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

[Bex]

Oh being ill always tends to put a damper some on me. I definitely find that learning goes better when I'm feeling healthy and happy.

Hope you get better quick.

Thanks Izabela you're very kind. I think I'm finally through the worst of it and I didn't have even a headache yesterday so hopefully I can get back to my Spanish next week.

I've been having migraines too. I can't do anything when I have migraine.

I hope you get better soon!

¡Ánimo y que te mejores pronto!

Thanks AndyMeg, sorry to hear you've been suffering as well

I haven't been able to do anything all week, I am hoping to start back with my reading and listening next week. Not the best start to my new plan but I'll get back to it soon.

[Bex]

General update:

Reading is good I'm managing a few pages everyday, I've been reading the transcripts of the Unlimited Spanish podcast I listen to.

I am reading about 6 pages (200 words per page) a day. And according to LingQ I have unknown words rate of around 15% to 25% for the majority of the podcasts.

Listening is still good too. I'm managing about an hour (4 podcasts) a day.

I've given up on paper SRS and I've gone back to the dreaded Anki

It's too annoying not being able to revise when I have 5 mins spare but I don't have my list with me. I always have my phone with me.

I've decided to keep Anki "low usage" so I'm only adding 5 new words each day. I have over 600 cards made from my lookups when reading so it should keep me busy for a month or two.

So that's it...oh and I may have accidentally got myself a job (part-time) in a totally Spanish office, I am currently trying not to freak out too much about it...calma, calma

[DaveAgain]

So that's it...oh and I may have accidentally got myself a job (part-time) in a totally Spanish office, I am currently trying not to freak out too much about it...calma, calma

That's super news. Now you'll be getting paid to practice your spanish!

[Bex]

So that's it...oh and I may have accidentally got myself a job (part-time) in a totally Spanish office, I am currently trying not to freak out too much about it...calma, calma

That's super news. Now you'll be getting paid to practice your spanish!

Thanks or I may just hide under my desk!

ETA: OMG what have I done!!!

[Jaleel10]

I've given up on paper SRS and I've gone back to the dreaded Anki

¡¡¡Nooooo!!!

oh and I may have accidentally got myself a job (part-time) in a totally Spanish office, I am currently trying not to freak out too much about it...calma, calma

That's awesome. I am so jealous lol. Good luck though, and yeah calma, calma

Always awesome seeing your progress. Sigue así

[AndyMeg]

So that's it...oh and I may have accidentally got myself a job (part-time) in a totally Spanish office, I am currently trying not to freak out too much about it...calma, calma

¡Guau! ¡Qué genial!
Deseo que te vaya muy bien.
Y sí, tómatelo con calma. Poco a poco te irás adaptando.

[Bex]

I've given up on paper SRS and I've gone back to the dreaded Anki

¡¡¡Nooooo!!!

[drmweaver2]

Just thought I'd post that I just finished reading all of you log entries (this log and the previous one).
It has been a very interesting read, from start to finish. I've picked out about - oh, let's say 30-40 ideas and posts that I can really relate to, from trouble dealing with difficult days to frustration/wanting to switch methods too often/quickly/for "some unidentifiable" reason (you know, the "just 'cuz' reason!?!?).

Keep it up. Your persistence and accomplishments are certainly encouraging to me as I'm just starting out.

[Bex]

Just thought I'd post that I just finished reading all of you log entries (this log and the previous one). It has been a very interesting read, from start to finish.

Well, I suppose if you want a looong lesson on how not to learn Spanish, then read my logs

I've picked out about - oh, let's say 30-40 ideas and posts that I can really relate to, from trouble dealing with difficult days to frustration/wanting to switch methods too often/quickly/for "some unidentifiable" reason (you know, the "just 'cuz' reason!?!?).

I am glad you have found my frustrations helpful, I am painfully aware that I switch methods way too often but I'm always trying to find things that "fit" into my lifestyle...I still haven't really found a good fit and so I suspect I continue to switch but I'm getting used to it, I am now coming to terms with the fact I may never find the "perfect" way to learn Spanish.

Learning Spanish has been a very, very difficult, turbulent and frustrating thing for me, it is hard to be bad at something for such a long time as an adult and not just give up. It's embarrassing.

The 3 main things I have really learnt is:
1. I must stick with easy reading & listening.
2. Try to find enjoyable activities
3. The most important...don't give up.

Even though I still don't have a method, and I switch continuously and far too often, I have always kept to rule number 3. So I have improved... just incredibly slowly.

Keep it up. Your persistence and accomplishments are certainly encouraging to me as I'm just starting out.

Finding a way to incorporate Spanish into my life has been my problem for years now, if my documenting of that struggle has helped anyone even just a tiny bit, that's lovely to hear. Thank you.

[Bex]

Update on my listening & reading routine and Anki:

I am slowly developing a routine with my reading and listening. I'm reading a couple of podcasts a day and also listening to them whenever I am pottering around the house or in the car.

I've managed to read to 37 of the 118 Unlimited Spanish transcripts so far and I've listen from 1- 33 (with the first 12 listened to twice) as well. I have fairly high comprehension level of this material with only a few words here and there that are new...so probably around the 85% or 90% comprehension level.

I am saving all the unknown vocabulary as sentences, I have become pretty automatic in my "copy, translate, save" of words/structures that I'd like to learn. I started with just words but quickly moved to saving sentences, I much prefer my cards to have sentences on them, I just didn't realise this when I started!

I am using the Google translate phrasebook to save my sentences because there is automatically a (basic) translation, I can easily download them as a CSV file from Google translate and I can easily transfer them to Anki, it only takes 10 minutes to create hundreds of cards this way.

I am checking and updating/correcting/improving each card in Anki when it appears as a new card and only if necessary. If I want to check or improve the card I am using a mixture spanishdict.com and reversoo.context to clarify/correct things.

The time I spend improving the sentences and their translations on the new cards is around 15 minutes each day, at the moment I am just treating this as extra learning/revision time.

As I fine tune things over the next few weeks, I am hoping the newer cards will need less work.

I am very keen to avoid Anki overload, so with this in mind I am keeping my average new cards below 10 a day; my current average new cards added is just 4.3 cards/day.

The 20-30 minutes (new plus reviews) I spend on Anki is more than enough for me each day and I am trying to ensure that it is all time that is being used productively and not wasted building the deck itself.

So far, so good.