Fatih's Spanish Log

[James29]

I'm on unit 47 at Platiquemos and this one is really tough. Dialogues are like a joke! very very long. I realy have to put some extra effort on it.

Unit 47 (and 48) are definitely the hardest units. I did FSI, but I imagine Platiquemos is similarly difficult on those lessons. The only thing in FSI I did not "master" were the dialogues in units 45-55. They are ridiculously long.

[Fatih]

It's been a while since my last update. I've been struggling with the FSI 47 and 48 and thank god I managed to pass them behind. I'm on unit 49 now!

Assimil went pretty well last week. I'm on unit 87 passive and 47 active. I also started to do Assimil Using Spanish program. So far I've done 8 units. 3 to 4 months before now, I tried Using Spanish and it looked imposible then. But now, I can handle it pretty well. On the reading and watching side, nothing much happened.

I did an online placement test of cervantes (http://ave.cervantes.es/prueba_nivel/default.htm) and to my surprise it placed me B2.3 - B2.4 ! I've spent 800 hours on Spanish and it made me feel again that I'm on the right track! I actually do not think that I might have reached that level and there is an overestimation but it's still amazing! After finishing, With Ease, and then Platiquemos and then Using Spanish and consuming some native media in folllowing months, I mean, after spending 3 to 4 more months or 250-300 study hours, I belive I'll be somewhere around B2. So I should keep on studying!

[Fatih]

Today I had my first italki lesson! It didn't go quite well like I expected before, but a lesson is a lesson anyway. My pronunciation was very good and the theacher suprised it a lot but my speking, in general, was terrible. I used very simple structures and words, and also I forgot some simple words which I know very well. But now I understand that I have to focus on speaking more and I should do it ASAP.

Speaking via internet is not like one-on-one conversation, something seems unnatural to me and I felt odd especialy at the beginning. Also the teacher which I took the lesson from (although very affordable) was not very good at maintaning the conversation. So, I should eighter find a way to dominate the conversation and pull the teacher to a topic which I feel comfortable to talk, or find a better one (and probably more expensive) with more experience about online teaching.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Congratulations on your first conversation lesson! It takes time to find the right tutor (maybe you got the right one, but need to know each other better). If there isn't a rating system, at least it's possible to sort the list of tutors according to number of lessons.

[Fatih]

Congratulations on your first conversation lesson! It takes time to find the right tutor (maybe you got the right one, but need to know each other better). If there isn't a rating system, at least it's possible to sort the list of tutors according to number of lessons.

Hi Jeff, thanks for popping in!
Actually, the lady was very sympathetic and maybe the problem was me, cos I was very nervous.
I guess the best thing to do is to try different teachers until finding the most suitable one for my needs.

[jeff_lindqvist]

It's not easy to have a conversation with someone you don't know in a language you don't speak very well. Maybe you'll find this topic interesting (although you're probably more advanced than that):
Italki tutors/teachers at A2 level

[Fatih]

A quick update;

This week, I posted 200 words on lang-8 for correction and recieved invaluable feedbacks! Writing is also another week skill, like speaking, which I should focus on more. I guess I’ll use lang-8 more often in future.

Whis week I rushed assimil with ease a little bit and finished passive wave. Now I’m going to focus on active and hope to finish it before end of this year. Also, finished platiquemos lesson 50. No problem so far.

[Fatih]

I continue to write at lang-8. It's a fantastic website! Since last update, I posted and recieved correction for 500 words-long sentences. I already started to make less errors when I'm writing. I'll try to maintain a momentum of posting 100 words for correction. a day.

Nothing new on FSI side. I started lesson 52 and hope to finish the entire course within first week of 2017.

[DaveBee]

I continue to write at lang-8. It's a fantastic website! Since last update, I posted and recieved correction for 500 words-long sentences. I already started to make less errors when I'm writing. I'll try to maintain a momentum of posting 100 words for correction. a day.

How long had you been studying before you started posting on Lang-8?

[Fatih]

I waited and waited and waited before writing anything Spanish. I've been studying Spanish for 17 months and I just started writing a week ago. I think that was my biggest mistake.

Last night I writed 230 more words. I almost reached 1.000 words.