Sgt Schultz knows nothing!

[jeff_lindqvist]

For fun I tried to read some A1 french short stories. To my surprise I could read 90% of the text. The other 10% was mainly vocabulary that was lacking. I was a bit surprised I could read the texts at all.

Welcome to the world of Romance languages! The amount of shared vocabulary and grammar concepts helps a lot. As for reading in a "new" language, I remember the feeling when I started with Portuguese. It was SO similar to Spanish, and at the same time it wasn't. Iguanamon has read three books in Catalan in a short time - and he's not even studying the language.

If you want more encouragement, see this fairly recent thread:
Comparative grammar approach to Romance languages

[Sgt Schultz]

Another week down and it's time for the weekly update.

Spanish
I ended up liking Kwiziq and bought the 3 month package. It has pointed out where I have some spelling difficulties with Spanish as well as holes in my conjugation knowledge. The latter is mostly with the vosotros verb form because, well, I've never had a reason to study them or a reason to use them. The former seems to be those irregular verbs such as oir and oler. What little pains those two are. But I'm glad to have had it pointed out so I can correct it.

I find it interesting that my Latin American friends tell me that vosotros is ugly, not real Spanish and that there is no reason to learn it. Not one has had a different opinion. One, last night, told me that she has no idea how to even conjugation for vosotros ha But since I need to be familiar with it for the DELE, I'll push onward with it.

DELE vs SIELE
It's time to make a decision and start preparing for one of these.

Last night I started looking at the DELE sample exam papers. I was encouraged by what I saw, it didn't seem difficult.

Tonight I'll dig a little more into the SIELE.

There seem to be pros and cons to each. I'm setting a goal for myself to research each in more detail and make a decision on which way to go by the next weekly update. I'll post more next week.

Other languages
I tend to keep Spanish front and center and toy with other languages off and on. Which I'm fine with as my main focus is Spanish. But I've come to the conclusion that for the other languages I'm interested in, an "outstanding tourist" level is really all I need or want at this point. I need to keep that in mind going forward.

OK, until next time...

[Sgt Schultz]

Thought I'd post this weekly update a bit early...

Kwiz updates
A0 > 90% gold
A1 > 90% gold
A2 ~ 7%

I'm currently working on the A2 level and still enjoying using the app. Even better, it's filling in holes that I had with grammar and spelling.

DELE/SIELE
I've spent some time this week thinking about which way to go.

The SIELE has several pros. It's offered more often and in a city within driving distance. It's also good for 5 years before needing to re-sit the exam. You also can't fail so you're going to get assigned some level as a result. The biggest con to me is also that it's only good for 5 years. If I'm going to put in so much time studying and preparing, I'd prefer it was good for life.

The DELE, like the SIELE, has pros and cons. The biggest pro is that it's good for life. It's only offered at certain times per year though and the ciities it's given in are further away. Which isn't a huge deal, any excuse to travel far from here is ok with me. Unlike the SIELE, you have to pick a level to test and you could fail.

After weighing all the pros and cons, I will go for the DELE. The good for life is what ended up making my decision. I also didn't like that the speaking part of the SIELE is speaking to a computer. I'd rather speak to an actual person face to face.

Going forward
-Continue with Kwiqiz
-Work through the Edelsa DELE B1 book
-Listen to a Spanish podcast (I've been trying out Coffee Break Spanish season 4)

OK, that's it for this quick update. I'll update again this week with progress.

[Sgt Schultz]

Late update this week...

I've gotten a little burnt out on Kwiqiz. I was doing a couple hours each night for a couple of weeks. I'm still working on the A2 level quizzes and am at 20% or a little over.

This past week has been busy and I haven't done anything else with Spanish or the DELE.

I haven't been too happy with my Spanish speaking lately. A couple of days ago I felt like I couldn't even get out simple phrases. I chalked it up to a fair amount of stress lately.

Strangely, I haven't felt like toying with any other languages lately either. Maybe I'm a little burnt out with everything.

OK, that's it for this update. Just a quick one to keep my promise of weekly updates.

Happy rest of the week to everyone.

[Sgt Schultz]

These weeks are really flying by. Time for another update....

Spanish
I've been reading/listening to the free Spanish content on News in Slow Spanish this week. And also tried the faster version. Both were fine. I came across a new phrase last night, "mi gozo en un pozo", which I thought was funny. It roughly translates to "it's all gone down the drain" or "just my luck". Clara had never heard it before and thought it was an interesting phrase.

I've put Kwiziq on the back burner as I'm very burnt out with it. I did way too much, way too fast. And I was getting tired of conjugating irregular verbs over and over and over...

I started playing with Clozemaster yesterday. I like it and it's free which is a plus. So far I haven't learned anything new but I'm sure I will eventually.

I haven't been in the mood to watch any Spanish TV lately. I don't know why, but my attention span has been short. Maybe due to being tired all the time. Who knows.

I'm a bit aimless with Spanish right now. I just try to do something every day, which I always do.

German
I still listen/watch "Nico's Weg" from DW, although not daily. I think I've mentioned it here before but it's an app from Deutsche Welle that is quite good. I'm about half way through the A1 course.

I'd recommend anyone check it out: https://learngerman.dw.com/en/beginners/c-36519789 or get the app for your mobile platform of choice, which I prefer.

For now, I'll just loosely do German a bit here and a bit there and see where I end up over time.

OK, that's it for this update. Have a good rest of the week everyone.

[patrickwilken]

I find it interesting that my Latin American friends tell me that vosotros is ugly, not real Spanish and that there is no reason to learn it. Not one has had a different opinion. One, last night, told me that she has no idea how to even conjugation for vosotros ha But since I need to be familiar with it for the DELE, I'll push onward with it.

Of course, if you move to Europe and visit Spain you might find it quite handly.

[Sgt Schultz]

Weekly update time...

Spanish
Daily Clozemaster anytime I'm standing in line, waiting for something or in the evenings while doing nothing. I'm still listening and reading News in Slow Spanish daily. It's a bit slow but it's well produced and has the text and audio which makes it easy to get practice in. The article last night was about a fire in Rio that destroy much of the contents of a national museum. Sadly, they were irreplaceable things like recordings of native languages that are now extinct and items from Brazil's history. A terrible loss to be sure.

On a related note, Direct TV dropped BeIn Sports, the channel I watch La Liga matches on. So I set off in search of an alternative. I settled on Sling TV. This might be a language learners dream come true. They have foreign language TV packages for $5/mo as add-ons. Spanish, French, German, and many others. The Spanish TV, as you might guess, is extensive with channels from all across the Spanish speaking world. The French package has TV5Monde, France 24, and several others. Anyone looking for TV channels to practice their chosen language with might want to check out Sling TV.

French and German
Ah, the itches that occasionally need to be scratched...

Nico's Weg is an excellent learning program as I've mentioned before. I haven't done any of it this week though. German is an interesting language. Some things are easy to pick up or guess. Others are extremely dense and can't be guessed, especially vocabulary, which can make it extremely frustrating at times. Don't even get me started on word order.

Occasionally, I'll listen to a French lesson or try to read/listen to some text for fun. Spanish and English help a lot in figuring out French. Much of the things I read or listen to aren't difficult to pick up. I can't help but think that French could be easy to get to the intermediate level in a short amount of time.

OK, that's it for this week. Enjoy the weekend!

[Sgt Schultz]

Many years ago, when I first started to learn Spanish, I did it mainly focused on output. I started before discovering HTLAL and I primarily used MT and Pimsleur for a very long time, repeating them over and over. Looking back, I have no idea how I ever managed to stick to that for so long. But it did work to get a good base. I put off reading because I thought my level wasn't high enough to be able to. Eventually, I learned that reading (with cheating to understand) and talking to people would take my Spanish to new levels.

I've often wondered how a mostly input based study plan (reading/listening) would have worked for me when I started Spanish and if it would have been a better experience. Since I'll never know the answer to that, I've decided to do an input based challenge for French. I realize that it won't be exactly the same since a good knowledge of Spanish will be helpful with other Romance languages.

Now, you're probably wondering where I'm currently at in French. I'm a false beginner but couldn't pass an A1 test. I know basic question words, basic phrases such as greetings, I want, I like, very (very!) basic directions plus a very limited vocabulary. Numbers up to about 20, probably forgetting a few in the teens. I'm only familiar with the present tense. So, clearly, I don't know a lot but not a complete beginner either.

So, the plan/rules:

-The experiment will last for 90 days.
-It will start today, 9/11/2018 and will end on 12/11/2018.
-I'll read and listen to something daily.
-No output based courses (no MT, Paul Nobel, Pimsleur, etc).
-Reading aloud is allowed.
-I'll report here semi-daily on progress and what I've been doing.
-At the end of 90 days, I'll take a free online placement test and see how far this challenge got me.

What do I hope to achieve/learn from this at the end of the 90 days:

-Settle my curiosity about how well an input based approach works.
-Score at least an A1 level in an online placement test.
-Be able to read a level appropriate book without much trouble.

So, enough typing. Let the fun begin!

[Sgt Schultz]

Day 2: First 11 Assimil lessons done. To be fair, I've done the first 15ish lessons before. I expect the pace to slow before long as I reach lessons I've not done before.

As part of this experiment, I'm not going to limit myself to 1 Assimil per day as the directions say. If the lesson is easy or I feel comfortable, I'll do more than 1. Basically, treat it as a French reader with audio instead of a course.

[patrickwilken]

-I'll read and listen to something daily.
-No output based courses (no MT, Paul Nobel, Pimsleur, etc).
-Reading aloud is allowed.
-I'll report here semi-daily on progress and what I've been doing.
-At the end of 90 days, I'll take a free online placement test and see how far this challenge got me.

What do I hope to achieve/learn from this at the end of the 90 days:

-Settle my curiosity about how well an input based approach works.
-Score at least an A1 level in an online placement test.
-Be able to read a level appropriate book without much trouble.
!

I found an input-based approach, in addition to Anki to reinforce vocabulary, worked really well at the start. You do need enough knowledge of grammar to be able to parse sentences though. Otherwise it's just noise.