NoManches - Spanish: B2-->C1 Log

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NoManches
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NoManches - Spanish: B2-->C1 Log

Postby NoManches » Sat Apr 09, 2016 2:25 am

2018 Reading List (idea inspired by others)

La Última Bala - March 31 - 212 pages
La Caída de una Diva-197 pages
El ladrón del rayo - 75% - 288 pages





A little background:

I've been studying Spanish for 3 years and although I consider myself to be fluent, I would say that I'm still at a "B2" level but very close to being a "C1". I normally hate using this rating system since I've never taken an actual placement test, but most language learners can relate to this system so I will use it in this log. I really need to work on my listening skills, and feel like once my listening skills improve and I can absorb massive amounts of input, that all of my other skills will improve too. Due to my new schedule, I have a decent amount of time to listen to podcasts (while commuting to work), but have little time for other things. My goal right now: improve my listening skills to a point where I can learn from listening. I dream of the day when I can put on a podcast, understand 95% of it, and just sit back, relax, and learn Spanish while I listen.

To make things more interesting: In a little over 3 months I will be heading to Colombia. I have decided to do a "100 day challenge" to improve as much as I possible can before I leave. I will start this challenge on Sunday (April 10th).

Starting on Sunday, I will report in once a week to talk about my progress. I will make all posts in Spanish and encourage any corrections if people are willing to make them, since I still make more writing mistakes than I'd like.


Here are my goals for the next 15 weeks:

Vocabulary: I will use anki every day and plan to learn 500+ new words (5 new words each day).

Reading: I will read at least 1,000 pages. This breaks down to ~66 pages/week or 13 pages 5x's week. This goal should not be too demanding. I'm aiming to read 3 books during this time. Still deciding on intensive vs extensive reading.

Listening: I will listen to music and podcasts in Spanish whenever I can. If there is a time when I am awake and could be listening to Spanish, I will do it. HOWEVER, I really need to improve my listening skills. Therefore, I will dedicate at least 20 minutes 5x's each week to INTENSIVE listening. This equates to 100 minutes each week, or 1500 minutes during 15 weeks (25 hours).

Television: Many people here have said that TV isn't the most effective for improving listening skills. I agree. However, watching TV can be fun, and a great way to pick up on local slang. I plan on watching the show "Metastasis" which has 62 episodes (each one is about 40 minutes long). This is equivalent to 40+ hours of native material. Supposedly the show is really good!

Conversation: This is probably one of the most important things I can do. However, my schedule is really tight. I will try my hardest to have at least 2 hours on conversation each week with native speakers. I have many language friends that I can practice with on Skype.

Gloss: This is something very new to me but many people here have suggested it. I will start at the 2+ level and work my way up. Based on how many other things I plan on doing, I'm not sure how much time I will have to use GLOSS. If people reading this think it is very effective, then perhaps I will give it more attention. If not, perhaps I will use it whenever I have a few minutes to sit down and study.

Writing: I'm not too worried about this skill, but output is output. I will try my hardest to check back in here each week and write a summary of my week and how my language learning went.


So there you have it. The foundation for my 100 day challenge. After I will continue this log but I plan on starting with my "100 day challenge". ALL suggestions, critiques, advice, and words of motivation are more than welcome. Seriously, if somebody thinks I would be better off doing something differently, then I would definitely consider changing my plan. After all, I only speak two languages. Many of you speak many languages and know more about language learning than I do. I really want to improve my listening skills, and if anybody has any advice on how I could do this I'm sure it would help me out a lot.
Last edited by NoManches on Tue Apr 10, 2018 5:47 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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Tomás
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 (100 day challenge) & log

Postby Tomás » Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:12 am

Most of Spanish GLOSS is intensive listening, so you can file your GLOSS time under your listening quota.
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NoManches
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 (100 day challenge) & log

Postby NoManches » Sat Apr 09, 2016 1:16 pm

Tomás wrote:Most of Spanish GLOSS is intensive listening, so you can file your GLOSS time under your listening quota.



This is good to hear. I will definitely be including GLOSS in my study plan, at least a few times a week.
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 (100 day challenge) & log

Postby NoManches » Sun Apr 10, 2016 3:52 pm

¡Buenos días a todos! (o buenas tardes/noches) dependiendo cuando lo vean esto.

Hoy es el primer día de mi "meta de cien días". Me doy cuenta de que cometo muchos errores con mi escritura, pero no me importa tanto. Siempre y cuando siga practicando voy a mejorar.

Hoy mi plan es muy sencillo: Después de que haya escrito esto, voy a revisar vocabulario con anki. Prefiero terminar mi lista de vocabulario en la mañana, para que pueda pasar el resto del día haciendo otras cosas como leer, y charlar con nativos. Si tengo tiempo después de que haya estudiada el vocabulario, tal vez vaya a leer un poco y luego, escucharé a un podcast durante mi viaje a mi trabajo.

Decidí usar "GLOSS" tres veces cada semana. Hoy, espero que no vaya a tener tiempo para usarlo, pero cuando regresa del trabajo voy a leer un poco más.

Mañana mi horario es mas tranquilo, y debería tener más tiempo para escuchar a mis podcasts y tal ves practica con un hablante de español por skype (tengo algunos amigos de Colombia).


Por ahora, voy a terminar con esto y comenzar mi meta nueva. He estado pensando mucho y creo que será muy util si fuera a usar este aporte por 2 cosas:

1. Puedo comparar este con mi final aporte para ver si haya mejorado o no.

y

2. Tal vez hay una manera donde puedo tener que una hispanohablante corrija mis errores para que puedo evitar cometiendolos en el futuro.

Muchas gracias y deseeme "buen suerte" por favor, lo voy a necesitaré.
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Hank
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 (100 day challenge) & log

Postby Hank » Sun Apr 10, 2016 6:14 pm

¡Buena suerte! Creo que es un plan excelente.

Tu español es muy bueno. Debería escribir mi diario en español pero es difícil en mi nivel.
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 (100 day challenge) & log

Postby James29 » Tue Apr 12, 2016 1:17 am

What part of Colombia are you going to visit? I've found that Spanish in Bogota sounds incredibly different than that of Medellin, for example. I find people from Bogota are the easiest to understand while people from Medellin are probably the most difficult for me (of all types of Spanish). If you are going to the Medellin area (or any other part where they use vos) you might consider watching a TV show from that region (like the telenovlea El Capo).

I admire you for doing what I should be doing. It sounds like you have a great plan!!
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NoManches
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 (100 day challenge) & log

Postby NoManches » Tue Apr 12, 2016 7:04 pm

James29 wrote:What part of Colombia are you going to visit? I've found that Spanish in Bogota sounds incredibly different than that of Medellin, for example. I find people from Bogota are the easiest to understand while people from Medellin are probably the most difficult for me (of all types of Spanish). If you are going to the Medellin area (or any other part where they use vos) you might consider watching a TV show from that region (like the telenovlea El Capo).

I admire you for doing what I should be doing. It sounds like you have a great plan!!



Hopefully I will be in a few areas but plan on spending most of my time in Medellín.

I just started watching "El Cartel" which I believe contains a ton of the "Paisa" accent. I have been looking all over for podcasts with people from Medellín but cannot find anything. It is really frustrating but I will have to settle with listening to podcasts from Bogotá and watching "El Cartel" on the side. My problem is that I am really bad at watching TV in Spanish and it isn't a great exercise for me to improve my listening skills (it helps but a podcast from Medellín would be more effective for me. With TV I miss a ton and find that subtitles cause me to read and not listen).

Thank you for your advice!
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 (100 day challenge) & log

Postby NoManches » Mon Apr 18, 2016 5:09 am

¡Muy buenas noches compañeros de foro!

La semana pasada fue muy agitada, y casi nunca tuve tiempo para hacer mis metas.

Logré estudiar vocabulario y leer todos los días. Escuché podcasts 5 días, aunque hubo días donde no pude concentrarme tan bien que quisiera debido a muchas cosas (trabajo, la familia, etc.). Dicho esto, tuve 2 conversaciones con hispanohablantes por un total de 2.5 horas, y vi 4 episodios de una serie que se llama "El Cartel". Originalmente quería ver "Metastasis", pero dado que voy a pasar la mayoría del mi tiempo en Medellín, pensé que sería mejor ver El Cartel (muchos de los personajes en esta serie tienen acentos "paisas".

Puedo decir sinceramente que cumplí todo de mis metas, aunque podría haber hecho más. Por ejemplo, aunque escucho podcasts, podría haber escuchado con mas concentración, o podría haber hecho un hueco en mi horario para ver unos mas videos de Youtube en español.

Además, me di cuenta de que no voy a tener la habilidad de cumplir mis metas cada semana. Pues, puedo hacerlas pero será muy difícil. Básicamente, mi meta es hacer una cierta cantidad de cosas antes que que vaya a vacaciones (leer "x" cantidad de paginas, escuchar "x" horas de audio, etc.). Si no puedo hacer estas metas durante alguna semana, todo estaría bien siempre y cuando las compense.


Bueno, estoy extremadamente cansado ahorita y no puedo mantener los ojos abiertos. Estoy seguro que acabo de cometer un chorro de errores, tal vez los corrija mañana (ahora solo quiero leer mi libro en español y dormir jaja).

Nos vemos compas!
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 (100 day challenge) & log

Postby NoManches » Thu Apr 21, 2016 3:54 am

Uno de las cosas que he notado es que es muy difícil encontrar tiempo para solamente escuchar a mis podcasts. Tengo tiempo, pero es difícil concentrarme por más de unos minutos. Entonces, decidí anoche que en lugar de escuchar 20 minutes 5 días por semana, sería mejor practicar un día extra con un hispanohablante. La verdad es que durante una platica es difícil no concentrarse a menos que sea un sujeto muy grosero jaja.

Y otra cosa, en lugar de ver un episodio de "El Cartel" 4 o 5 días cada semana, voy a enfocarme en ver y comprender por lo menos 90% de UN episodio antes de que vea otro.

Que opinan?
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Re: Spanish: B2-->C1 (100 day challenge) & log

Postby James29 » Thu Apr 21, 2016 7:39 pm

I have a hard time concentrating on just audio. I've tried to listen to audio books, but my mind just wanders unless I am also following the text. About the only thing I seem to be able to listen to is the news and even then my mind wanders and I miss a story quite often.

In a strange way sometimes one on one conversations can be less efficient than doing other things... especially if it is the same person over and over again.

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.
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