Luna's Spanish Log (2018-19)

[lunallena]

Hello everyone! I look forward to learning about languages and sharing my own language learning journey with you all.

Native languages: English and Hindi

I'm originally from India and grew up in Canada. English is technically not my native language, but because I think in English and have spoken it since very early childhood, I consider it one of my native languages. Hindi (or more accurately, Hindustani) comes a little less naturally to me, especially since I speak a dialect with Kannada/Telegu/Marathi influences, but I can communicate very comfortably with native speakers.

Target language: Spanish

Some years ago I casually remarked to an acquaintance that I wanted to learn Spanish just so that I could read Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his original language. I don't think I could have even imagined learning Spanish on my own back then, but here I am today. I started my Spanish journey in April 2017, mostly because Spotify serendipitously introduced me to Safari by J Balvin and Me Réhuso by Danny Ocean. I started with the usual language learning resources: Duolingo, SpanishDict, various grammar books, and a lot of enthusiasm. Unfortunately life got in the way by the end of summer 2017, as I was entering my last year of undergraduate studies while juggling a part-time job and multiple volunteer commitments. I took a six-month break from Spanish, and I probably wouldn't have dipped my toes back into the language for a long time if I hadn't started watching a wonderful Spanish drama on Netflix called Gran Hotel. Enter breakthrough.

I tore through Gran Hotel in a few short weeks. I could understand very little of the first episode, but I made a concentrated effort to listen deeply to the dialogues, and by the time I finished the series, I could somehow listen and read at a much higher level than I could last summer. I re-watched the first few episodes of the series with Spanish subtitles and was dumfounded to realize that I understood almost everything. I had been learning Spanish without quite realizing that I was, and it had been so much fun. I was hooked. I got back into the groove, and this time, I know that Spanish is going to be a lifelong thing for me.

Learning Goals

I want to go from A2 to B2 this year, especially in terms of spoken Spanish. Right now, I'm much better at comprehension than at output, so I'm currently focused on improving my spoken and written Spanish. The plan for now:

DLI Spanish Headstart for Spain - this is proving to be a little too easy for me, but I enjoy the lessons nevertheless and have picked up useful phrases.

FSI Basic Spanish - I'm a little scared to begin this,which is probably why I'm dabbling around with a short DLI course first. I have a feeling that this course is exactly what I need - something to really knock all the grammar into my head and create a level of automaticity that will significantly improve my verbal skills.

Reading - I recently got my hands on some graded readers in Spanish, which is super exciting. I'm currently reading the Lola Lago series, which I'm very much enjoying because they're exactly the sort of thing that I would have loved as a ten or eleven year old. I've gotten to the point where I can read Spanish without translating the sentences into English in my head, which is awesome. My goal is to read all the books in the Lola Lago series by the end of this year.

Writing - I want to write at least one paragraph per day in Spanish. I'm lucky enough to have an internet friend from Spain who checks these over for me.

TV Shows - Right now I'm juggling three shows on Netflix: El ministerio del tiempo (amazing thus far), La casa de papel (started out great and then turned into a slog, but I'm determined to finish), and Pablo Escobar: el patrón del mal (excellent). I'm very comfortable with Iberian Spanish, so I can use Spanish subtitles for two of my shows without much issue, but the Pablo Escobar show will take some getting used to. The Colombian accent is beautiful, but so fast! I'm using English subtitles for this show until I get used to the Colombian accent. My goal is to stop relying on subtitles at all when watching films and shows in Spanish.

Other resources - Anki, Spanish Dict, various grammar books, the occasional song lyrics.

[lunallena]

Last week was really good for me Spanish-wise. I divide up my learning into four parts, the way I once read about on an excellent blog called tobefluent.com: reading, writing, speaking, and listening in your target language every day. I was very good about hitting each of these four parts from last Monday to Thursday, but unfortunately I fell off the wagon this weekend. Fingers crossed that this won't happen again in the coming week.

Below is a log of my input/output over the last week:

Reading: Lola Lago graded readers. These are fairly entertaining, even if I was disappointed to find out recently that these books were written for Spanish-learning college students, rather than for Spanish-speaking kids. I'll continue with my goal of finishing all the books in this series, but I will also seek out some original fiction or translations targeted toward native speakers. I am picking up some good vocabulary thanks to Lola Lago - I input sentences with new words into Anki and review my decks every day.

Writing: I decided to check out the language learning community on iTalki last week, and I am so glad I did. I posted a small paragraph on iTalki in Spanish a few times last week and was very pleasantly surprised to find out just how detailed and informative the responses to my grammatical errors and awkward phrasing were. I really enjoy posting my daily journal on iTalki - it sometimes provokes lively conversation about the subject of my entries (which, tbh, has mostly been about television series) and I've already met some people that I will enjoy being language partners with. Helping people learning English also feels really good, so I always make sure to give as many critiques as I get on a given day. Will definitely continue doing this in the future.

Speaking: I'm cheating on this one a little bit, because I count my FSI drills as spoken output for now. Although I'm comfortable writing in Spanish with my language exchange partner, neither of us is fully comfortable with speaking to each other in our target languages. It will take a lot more drills before I feel confident speaking to someone in real time, and I think that's okay. Everyone has their own pace.

Listening: Currently obsessed with Marinero by Maluma. I printed out the lyrics and pretty much memorized them because I've listened to the song so many times. Maluma is obviously quite guapo but I've never found his music to be anything special, so I was very surprised to hear a song so sincerely and beautifully sung from an artist like him. My other listening input last week: more of El ministerio del tiempo, finishing off La casa de papel (finally!!), and watching vlogs by Dustin Luke, this awesome American YouTuber who lives in Argentina and speaks with what sounds like a flawless Argentinian accent. It's always super exciting when I can understand a large part of his videos, as I don't have the advantage of subtitles or familiarity with the local slang. Will continue with my shows and music, although I think I'll try to watch more movies than TV shows over the next few weeks just to switch things up.

All in all, I'm really enjoying the time I'm able to devote to Spanish this summer before my postgrad studies begin in the fall. It makes me feel much more useful than just sitting around waiting for the fall semester to begin, that's for sure.

[lunallena]

I didn't do too well last week in terms of output, to be honest. I did have lots of input as usual, though: an episode a day of El ministerio del tiempo (getting easier and easier to understand as I grow used to the characters' voices), some reading (Lola Lago and various text posts on social media). I also decided to go back and finish Language Transfer before I begin FSI Spanish. I recognize that this is probably just a stalling technique but I enjoy Language Transfer a lot, and at this stage of learning, I think I still have a lot to gain from it.

A more concrete plan for the next three weeks, which will be fairly busy due to volunteer and family commitments:

1 - Continue reading Lola Lago. Add new vocabulary to Anki or make annotations on each page.
2 - Continue input via TV series. Return to Gran Hotel and watch without subtitles.
3 - Complete 3 lessons of Language Transfer a day, at least 5 days a week.
4 - Write a paragraph on iTalki at least once a week.

I think that this is fairly doable. Fingers crossed that I will soon be able to report back with all 4 of these accomplished for the week.

[lunallena]

Things have fallen off the wayside in terms of language-learning for now, because of said family/volunteer commitments, but I hope to pick up where I left off very soon, hopefully by the last week of June. Something exciting, though: I watched my first feature-length film in Spanish yesterday! It's a Mexican film called Las elegidas, and although it's not a great film by any means (the acting was far too wooden for that) it was still fairly interesting. The Spanish wasn't exactly rapid-fire, but I still feel like this is a milestone of sorts, a proof that the work I've been doing is actually paying off. Now, if only I could speak as well as I can understand, ha. But that too will happen in time.

[lunallena]

It's been a while since I posted here, but things have picked up again Spanish-wise. I'm currently reading a Spanish translation of The House on Mango Street and picking up a ton of vocabulary, plus I recently finished El ministerio del tiempo and started Paquita Salas (cutest show ever). I also recently watched La misma luna entirely in Spanish, without subtitles (!) and came through mostly unscathed. Oh, and I met a Mexican exchange student yesterday at university! She and I exchanged numbers and decided to become language partners, which is super exciting.

Another random Spanish-related thing: a couple of weeks ago I went to a used bookstore downtown and found a small selection of Spanish-language books for sale! I bought El principito and a translation of an Agatha Christie mystery. Very excited to dig into these.

Goals for the remainder of July:

Read for 20 minutes a day
Watch Spanish-language content for 30 min to 1 h a day
Listen to one Notes in Spanish podcast per day
Complete Language Transfer lessons by end of July

[Jaleel10]

Well done on finishing a movie without subtitles. My brain would be totally cooked haha. I am still trying to make the shift from cartoons But I am watching Gran Hotel (that you mentioned before) but with subtitles haha. Those Madrid accents are just too crazy.

Wow, I just saw you are also reading Lola Lago. I am reading it with the audio files. I am only reading La llamada de La Habana, Lejos de casa and Eres tú, María. They are so fun to read! I hope to finish all three by end of the month. I am also trying to read some ''by native for native'' material too. There is some interesting resources in the Spanish group

It seems we are at similar levels and have similar goals so you have just made yourself a virtual friend/rival It seems you like Spain Spanish more (like me haha)? Here is the RTVE page for their Otros documentales, documentaries on niche subjetcs with very accurate subtitles. http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/otros-documentales/. If you get tired of Spain Spanish haha, here are some documentaries in various Latin American accents (mostly Mexican) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ1GpK ... Quxz7H4rng I recommend documentaries because I find them much easier to watch and the pace at which the narrator speaks much more adequate for my level.

I am not done bothering you yet!! Here is a list of podcasts with transcripts that I collected and put in a Google Sheet (you will love that most of them are from Spain haha) most if not all of them are for B1+ students so they should serve you well. I roughly calculated it once and the learner podcasts are over 300 hours! So I have no excuses to practice listening!

I wish you luck with your studies!

[lunallena]

Jaleel10,

I have to admit, the movie cooked my brain considerably! I had to rewind some slang-heavy portions of the film several times to get the general gist. I hope you are enjoying Gran Hotel! Once you get used to the accents, it's awesome to see that they speak very clearly, with almost no slang in perfect formal Spanish. It's a wonderful resource for Spanish learners!

Thank you so much for these wonderful links! The RTVE documentaries in particular are exactly what I was looking for. The list of podcasts is a treasure, seriously. I'm going to spend the entire weekend exploring these!

You may have already heard of these, but the RTVE Series channel has uploaded several of its television series and some excellent videos from its food network on YouTube (all without subtitles, however). You can explore the channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcJmo9 ... neRbmz7qfA

I'm glad that we have so much in common in our language-learning journeys! Best of luck, and I hope to hear from you in the future too

[lunallena]

Just popping in to declare my love for Language Transfer. This resource is golden! I'm on the 19th lesson right now, and I already feel much more comfortable producing output in Spanish. Thanks to Language Transfer I have a pretty good handle on direct object/indirect object pronouns, English words with Latin roots that can be easily translated into Spanish, common irregular verbs, and instances in which to use 'a' between verbs. All of this without actively memorizing or opening up a grammar book! Language Transfer is awesome. It's exactly what I needed at this stage in my language learning.

In other news: I'm nearly halfway through La casa en Mango Street. It was very ponderous at first because I had to look up each new word and then write it down on a separate page (the book is from the library). But when I decided to read it just as I would read a normal book, everything came together surprisingly well. I'd say I understand anywhere between 60% and 90% of the book, depending on the chapter, especially if I read it over a couple of times.

I've also been practicing my accent by recording myself reading La casa en Mango Street out loud. My first couple of attempts were disastrous, as you might imagine, but on the third or fourth try I suddenly acquired a fairly convincing accent. I guess all those months of passive input really paid off! Interestingly, most of my input has been television shows in Iberian Spanish, yet when I speak out loud I appear to be approximating a quasi-Colombian accent (according to my Spanish friend at least). I was confused by this at first, but then I realized that so much of the music I listen to is from Colombian artists - I must have internalized the accent somehow, haha. I'm not yet sure whether I want to consciously begin speaking in an Iberian accent, or if I will be able to switch accents with relative ease once I'm fully comfortable with spoken Spanish. Something to think about over the next few days.

Exciting Spanish-related things to look forward to: Once I finish La casa en Mango Street, I'll begin El extranjero by Albert Camus (I recently read this in English and it was such a memorable reading experience that I can still quote entire sections of the book verbatim. Although the book is philosophically complex, its prose is very sparse and simple, so I thought that it would be a good book to read in Spanish for practice. I plan to read it in Spanish with the English translation beside me for reference, because it turns out that it's super annoying to have to pause to look up every word on SpanishDict).

[lunallena]

Wow, I haven't written anything here in a long time. I've been practicing Spanish regularly, though. Some recent milestones:

-I'm now watching the (extremely soapy but fun) series Velvet with Spanish subtitles. I knew for a long time that I should do this, but it took me some time to convince myself that I was capable of it. Switching from English to Spanish subtitles has seriously boosted my comprehension level. I still don't feel like pausing every time I find a word I don't know, but that only happens occasionally anyway given the fact that I'm watching a soap opera, haha.

-I've fallen in love with the poems of Lorca. I've taken to translating some of them, but mostly I just read the easier ones over and over until I have them pretty much memorized. So much beauty. I'm so grateful to be able to read these poems in their native language, though I'm sure that their nuances will continue to escape me for some more years.

-Recently, a friend and I went to a book sale downtown where I bought three books in Spanish at a very low cost. Super exciting! I now have a very small collection of Spanish-language books, which is awesome. Given my location, it's always a rarity to find books in Spanish. Each find feels like a small treasure.

-I recently met a PhD student from Spain at my university! We had our first intercambio today. By the end of the two hours (which passed so quickly!) my head was aching, but in the best possible way. I've never spoken so much in Spanish, or listened to so much Spanish in real life. I understood 90% or more of what she was saying even though she was speaking at what is normal speed for Spaniards, haha. All those hours of watching Spanish shows is really paying off! As for my speaking, I did hesitate often, and of course I made mistakes, but being corrected in real time is incredibly helpful. My language exchange partner complimented my accent, which is awesome, because I really do make an effort to pronounce things correctly. I'm so looking forward to meeting her again next week!

-I fell off the Language Transfer boat after my work contract began, but now that it is over and I'm back to being a regular student, I'm going to take it up again. Perhaps from the beginning, to really hammer everything in.

All in all, I've made some solid strides forward in the past couple of months. Language learning is so rewarding. And I'm so glad that I keep meeting hispanohablantes everywhere these days!

[lunallena]

Some updates: recently moved houses and have been racing to finish final assignments and exams, so no formal Spanish studying these days. I have however been talking fairly regularly to a wonderful group of Latin American friends at university, and I've been listening almost exclusively to Spanish music these days. The Iberian music scene is amazing - they don't sound like anyone else in Spanish-language music right now. Case in point: C Tangana's Un Veneno (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Tb9VtVzVE), a fusion of flamenco and bolero, paired with an incredible music video. I've been listening to this one on repeat for a few days now. Haven't been reading much, but hopefully Christmas break should help me get back into a more structured studying schedule.