Spoon's 2018 attempt at success [ ES | IT | EO | DE? ] + Greek FLC

[Spoonary]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your support.

Well, after a couple of weeks of waiting, I finally received the reply I was waiting for. Unfortunately, I didn't get the job because my Spanish was not fluent enough for the role apparently. To be honest, I am not really surprised, given how little Spanish I speak nowadays. Besides, I'm fortunate to be fairly happy in my current place of work so it's not a huge deal, but still, rejection isn't a nice pill to swallow

I'm glad I gave it a go though, and now I'm a bit more motivated to work on my Spanish speaking than I was before so...

[Spoonary]

Ok, so I'm going to try setting some weekly goals, as they have worked for me in the past and seem to work for others, so why not?

Week ending Sunday 25th March
Español
- Read 25% of Ficciones and write about it in the read-along thread
- Watch 2 episodes of Ingobernable
- Listen to 2 episodes of Nadie sabe nada
- Do 3 10 minute recordings of myself speaking

Italiano
- Read through 1 chapter of A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian
- Watch/listen to 1 episode of something other than Youtube

Esperanto
- Complete 3 lessons on Duolingo

Deutsch
- Finish watching the A.1 Get Germanised complete course video on Youtube

Ελληνικά
- Spend at least 1 hour studying Greek

I would like to do at least something with each of my target languages this week, but, as you can clearly see, Spanish is my main focus. Despite my initial impressions, I still really want to read Ficciones, so getting a quarter of that read will be my priority. However, speaking and listening are also areas I need to work on.

At some point I had to start tightening up what I think I know about Italian grammar, so I'm going to read a grammar book from cover to cover. What could possibly go wrong there?

Finally, I'm not sure what, exactly, I'm going to do with Greek yet - I could study with my cousin again, or not - but I am never going to reach A2 if I don't get a move on, so I definitely want to do something with that language this week.

[Spoonary]

Here I am with the results of my weekly goals from this week. It was a mixed bag of successes and failures, but I think having small objectives to focus on has helped me get something done at least

Goal Results Week Ending Sunday 25th March
Español
- Read 25% of Ficciones and write about it in the read-along thread Done! I read 27% and, now that I've started, I want to read more.
- Watch 2 episodes of Ingobernable Done! I binged these two episodes today and I'm really enjoying this series.
- Listen to 2 episodes of Nadie sabe nada - Nope! I only listened to 1.
- Do 3 10 minute recordings of myself speaking. -Nope! I didn't even manage 1.

Italiano
- Read through 1 chapter of A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian - Nope! I didn't even start.
- Watch/listen to 1 episode of something other than Youtube - Nope!

Esperanto
- Complete 3 lessons on Duolingo - Nope! I think I did 1...

Deutsch
- Finish watching the A.1 Get Germanised complete course video on Youtube Done! This was a good overview of the very basics of German, but I'm not sure how much of it I have taken in. I did start doing a German course on Memrise though.

Ελληνικά
- Spend at least 1 hour studying Greek Done! I did this last weekend actually, shortly after posting my goals. My cousin and I continued with the wikibook from before which covered greetings and personal introductions. So far so good/καλά.

.......................................

And now for my goals for this week.

Week Ending Sunday 1st April
Español
- Read another 25% of Ficciones and write about it in the read-along thread
- Watch 2 episodes of Ingobernable
- Listen to 2 episodes of Nadie sabe nada
- Do 3 10 minute recordings of myself speaking

Italiano
- Read through 1 chapter of A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian
- Watch/listen to 1 episode of something other than Youtube

Esperanto
- Complete 3 lessons on Duolingo

Deutsch
- Use Memrise every day

Ελληνικά
- Spend at least 1 hour studying Greek

Yeah, so everything is pretty much the same as last week. Hopefully this time, I'll get more done.

[Spoonary]

As this week ended with a 4 day bank holiday weekend, during which I have been rather busy, I decided to extend my goals until today. Spoilers! Even with the extra day, I didn't complete them all

Goal Results Week Ending Monday 2nd April
Español
- Read another 25% of Ficciones and write about it in the read-along thread - Done! See the thread in question for my thoughts.
- Watch 2 episodes of Ingobernable - Nope - I haven't been in the mood for TV this week.
- Listen to 2 episodes of Nadie sabe nada - Done! I think I listened to 3 episodes but I'm not sure.
- Do 3 10 minute recordings of myself speaking - Nope - I did 2 though, which is better than last week. One thing I noticed is how out of breath I get while speaking Spanish. I am so focussed on getting a sentence out of my mouth that I forget to breathe!

Italiano
- Read through 1 chapter of A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian - Nope!
- Watch/listen to 1 episode of something other than Youtube - Done! - I watched Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue on Netflix. It's a cute little film about a teen boy who falls in love with a girl who becomes very ill. It was an entertaining film which was nice and easy on the language front too.

Esperanto
- Complete 3 lessons on Duolingo - Done! - I'm not sure how many lessons I did, but I only have 9 to do before I finally finish the tree.

Deutsch
- Use Memrise every day - Nope - I used it 5 out of the 8 days though so I don't think that's too bad.

Ελληνικά
- Spend at least 1 hour studying Greek - Nope, not this week.

Well, I did a bit better than last week, but I didn't find any time for Greek. Hopefully I will be able to make up for it in the rest of this week, when my goals will be pretty much the same. Sorry if you're bored of this already

............................

Week Ending Sunday 8th April
Español
- Read the third 25% of Ficciones and write about it in the read-along thread
- Watch 2 episodes of Ingobernable
- Listen to 2 episodes of Nadie sabe nada
- Do 3 10 minute recordings of myself speaking

Italiano
- Read through 1 chapter of A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian
- Watch/listen to 1 episode of something other than Youtube

Esperanto
- Finish the Duolingo tree

Deutsch
- Use Memrise every day

Ελληνικά
- Spend at least 1 hour studying Greek

[eido]

One thing I noticed is how out of breath I get while speaking Spanish. I am so focussed on getting a sentence out of my mouth that I forget to breathe!

That happens to me too! I was reading a couple passages for a Lingora recording to practice my pronunciation, and one of the first comments I got was "you sound like you're having trouble breathing, but that's okay". I think it has something to do with me trying to time Spanish as if it were English. They have different mechanisms. One's syllable-timed, the other not. I'm not entirely sure still what the difference is, but I know that trying to articulate punchy Spanish with long-winded English style makes you stick out like a sore thumb, non-native for sure. I guess the point of my posting this is to let you know you're not the only one

[Spoonary]

Well, it's time for some more mediocre performance from me as I only completed half my goals. My excuse is that I had one less day to complete them

Goal Results Week Ending Sunday 8th April
Español
- Read the third 25% of Ficciones and write about it in the read-along thread - Done! - I'm up to 81% read and I really can't wait for it to be over, if I'm honest.
- Watch 2 episodes of Ingobernable - Nope! - I was going to watch it but then I saw that The Great British Bake Off is on Netflix and the rest is history
- Listen to 2 episodes of Nadie sabe nada - Done!
- Do 3 10 minute recordings of myself speaking - Nope! - I did 1 on Tuesday then didn't have much to say for the rest of the week.

Italiano
- Read through 1 chapter of A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian - Nope!
- Watch/listen to 1 episode of something other than Youtube - Nope! Italian was completely abandoned this week.

Esperanto
- Finish the Duolingo tree - Done! - JES! Finfine! I have started the Lernu course now too.

Deutsch
- Use Memrise every day - Nope! but 5/6 ain't bad!

Ελληνικά
- Spend at least 1 hour studying Greek - Nope! I really need to get back on with Greek!
...................

Ok, I'm not going to set any goals for next week, because I really don't feel like it. Let's see whether I manage to do anything all the same.

[eido]

I'm on mobile right now and can't figure out how to copy and paste, but there's a computer application you can download to learn Esperanto. Have you heard of it? I believe it's called Kurso de Esperanto. It teaches you the language in brief. I downloaded it when I experimented with the language this past year (and made a log on another site, only to give up on it). It's pretty thorough for a beginner and is well designed. It has exercises that you can have corrected by an Esperanto tutor. I thought for an application that was made so long ago, that wouldn't be offered still, but it is! The guy's a little eccentric, though. Anyway, good luck with your studies!

[jeff_lindqvist]

This, I believe - http://kurso.com.br/

[Spoonary]

Thanks guys. Actually, I think I have already learned Esperanto and really just need to start using it and absorbing media to increase my active vocabulary, but having completed these courses will make me feel like I have covered all bases and have a decent foundation in the language. Plus, it's something I can measure and call progress

[Spoonary]

You know when you spend an hour writing a post and forget that the forum will time out your session after a short time, then you lose the whole thing? That's a thing that just happened