Sgt Schultz knows nothing!

[Sgt Schultz]

Spanish stuff
A couple weeks ago I traveled to Guayaquil, Ecuador for a week. As anyone that has read the previous entries in the log will know, I've been focused on French lately in preparation for a trip to Paris next spring. Which means I've been neglecting my Spanish. It showed during the Ecuador trip.

I figured my Spanish would be a little rusty but I noticed a huge dropoff in my listening and speaking abilities. So much so that I was a little ashamed. So, something will need to be done about that. Probably I will try to make a Spanish tv series or podcast a part of my daily routine. Just something to keep it fresh in my head.

French stuff
I missed about 10 days of French during my trip (and after due to being exhausted from traveling). However, I have gotten back into a routine with study time every morning while going to work. It's been going a bit slow, however.

General
I'm finding it difficult to maintain one language AND learn a new one. It's mostly a time issue. But there are times when I think of a Spanish or German word when doing the French lessons. My head is a bit of a jumbled mess right now. I'm not sure how some people are able to learn 4 or 5 languages and keep them separated in their minds.

[Sgt Schultz]

General ramblings
I haven't been on to the forum in months it looks like, which also means no updates in months. 2017 didn't end very well for me personally or professionally. I'm still extremely unhappy in my current job and haven't had any good opportunities come up at other companies. On top of that, depression has reared it's ugly head again. I suppose I'll eventually be ok but it's getting old.

Language updates
As I mentioned above, I haven't been on the forum in ages. Looking through the messages this morning, I saw that Assimil now has actual mobile apps. This excites me. One of my biggest complains with Assimil was the physical books, mainly the size of them and the small, hard to read print. Now in my 40's, my vision isn't as good as it used to be. I've come to appreciate the ability to change font sizes, something Kindle does very well, and I rarely read print books now because of it. Anyway, I just downloaded the new apps to my phone and will check them out. I'm hoping for the best.

Spanish: I still use it daily but feel like it should be better. I'm not actually doing anything to improve it, just maintaining what I have through use. I'll be in Spain this spring and will spend about 8 days there before going to France.

French: Nothing. Which is too bad since I'll be in Paris for 4 days in the spring. I really should focus on learning a bit but I'm unmotivated. I need to find a way to get motivated.

Italian: Not much but I have been doing some Pimsleur lessons lately. I don't really have a use for this language right now other than being interested in Ancient Roman history and hope to visit Italy in 2019, although nothing is planned right now. I also have been listening to Andrea Bocelli, which I've found to be beautiful music. I have to admit I started listening to him after hearing the duet he did with Ed Sheeran called Perfect Symphony, which is also beautifully done.

That's it for now. Until next time, whenever that may be.

[jeff_lindqvist]

General ramblings
I haven't been on to the forum in months it looks like, which also means no updates in months.

It's great to have you back!

[Sgt Schultz]

Last night I spent some time with the Assimil Android app. It was the French version with English base. This isn't intended as a review but I thought I'd list some impressions without going too in-depth.

To start off, I'm impressed and liked it a lot. Prior to the app, I would load the Assimil audio to my phone and follow along in the book. I've mentioned my issues with the small book before and won't rehash that here. But it was always a pain trying to pause or repeat the audio and juggle the physical book, so now being able to tap on the sentences and hear it as many times as I want is great.

I used the first screen to read through of the whole dialog, clicking on the next sentence immediately after the previous one ended, simulating a non-stop read/listen through the dialog. I did this a few times before going to the second screen and focusing on the individual sentences and translations. It wasn't much different than the book for me, other than being more convenient.

I also like the exercises. One screen has a quiz with drop-down selections, another with fill in the blank. Both give right/wrong corrections after submitting it. I found this easier and more convenient than the book.

For those that like the funny cartoons, those can be found in the app as well.

The interface took a few minutes to get used to but once I did, I found it easy to use.

All in all, I'd give it a thumbs up after 1 day of use (I'll do the entire 7 day free trial and give thoughts after it ends too). I just wish there were more courses with an English base. So far, I've only seen one, the French/English course.

[Sgt Schultz]

Spanish
Spurred by a post on this website about a DELE/SIELE study group, I counted myself among those interested. This isn't new for me, of course. I've been wanting to take the DELE for nearly 3 years now and have not followed through for one reason or another. After hearing about the SIELE, and a testing center that is only a couple of hours away by car, I'm thinking about sitting for that exam. The downside is that it's only good for a period of time but the convenience factor alone makes it attractive.

So, I've dusted off my Spanish materials and for the last couple of days I've been trying to polish my B1/B2 level of Spanish. As readers of this log know, I use Spanish on a daily basis with my girlfriend. Last night, for instance, we spoke for an hour only in Spanish. I was pleased with how I did. At the end she commented on how good my Spanish was and suggested I was comfortably at B2, which obviously made my day.

During the morning commutes, I've been listening to some language CDs (Pimsleur) as well. All of these are review and extremely easy, having completed them previously. I'm not sure they are worth the time but seeing how the commute is dead time, I might as well continue and hope that something I've forgotten gets refreshed.

I've also signed back up for Netflix and will start watching Spanish shows again. Looks like they have Gran Hotel so I'll re-watch that to work on listening. Clara (mi novia), also mentioned a new one called 'la casa de papel', which I also want to check out. I'll probably start with that one since I haven't seen it before and because everyone seems to be raving about it.

I also have the DELE B1 study guide at home. I may start flipping through it as well.

Once my study plans solidify, I'll post what I'm doing as test prep here.

Other languages
I should be learning a little French due to an upcoming trip that will see me in Paris for a few days. I'm extremely unmotivated though. I think not having a real world need for the language, other than a couple of days in the country, is the determining factor. If it were something I'd use daily, or even fairly often, it might be a different story.

Italian has been put on the back burner for a while too. Much like French, in the above paragraph, I don't have much use for it right now.

I've still been kicking around the idea of moving to Europe. I have a friend in Vienna, Austria, that tells me that given what I do for a living, I would have an easy time getting accepted as a permanent resident in Germany or Austria. Some German would be helpful I'm sure. The problem is that language and I don't get along well. I'll have to think on that for a while.

[Sgt Schultz]

Study plan
I've mostly decided on what I'll be doing for solidify my B2-ish Spanish. I want to focus on reading and listening, listening being my least best skill. To that end, I'll do the following:

-Read and listen to 2-3 articles per week on veintemundos.com. The goal is to read through a few times to pick up any new words or phrases, then listen many times throughout the week to each one. I may put new words/phrases into Anki.

-Continue texting in Spanish for writing practice, I do this daily already.

-Continue speaking to Clara in Spanish as much as possible, I'm already doing this daily.

-Listen to the radio at work and watch Spanish tv series at night. I'm about to start La Casa de Papel on Netflix.

After 6 to 8 weeks (roughly April 1), I'll evaluate my progress. If I see marked improvement, I'll start looking specifically at test prep books.

Other random things
I'm still kicking the tires on re-starting German at some point. My buddy in Vienna often tries to prod me into learning some German by texting me in the language. I've certainly learned some words and phrases that way. I may set a side goal of making it through the MT German Foundation course by mid-year and then decide if I want to do any more than that.

I've been watching a lot of curling events at the Olympics. One of the interesting things is that the athletes are mic'ed up during the event so you can listen to them talking in their own languages. Last night I heard a lot of German, Russian, Italian, Norwegian and of course, English. For a person that likes languages, this may or may not be a good thing. I started thinking, wouldn't it be fun to learn ____, after each language I heard. And it would be fun. But, no wanderlust, it's time to improve Spanish listening.

That's it for today. Until next time.

[Sgt Schultz]

Articles for reading/listening this week are:

Tips para tu español este 2018: https://www.veintemundos.com/magazines/191-en/
“Café, café”, el servicio especial en la plaza: https://www.veintemundos.com/magazines/193-en/

Since it's already mid-week, I'll do these two for the rest of the week. I did the first read through and listen of the 1st article above yesterday.

I'll plan on picking the next articles each Sunday and post them here.

[Sgt Schultz]

Spanish update
La casa de papel has sucked me in 100%. Over the weekend I got through 6 episodes. Which is both good and bad. Good that I got a lot of Spanish listening in and bad because it took time away from my planned VeinteMundos reading/listening. In sum, it was probably a positive though.

I did better than I thought I would with the Spanish (Spain) accent. I have noticed that the actors tend to have disappearing words and sounds when they speak. I assume the more I listen, the more I'll get used to it and it will become normal. I was speaking with an Argentine friend over the weekend and she told me that most people from Argentina have to use subtitles for shows from Spain. Which I found a bit funny. I asked Clara the same question and she said people in Ecuador do the same thing.

I didn't get to the article: “Café, café”, el servicio especial en la plaza: https://www.veintemundos.com/magazines/193-en/ that I had planned (too much Spanish tv watching) so I'll carry that over to this week. I think I'll try reading/listening to the article during my lunch hour at work and save the evenings for watching the series and see how that works out.

[jeff_lindqvist]

La casa de papel has sucked me in 100%. Over the weekend I got through 6 episodes. Which is both good and bad. Good that I got a lot of Spanish listening in and bad because it took time away from my planned VeinteMundos reading/listening. In sum, it was probably a positive though.

Oh, that's great! (I guess!) I've been thinking of using that series (or something else) plus VeinteMundos as a supplementary study material.

[Sgt Schultz]

Spanish
Time for a quick update.

I've finished season 1 of La Casa de Papel and loved it. I was all set to watch season 2 last night, only to discover that it isn't on Netflix. So, I'm super bummed about that. I haven't had a chance yet but I'll look around the web to see if it's available anywhere else.

I did a good amount of reading/listening on VeinteMundos this week. I'm planning on switching to a new article on Sunday so today (Friday) and Saturday, I'll do more reading and listening to the "cafe, cafe" article I mentioned in an earlier update, which turned out to be pretty interesting.

I've also been filling the morning commute with Pimsleur. I started with level 2 and so far it's all been review and easy but any speaking practice is better than none I suppose. I'll continue it until I can't take it any more I also saw there is now a level 4 and 5. Anyone know if they are worth it?

Other news
I've finally found a new job, hallelujah! I can finally get out of the awful company that I currently work in. I had hoped to move to a new city when I found a new job but it looks like I'll be staying here as this new job is local. Good news/bad news I guess.

Last week I also setup a new software company with the state called Buenisimo Software, I've already got a few freelance projects setup with it. Working for myself and getting this all setup as really re-energized me. I think getting to work on what I chose to work on will be a very positive and enjoyable thing.

OK, that's enough for today. Until next time...