Jaleel's Spanish Log, 2018.

[Bex]

Just wondered...

How are you finding the Assimil 2nd wave so far?

...because I had a few issues (understatement) with the second wave

[Jaleel10]

Just wondered...

How are you finding the Assimil 2nd wave so far?

...because I had a few issues (understatement) with the second wave

Hahaha. I see what you mean. If you want to use Assimil again I suggest you use the Luca Lampariello method. I don't mind explaining it in it's full ....totality (idk if that's correct English ). I'm friends with someone who used it for Spanish and uses it for Arabic and he attained fantastic results. He explained the method in full detail because he purchased it for himself a few years back. So I want to use it for when I start learning German later this year or early next.

BUT.... Here's how I use it. (I just trust that I am making progress. It isn't always easy to tell if you are!)

I was bored and wrote up this soliloquy https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearni ... hopefully/

[Bex]

Your second wave method sounds more sensible and a lot less painful than mine was. I just listened to it a few times and then tried to translate the English into Spanish... eventually it just got REALLY difficult, then impossible and I hated it.

Maybe I should try doing the second wave again using your method. Tempting...

[Jaleel10]

Your second wave method sounds more sensible and a lot less painful than mine was. I just listened to it a few times and then tried to translate the English into Spanish... eventually it just got REALLY difficult, then impossible and I hated it.

Maybe I should try doing the second wave again using your method. Tempting...

Haha, I know. There are some lessons where I literally had to stop cause my brain was on strike. But now I break it up and go sentence by sentence and focus on getting one (or a group of three to flow better) right and move onto the next. After I get all right without failure THEN I translate.

So I speak first, then I write.

[individuo]

Reading example from Assimil. Sorry for the bad quality and backround noise
https://vocaroo.com/i/s1hm9QnQLxPz

Hello Jaleel10

Just to congratulate you on your pronunciation, you sound like a native speaker to me. The only thing is that you pronounced "portera" as if it were "porterra", with double rr. But I guess it was just that time, because you pronounced other words containing a single "r" correctly.

Keep it up, you are doing great.

[Jaleel10]

Reading example from Assimil. Sorry for the bad quality and backround noise
https://vocaroo.com/i/s1hm9QnQLxPz

Hello Jaleel10

Just to congratulate you on your pronunciation, you sound like a native speaker to me. The only thing is that you pronounced "portera" as if it were "porterra", with double rr. But I guess it was just that time, because you pronounced other words containing a single "r" correctly.

Keep it up, you are doing great.

Thank you very much ! It means a lot

And that's the Afrikaans haha. We roll all our r's. I'll pay closer attention to it.

[Jaleel10]

March Update
13/03/2018

No courses update or schedule changes. Just some random thoughts.

- The 6 Week Challenge. Currently 4th. Very pleased with myself.

Screenshot_10.png

- Learned about 'Lo' this past week and weekend. lo +adj, lo que, lo de, lo+adj/adv+que, por lo menos, por lo tanto, etc.. Such a strange and fascinating word.

- Learned A BIT about the Imperfect Subjunctive . Also leaned about tanto como (adj.), tanto como (adv.) and tan como. Plus the differences between them

- I'm at the point where I can IDENTIFY all the tenses. Never thought I would say this . Once I was like what is 'tengas' and 'haz' What the hell is 'haz' !! and 'hubiese' and 'tuviera' what are these things ! Now it's just a case of practice, practice and practice !

- I have Glossika, Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Grammar and TGC Learn Spanish 1 and 2 in my library for the next phase of my studies. I left Glossika in January because I felt it was a bit of my 'vuurmaakplek' ,as the Afrikaans saying goes. But I feel I'm closer to A2 now than I was then, so I hope I can find better value in it. For the TGC courses. They are about 45 minutes long. I reckon I can watch it leisurly after I get home from work. Do one a day for the next 2 months. I'm saving the Practice Makes Perfect for a much later date.

- Michel Thomas. The man was fantastic. I'm enjoying the course so much lol. It's hard limiting myself to 30 minutes a day. Yesterday we did the Subjunctive.

- Skype Partner. I still have about 8 - 10 hours of Michel Thomas left. So that is getting closer and closer.

[Bex]

- The 6 Week Challenge. Currently 4th. Very pleased with myself.

Firstly well done on the 6 week challenge. Keep up the good work

- I'm at the point where I can IDENTIFY all the tenses. Never thought I would say this . Once I was like what is 'tengas' and 'haz' What the hell is 'haz' !! and 'hubiese' and 'tuviera' what are these things ! Now it's just a case of practice, practice and practice!

Just out of interest can you identify all the tenses due to Michel Thomas or another resource or a combination? I have been working my way through the tenses very slowly but you seem to have gone for the broad overview approach, which in hindsight was probably the better path to take.

[Jaleel10]

Just out of interest can you identify all the tenses due to Michel Thomas or another resource or a combination? I have been working my way through the tenses very slowly but you seem to have gone for the broad overview approach, which in hindsight was probably the better path to take.

Thanks for the kind words

To your question. Honestly, Its a mix of Assimil, Michel Thomas and my own curiosity. I am working, just as you, through the tenses slowly but with Babbel (I think I'm only at the preterite for ar now. Still have more than half of the remaining tenses to go.) But you progress faster with Michel Thomas. I think we handled all the tenses except all the Subjunctives forms. But I sometimes get curious and read ahead on things so I've been "Leisurely browsing" a lot of https://espanol.lingolia.com/en/grammar/subjuntivo, Read articles by this author https://www.thoughtco.com/gerald-erichsen-3078058 and sometimes use kwiziq ( I saw it on Ani's Log). So me knowing all the tenses was through pure curiosity and wanting to understand something now . I still don't know how to use them in practice of course.

[Jaleel10]

March Update
15/03/2018

Finished the 'Learn Spanish with Paul Noble'

Pros:

- 13 hour course
- Uses 2 native speakers one from Spain and another from Mexico
- Teaches you a lot of fundamentals that MT and LT doesn't teach like the alphabet and numbers.
- Teaches a lot touristy spanish. How to order food, how to book rooms,how to respond to a doctor and some basic conversational phrases through several grammar points.

Cons:

- Only teaches touristy and basic phrases. The course is probably great if you're visiting.
- Doesn't teach all the tenses. Only the present, simple future, simple past and past perfect. No command and no subjunctive.

Thoughts. Overall good intro course for Spanish, to be fair. The natives help with your pronunciation and there is sufficient time for responses when Paul asks a question. It's very slow but I guess that can be a good thing. I'd recommend Michel Thomas and Language Transfer for any one who is self-studying but if you need a quick intro or plan a short trip to a Spanish country, the course will be of greater value to you.

Overall: 7.5/10

Seeing as I follow a course based study routine for the A levels. I'll be doing this for all courses I finish