Garner's Log [Super Challenge][SRS challenge](Spanish)

[jumpman222]

Hey All,

I've been too lazy to start a log but I finally feel that I need to keep track of my routines and progress. I'll follow up this post with my background, current methods and goals.

Vamos!

[jumpman222]

My Language Background:

I've been studying Spanish on and off for the past 12 years with long breaks in between learning spurts. This has left my Spanish skills all over the map. I remember much of the grammar rules from school however my vocab is fairly limited. Originally listening comprehension was by far my worst skill but over the past 6 months, I've been doing a ton of listening-reading in Spanish so that I could attune my ear to it. Now I'm pretty good at listening, almost on par with my reading skills. Overall I'd put myself at B1 and I feel like vocab is what is really holding me back.

While I've always wanted to learn Spanish, the reason why I am really dedicated now is that I'm getting married to my fiancee in October. She is originally from Mexico so many of her relatives who only speak Spanish will be coming to the wedding. I'd really like to carry a conversation with them since we're all going to be family.

Goals:
So I have about 5 months until the big date. I'd like to get to a solid B2/C1 if I can. I only care about conversing so I'll be focusing on listening comprehension, speaking, and vocab to maximize my conversation skills.

Methods:
I'll be doing the Super Challenge and the SRS challenge. For the Super Challenge I'll mostly be doing Listening-Reading. Since it can count as both a book and a movie because of the audio component, I'm going to replace the 100 books with a second dose of 100 90 minute audio segments. So all in all, my goal will be 200 "movies" I've developed an LR app that highlights the sentences as the audio plays to make it super easy. Right now, it is only loaded with Game of Thrones but I'll be adding more books as I progress. If you are studying Spanish and want to use it, just sign up for an account (it's free) and get going! Feel free to give any feedback for it in this thread.

For the SRS Challenge, I'll be starting with the "Essential Spanish Vocabulary Top 5000" deck in Anki. I don't like SRS but it really does help my vocabulary when I use it. I'm going to be nice to myself and suspend any card that I'm already familiar. I just want to focus on words that are completely foreign to me. It has an audio component and pictures which I like.

I'm also following the AJATT way of "polluting" my English environment with Spanish. So when I can't practice Spanish at work, I put on a Spanish podcast in the background that I can tune into every now and then. I like this so far and I think its pretty effective. We'll see. I'll add my podcast and other materials to the bottom of this post in case you are interested.

I also speak to my fiance in Spanish which is helping with the speech training. It's a slow process.

Around August 1st, I'm probably going to curtail my SRS for the final two months in favor of Platiquemos. I've done 12 lessons in it before and I really like the automaticity it gave me in speaking. Hopefully two months of that will set me in a good position for having free flowing conversations at the wedding.

So that's it! Hopefully my log will help people on their language journey as others have helped me .

Spanish Listening-Reading App:
Dive into Espanol

Anki Deck:
Essential Spanish Vocabulary Top 5000

My Favorite Podcasts:
00podcast - A fun podcast on movies
Fallo de Sistema - Great podcast on video games, science fiction, and tech

[rdearman]

For the Super Challenge I'll mostly be doing Listening-Reading. Since it can count as both a book and a movie because of the audio component, I'm going to replace the 100 books with a second dose of 100 90 minute audio segments. So all in all, my goal will be 200 "movies" I've developed an LR app that highlights the sentences as the audio plays to make it super easy.

Errr... actually the rule around LR and the Super Challenge is that you can count either the reading, or the listening, but not both at the same time.