Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

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PeterMollenburg
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Re: Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

Postby PeterMollenburg » Wed May 17, 2017 8:00 am

Hey Alex,

I wish you much success! Great mission ;)
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FrannieB
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Re: Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

Postby FrannieB » Wed May 17, 2017 11:21 am

Alex,

Good to know on flashcards - every so often I give them a go to see if my opinion has changed and so far it has not. I can convince myself that I like them for about a week and then a visceral hate creeps in.

Looking forward to hearing about your first week of progress
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alexlancaster1
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Re: Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

Postby alexlancaster1 » Thu May 18, 2017 5:55 am

Heisenberg, aka the1whoknocks -

Thanks for the quote and the advice! I decided to apply some very similar techniques I learned from Khatzumoto - if I get bored with something, drop it and move on. The only important thing is to be exposed to the language. That helps so much with consistency. The goals don't have to be "read 100,000 words by x date" or "complete twenty grammar tables by march". I personally don't stick to goals like that very well - far too dry! I'm far more interested 1) in people and 2) a concrete sense of "I learned something today". Adding cards and doing SRS reps helps me enormously with the latter. I always feel like I did something useful.


Tristano:

I'm not a big fan of those types of "x to y in z weeks" challenges either necessarily. Mostly because I suck at them. B1-C1 in three months was an arbitrary choice, more or less. Really what I needed was a commitment and some encouragement to keep me consistent. The challenge is not my master, I am its master - if that makes sense! I hope you enjoy the posts, and thanks for your support! :)



ANYWAY:

My day was productive. I worked with my Spanish-speaking friend today, and I estimate that we spoke for probably two hours. She's a great conversation partner - very patient with me, and willing to repeat herself when I don't understand. A very kind person! We have great interactions that don't feel particularly limited by language barrier. That is very satisfying to me, because language learning would be useless to me without people to talk to. To feel like I can have a fruitful and mutually enjoyable friendship without relying on my native language is an amazing feeling.

I also conversed for about an hour with an iTalki language exchange partner - a very nice woman from Peru who teaches kindergarten. We talked about everything from family to opera, and everything in between. We switched from between languages several times, and I estimate that we spoke for 30 minutes in Spanish. All in all, two and a half hours of conversation practice today (the most important aspect of my project, as far as I'm concerned), which entirely makes up for the fact that I didn't work through any LingQ lessons or listen to any articles.

I added a large chunk of cards to Anki today - I'm mostly searching for sentences or phrases that I 1) have heard a lot but don't understand or 2) have always wanted to know how to say but never learned before now. I'm consciously choosing sentences I find interesting, and those which only have a small number of words that I don't understand. Low-hanging fruit, as Khatzumoto used to say.

My primary sentence-mining source is spanishdict.com - they have wonderful example sentences and seemingly millions of them. I'm also awaiting a copy of "750 Spanish Verbs and Their Uses", which I estimate has 5,000 example sentences in it. I love that book and am planning to wear it out in this process. It should be here any day.

All in all, a wonderful day full of the beautiful Spanish language. Definitely feeling excited to continue tomorrow. Now, I'm going to relax a bit with "El Sobrino del Mago" and then go to bed. Good night everyone, and thank you for your incredible support! It is really helping me more than you could imagine! Best of luck in your goals.

Alex
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alexlancaster1
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Re: Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

Postby alexlancaster1 » Sat May 20, 2017 2:03 am

Back again!

I didn't post yesterday - quite a long day at work - but I got some languages time in. I did a good hour of listening with some reading to go along with it, and I had about 30 minutes worth of Spanish conversation with my friend. I also added some cards/did reps in Anki, which is still proving to be both interesting and helpful to me, starkly contrasting with my past experiences with SRS. Overall, yesterday was absolutely exhausting, but language study was a nice balm.

Today has been productive so far - over two hours of conversation, and I'm just settling down to do some flash card work followed by listening and reading. I think I will pick an article, listen to it a couple of times, reading the L2 transcript as I go along. One encouraging thing that I have noticed is that my listening comprehension is better than it ever has been. I can listen to fast-paced YouTubers like HolaSoyGerman, Yuya, or Caelike and understand a good portion of what they say. The articles I've been listening to have been more difficult because many of the narrators are from places in South America - I am much more used to accents of Spain and Mexico. But it's a very good experience to be exposed to those accents, and I am learning a lot!

Indulge me while I wax philosophical for a moment. I am trying to remind myself daily - leave my expectations at the door, and simply receive the language like a gift. Every sentence I hear or read is a subtle correction of my ignorance - a penny in the piggy bank. Eventually, I will open the jar and find that the pennies have added up; maybe not to as much as I'd like, and maybe slower than I'd prefer, but the result will be something earned through diligence and perseverance. Through sweat. And that is something to be proud of. Fluency is an incredible gift that we can only recieve if we are willing to embrace the reality of our own constant wrongness. The correction is the content.

So, an encouragement to my fellow language learners: Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Dive in to your own ignorance. Embrace humility - receive correction (native content) gracefully and be thankful for it! It's in your best interest, even if it's hurtful or discouraging to realize how far we still have to go. What you get from it in the long run is worth the price of admission. Dispense with modesty - self-effacing comments are useless unless what you are saying is objectively true. If you are improving, don't be afraid to admit it. You won't jinx anything, and you won't come across as arrogant - at least not to those comfortable with hearing truth. If native speakers are pleased with your skills, you have every right to be pleased yourself. End rant! Hopefully that didn't come across as too pretentious. My hope is that these posts be encouraging for others. Thanks for indulging me!

ANYWAY:

Tomorrow looks like it will be fun. After work, I'm going to visit my friend. Her daughter is graduating high school and she invited me to their celebration dinner. I'm looking forward to meeting those in her family that I haven't gotten to know, and I'm sure I will get some good conversation practice!


By the way, the day before I began this project, I took an unofficial CEFR fluency test on the Cervantes Institute website. They ranked me as a B1.3-B1.4 (B1.4 being the highest sub-level before B2). I am not entirely sure that I'd rank that high, but I estimate that I am solidly in B1 territory. I am hoping to at least be at a strong B2 before the end of the project.

And now, to continue the assault on my ignorance, I am going to do some listening. Have a good day, everyone!
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alexlancaster1
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Re: Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

Postby alexlancaster1 » Mon May 22, 2017 3:40 am

Hello again!

These past two days have been long, and full of Spanish. Yesterday, I attended the graduation party of my friend's daughter (a sweet and lovely young lady). Much of the family speaks some English but about 96.5% of the four and a half hours I spent with them was an intense stretching of my Spanish skills. The family was absolutely lovely; especially the kids and abuela. They were beyond welcoming, and treated me like family. They insisted that I be a part of the family photos, and even took a photo of just the graduate and I - although I'd only just met her for the first time. The food was excellent as well, and they sent me home with leftovers. It was humbling to be at the epicenter of such kindness - what a terrific evening. I wish you all could meet these wonderful people, it would warm your hearts.

A few hours after I left the party, I chatted with a new iTalki friend for about 45 minutes or so, and then passed out, exhausted.

Today was a difficult day at work, but I had several hours of pleasant conversation with my friend as we went about our business. Afterwards, I spoke on Skype with a new iTalki friend (the one I chatted with last night) for about an hour and a half. I did some SRS reps as well.

I am still having trouble with my listening comprehension but I am absolutely determined to push myself through this. My guess is that breakthrough will come only if I push myself almost to the breaking point, so I'm trying as hard as possible to get there ASAP. Thankfully circumstances have made it easy to load up on conversation.

Tomorrow I don't work, so I'm planning to sleep as late as possible and then I'm having lunch with my friend when she's off. That'll be good practice, yes, but I'm mostly just glad for the company. This is where I'd like to make a quick note about something. I don't want to come across as preachy, but this is just something I want to say - feel free to completely ignore it! I'd like to encourage my fellow language learners to not take advantage of people and just use them for conversation practice. Trust me, they can tell, and I guarantee that most people will find it annoying at best, and hurtful at worst. It's unkind. Put away your agenda and focus on the human being in front of you. This is where I differ from Khatzumoto - from whom I have learned so much. His teachings have always said to treat people almost like expendable resources: the people who only speak your language are cancer, and anyone who speaks the target language is a resource to be mined. This is an unhealthy thing, and no one will want to be your friend if you do this! Trust me - I learned this the hard way years ago. Anyway, end rant.

Tonight I'll probably add some cards and do some reading or listening, but sleep is calling my name. If anyone has questions, please let me know! Good night all. God bless you and thanks for the support.


Alex
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alexlancaster1
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Re: Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

Postby alexlancaster1 » Sun May 28, 2017 3:17 am

Hello all!

I wrote out one of my usual long posts a few minutes ago, but it didn't post, and it disappeared on me. Sad face! I don't have time to re-write it, but suffice it to say that I am still making great progress, though it's been a week since my last post. I am enjoying myself enormously and am already reaping the rewards of my labors!

More to come, and hopefully very soon! Best of luck to you all in your goals!

Alex
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alexlancaster1
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Re: Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

Postby alexlancaster1 » Tue Jun 06, 2017 5:18 pm

3 week update:

Back again, and about time too!

I thought I'd come by and post an update of my progress. Today - June 6 - is day 23 of my 90 day challenge. So, just over three weeks in - what have I accomplished so far? Well, I flipped through my activity log and tallied up my progress.

So far:

39.5 hours of conversation (end goal: 45 hours)

28 hours of listening (end goal: 135 hours)

221 cards added to Anki (end goal: 1,000).

As you can see, I am ahead in some aspects and a bit behind in others. I am not worried about this. Barely three weeks in and I'm already almost done with my conversation goals, which leaves me with some freedom and energy to focus on my other goals.

My focus of late has organically shifted more towards input - reading and listening. The quantity of conversation has been very good for me. I have learned that I can have mutually enjoyable friendships with people who don't speak English (or don't speak very much). Friendships that feel natural. I still feel limited by vocabulary and listening comprehension, however, so for the time being, that is what I'm going to focus on rather than so many hours of conversation.

My book-reading progress has been non-existent, so I thought I'd give that a good effort next. I decided actually to drop "The Magician's Nephew" when I remembered that I already owned the audiobook for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". So I began that yesterday. My reading process looks like this: 1) listen to a chapter while reading the printed book. 2) Go over the chapter without audio and look up words and phrases I don't know. 3) Listen again without text to see how much I am comprehending. This has been a fun process so far and I feel like I am learning like crazy. If you want to grow your vocabulary, read books like crazy, you guys. I am probably preaching to the choir here, but that's alright. ;)

I purchased loads of books and audiobooks today.

Print books:

The Neverending Story (Michael Ende, maybe my favorite YA book ever. Read this a thousand times).

Momo (Michael Ende, never read this).

1984 (George Orwell. Interestingly, unlike the vast majority of Americans from my generation, I never actually read this in school).

As you may remember, I own the complete Chronicles of Narnia in Spanish, so today I purchased the audiobooks for "Prince Caspian" and "The Voyage of the Dawn-Treader" to supplement "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", which I already owned. I also bought the audiobook for "1984" to listen while I read.

I have also been spending a fair amount of time at LingQ alternating between B2 and C1 content. I understand the majority of what I am reading, and after a couple of run-throughs, I feel like I can comprehend the vast majority of what's been spoken. However, I notice that if I listen to something without having read it first, I don't understand very much of it. The only way I know to remedy this is to just keep working with the texts but spend most of my time listening. As Steve Kauffman has always said, listening comprehension is the core language-learning skill. So, I'll just keep plugging away with my books, audiobooks, LingQ lessons, and Skype calls. We'll see what happens in the middle of August when this project is complete! Thanks for reading, everyone! Advice and comments are almost welcome.

Alex
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alexlancaster1
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Re: Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

Postby alexlancaster1 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 5:28 am

Greetings all,

Day 28 of 90! I've been sick these past couple of days (ugh!) but I've still managed to do a lot. I am progressing along very nicely in my goals. I am nearly done already with my conversation goal, I completed my reading goal, and I am just about perfectly on track with my listening and SRS stuff.

The reading was far less arduous than I would have imagined. I ended up demolishing "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" in a couple of sittings - both the printed book and the audio book. I enjoyed it immensely and found myself basically just enjoying the story without the language barrier being too much of a factor. Reading and listening at the same time put my comprehension at about 90% - more or less, depending on the scene. That is a more than adequate comprehension level to enjoy the story without needing to look up a lot of words and phrases. I have many pages marked that introduced lots of interesting new vocabulary and I am planning to go back and put the unfamiliar stuff into Anki (which is also going well, by the way. Over 300 out of 1,000 cards in my deck, and still more than 60 days left to go).

I purchased a large slough of other books and audiobooks as I mentioned before, but I've hit a snag. As far as I can tell, the only book/audiobook combination that I have where the two editions match each other is Orwell's 1984. The materials for "Wardrobe" matched each other about 98% but unfortunately, "Prince Caspian" and "The Voyage of the Dawn-Treader" don't match well at all. I found this strange, since the sets correspond exactly to the "Wardobe" materials that I used. This is the trouble with using translations of English books rather than native L2 material: you run into translations that are vastly different from one another. I have no doubt that both versions are expressive and accurate translations, but from what I can tell, it looks like the books only match the audiobooks about 60% of the time - not good enough to warrant reading whilst listening.

So, I'm adjusting my plan. I'm listening to the audiobook for "Caspian" on its own, and finding that I can keep up with the general gist of the story - I probably understand about half of it, which is about 30% more than it would have been at the start of my project. Encouraging! After I finish "Caspian", I think I might tackle "1984" and then "Wardrobe" again - and do them a couple of times each. The second time through, I'll listen without reading - at least not much. If I end up finishing each of those books twice, I'll have completed my reading goal at least six times over, and will be nearly halfway into my listening goal. With how much I have been enjoying the reading, I will try and set myself to doing that in the next week and a half or two weeks. Being sick has slowed me down - I don't have much brain power today - but I think that's still a very digestible goal.

I feel that I have had a large series of tangible breakthroughs throughout this project. Maybe it's because my mindset is vastly better than it used to be, or because my approach is more patient, but I feel like I am learning so much. I still have a long way to go before I can say that I've really let go of my past learning frustrations, and I still have bad days from time to time, but the ultimate fact is that I've never enjoyed a language project enough to get this far. I think it seriously has a lot to do with two major factors: 1) my decision to emphasise novelty through variety, and 2) this forum. The process of writing these posts has been so fun for me. So, to the small group of people who have been keeping up (and putting up) with me: THANK you!

Truth be told, I'm enjoying this project more than just about anything else in my life right now, and I thank you guys for helping me stay on track. More to come soon! Thanks all.

Alex
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n8starr
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Re: Alex's Mission Log - B1 to C1 Spanish in 90 days.

Postby n8starr » Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:42 am

Just wanted to say finding this log has given me more ideas to test and improve my Spanish! It is great to read about your journey and what is working for you in terms of improvment. I find that no matter how well I think my skills are, I can always be better. I'll be following along with your progress in the future :D
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