Karen's Spanish learning journey
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 1:18 am
I apologize in advance for this very long post.
I have been learning Spanish for approximately 3 years and I think that I have reached the B1 level (low B1 for speaking, mid to upper B1 for everything else). I primarily have studied on my own with the exception of a 6 month period in which I had weekly conversation lessons with a Spanish tutor. Learning Spanish is a hobby for me and I love the intellectual challenge of evaluating my progress and implementing changes to my methodology so that I continue to progress. I joined the Super Challenge yesterday to give myself a concrete goal to work towards and today I begin this learning log. I welcome all comments and suggestions and I hope that my ramblings about my learning process will be helpful to others.
Where I stand now:
Speaking – As might be expected for an autodidact, my ability to speak in Spanish is my weak spot. My pronunciation is pretty good as long as I don’t speak too quickly, but the words that I want to use appear too slowly for fluid speech. I have 3 Spanish practice partners (from Mexico, Colombia and Spain) with whom I usually speak via Skype on a weekly basis. Our conversations in Spanish typically are free-wheeling discussions about current events or cultural differences between our respective countries. They don’t correct many of my mistakes so I try to spend a few minutes every day in solo speaking practice. I record my solo speaking practice so that I can try to identify my grammatical mistakes and correct them.
Listening – I spend time listening to podcasts for Spanish language learners, Radio Ambulante and watching Spanish language television programs and movies. I listen to podcasts for Spanish learners in order to improve my vocabulary, improve the accuracy of my listening and to hear/read examples of grammatical constructs. For these reasons, right now, I only listen to podcasts that provide transcripts. The language learner podcasts that I am currently using are: A mi aire (http://www.podclub.ch/sendungen/a-mi-aire-sp, interesting topics, good production values and good examples of various types of grammar); Spanishpodcast.org (http://www.spanishpodcast.org/podcasts/, nice descriptions of word usage and grammar usage); Spanishpodcast.net (https://www.spanishpodcast.net, simpler language but great descriptions of idioms); Veinte Mundos (http://www.veintemundos.com/en/ , interesting cultural topics and great for vocabulary). I will write about the Spanish television programs that I am watching in another post.
Reading – Most of my reading has been of podcast transcripts and editorials in El País. I need to up my game in this area which is why I joined the Super Challenge. My eventual goal is to read the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Spanish but I don’t want to attempt this until I can better appreciate the beauty of his prose. I think I will start by reading easy language readers out loud (hey, it kills two birds with one stone), progress to classic short stories and sprinkle in a few light, pulp fiction type novels.
Writing – I usually post a short piece of writing on Italki once or twice a week. I try to write with minimal use of the dictionary and use the corrections that I receive to show me what grammatical topics I need to review.
Other – Grammar, vocabulary and drills to improve automaticity. I am a stronger believer that grammar is our friend and that grammar exercises and drilling vocabulary are fantastic tools for improving our target languages. They also can be very tedious. I have just started studying Gramática de Uso del Español B1-B2 and I went through the FSI Basic Course through unit 42 before I stopped. If Gramática de Uso becomes too tedious I will go back to the FSI course for a while. I also have an Anki vocabulary deck that I have been neglecting but started up again a few days ago.
I have been learning Spanish for approximately 3 years and I think that I have reached the B1 level (low B1 for speaking, mid to upper B1 for everything else). I primarily have studied on my own with the exception of a 6 month period in which I had weekly conversation lessons with a Spanish tutor. Learning Spanish is a hobby for me and I love the intellectual challenge of evaluating my progress and implementing changes to my methodology so that I continue to progress. I joined the Super Challenge yesterday to give myself a concrete goal to work towards and today I begin this learning log. I welcome all comments and suggestions and I hope that my ramblings about my learning process will be helpful to others.
Where I stand now:
Speaking – As might be expected for an autodidact, my ability to speak in Spanish is my weak spot. My pronunciation is pretty good as long as I don’t speak too quickly, but the words that I want to use appear too slowly for fluid speech. I have 3 Spanish practice partners (from Mexico, Colombia and Spain) with whom I usually speak via Skype on a weekly basis. Our conversations in Spanish typically are free-wheeling discussions about current events or cultural differences between our respective countries. They don’t correct many of my mistakes so I try to spend a few minutes every day in solo speaking practice. I record my solo speaking practice so that I can try to identify my grammatical mistakes and correct them.
Listening – I spend time listening to podcasts for Spanish language learners, Radio Ambulante and watching Spanish language television programs and movies. I listen to podcasts for Spanish learners in order to improve my vocabulary, improve the accuracy of my listening and to hear/read examples of grammatical constructs. For these reasons, right now, I only listen to podcasts that provide transcripts. The language learner podcasts that I am currently using are: A mi aire (http://www.podclub.ch/sendungen/a-mi-aire-sp, interesting topics, good production values and good examples of various types of grammar); Spanishpodcast.org (http://www.spanishpodcast.org/podcasts/, nice descriptions of word usage and grammar usage); Spanishpodcast.net (https://www.spanishpodcast.net, simpler language but great descriptions of idioms); Veinte Mundos (http://www.veintemundos.com/en/ , interesting cultural topics and great for vocabulary). I will write about the Spanish television programs that I am watching in another post.
Reading – Most of my reading has been of podcast transcripts and editorials in El País. I need to up my game in this area which is why I joined the Super Challenge. My eventual goal is to read the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Spanish but I don’t want to attempt this until I can better appreciate the beauty of his prose. I think I will start by reading easy language readers out loud (hey, it kills two birds with one stone), progress to classic short stories and sprinkle in a few light, pulp fiction type novels.
Writing – I usually post a short piece of writing on Italki once or twice a week. I try to write with minimal use of the dictionary and use the corrections that I receive to show me what grammatical topics I need to review.
Other – Grammar, vocabulary and drills to improve automaticity. I am a stronger believer that grammar is our friend and that grammar exercises and drilling vocabulary are fantastic tools for improving our target languages. They also can be very tedious. I have just started studying Gramática de Uso del Español B1-B2 and I went through the FSI Basic Course through unit 42 before I stopped. If Gramática de Uso becomes too tedious I will go back to the FSI course for a while. I also have an Anki vocabulary deck that I have been neglecting but started up again a few days ago.