Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

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Allison
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby Allison » Mon Jan 01, 2018 5:53 pm

Well, I did really poorly in 2017, huh? Things went well in my real life (full-time job all year round, moved out of my parents' house and into my own apartment), but as far as language learning, after March, my Spanish use was so sporadic it might as well have been non-existent.

I want to do better in 2018. I need to figure out how to integrate Spanish into the rest of my life as it now is.

I got a Kindle for Christmas and intend to use it to read Spanish. I have started a new activity log that I believe will be easier for me to maintain and more motivating as a historical log. But ultimately, I just have to do it.

More later (and I'm keeping this log into 2018), but now, before I declare LLORG bankruptcy and mark everything I haven't read since spring as read, I'll go catch up on some logs.
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby westminstress » Tue Jan 02, 2018 7:48 pm

Welcome back! If you're interested in having a Spanish lesson once per week on a weekday morning around 8:45a.m. on the UWS of Manhattan, pm me.
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Allison
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby Allison » Wed Jan 03, 2018 12:56 am

westminstress wrote:Welcome back! If you're interested in having a Spanish lesson once per week on a weekday morning around 8:45a.m. on the UWS of Manhattan, pm me.

Thanks for the offer! It's tempting, but the time and location don't work with my work day, unfortunately.
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Allison
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby Allison » Wed Jan 03, 2018 1:24 am

As you can tell from my last post, I failed to complete the Super Challenge. I kept up the pace until October 2016, and then I continued, albeit below par, until March, at which point I became super sporadic. I don't know/don't remember if I tweeted all of the things I was doing in the sporadic time, but even if so, it can't have been much. I end the Super Challenge having read 1,724 pages and watched/listened to 4,798 minutes. That's 34.5 books out of 100 and 53.3 movies out of 100. I should have ended March at about 55 books and movies, so the movies part is not bad, really.

I'm definitely going to participate in the next Super Challenge, but I'm glad I have a bit of a break until it starts up again. I enjoyed having the little badges that kept track of consecutive weeks of participation and however many complete books and movies you'd done in the last two weeks. It was annoying to have to keep track of the stuff I did on my personal log and on twitter for the bot, but it wasn't too bad. I liked being able to look back at the table on my personal page to see what I'd done in the past and to see the line chart go up and up. It was disappointing to see it plateau a bit when I started slowing down. All in all, a good experience that I'll be happy to repeat, hopefully with more success, next time.
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby Allison » Sun Jan 07, 2018 5:21 pm

What I did last week (January 1st to 6th):
  • read 43 pages of La Ciudad de Las Bestias
  • watched Ingobernable episodes 9 and 10 (68 minutes)

Starting my routine back up
I read 43 pages and watched 68 minutes in 2018 so far. I did something on five of the six days (I missed Friday). A good start to the new year.

I'm watching Ingobernable with Spanish subtitles and I'll probably continue that with the remaining five episodes. (Note to self: Then, Allison, you need to only use subtitles on a maximum of three episodes of the next show you watch; you need to get back to watching things without subtitles.) But for now, easing myself back into the routine of watching any Spanish at all, using subtitles is fine.

In reading, I'm finding that I've obviously declined in my ability, but it seems to be mostly vocabulary. The grammar-sense I have seems to be mostly intact. However, I'm still in the part of the book that I've read before, so we'll see how it goes when I get to new stuff. I'd forgotten a bunch of the plot of Ingobernable, but it didn't affect my understanding too much.

Although I had thought I might do stuff on my commute, I found throughout the week that I was actually better able to do things while I was home after work. There's something about this job that's made me unable to even watch English language TV on my commute regularly. I watched TV on my actual TV and I read on my Kindle on my couch. It worked out.

I'm excited about the "Vocabulary Builder" function of my Kindle, which keeps a list of all the words I highlight for definitions. This function is only available on the actual Kindle, not the Kindle app I had been using before. I can tap the words on the list to see the definitions and the sentence it was used in. There's a flashcard component, but I won't be using it that formally.

I made plans with a friend of mine who is also a Spanish learner, though she's more advanced than I am, to watch some Spanish language TV together soon. That will be fun.

Non-reading and watching
I want to incorporate writing and speaking (and explicit grammar study) into my routine, too. (I know I've been saying this for a while.)

I know people are writing their logs in the languages they're learning, but I'm still reluctant to do that. One reason is that I use regular posting of this log to keep me accountable and on track the rest of the week so I don't want to do anything that makes it harder for me to post, which would make it less likely for me to post, and then I'd do less the rest of the week. I want to keep these log updates as easy as possible to make sure I do them so I don't fall off the language learning map like I did last year.
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Allison
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby Allison » Tue Jan 23, 2018 3:16 am

What I did in the last two weeks (January 7th to 20th):
  • read 12 pages of La Ciudad de Las Bestias, up to location 639
  • wrote 65 words
  • watched Ingobernable episodes 11-12 (69 minutes) with Spanish subtitles
  • watched 5 minutes of Party of Five dubbed in Spanish without subtitles
  • watched El Tiempo Entre Costuras episodes 1-3 (139 minutes) with Spanish subtitles

Cultural notes
The 11th episode of Ingobernable is called "El Grito" and it involves the tradition on the night before Mexico's Independence Day of the president reenacting the speech and ringing of bells that started the War of Independence. It caused a bit of Wikipedia reading. I love when the things I'm watching or reading get me to read about history or traditions I've never heard of before.

El Tiempo Entre Costuras
I watched the first three episodes of El Tiempo Entre Costuras with a friend who speaks/learns Spanish. I have never watched three episodes of Spanish TV in a row like that. It was tiring, but we took short breaks between episodes. Mostly, I noticed that I was trying to comment in Spanish but was having trouble. As for the show itself, I liked it. I’m interested in the story and I seemed invested, considering how I was pleading with the main character to make other decisions.

Party of Five
Strangely enough, I watched five minutes of dubbed Party of Five before the reboot was announced. I just scrolled through what has Spanish audio on Netflix for a dubbed show I might want to watch. I may or may not eventually watch a full episode.

How’d I do?
I wrote a bit! That was good. I did decently on watching TV. I’ll probably need to come up with different ways to say “That was not good, but I’m not going to beat myself up because that is counterproductive” but that is what happened with my reading. I also made sure my TV's default channel was Spanish, so when I finished watching something and went to do something else for a bit before coming back to the TV, the background language that I didn't really pay attention to was Spanish.

I know people are setting themselves weekly goals. Should I do that? Let’s see if that’s helpful. My “week” is already two days over, but that’s fine because that means I’m ahead already. They’re supposed to be easy to accomplish right?

  • TV: watch two episodes of Ingobernable
  • reading: read 35 pages of La Ciudad de las Bestias
  • GdUdE B: do one double page
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby Mohave » Tue Jan 23, 2018 1:52 pm

Allison wrote:El Tiempo Entre Costuras
I watched the first three episodes of El Tiempo Entre Costuras with a friend who speaks/learns Spanish. I have never watched three episodes of Spanish TV in a row like that. It was tiring, but we took short breaks between episodes. Mostly, I noticed that I was trying to comment in Spanish but was having trouble. As for the show itself, I liked it. I’m interested in the story and I seemed invested, considering how I was pleading with the main character to make other decisions.



I LOVED this show! Unfortunately, my Spanish is not up to par yet to be able to watch without English subtitles. Sigh - one day! I hope you continue to watch the series - it just gets better. I wanted to read the book the series is based off of (which has amazing reviews), and I figured if I had to read a translation, why not read it in French. On my "to-read" list this year. Enjoy! Happy studying!
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Spanish Motivation: Dec 2018 - Costa Rica
Spanish Pimsleur 3: 6 / 30 Assimil: 56 / 100
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French Super Challenge Books: 24 / 100 Movies: 22 / 100

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Allison
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby Allison » Wed Jan 31, 2018 12:58 am

What I did in the last week (January 21st to 27th):
  • read 23 pages of La Ciudad de Las Bestias, up to location 867
  • watched Ingobernable episodes 13 and 8 minutes of 14 (40 minutes) with Spanish subtitles

Reading on my Kindle
A large part of the reading was because I forgot my Kindle one day and just read in the Kindle app on my phone while I was on the train. It worked, but I hope I'm able to get absorbed in reading my physical Kindle that I read a bunch without even realizing it, like I did that day on the train.

Spanish language TV in the background
I mentioned last time that I am leaving my TV on either Univision or Telemundo so that I have Spanish in the background while I do whatever. Because of what time I turn on the TV to half-listen while I go on the computer for a bit, it's been the evening news and Caso Cerrado. Some LLORGers have talked about Case Cerrado before, but for those who don't know, it is a show where a judge hears legal cases between two sides, often angry family members, questions them, hears from their witnesses as well as experts on the area of law or social science of the issue implicated by the case, and makes a ruling. The cases are ridiculous and I believe they've admitted that they're fake/for entertainment purposes only.

As an example, the one I just watched had a mother wanting to evict her daughter and get back thousands of dollars the daughter didn't use for school. The mother showed a social media post of the daughter celebrating her wedding to another woman and I thought it was going to be about how the mother was homophobic—until, half-listening, I heard the word "incesto." Turns out the other woman is the daughter's niece! Apparently, aunt/niece marriages are legal in New York, and the mother was disgusted by the incest. Spoiler: it additionally turns out that the daughter and her niece only got married because the daughter is undocumented and it was a sham marriage for immigration purposes.

Edit: Oh, and I'm not counting any of the time when I watch the news or Caso Cerrado or whatever in my official list, because a, I'm not fully paying attention, and b, to figure out how much time I spent watching them is annoying. It's the same reason I very quickly didn't count reading the news online in my reading stats: I skim and oh, what a pain to figure out how to count them.

And by the way, I'm not catching everything when I watch this stuff, but I'm understanding a decent amount. Much, much better than the last time I tried watching Caso Cerrado, I think.

Weekly goals
I did not meet the goals set last week. Eh. I'm going to set goals again this week anyway.

  • TV: finish Ingobernable and watch at least one episode of another show (I think I'm going to do La Niña next?)
  • reading: read 35 pages of La Ciudad de las Bestias
  • GdUdE B: do one double page
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Allison
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby Allison » Mon Feb 05, 2018 2:50 am

What I did in the last week (January 28th to February 3rd):
  • read 14 pages of La Ciudad de Las Bestias, up to location 1004
  • watched Ingobernable last 32 minutes of episode 14 and all of 15 (the finale) with Spanish subtitles
  • did Unit 8 of GdUdE B

End of Ingobernable season 1
Wow, the penultimate episode and finale of Ingobernable season 1 was dramatic and exciting. I wanted to be able to watch season 2 right away. I liked the series.

My next series: La Niña
I've watched the first episode of La Niña and I like it. I was a bit worried from the credits, which gave a really detailed overview of what seems like the whole show's narrative, that the show would start out with the chronological beginning of "the girl"'s story: her abduction and all of her time as a guerilla fighter, but it started with her getting caught and starting to reintegrate, with flashbacks to before, which I liked. The Spanish was such that I didn't know every word of the dialogue even reading the subtitles, but I seemed to understand everything. I could tell that when I take the subtitles off, I'm going to have more of a problem with some characters than others. I'm taking all of this as a good sign that it will improve my skills.

Weekly goals
I didn't meet all the weekly goals but they spurred me to accomplish what I did accomplish so they were useful. I've also made progress on the stuff I didn't do last week today. I think for next week I'll switch things up a bit for the reading goal to make it not just 35 pages but 5 pages a day, which is how I got the 35 in the first place. I want to encourage myself to read more frequently, not just in a certain quantity. I can almost guarantee I won't make it all seven days, but I'm hoping that I'll do better than I have been.

  • TV: watch 3 episodes of La Niña (one is already done!)
  • reading: read 35 pages/5 pages a day of La Ciudad de las Bestias
  • GdUdE B: do one double page
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Allison
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Re: Allison's log: Spanish, 2017-2018

Postby Allison » Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:00 am

What I did in the last week (February 4th to 10th):
  • read 19 pages of La Ciudad de Las Bestias, up to location 1197
  • watched La Niña episode 1 with Spanish subtitles
  • wrote 138 words

Writing in Spanish
I felt inspired to write in Spanish after watching I Tonya, so I did. Since I was on the subway and without internet access, I wrote without looking anything up, but I made a note of things I wasn’t sure of, was guessing on, or had to rephrase because I didn’t know how to say it. After, I started to look up those notes to edit my own paragraph. I think that’s probably a good way to do it, even if it’s currently time consuming because I’m unsure of so many things. But, hey, some of the things I guessed were correct and didn’t need fixing!

Weekly goals
I read three out of seven days. I can do better than I did the past week, but there were a lot of emergencies at work that took a lot out of me. On some of the days, I thought about the fact that I didn't read when I went to bed, exhausted. I was happy that I wrote, at least. For next week:

  • TV: watch 3 episodes of La Niña (one is already done!)
  • reading: read 35 pages/5 pages a day of La Ciudad de las Bestias
  • GdUdE B: do one double page; or write at least 50 words
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