Bex's Spanish log 2018. Chapter 2: Improbable ambitions

[AndyMeg]

Los Podcasts son Notes In Spanish Intermediate. Tienes que pagar por las transcripciones y solo están en español. Me gustan porque solo hablan español y no hablan demasiado rápido. Transcribiré material nativo tan pronto como mi escucha mejore.

Español automático es otro podcast que es gratuito y tiene transcripciones gratuitas, si necesitas las transcripciones gratuitas. Son demasiado largos para mí, ya que estoy transcribiendo cada podcast y acabo de escuchar pocos.

I have just listened to a few--> solo he escuchado unos pocos.

Si entiendo bien el sentido de tu oración, tal vez quedaría más claro así:

Son demasiado largos para mí: ya que estoy transcribiendo cada podcast, solo he escuchado unos pocos.

[Bex]

Si entiendo bien el sentido de tu oración, tal vez quedaría más claro así:

Whenever I write anything in Spanish, I always get this response from natives

I think I need to focus on Spanish sentence structure more and stop directly translating my sentences.

Anyhoo... thanks AndyMeg your corrections are really appreciated (a lot). I can see that you are much better at Spanish than I am

Edit: Bad grammar...apparently I can't write correctly in English either

[AndyMeg]

Si entiendo bien el sentido de tu oración, tal vez quedaría más claro así:

Whenever I write anything in Spanish, I always get this response from natives

Anyhoo... thanks AndyMeg your corrections are really appreciated (a lot). I can see that you are much better at Spanish than I am

Well... maybe that's because spanish is my native language

Edit: Bad grammar...apparently I can't write correctly in English either

Don't worry, it happens to all of us.

[Bex]

Slightly late...Friday update from last week.

Friday (2 March) update:
Writing Target: 1000 words. This week = 1388 (2018 total 8783)
Speaking Target: 60 minutes. This week = 75 (2018 total 510)
Listening Target: 120 minutes. This week = 13 (2018 total 1132)
Reading 2018 total 474
Clozemaster 100-500. Mastered = 549 (Total mastered = 1,003)

So far my writing, speaking and listening are all on target to meet my annual totals.

Reading has been dropped for now and has been replaced by clozemaster. I am hoping to really increase my listening instead and maybe add in some TV/Netflix, I seem to have strong preference for listening over reading at the moment and so I am allowing my enjoyment to take charge for a while instead of targets.

I had a 5 day holiday (long weekend) from Wednesday last week and so I only had time for Spanish on Monday & Tuesday. I only did clozemaster during my 5 day holiday Wednesday to Sunday, hence my low listening this week.

I managed to squeeze in 1 extra 30 minute iTalki lesson on top of my normal 45 minute weekly lesson and transcribe over 1300 words during my short 2 day week of studying last week before my holiday so I am happy with that. I enjoyed my 30 minute just chat lesson, I am hoping to book another soon.

The NIS advanced podcasts are getting too difficult for me to follow, I keep missing large chunks now, it appears to be due to a lack of vocabulary. I think I will transcribe a few of these more difficult advanced podcasts, maybe the first 5 and then once I have completed my mini-challenge of transcribing 10 intermediate podcasts, I will listen to all 15 transcribed podcasts repeatedly for review and listening practice as much as I can. All 15 transcribed podcasts should give me at least 3 hours of comprehensible listening.

I am not sure it's worth continuing through and listening to the full 96 advanced NIS podcasts if I am not getting much from them or enjoying them. I have listened to 8 so far, so I may drop my mini-challenge and just listen to 10 NIS Advanced in total and then move onto something more comprehensible.

I have wanted to start listening to the Epañol Automatico podcast for a while and so I’ll try those to see if they are at the right sort of level or not, I also have few others I have subscribed to, I just need to find something interesting and understandable

[Jaleel10]

Ha. I've dropped reading as well and I'm shifting my 'gaining of new vocabulary' to videos on Yabla. Need to probably revise my schedule again. I hate reading Afrikaans. Hate it in English. So I was really being optimistic about liking it in Spanish haha. But it's a habit I want to develop. I'll maybe save it for the intermediate levels. I've dropped Clozemaster too. Me and SRS programs really don't like each other lol. I MIGHT use Anki again (It's an abusive relationship). But to import my own sentences from TV or Yabla.

[Bex]

Ha. I've dropped reading as well and I'm shifting my 'gaining of new vocabulary' to videos on Yabla. Need to probably revise my schedule again. I hate reading Afrikaans. Hate it in English. So I was really being optimistic about liking it in Spanish haha. But it's a habit I want to develop. I'll maybe save it for the intermediate levels. I've dropped Clozemaster too. Me and SRS programs really don't like each other lol. I MIGHT use Anki again (It's an abusive relationship). But to import my own sentences from TV or Yabla.

My schedule probably needs a revise too but I don't really want to change my annual totals as they were really the minimum I would like to achieve. As long as I'm on keeping close to where I need to be for my annual targets then I'm not too worried about my weekly schedule.

Reading is still too difficult for me to enjoy, I am hoping with a LOT of listening and Clozemaster I can come back to it. I am still reading transcriptions every week and sentences on Clozemaster and so I figure it's just a work in progress, that it will improve and I will be able to do it at some point...

I think that I am going to really push listening more this month, I shall continue transcribing podcasts as well, the combination of the two together is working well at the moment. I need to increase the amount of time I am spending with Spanish and listening is the easiest way for me to do that at the moment.

I hate SRS too and especially Anki, I think because I read so many blogs and they all tell me how great Anki is and all about it's magical language learning powers, I think I must use it or I'm wasting my time but I hate it, so I am refusing to use Anki at the moment but I still feel like a bad student who's not doing their homework .

Despite hating SRS I am finding Clozemaster really useful, I find interesting the things I still don't know in the first 500 words section and how I am now starting to recognise things like the subjunctive when I hear them because I have been learning a few common subjunctive verbs on Clozemaster. I just delete any sentences which I really don't understand, have multiple answers or just annoy me...although I do currently have over 700 reviews which is a little daunting.

I have just listened to the first 3 Español Automatico podcasts (75 minutes in total ) and I could understand them, it's not what I'd call totally comprehensible but I can get the gist of it and I didn't get completely lost at any point, so it's understandable enough for me and I shall try and listen to the next 80+, should keep me busy for a while.

edited x 2 typos

[iguanamon]

Lots of people don't like to read even in their native languages, however; in a second language reading is one of the most important methods I've used to gain and consolidate new vocabulary and grammar. When a learner neglects reading, it can lengthen the amount of time spent in the low intermediate stage considerably. The converse is also true. When a learner overly concentrates on reading, they often end up neglecting listening and suffering the consequences... but... it doesn't have to be either/or. Reading short articles- news, magazine, blog, short fiction can be a great compromise. There's a lot out there for Spanish learners, especially intermediate Spanish learners- VeinteMundos has a ton of 10-15 minute magazine articles about a wide variety of topics with free downloadable pdf's and audio (including mouse over definitions online) especially for intermediate learners to use... all free.

In addition, most popular US tv series have downloadable subtitles (.srt) available in both English and Spanish. Several sources are out there, just be careful about downloading anything that's over 100kbs and never, ever, download an .exe file. An srt file opens easily with windows notepad. Have a look at my post Using GlobalVoices.org to make simple parallel texts to show you how to do this. Yeah, it's still reading, but short texts (especially ones with audio) are great for learning and provide a wide variety of exposure to vocabulary and grammar in different contexts without having to read a whole book. In this way, you can get the benefit of reading without having to read books. VeinteMundos and GlobalVoices have a ton of material. Let me know if you need or want help with this.

[Jaleel10]

Lots of people don't like to read even in their native languages, however; in a second language reading is one of the most important methods I've used to gain and consolidate new vocabulary and grammar. When a learner neglects reading, it can lengthen the amount of time spent in the low intermediate stage considerably. The converse is also true. When a learner overly concentrates on reading, they often end up neglecting listening and suffering the consequences... but... it doesn't have to be either/or. Reading short articles- news, magazine, blog, short fiction can be a great compromise. There's a lot out there for Spanish learners, especially intermediate Spanish learners- VeinteMundos has a ton of 10-15 minute magazine articles about a wide variety of topics with free downloadable pdf's and audio (including mouse over definitions online) especially for intermediate learners to use... all free.

In addition, most popular US tv series have downloadable subtitles (.srt) available in both English and Spanish. Several sources are out there, just be careful about downloading anything that's over 100kbs and never, ever, download an .exe file. An srt file opens easily with windows notepad. Have a look at my post Using GlobalVoices.org to make simple parallel texts to show you how to do this. Yeah, it's still reading, but short texts (especially ones with audio) are great for learning and provide a wide variety of exposure to vocabulary and grammar in different contexts without having to read a whole book. In this way, you can get the benefit of reading without having to read books. VeinteMundos and GlobalVoices have a ton of material. Let me know if you need or want help with this.

Wow. Thanks, Iguana. I did not know about VeinteMundos. It actually sounds like something I would enjoy. I'll definitely put it in my calendar for when I finish the first Assimil wave in a month. I generally don't enjoy reading books (even though I've recently picked up the hobby in English). But I can definitely manage articles.

[Bex]

Lots of people don't like to read even in their native languages, however; in a second language reading is one of the most important methods I've used to gain and consolidate new vocabulary and grammar. When a learner neglects reading, it can lengthen the amount of time spent in the low intermediate stage considerably. The converse is also true. When a learner overly concentrates on reading, they often end up neglecting listening and suffering the consequences... but... it doesn't have to be either/or. Reading short articles- news, magazine, blog, short fiction can be a great compromise. There's a lot out there for Spanish learners, especially intermediate Spanish learners- VeinteMundos has a ton of 10-15 minute magazine articles about a wide variety of topics with free downloadable pdf's and audio (including mouse over definitions online) especially for intermediate learners to use... all free.

In addition, most popular US tv series have downloadable subtitles (.srt) available in both English and Spanish. Several sources are out there, just be careful about downloading anything that's over 100kbs and never, ever, download an .exe file. An srt file opens easily with windows notepad. Have a look at my post Using GlobalVoices.org to make simple parallel texts to show you how to do this. Yeah, it's still reading, but short texts (especially ones with audio) are great for learning and provide a wide variety of exposure to vocabulary and grammar in different contexts without having to read a whole book. In this way, you can get the benefit of reading without having to read books. VeinteMundos and GlobalVoices have a ton of material. Let me know if you need or want help with this.

I agree entirely Iguanamon, I have not stopped reading completely. I am reading the transcripts of all the podcasts I listen to regularly in order to check my personal transcriptions and look up unknown vocabulary/grammar structures. I am also reading hundreds of sentences on Clozemaster every single day, so far in only 1 month of use I have read over 3000 original Spanish sentences, the actual total is much higher if you include reviews. I was not logging this reading as it wasn't a book, perhaps I should.

I am planning to sit down and read all the transcriptions for Español Automatico once I have listened to the first few, hopefully I can start reading them next week if I have time.

Anyway, ramble over...thanks Iguanamon for pointing out that I had dropped a very important ball

[Bex]

Friday update:
Writing Target: 1000 words. This week = 0 (2018 total 8783)
Speaking Target: 60 minutes. This week = 45 (2018 total 510)
Listening Target: 120 minutes. This week = 189 (2018 total 1321)
Reading 2018 total 474
Clozemaster 100-500. Mastered = 841

Writing: Not had the time this week to sit down and actually spend time writing this week

Listening: I am really enjoying this activity at the moment and I am going to try and aim for at least an hour every day of listening. I am switching between some more difficult native podcasts and intermediate learners podcasts but making sure that they are all completely in Spanish - no English allowed is my only rule when choosing podcasts now. I have tried a few this week and listened to a few Español Automatico. Some podcasts were not good but I did come across a lovely podcast of childrens stories all read by a Spanish native "Cuentos a la luz de luna" which is 69 classic tales such as The Three Pigs, The happy Prince, Brer rabbit, Hercules, The Wizard of Oz, etc because I already know the stories so well it's a joy to listen to.

Clozemaster is still great especially as I have had little time for much else this week.

My plan for next week:
Writing: Do some!
Speaking: I need to add in an extra lesson on top of my usual weekly session to keep on track. I have a plan brewing for some sentence building next week so if I have time I may start that as well, basically some talking to myself
Listening: Aiming for minimum of 1 hour each weekday next week, so 5 hours in total.
Reading: I shall start reading the Español Automatico transcripts, there are hundreds of them so that should keep me busy for a while. I shall aim for 1 transcript a day and adjust as necessary. I may read whilst listening and see if that is more enjoyable. I will start to log this reading activity and I will also add in some numbers for the transcripts I have already read so far this year.

So it will be a busy week next week!