Tutescrew's Spanish/French/Italian/German Log

[Tutescrew]

Greetings,

I thought that it was time to start logging my language learning. I will try to keep this up to date on a weekly level. Right now, I am only working on Spanish...but I have dreams of doing Prof. Arguelles' Spanish-French-Italian-German curriculum. The materials that I have now for Spanish include:

1. Pimsleur - Right now I am on Spanish I, Unit 25. I have been doing this on my 25 minute commute to and from work. This is from the library, and Spanish II-V are also available. Averaging about 4 lessons per week.

2. Assimil Spanish - I have good information that I should be getting this as a holiday gift. Expected start 2 January 2018.

3. I have acquired the following additional materials, but no *immediate* plans to use them: Linguaphone 1960s course, Berlitz "Complimentary" 1960s course, Spanish Made Simple, Berlitz Spanish Self-Teacher, Madrigal's Magic Key, Old TYS and Colloquial books, and (downloaded) FSI Spanish Basic and Cortina "20 Lessons". I have resisted the urge to get material in the other languages

4. Given my commute time, I and thinking that a course such as Michel Thomas Foundations (now "Total"?) would be helpful. Other choices might be Paul Noble or Language Transfer Complete Spanish.

My immediate goal is to complete Pimsleur up to at least Spanish II, and then then complete Assimil by mid-2018. I am in no rush, but I do plan to study something every day, even if is only 15 minutes.

I have enjoyed perusing this forum in recent weeks, as well as HTLAL. We'll see where this goes....please comment on this study plan, and perhaps possible ways to continue?

Thank you!

Tutescrew

[Tutescrew]

Completed another two Pimsleur Spanish I units in the last six days, all in my car. I managed to get in at least one lesson on both Saturday and Sunday, fulfilling one of my short-term goals.

Meanwhile, I have downloaded Language Transfer - Complete Spanish. My immediate plan is to use this course on days where I have already studied Pimsleur at least once. Typically, this would mean during car trips other than than my main commute drives. However, I may find out that it requires too much attention on the road. If that is the case, I will try it on my smartphone during lunchtime walks, etc.

Tutescrew

[Xenops]

Welcome! Your plan sounds reasonable to me. Another option that I've heard is highly regarded is the Destinos Spanish course: https://learner.org/series/destinos/

When you get to French, let me know, as I'm currently using French in Action, and I'm liking it.

[Tutescrew]

Xenops,

I am deliberately trying to avoid thinking more than about 6 months into the future, and trying to think week-by-week. This is only because I have a history of "thinking too much" and not really executing the nuts-and-bolts of what is required....whether dieting, exercise or language learning is involved . As I mentioned above, Assimil Spanish should be here in seven days!
Having said all of this, I have reviewed the various options for future "input" and activation. I am leaning towards L-R with material that I am familiar with as a start, along with FSI drilling. I am also considering subscripted TV shows (Star Trek TOS would be awesome, I have half of those memorized...now guess my age!). If I decide that I need more grammar work, I have material for that also. I have the links for Destinos. At some point, I will have to venture out and attempt conversation with the local Spanish speakers (mainly of Puerto Rican descent)....there is at least one Meetup group for that, and that will be a milestone!

Looking at what I just wrote, and assuming that it happens roughly in that order, I'll probably start French a few weeks after I am comfortable doing L-R in Spanish. I am a false beginner with French, it should be interesting. I'll probably proceed in the same way that I am now with Spanish, but who knows at this point....

Tutescrew

[Cavesa]

Welcome to the forum!

I recommend joining the Spanish Group https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=5035 , or at least looking at the list of members and their logs, we have some great sources of inspiration among us, such as Tarvos, Stelle, Ogrim, Iguanamnon.

Your plan looks good, I'd just suggest something about point 3. Spanish has been evolving a lot, so age of your resources may be a problem. Despite this, FSI still leads to great results (we have some good success stories on this forum). An alternative to such courses, that would go well with the Assimil, is Gramatica de Uso del Espanol A, which is very popular among the Spanish learners on this forum.

I love Star Trek too! Is the Spanish dubbing good?

[Tutescrew]

Hi Cavesa,

I have no idea if Star Trek TOS is easily available in Spanish, but I would think that it would be. I know the episodes are on Amazon Prime, I will look at this soon.

I'll take a look at the Spanish Group.

As for the stack of "Golden Age of Language Learning" material that I have, I agree....that is why I am starting with a modern Assimil course. Professor Arguelles discusses the "Polyglot's Dream" of parallel material in several languages in one of his videos, which is why I obtained a few of those courses. It's not clear to me *exactly* how to proceed with those parallel courses. I think that he mentions in the Berlitz Self-Teacher review that one can read a sentence from (say) the Italian book, and then read the corresponding sentence the (say) French book, etc. I am not too concerned about those specifics at the moment, because I am guessing (hoping?) that I will be in a good position to figure them out when and if the time comes.

Tutescrew

[Stelle]

Welcome to the forum! I look forward to following along!

[iguanamon]

Welcome to the forum, Tutescrew! ¡Bienvenido/a al foro! The thing to look out for when learning a big, popular for English-speakers, language like Spanish is overwhelming yourself with resources. There are a lot of good resources available for English-speakers who want to learn Spanish. So many are out there that you couldn't possibly use them all. Pimsleur and Language Transfer are a good start. Great that you have Pimsleur for free from your library. Try to work through the whole series of audios from Pimsleur. It will serve you well as a complement to your Assimil course.

I don't know anything about LT, but I hear good things about it. Assimil is a course that works well for many members, it's just not my particular cup of tea. At this stage of your learning it is very important to not "bite off more than you can chew" by overloading yourself with learning resources.

The Star Trek series is definitely available with Spanish dubbing from both Spain and Latin America. At this point, I think you'd be better off using the Destinos video course. Don't worry about the accompanying textbook and audios. You've got that covered with your other resources already. Destinos starts off slow and builds nicely. It's a little ridiculous and "over the top" (as the British say) but it wil help you learn Spanish in an engaging way and expose you to the major Spanish-speaking world accents. I'd save Star Trek until you have finished Pimsleur and Assimil. You'll get more out of it then. It won't do you much good watching with Spanish audio and English subtitles at this stage.

The Spanish Group is there to help you. We have links to resources and people who are learning/have learned Spanish. More important than any individual learning resource, no matter how good it is, is being consistent and persistent. Being consistent will win the game for you. Being persistent will keep you in the game when you can't always be consistent. Have a look at other Spanish-learners/veterans' logs here on the forum for tips and inspiration. Other learner's logs of other languages are also useful, even if they aren't learning your language. Check out my post on the "Multi-track Approach" below. Again, Welcome! ¡Suerte con tus estudios!

[Tutescrew]

"Being persistent will keep you in the game when you can't always be consistent"

Thanks for that sentence, Iguanamon. I think that it succinctly states the idea that I was trying to convey earlier in the thread. My lifestyle (employed, married, three kids) means that right out-of-the-box I will not be able to be consistent on a day-to-day basis. But I am determined to not let one bad learning day or week crash the whole attempt.

Here is an anecdote about listening to Pimsleur while driving. Maybe this would be better on one of the other boards, but anyways...I find that when new words and phrases are introduced, my mind is visualizing how they might be spelled. When I am parked, I will Google Translate the word or phrase to see how it is actually spelled. For instance, in a recent unit, the phrase "He visto a Jose " threw me off because of the silent H. But when I actually see the text, it makes it much easier for me to recall it later. Not an earth-shattering revelation, but I think that I will enjoy ASSIMIL just because it is not entirely audio.

Tutescrew

[iguanamon]

Many beginners complain about Pimsleur's all audio approach. They seek transcripts to make it "comprehensible" and that defeats the purpose of it. Part of it is Pimsleur's fault for selling their course as a "one stop solution" to your language-learning needs. I would never recommend Pimsleur as a "stand alone" method to learn a language, but that's how they sell it. When it is combined with a textbook course as a supplement, it compliments it well and the transcript is not a problem. What I like about the Pimsleur course is that it builds good pronunciation, and something we call here "automaticity" where the learner learns to respond to the language in time pressure and has to recall what has been learned.

One of the common problems many monolingual beginners have in learning their first second language as an adult is "irrational exuberance" at the beginning followed by allowing the roadblocks that will inevitably come up along the way to stop them. Roadblocks will happen, if you deal with them as they happen instead of either skipping over them or, worse, giving up, you'll be fine. Giving up is the one sure way not to learn a language.