AC83's Spanish Log

[AC83]

Hey all,

I've had a very warm welcome to the community so far. It looks like language logs are a great way to hold yourself accountable, and hopefully down the line realize how much progress you've made. Therefore, since I'm early in my journey of learning Spanish, now would be a great time to start my own.

I'll give a short background. Like many, I've always want to learn Spanish, but I've also had a number of failures in terms of starting my language journey and sticking to it. This time feels different, and I'm hoping to follow through. I do have a trip to Spain planned in a little under a year in a half, so hopefully I can reach at least an intermediate level of Spanish (and the ability to hold conversations) by the time I go. That's my main goal right now, of course aside from reaching fluency at some point.

Progress up to now:
Lots of my time since December has been trial and error, mostly with various langauge learning apps. I have used Duolingo, Memrise, Babbel and Busuu. While I think there is a place for these apps, including Babbel which I'm rather fond of, I don't think they really work for me as primary learning resources. Instead, I think more traditional courses are more suited to my learning style, so I'll be trying that approach from here on out, especially since my trip will be here before I know it, so I want to make the best use of my study time. I did start Assimil last week and am up to lesson 5.

In regards to my progress on the apps:
Duolingo - about 1/3 thru the Spanish tree
Memrise - almost complete with 1 out of 7 of the offical Spanish courses
Babbel - 1/3 of the beginner set courses, along with other random pronoucation/grammer/vocab courses
Busuu - didn't care for it and haven't done much

My plan going forward:
Assimil
Teach Yourself Complete Spanish or Colloquial Spanish
Duolingo/Memrise for when I have a few minutes here and there

I plan to post updates on my progress here. Thanks to anybody who decides to follow along!

[Jaleel10]

Good luck man. You have your first follower

[Bex]

Another follower here.

I too am learning Spanish...I look forward to following your journey.

[AC83]

Thanks for the responses!

I wanted to post a quick update on where I stand with everything so far.

Assimil - I'm hoping to do lesson 6 today and then do the lesson 7 review over the next couple days. I've tried and quit Assimil before because I felt overwhelmed that I didn't understand everything right away, but I guess that is part of the process. I'm really trying to trust the system this time and working the lessons without forcing myself to memorize everything.

Teach Yourself Complete Spanish - I have been doing some studying over the past couple months, so the first few chapters should go pretty quick. I've finished the intro chapter and now on Chapter 1. I'm not sure exactly how I'll approach the chapters once I get to new material, but I plan to work through those chapters a few times until I have a pretty good grasp on the content. Hopefully at that point I'll get a sense of how long I need to spend before moving.

Colloquial - I'm not sure yet if I like this or Teach Yourself better, so I'll work through both books until I either pick one or the other, or decide I'm getting enough positive results from both together. I have read the material up to the excersises for Chapter 1 and hoping to tackle those tonight.

Goals for the rest of the week - Study at a minimum of 30 minutes every day. This is by far the most important. I don't want to set specific requirements on how quick I go through the content of the books above. I believe knowing how long to spend on each chapter or lesson will come with time, and right now I need to be focused on just making studying a habit.

[AC83]

Quick update:

I've had a few days off from work, so I've been about to put in around 2 hours a day since Wednesday. Not the pace I expect to keep on a daily basis, especially on workdays, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to put in a little more time when the opportunity arises. I've been doing several 30-45 minute sessions a day, which I find far more appealing than one multi-hour session.

Assimil: I studied lesson 8 today. I got some great responses on how to approach this course, and I think based on my the fact that I'm using multiple resources, I'm going to go with a less intense method with Assimil. I also plan to do some quick short reviews of the dialogues when time allows, with the hope that more exposure to the dialogues will start to cement the concepts in my head.

Teach Yourself/Colloquial: I'm working pretty quickly through the first couple chapters of each book. I've already covered lots of beginner material over the past couple months, so right now it's a nice review and helps solidify what I've learned. Of course, I'm picking up little things here and there which makes reviewing these chapters worth it. I imagine my progress through each book will slow down significantly once I get to a section that I'm less familiar with.

Apps: My work with language apps has all but died off since I started studying with the above books. Duolingo is my "wasting time" app, and I try to do at least one session a day to keep my daily streak going. Otherwise, apps like Memrise have really died off for now. I do think I'll try to get Memrise back into my routine as I think it's a pretty for vocab review.

[Adrianslont]

Goals for the rest of the week - Study at a minimum of 30 minutes every day. This is by far the most important. I don't want to set specific requirements on how quick I go through the content of the books above. I believe knowing how long to spend on each chapter or lesson will come with time, and right now I need to be focused on just making studying a habit.

I love this paragraph. I think making study a habit is key. When I started three years ago, I promised myself a minimum of 10 minutes per day - but in reality usually did 30-40 minutes.

Study is hard for many people when you are not used to it and I think language study in particular can be hard. Ten minutes a day may be ridiculous in terms of learning a language effectively and efficiently but my 10 minute minimum established my study habit and I now do 1-3 hours a day (not all “desk study” - that might include a couple of hours of listening to podcasts in car or while walking) and feel bad if I don’t get at least an hour. I think it’s a lot like getting into the daily exercise habit. And to extend the exercise metaphor, a lot of people go crazy when they start exercising and get sore muscles and injuries and burnout in weeks. It’s all about building imho.

[AC83]

I think I’ve made some steady progress this week. I also decided to drop Assimil for now as I was spending too much time worried about the fact that I didn’t understand a large part of the early lessons. I’m sure that’s not a decision everybody agrees with, but I’ve found good momentum with my other resources. Just keeping that momentum and studying every day is more important to me vs forcing myself to stick to one specific method. Hopefully I’ll reapproach Assimil later on.

Anyways progress this week:

Teach Yourself Complete Spanish: I have completed the first three units. I’m starting the fourth tonight. I’ve enjoyed this book and look forward to continuing to make progress.

Colloquial Spanish: I have also completed three units in this book as well. Overall, I think I like Teach Yourself a bit more, but I like the exercises in Colloqial better. I think they supplement each other pretty well.

Duolingo/Memrise: Nothing new here. I’m continuing to use these daily when I have a few minutes here and there.

For the next week I want to keep my momentum of spending at least 30 minutes a day studying. That continues to be my main focus. In terms of how fast to progress in my two main courses, I don’t want to set specific goals, but least a chapter or two a week (in either book or both) would probably be nice progress.

[Jaleel10]

I think I’ve made some steady progress this week. I also decided to drop Assimil for now as I was spending too much time worried about the fact that I didn’t understand a large part of the early lessons. I’m sure that’s not a decision everybody agrees with, but I’ve found good momentum with my other resources. Just keeping that momentum and studying every day is more important to me vs forcing myself to stick to one specific method. Hopefully I’ll reapproach Assimil later on.

Don't worry, man. Assimil is DEFINITELY not a course for everyone. I was very content in doing daily Memrise for my first three months when I was struggling through Spanish. I just paired it with Lingvist and my only focus was to hit my daily goals.

Colloquial, TY and Assimil are all 'similar' courses so you did a good thing by removing one of them. I think when you're starting out with a new languages it's very easy to get swept up by all these great courses. I think when I started with Spanish I used maybe 10 different resources . A combination of apps, books and websites. It took a while for me to narrow down my current routine.

Good luck, man.