neofight78 returns from his Siberian exile? [RU, ES]

[neofight78]

Week 5 Progress

Glossika

Listening 24:48 (+4:52)
Sentences 575 (+90)
% to A1 65.3% *

LingQ

LingQs created 1120 (+279)
Known words 691 (+196) **
% to A2 41% *

Next Milestone

ETA to Passive A1 3 weeks *

Summary

Glossika and LingQ seem to be diverging on level quite a bit. I'll be conservative and go with Glossika's estimate. 3 weeks to passive A1.

Managing to do a bit on Yabla most days. Currently going through the "extr@" series which seems to be devised especially for language learners. It's fairly easy to follow, so I stick mostly to the Spanish subtitles, only peeking at the English one's when there is something I don't understand. They lay it on thick with the canned laughter, but it's quite fun in a cheesy kind of way.

* A1 according to the software, not sure how correct that estimate is, but it will work fine as a milestone.
** This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Currently going through the "extr@" series which seems to be devised especially for language learners. It's fairly easy to follow, so I stick mostly to the Spanish subtitles, only peeking at the English one's when there is something I don't understand. They lay it on thick with the canned laughter, but it's quite fun in a cheesy kind of way.

It is fun, I agree, and IMHO it gets better as it goes along. I found myself wishing for another "season" when it finished.

[neofight78]

Week 6 Progress

Glossika

Listening 31:02 (+6:14)
Sentences 659 (+84)
% A0 to A1 76.7% *

LingQ

LingQs created 1363 (+243)
Known words 891 (+200) **
% A0 to A2 52% *

Next Milestone

ETA to Passive A1 2 weeks *

Summary

A relatively high number of reviews in Glossika this week, not sure why. Carrying on with the "extr@" series, although I've not had much time for it in the last few days. Going through the LingQ mini stories currently. They are probably beneficial from a consolidation point of view, but I feel like I'd prefer something a bit harder, at least from the point of view of vocabulary. Already beginning to look for suitable material for when those end. News in Slow Spanish looks like a good resource. Ideally, because the aim is specially for real world use in Barcelona, I'm looking to stick with "European" Spanish for now. However, a lot of Spanish material of course doesn't identify what type of Spanish it is (even if it is for learners). I expect when I'm more advanced it won't matter, but for now I'm being cautious.

Took my first Spanish lesson on Wednesday, just went through the basics of phonetics, pronunciation and spelling etc. Still going with an input first approach but I want to make sure I have pronunciation all ironed out before I get to the point where I want to start speaking. Not sure when people who advocate a silent period normally start speaking, but I expect for me it'll be dictated by when I move to Spain. I'll want to start output maybe 1 or 2 months before that so I can at least manage the basics from a practical point of view. Enjoyed the lesson and thought the tutor was good, but let's see how much they'll tailor the lessons to what I want as we progress. Some tutors can and are willing to do it, but others will stubbornly stick to their usual favourite materials and approach.

* A1 according to the software, not sure how correct that estimate is, but it will work fine as a milestone.
** This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.

[neofight78]

Going through the LingQ mini stories currently. They are probably beneficial from a consolidation point of view, but I feel like I'd prefer something a bit harder, at least from the point of view of vocabulary.

Maybe I spoke too soon. Although not heavily laden with new vocabulary, now I'm nearing the halfway mark it seems a lot of new tenses are being introduced. It'll be a little while before my brain sorts all that out, but hopefully I'll then be more prepared for native material.

[neofight78]

Week 7 Progress

Glossika

Listening 36:21 (+5:19)
Sentences 759 (+100)
% A0 to A1 88.3% *

LingQ

LingQs created 1553 (+190)
Known words 1032 (+141) **
% A0 to A2 61% *

Drops

Words: 101
Level: Tourist 3

Next Milestone

ETA to Passive A1 1 week *

Summary

Bit lower stats on LingQ this week. On Wednesday I had to go to the tax office, and whilst there I heard there were some more doses of the COVID vaccine available so I rushed to the поликлиника to get inoculated. All of which meant I didn't have time to study on LingQ. Thanks to the vaccine, the next day I felt pretty rough with a headache and temperature so again I didn't touch LingQ. But the good news is that I've been vaccinated, fingers crossed over the next few months we'll see this disease largely defeated.

Again, same story for Yabla. Didn't do quite as much this week but still moving through the "extr@" series fairly quickly. Also had another lesson on Monday, we went through some grammar (which I've not studied at all up to this point), and it was good to confirm and clarify what I had already intuited from my reading and listening.

As you'll see from the stats above, I also picked up "Drops" this week - a nicely put together app for learning vocabulary. Like most apps it'll only be useful for A1-A2, but it is ideal for when you only have a minute or two. Already clocked up 100 words on it this week which is not too shabby. Although in fairness quite a lot of them I knew already. The vocabulary is more aimed towards the basics and tourist language, so in a way is more geared to what you are supposed to be able to do "functionally" in a language for the A1/A2 levels, so it fills a kind of gap there. LingQ and Glossika don't quite have the same aim, they try to build up your knowledge of a language in a more general way.

BTW I hit 1000 known words in LingQ this week, which calls for another pointless graphic. Of course it is actually just word forms, and it feels like half of those 1000 words must be made up from all the different forms of the 4 or 5 most common verbs Still, it's a nice little milestone.

1000.png

* Level according to the software, not sure how correct that estimate is, but it will work fine as a milestone.
** This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.

[neofight78]

Week 8 Progress

Glossika

Listening 40:53 (+4:32)
Sentences 814 (+55)
% A0 to A1 94.4% *

LingQ

LingQs created 1791 (+238)
Known words 1189 (+157) **
% A0 to A2 70% *

Drops

Words: 267 (+166)
Level: Tourist 3

Next Milestone

ETA to Passive A1 1 week *

Summary

Decent week on LingQ. Although the different tenses are still a bit confusing but hopefully the cloud will slowly clear. I am over 75% through the mini stories now. Another week or two, and I'll be looking for content to import. Possibly I'll be ready to make the leap to native material. Maybe I need to some explicit work on grammar to help move comprehension on a bit more though.

Bit of a slow week for Glossika and Yabla. Still should break through to A1 this coming week in Glossika. Continuing with the lessons, pronunciation still needs some work. I've still not yet internalised the rules about when which letters make which sounds. Started experimenting with Speechling a bit to see if that might help.

Powering through on Drops though. Should hit "tourist" level 4 very soon, and maybe "conversational" by this time next week.

Only 2 months in but the rapid improvement is already giving way to the grind. Still plenty of little milestones within reach to help keep me going though.

* Level according to the software, not sure how correct that estimate is, but it will work fine as a milestone.
** This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.

[neofight78]

Week 9 Progress

Glossika

Listening 44:24 (+3:31)
Sentences 859 (+55)
% A1 to A2 0% *

LingQ

LingQs created 2055 (+264)
Known words. 1356 (+167) **
% A0 to A2 80% *

Drops

Words: 406 (+139)
Level: Tourist 5

Lingvist

Words: 207
Coverage: 23%

Summary

Hit "A1 high" this week on Glossika, to absolutely zero fanfare. I can understand not wanting to be as gamified as DuoLingo, but still there should be some kind of congratulations! Or is this just how my modern brain has been conditioned Had a bit less time on Glossika this week, so stopping learning new material until I get back on top of my reviews.

Been steadily working away on LingQ and I'm nearly at the end of their 60 mini stories, should finish that this week. So will be shortly scouting for good material to import. LingQ used to have a great feature where you could get tutors to record texts for you, but it's been culled. I guess there is still Rhinospike but I still don't like the fact they charge for downloads but the person who does the recording gets nothing. That doesn't seem fair. Don't seem to be any other options out there though as far as I am aware? Other than going to a generic freelancing site of course. Probably will see if I can lean on my tutor to do some recordings for me.

When reviewing my flashcard at LingQ it's a bit hard to identify the tense of a verb without context. There does seem to be an option to include a phrase that it comes from, but that might make it a bit too easy to answers the cards in general. Perhaps it's time to do some work on memorising the various conjugations.

Continuing to power through the vocabulary on Drops. This week I should hit 500 words and conversational level 1. Overall it's a pretty good app but some of the chosen words do seem rather obscure though. Also started giving Lingvist a go, I like that fact it shows you what kind of percentage coverage the words you know give you. But I also like that it's easy to create a custom deck from any text. I've started watching the series "Alta Mar" (which is way over the top with the plot twists) and I made a custom deck from the first episode, hopefully it will help me understand a tiny bit more.

Keep having to prod my tutor to keep going with the pronunciation work, but otherwise the lessons are going well. I've still not internalised all the pronunciation rules but it's getting there. Hopefully I can get my accent and pronunciation nearer the native end of the spectrum rather than the "well... you'd be understood" end of the spectrum. Only time will tell...

* Level according to the software, not sure how correct that estimate is, but it will work fine as a milestone.
** This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.

[neofight78]

Week 10 Progress

Glossika

Listening 47:30 (+3:06)
Sentences 899 (+40)
% A1 to A2 1.7% *

LingQ

LingQs created 2425 2055 (+370)
Known words. 1588 (+232) **
% A0 to A2 93% *

Drops

Words: 563 (+157)
Level: Conversationalist 1

Lingvist

Words: 377 (+170)
Coverage: 48% (+15)

Summary

Had my second dose of Sputnik 5 on Wednesday. Again I had a bit of a reaction but it started and finished a lot quicker this time. Now I feel like I have super powers! Also I found out there is place in the city where you can sit DELE exams. The first chance to sit an exam will be November. So if I'm still here, that could be a nice goal. A2 I think could be realistic.

Learning the same amount of sentences on Glossika now gives me much less progress percentage wise. It does seem an inordinate amount of time to go from A1 high to A2 low. I guess it's predicated on the idea your are doing nothing else, but still.

Finished the 60 mini stories on LingQ this week and have started importing content from news in Slow Spanish. Will look for some better sources of content in the coming weeks for something that is closer to native without being too much of slog. Also getting very close to hitting A2 on LingQ now, probably I will cross that milestone this week.

Continuing to clock up the word count on Lingvist and Drop, although rather annoyingly the sync between devices for the latter seems to be broken at the moment.

Probably going to start to creating flashcards for verb conjugations soon, just need to find the time to set that up. Hopefully that'll be this weekend.

* Level according to the software, not sure how correct that estimate is, but it will work fine as a milestone.
** This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.

[DaveAgain]

Had my second dose of Sputnik 5 on Wednesday. Again I had a bit of a reaction but it started and finished a lot quicker this time. Now I feel like I have super powers!

How long are you expecting it take for you to morph into a Triffid?

[neofight78]

Ermm.... Not quite the super power I had in mind!