Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

[Bex]

... along with the conversational intermediate Notes in Spanish podcasts, formed the bulk of my study when I started out with Spanish. Another potential resource is A Mi Aire, a podcast with full transcripts.

Stelle, thank you for the suggestions above. In order to avoid any further procrastination, I am going to just add the 46 Intermediate Notes in Spanish podcasts to my 2017 challenges and then I'll take it from there. I will prioritise these over the Glossika GSR (as I am writing the same sentences on Anki anyway) and see where I am at the end of 2017.

Adding listening to my schedule...done.

Again thank you Stelle for the podcast suggestions.

[AndyMeg]

What if you role-play spanish transcripts from native TV (telenovelas, talk-shows, etc.) with your Italki tutors? It could help you to develop confidence and fluency without the hard task of having to think what to say and slowly put it all together in a coherent whole. And you could rehearse on you own too, so that your tutor only have to correct your weakest points and guide you on them.

I've done this kind of activity in the past with japanese (alone and with a friend) and I've found it to be very enjoyable.

[Bex]

Quick Friday update...

16 hours Italki lessons: 2 hours (2 x 30 minute trials and 1 hour lesson) this week. (3.5 hours in total)
Writing 8000 words: 794 this week (1839 total)
Glossika GSR 1: 63 - 65
Intermediate Notes in Spanish: 1 & 2
Anki 241 sentences: Young 60 / Mature 0

It's been an interesting week with my new schedule.

Italki is difficult, as I expected, with many emotional ups and downs. I am not a social person and so this is always going to be difficult for me, however I am sure that there are ways that I can make it easier for myself and I am determined not to quit this time. So far I have tried 4 different tutors, two of which I have not connected with at all. I have just one more new tutor trial next week and then I need to decide how to proceed with my italki lessons.

Writing has been good, I am really enjoying writing to my new pen-pals, this week has been extremely busy as I have had guests to stay but I am quite pleased that I still managed to write most days and I am sure that next week I can spend more time on this activity.

Glossika has pretty much been swapped for the Intermediate Notes in Spanish podcast, however I am continuing to go through the Glossika sentences on Anki so not completely dropped. Reviewing the past tense sentences using the GSR system has been extremely helpful and I shall continue to try and listen to the GSR when I have a spare moment.

Intermediate Notes in Spanish is interesting enough for me to listen to on repeat, it is not particularly difficult for me to understand but on each pass I pick something new up from it. I need to set a system in place for this; at the moment I am just adding words that I notice that I am unfamiliar with into Anki. I add these as full sentences and also 3 or 4 other example sentences for each word, so I can understand it's usage in more than one context.

Anki - I am adding around 6 new sentences a day (according to my Ank stats), and answering in written form, it's helping a lot with my grammar and I shall continue with it for now as it is something i can do in any spare 5 mins that I have.

So there it is... another week on my new schedule, a few tweaks but pretty much still in place, still needs some minor work but I feel like I am at least moving forward now.

[westminstress]

If you just keep listening, your understanding will improve. You need to listen A LOT and improvements happen slowly. But they do happen - one day you will notice that you are comprehending the words much more easily than before.

I have a couple of suggestions that I have probably made before - I don't know if they will be interesting to you.

One is to listen to a Spanish news broadcast every day. This is good because the stories/vocabulary repeat but it is also new and fresh every day. The announcers/reporters are usually relatively easier to understand (because it is their job to speak clearly) and if they interview people, the interview offer short listening challenges. If your program of choice offers a transcript you can listen first with the transcript and then again without. You will be surprised how much more you can pick up having first listened with the transcript. (Also, the transcript will let you know how much of the comprehension problem is unknown vocabulary vs. other comprehension issues).

Radio Ambulante - a podcast. I think these shows are so interesting and well-done, and there is a complete spanish transcript and english translation for every show.

ETA: congratulations on pushing through with the output even though it is difficult for you. that shows a lot of grit and perseverance and you should be proud of your efforts and achievement.

[Bex]

If you just keep listening, your understanding will improve. You need to listen A LOT and improvements happen slowly. But they do happen - one day you will notice that you are comprehending the words much more easily than before.

Thank you for the suggestions and kind words, Radio Ambulante looks very interesting and I shall definitely check it out. There is a show which I watch nearly every evening (Aquí La Tierra on RTVE) which consists of short reports about all sorts of things, such as the weather, etc . They travel around Spain to meet local farmers, chefs etc and produce short clips for each show. It's a bit more lighthearted than the news and it's nice to see all of the different local Spanish histories, cultures, recipes and traditions. For some reason I never include this TV time in my weekly stats, not sure why? Maybe I should?

[Bex]

I have tried 5 different teachers on italki now:

Teacher 1: I really did feel like I was boring the teacher to tears, which was not so good.

Teacher 2: I didn't feel much of a connection with them personally.

Teacher 3: I liked this teacher a lot but internet connection is not great and speaks really fast. Also asks a lot of questions, I find this hard to deal with.

Teacher 4: Nice to talk to, I got on well with, seemed relaxed and I enjoyed the lesson, still some questions but less of an interrogation, more relaxed than 3.

Teacher 5: We used a worksheet and as Andymeg mentioned last week this took the pressure off me to think of answers because the answers were obvious (even if I didn't know how to answer them in Spanish ) and so the lesson felt a lot less intense and demanding. Although the teacher did not stop for 1 second, it was quite an intense lesson.

Now to just work out which of the three teachers (3, 4 & 5) that I liked to use on a regular basis and how many lessons to have each week. I was hoping that it would be obviuos once I'd taken all the lessons but it appears not.

My thoughts.....
I am thinking I can easily find time to take 2 lessons a week but should I use the same tutor all the time or a mix?
Also teacher 3 may be more suitable once I get more confident with my speaking?
Teacher 5 seems like a good main tutor, maybe I could supplement this with teacher 4 who I really enjoy talking with?
Maybe just 1 hour is enough at the moment? Or is it better to speak as much as possible?

[head explodes]

[Bex]

Quick update.

Had another 45 minutes with Teacher 4 yesterday. We just chatted about the weather and general chit chat, it was OK, no pressure since it's is so relaxed, the teacher just lets me speak (notes any corrections/missing vocabulary on Skype for me to review later) and only corrects when I get something really wrong or helps me with vocabulary I am missing occasionally. I managed to speak (badly) for most of the 45 minutes in just Spanish

I still can't decide if this "chatting" is useful or if teacher 5 with the textbook approach would be less intense for me. So for next week I have booked another lesson with both.

[Tofu]

Have you tried Espanol Automatico? They have a podcast/youtube channel for learning Spanish. I've listened to Notes in Spanish, Radio Ambulante, etc. and I think Espanol Automatico might be one of the best for learning. They have transcripts available as well.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj2Gb3Zq814Fruw7Kpc5QIQ

[garyb]

Have you tried Espanol Automatico? They have a podcast/youtube channel for learning Spanish. I've listened to Notes in Spanish, Radio Ambulante, etc. and I think Espanol Automatico might be one of the best for learning. They have transcripts available as well.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj2Gb3Zq814Fruw7Kpc5QIQ

I had been looking for a Spanish equivalent of Français Authentique and Italiano Automatico, you've just made my day!

[Stelle]

I still can't decide if this "chatting" is useful or if teacher 5 with the textbook approach would be less intense for me. So for next week I have booked another lesson with both.

Chatting is my favourite form of language study! I guess it depends on your end goals, but my main objective is to be able to communicate in my languages, and there’s no better way for me than just chatting.

Edited to add: despite it being my favourite way to study, it’s also the most demanding in the early intermediate stages. It’s the first thing I let go when I start feeling overwhelmed or burnt out, because I just can’t bring myself to do it when i’m not in the right frame of mind.