6 hours]
Conversation in Spanish: 45 hours
YouTube: 589 minutes [9.81 hours]


I have to say, this challenge was a GREAT success. I pushed myself harder than I've pushed myself before, and this is almost entirely due to the fact that I actually set goals for myself to meet. For example, I used to NEVER read (in Spanish) and the fact that I have read 1500 pages is very impressive for me. The same can be said about TV & even conversation hours. Had I not set up this challenge for myself, I'd probably be looking at 1,000 minutes of TV, 20 hours of conversation, and maybe 400 pages of reading if I was lucky. I think YouTube is a very, very, important resource and will be sure to use it more often as I continue to progress with the Spanish language.

My reading skills have definitely improved but are still not where I want them to be. My listening skills have improved, but are still not where I want them to be. My conversation skills are getting really good, but still aren't where I want them to be. I may be fluent, but I'm not near a "native level of fluency"....and I won't stop until I get pretty close to that level.

In the next week or so I will be in South America, using my Spanish and hopefully improving it a lot. Whenever I travel I make sure to write down new words into anki at the end of the day (if I'm not too tired). The cool think about my level, is that I rarely have to learn a new word but when I do, it's usually important for some reason and I remember it with greater ease.

When I come back from my trip, I will try to do the following before I start a semester in college:

Read: 600 pages in Spanish
Have 15 hours of conversation in Spanish
Watch: 16 episodes of my novela

I really need to work on listening comprehension, and I think the extra reading and TV shows will help me out a lot. Also, I think the many hours of immersion that I will have in South America will help me get to a whole new level.

Thanks to everybody for all the encouragement and advice you have given me...I really appreciate it 8-)
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log (Super & 100 day challenge)

Postby NoManches » Thu Aug 04, 2016 1:51 am

Later on I'll copy and paste my "results from Colombia" thread that I posted in the general language discussion section. Right now though, I just want to say that my 100 day challenge I did before my trip was very successful, and I'm so glad I did it.

The month of August will be relatively relaxed for me, so I think this month I will do an "August challenge". I just came back from Colombia (as I just mentioned) and instead of taking it easy, I want to maintain the rhythm I've had for the last month and especially the last week in terms of using Spanish on a daily basis. My mind has been in Spanish mode quite a bit and I noticed on my trip that I am getting much better at switching back and fourth between the two languages.

My plan for August:

Read a minimum of 750 pages
Watch a minimum of 25 episodes of my novela (that's about 1,000 minutes/ 16 hours).

In addition, I will make a good effort to do the following this month:

Spend more time actively listening to podcasts
Spend more time using the internet in Spanish
Spend more time talking to myself in Spanish when I don't have a language partner
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Spanish Movies
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Spanish Books
: 4415 / 10000

NoManches
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 Log

Postby NoManches » Sat Aug 06, 2016 4:17 pm

Here is an important update that I came up with shortly after making this post:

This month I will NOT watch more than 25 telenovelas. Most people are going for as much input as possible (and I'm normally in that boat too). My problem is that on the quest for tons and tons of input I sometimes don't pay as much attention as I should, or maybe I skip over important dialog just because I understood enough of it to go on to the next episode. This month I will not watch more than 25 episodes of my novela. Once I watch a novela for the day I will spend additional time watching YouTube.

This is more of a post for my own record but sure it can be helpful to other people who happen to read it.

As I look back at the last few months of language learning I notice a few things that I should be doing, but haven't been doing:

Reading: yes, I've been reading but not enough to make a HUGE difference.

TV: yes, I've been watching television but have not been understanding enough of it to make a huge boost in comprehension skills.

Speaking: I speak a lot, but rarely have the opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone. I rely too much on saying the same thing over and over again, instead of being more specific, more descriptive, and more "native" sounding.

This month I will still try to meet goals I have already set for myself, but I need to do it in a more intensive (yet fun) manner. My last challenge of 100 days gave myself too much time to slack off and take breaks (which yes, are sometimes needed).

For the next 25 days or so I plan on pushing myself to a whole new level. I really think I can make a "breakthrough" of some sort by pushing myself out of my comfort zone.

How do I plan on doing this?

-TV: Instead of watching lots and lots of TV and hoping it one day all makes sense, I will focus more on understanding individual episodes. I'll make it a goal to add 10 new words from each episode to anki. This is about 250 new words. During each episode I will take note of the one 5-10 minute segment that was hardest to understand. I won't move on until I can comprehend at least 95% of that particular scene.

Reading: I finally found a great book that is challenging but not too hard. I'm almost done and there is a sequel which I'm looking forward to. In addition to reading this, I will make a strong effort to read at LEAST 3 articles online every day about topics that interest me: current events, blogs, product reviews, etc. Topics don't matter as long as they are varied and I find them interesting.

Speaking: I will focus a lot this month on monologues. Speaking to myself whenever possible about relevant topics so that when the time comes, I have already filled in the gaps to my vocabulary about certain topics and have already practiced speaking about certain things.


I am also considering to sign up for some classes in Spanish: for example, I'm already CPR certified but am willing to pay to take the class again in Spanish.


That is all for now!
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