Newbie Lee's Log 2016 - Spanish

[Lee-in-Pennsylvania]

Hahaha James, the romance novel writing isn't as exciting as you're thinking. Not Fifty Shades... maybe One Shade of Grey! So far, no Spanish, though I do have French copies of a very early romance I wrote.

[Lee-in-Pennsylvania]

November 12, 2016

Routine Studies
Pimsleur, Units 18-26
Vocabulary cards, about 600 studied
Reading: pages 71-103 of Ramona la chinche
Easy Spanish Step-by-Step: finished chapters 4 & 5 and started chapter 6
Destinos: Episode 7
Three iTalki lessons by Skype

Since this writeup covers two weeks, I am not terribly impressed with myself. I've missed a few days of Pimsleur, am not studying vocabulary as much as I'd like, and am not watching Destinos. On the positive side, I'm reading more and studying grammar, two activities that are pretty high-impact and fun for me.

New and Exciting!
Started reading my daily devotional in Spanish--therefore one additional page of reading every day, and I look forward to it.

My most recent Skype conversation with my iTalki teacher from Venezuela was amazing! 30 minutes, almost entirely in Spanish, about the US elections. Did you get that? Almost entirely in Spanish! Even though I have terrible pronunciation and grammar, we were still able to understand each other and to discuss something of true interest to both of us. I loved getting her perspective on a disturbing political situation. This is why I'm studying languages!

Advice?
Given my range of study methods above, would anyone venture to recommend how often I should have my conversation lessons? I'm leaning toward once per week rather than twice, because it's hard to fit into the workday and because I feel like I should learn more vocabulary and grammar before speaking much. On the other hand, the conversations are some of the most exciting and motivating work I'm doing.

[iguanamon]

Routine Studies
Pimsleur, Units 18-26
Vocabulary cards, about 600 studied
Reading: pages 71-103 of Ramona la chinche
Easy Spanish Step-by-Step: finished chapters 4 & 5 and started chapter 6
Destinos: Episode 7
Three iTalki lessons by Skype...
...Given my range of study methods above, would anyone venture to recommend how often I should have my conversation lessons? I'm leaning toward once per week rather than twice, because it's hard to fit into the workday and because I feel like I should learn more vocabulary and grammar before speaking much. On the other hand, the conversations are some of the most exciting and motivating work I'm doing.

Well done, Lee-in-PA. That's wonderful! You are using a multi-track approach (see my link in the signature block below). As a beginner in Spanish, you are doing quite well. You've done well for yourself in your choice of materials because your textbook, Pimsleur and Destinos will all work well together. My advice would be to continue that but to aim to be more consistent in your use of them. Try to make it a habit. What's important is that you build a good foundation along with making your own connections outside of courses.

The thing with courses like Pimsleur and Destinos is that they are designed to build on themselves and create momentum. Doing a lesson, understanding it and moving on to the next one builds that momentum. Then the momentum builds on itself. A cascading snowball effect starts to occur. Then, you can't wait to get to the next lesson because you can feel the language growing inside you. I know with everything you're doing outside of formal learning you may feel you don't need or are too advanced for the early lessons of Pimsleur and Destinos but try to to do them anyway. They will serve to reinforce what you already know. Soon enough both courses will become challenging for you. I wish I had had something like Destinos for when I was learning Haitian Creole. Some people find them "boring" and yes, there's tedium there. No language course is perfect. Keeping my eyes on the prize (speaking the language better) is what gets me through that and on to the snowball effect. It's worth putting up with to persevere to get to that stage, in my experience.

I find that for me, I get more use out of conversation when I have more of the basics down pat. Once a week, at this stage is plenty. Keep up the good work!

[DaveBee]

November 12, 2016
New and Exciting!
Started reading my daily devotional in Spanish--therefore one additional page of reading every day, and I look forward to it.

I'm using a daily bible reading to help my french language studies. The website I use enables you to have several different translations on screen, each in its own column, so I have french and english side by side. King James english can be a bit cryptic all on its own though! (options are at the top of the screen, I think 'Reina-Valera' is the only spanish translation.)

[Lee-in-Pennsylvania]

Iguanamon: thank you for your thoughtful encouragement and advice... especially since I really like what you said! I do need to be more regular with my "coursework"--Pimsleur, Destinos, and the grammar book. I can do a Pimsleur lesson every day while driving or doing housework, my only barrier being that sometimes I just want to *think* on those occasions rather than learn. That's a discipline thing. As for Destinos... I watched another episode last night after doing my log and got re-interested in it. I am not much of a TV watcher and felt from childhood that TV is a waste of time, but of course--that's not true when you're doing a language course. I want to make time for an episode most days. And I am glad to hear you advise just one conversation lesson per week for now. Much appreciation for your interest.

DaveBee: that's a great resource, the multi-column bible, and I didn't know about it. There's something meaningful about doing one's spiritual reading in another language, don't you think? I feel connected to many more believers than when reading in English alone.

[klvik]

November 12, 2016
Given my range of study methods above, would anyone venture to recommend how often I should have my conversation lessons? I'm leaning toward once per week rather than twice, because it's hard to fit into the workday and because I feel like I should learn more vocabulary and grammar before speaking much. On the other hand, the conversations are some of the most exciting and motivating work I'm doing.

I am happy that you find the conversation lessons exciting and motivating! I used a tutor when I made the transition from only self-study to speaking with real people. At that time, once a week was plenty for me. I found it easier to learn the structure of Spanish on my own and used the tutor sessions to put what I had learned into practice and to identify my next area of focus. In hindsight, I might speak with more fluidity now if I had spent more time with the tutor then. Nevertheless, I followed the path that suits my personal learning style. However, what worked for me might not necessarily be the best for you. Everyone needs to find the balance of activities that works for them and to figure out what keeps them motivated to continue.

[Cavesa]

Awesome log, Lee, I enjoy reading about your path and progress, thanks!
Your goal is great and I have no doubt you'll get there.

Well, Spanish is a great language to offer various kinds of tv. For example historical fiction of high quality (Isabel, so well done that history pages at wikipedia were spoilers), or tv series really giving insight into the culture (Cuentame como paso), and of course documentaries and other stuff. Perhaps you'll find something you'll like, as tv can be extremely helpful. If not, there are other learning tools (that is so great, we can't fit all the Spanish resources even in ten lifetimes!). Do you feel the same about cinema?

Thanks for strenghtening the idea of reading the bible in more languages. It may actually help me with regularity of my spiritual reading, as that is something I am still learning.

What did you miss while learning Mandarin that made you switch languages, if I may ask? Sorry if I am too curious.

[Lee-in-Pennsylvania]

Hi Klvik,
Thanks for commenting! I am the same way: I learn structures, grammar, and vocabulary better on my own, and the conversations are for practice. Two of the iTalki teachers I tried really wanted to do formal lessons... I can do that work on my own. Just need to stumble through a bunch of conversations to consolidate and, yes, figure out my next focus.

Cassava:
Two problems with Mandarin: first, the characters. I learn best by reading, but that's not really a way to learn Mandarin. And second, motivation. I was highly motivated for a couple of years while preparing for a trip to China with my daughter, who's adopted from there. We had a great trip and I was able to speak with people on a very elementary level--including the woman who helped raise her during her first year--which made all the study worth it. But my very Americanized daughter doesn't want to go back in the foreseeable future, so I probably won't either.

I got pretty discouraged on language study because of my failure with Mandarin. Now, diving back in with Spanish feels like a dream come true! It's sooooo easy by comparison (not that it's easy). And I actually did learn a lot about how to learn languages on my own by studying Mandarin, which allowed me to gather my materials and blast off with Spanish.

Thanks for the TV suggestions and good luck with your studies.

[James29]

Lessons with a tutor are probably not necessary, but there is certainly not anything wrong with them. Getting a good base with a good course is the way to go. I found that picking one "priority" that I worked on every day was the thing to do. I'd do other things, but would always be sure to do something in my priority course. Getting all the way through a course is really useful... doing Pimsleur until you are done with it, for example, would be a good priority to set. Feel free to do whatever else you have time for.

Also, if you are looking for a good easy Bible, there is nothing easier or better than the New Life Bilingual. It is SUPER easy. https://www.amazon.com/Biblia-Bilingue- ... 1597896780

[Lee-in-Pennsylvania]

November 19, 2016

Routine Studies
Pimsleur 1, units 27, 28, 28, 29, 29, 30, Pimsleur 2, unit 1
Vocabulary cards, about 400 studied
Reading: pages 104-120 of Ramona la chinche
Easy Spanish Step-by-Step: finished chapters 6 & 7 and started chapter 8
Destinos: Episodes 8-13
No Skype lessons - technical failure
Daily devotional in Spanish (1 page reading each day)

It's been a pretty good week. I did a Pimsleur lesson each day; two were repeats, though, since an unfamiliar past tense was introduced and I had trouble keeping up. I'm not studying as many general vocabulary cards, but that's because I found another set that goes along with my grammar book--very helpful to reinforce those concepts and vocabulary. I challenged myself to watch a Destinos every day and it's easy and enjoyable, really more of a break than studying. Iguanaman and James both suggested being more consistent with a course that builds on itself, and I'm doing that with both Destinos and Pimsleur. I had trouble with my Skype and had to miss my lesson, but I intend to talk to our IT people about how to make it work... pretty sure it's user error.

New and Exciting!
The gold list method! I decided to try it, and so far, so good (2 days in, LOL). This is the one where you copy words or structures into a notebook each day, and then two weeks later you come back and distill out what you still don't know. I have been unsure about how to keep grammar concepts in my head, so I'm trying this method. I like how relaxed it is... and I do find that I internalize lessons better by handwriting bits that I choose as important. Let's see where I am in two weeks.