NoManches - Spanish: B2-->C1 Log

[NoManches]

Sounds like you are doing a lot of good work and moving toward your goal. Wish I had some good advice for you, but I don't think I'm in a position to give any advice. Keep it up.

Thanks. It is tough and I feel like I'm not doing enough, but I'll keep on working hard and try to do more and more as time goes by.

And YES, I agree with you 100% on trying to follow audio. I will start listening and seconds later my mind will start wandering. This is very tough to deal with. So far my only method is to listen and once I feel myself thinking about something else I will just try to focus. I will go from listening, not concentrating, listening, thinking about something else, listening, etc. I have never been diagnosed with any attention disorders nad I don't think that is the case (in case somebody was going to suggest that). Then again, I'm not a doctor either so what do I know. I just think it is a matter of training yourself to listen and stay focused.

I will keep searching for interesting content from Mexico/Colombia, as these are the two dialects I most often face in the "real world".

[James29]

... and remember that it is not unusual for minds to wander in our native language. I often "space out" while listening to the radio in English too. So, don't feel bad or like there is anything wrong with you.

[NoManches]

!Buenas tardes compañeros!

Esta semana ha sido muy difícil (como siempre), pero logré alcanzar casi todo de mis metas.

Antes que nada, terminé "La ciudad de las bestias" esta mañana. Comenzaré "El Reino del Dragón de Oro" en unos días (seguido por "El Bosque de los Pigmeos). Pero ahorita estoy leyendo "El Alquimista", lo cual es mu fácil y un recurso bueno para hacer "extensive reading".

Estudié vocabulario cada día, aunque tuve algunos problemas con agregar mas palabras a mi lista. Resulta que es muy difícil decidir cuales palabras son dignos de aprender con anki. Solo quiero usar anki por palabras que planeo usar en conversaciones diarias, no para palabras aleatorias.

Logré platicar por 3 horas y 45 minutos con tres hispanohablantes diferentes, y planeo platicar por mas de 4 horas la esta semana.

No voy a mentir, solo vi un episodio de mi programa. Quería ver mas pero era difícil encontrar tiempo durante mi horario tan loco. Pero, las noticias buenas son que puedo ver unos episodios cada día para recuperar tiempo perdido.

Y finalmente, algo que me disuade mucho es mi comprensión. Trato de escuchar podcasts cada día pero es difícil distinguir cuanto tiempo realmente escuché. Por ejemplo, si tuviera un episodio de 30 minutos, es posible que solo escucharía 15 minutos "intensively" o intensivamente.

Realmente quiero desarrollar mi comprensión y aunque he estado escuchando al español hace unos años, siempre encuentro hispanohablantes por el calle no entiendo.

Ahorita, voy a ver unos episodios de "El Cartel" con y sin subtitulos. Después, leeré unas paginas de "El Alquimista". Mañana es un día nuevo, y estoy dispuesto a hacer cualquier cosa esta semana para alcanzar mis metas y desarrollar mi comprensión.


Nos vemos! Y no dudas en corregirme y mis errores que cometí en este aporte.

[NoManches]

¡Hola a todos! (O debería decir: Hola para el puñado de personas que están leyendo esto).

Pues, después de mucho pensamiento he decidido dejar de contar minutos escuchando podcasts. La verdad es que es muy difícil y es algo no realmente puedo contar.

Voy a seguir escuchando podcasts, por que es algo que ya hago diariamente. Es decir, escuchar podcasts ya es una parte de mi vida. Pero, para acostumbrarme al acento Colombiano, voy a enfocarme muchísimo en ver el programa "El Cartel. Esto es algo que puedo medir fácilmente y va de la mano con el Super Challenge.

Esto es todo para ahora, simplemente quiero escribirlo aquí para recordarme en el futuro.

[NoManches]

I will make this post in English since I am short on time but would like to keep this log updated.


This week has been VERY busy for me. I went a few days studying a very small amount of vocab with anki and listening to a few minutes of podcasts. I even squeezed some reading in before I went to bed. All in all.....it was horrible. I felt like these 4-5 days of limited study were very bad for me. First, I feel like I lost a LOT of motivation. I was able to practice with a friend on skype and although I spoke well, I made a ton of mistakes and was very disappointed in myself. After one day of limited Spanish, and then a second, and a third....I feel like Spanish got exponentially worse each day.

Even now I'm a bit unmotivated but I think I'll try to relax and watch a few tv shows in Spanish to get back on track.

[NoManches]

Not a big post from me today, just a few "thoughts".

1) I figured out how to make the "status bar" that can be found in my signature. This is EXTREMELY motivating for me. It's hard to measure success in language learning based on "minutes talked" or "pages read" but it is a great way to make a goal and follow through with it. Before my goal was basically to watch as much Spanish TV as I could. Not with this progress bar I actually have a goal and I really WANT to meet it.

2) My motivation has come back. Watching a few more TV shows did the trick. Now I am cycling between 3 different shows. One is from Mexico, one from Colombia, and the third is a dubbed show that I've already seen in English. The third is good when I mainly want to relax and practice "extensive listening" and I use the others for more challenging stuff.

3) I've been reading but I REALLY need to step things up. I plan on finishing two more books by Isabelle Allende as soon as possible.


That's enough for tonight! Time to watch another show and read some more of my book. The main thing troubling me now is watching tv and focusing 100% (it is so easy to get sidetracked and look at my phone, think of random things, etc.). Wish me luck!

[NoManches]

A few quick notes before I get back to some reading:

My reading has been improving at a very decent rate. In the next few weeks my work load in the office is going to get pretty tough, but.....I really think I can find some time to increase how much I am reading each day. As far as watching television in Spanish: it has been tough without subtitles but I am getting really good. It's weird because I can understand what they are saying in the show, but it is tough to translate what was said. Perhaps this is a different school that people possess/develop?

I have definitely been slacking off of listening to podcasts. I try to listen to a 15 minute episode on the way to work and then listen to a different episode on the way back. I've had a lot of my plate lately and instead of concentrating on my podcast, it has been very easy to start thinking about other things in life including deadlines that have to be met at work. This usually causes me to listen to the same podcast on the way home (since I didn't get much out of it on the first go).

I've received a of help here on the forum in regards to some problems I've been having with vocabulary. I have decided for the time being to change my SRS habits one more time. This time I will focus on going from L1>L2 meaning that for my flashcards I will see a word in my native language and have to PRODUCE the word in Spanish. This makes sense since I am already doing a ton of passive listening with my language studies. I give credit for this advice to "smallwhite" who has been kind enough to answer some of my questions. The truth is, everybody has been very helpful and I can definitely say my motivation is up every time I come here to ask a question or see what other people are doing in their language learning journeys.


That is all for now. The goal for the rest of the day/week is to do a ton of reading and watch as much television as I can in Spanish. I also realize that I need to start practicing the language more with native speakers. I'm averaging 2.5 hours each week but think I could practice for another hour with my coworkers or language partners.

[NoManches]

I've been really busy so haven't had time to log anything in (although I've had time to ask many questions in the forums ).

I'm almost halfway through my "100 day challenge". Here are my results:

I've read about 603 pages (my goal is 1,000). At first I was reading a ton (for me this means more than usual since I used to never read). For sure I thought I was going to go over 1,000 pages. I think I can still do it but I really need to get back on track.

For TV, I've logged in about 800 minutes (my goal is 1,800 minutes....30 hours). I really need to push myself and before my big trip to South America I think I should log in as many hours as possible. 1,800 is an achievable goal but if I want the most out of my trip and want to speak the best Spanish that I can, I need many many more hours (keeping in mind that I've already logged in hundreds and hundreds of hours of Spanish TV). I will try to make TV shows a part of my daily routine. If anything, they should be a priority.

Vocabulary is the easy part. I need to spend more time reviewing words that give me trouble or I want to include in my "active vocabulary".

As far as conversation hours, I'm below where I should be but I'm getting there. I've made a few language buddies on italki and hope to break my goal of 45 hours of conversation.


A few final notes: I'm getting better but I'm still having off days. Days where I can barely think and have trouble conjugating verbs or recalling verbs and nouns. I blame a lot of this on a lack of sleep.

To work on this I plan on spending as much of my time as I can speaking to myself and thinking to myself in Spanish. I need to remove some of the English from my life (like this post maybe ) and replace it with Spanish.


That's all for now. I'll report back in when I have some time!

[NoManches]

This weekend has been really busy and my time spent on Spanish has been very limited.

I was on a very good pace with my reading but the last week or so I have barely been squeezing in a few pages each night. My solution for this is to treat reading as an essential activity for each day, not as something I do before I go to sleep if Im not too tired.

I haven't had much time to watch my tv shows either. At this rate, I won't accomplish my goal of watching 1800 minutes of tv before my trip to South America. In order to catch up I plan on "binge watching" a tv series next week (time permitting).

Overall, I feel like I've been in a weird phase with my Spanish. I haven't been speaking as well and have been having trouble expressing more complex thoughts. Perhaps this is due to the increase in input I have been getting (I think that maybe I've reached an awkward phase where I know what I want to say because I've had it "inputted" before, but I just can't produce it). Almost like the stories I hear of people who say they can understand a language but can't speak it.


Other goals in the upcoming weeks so be to spend more time in Spanish and less time in English. I will try to watch YouTube videos when I don't have time for a full tv show. All news and entertainment will be done in Spanish.

And the big thing: I will try to think more in Spanish and think to myself in Spanish. Any time I find myself doing things in English I will try to correct myself. I had started this log in Spanish but I don't think it's as fun for people who'd like to follow but don't speak Spanish for this reason I'll probably keep posting in English.

Hope I can break through this phase.

[NoManches]

Glad to say that I have been a lot more productive when it comes to practicing Spanish since my last post. Work has been very busy but I have found times during the day to study vocabulary using anki. I found a new podcast that I really like, which is only about 20 minutes long. I have been listening to about 15 minutes of it on the way to work, and on the way home I usually restart it at the 10 minute mark and listen to the end. This has been effective since early in the morning my attention span is pretty low I zone out towards the end of the podcast.

I continue to watch my telenovela which is about 45 minutes per episode. My listening comprehension is improving, although I still have trouble when a fast speaking Colombian is on the show. I have been watching without subtitles but for each show I have made it a habit to watch a small section with subtitles on. I usually do this for an important scene or for any random section where I can't make out the words.


Now the one thing that I think has REALLY been helping me out is videos on YouTube. I think YouTube videos may be the most underrated form of media out there. They are usually short (5-15 minutes) so you can really focus on them (I don't know about everyone else but during telenovelas I start to zone off at the 25 minute mark or during boring scenes). The "youtubers" speak normally. Sometimes they might change their voice or whatever but they don't talk slower than normal, they don't try to speak clearly like they do in videos made for language learners, and they certainly don't use formal language. Also, you can learn a lot of cultural things from these types of videos compared to a movie. I got home from work today and after taking care of a few things, sat down and started watching youtube videos. I've logged in 70 minutes so far and I can honestly say that I have gotten more out of these 70 minutes than I ever have from watching 3 hours of Spanish TV/movies in one day. Why? Because I am INTENSIVELY watching, I am engaged, and I am having a lot of fun with the videos I'm watching.

I just started really using YouTube videos this week because I was able to squeeze a few minutes in here and there, and will continue to watch them. As a matter of fact, I might make them my main source of input for the next few months.

Also, starting today I really started to make more of an effort talking to myself in Spanish. There are some things that don't roll off the tongue as quickly as I'd like and my goal is to make Spanish something I just instinctively do, not something I have to consciously think about when I want to use it.

My reading has slacked off a bit but not too much. I have been intensively reading with a "self help" book and have been extensively reading with a fun novel.

I don't have any plans this weekend, here are my goals:

Watch a total of 8 hours of Spanish TV/Movies/YouTube videos. Read at least 200 pages. Converse in Spanish via skype for at least 4 hours. Only use Spanish during the weekend unless I absolutely need to. If my brain starts to hurt maybe I'll come back to the forum here and check out some language learning stuff in English as a break. I need to start making breakthroughs and this weekend I will start.