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

[neofight78]

Week 11 Progress

Glossika

Listening 50:13 (+2:43)
Sentences 924 (+25)

LingQ

LingQs created 2720 (+295)
Known words 1795 (+207) *

Drops

Words: 595 (+32)
Level: Conversationalist 1

Lingvist

Words: 510 (+133)
Coverage: 54% (+6)

Summary

So after I recovered from the effects of the vaccination, I went down with some kind of virus. Also been super busy with work this week, so not been a great week for studying but progress was still made.

Slowed right down with Glossika, partly a time thing, partly boredom with it. I suspect I may drop it at some point but let's see....

Hit A2 on LingQ so here's a pointless avatar image to celebrate, I now have legs!

avatar-2.jpg

Drop has had serious problems this week with not being able to log in or out at various points, very frustrating. It seems to be fixed now, so hopefully it will be a one off and I can pick up the learning there this week. Good progress on Lingvist, slowly clocking up the words although now there are less that I already know.

Also started on learning conjugations via Anki, just regular -ar verbs in the present tense so far. Not going to rush these, will slowly work my way through them to avoid overloading or mixing them up. I decided to set up the note & card types to make creating conjugation cards super quick. The fields look like this:

CleanShot 2021-03-19 at 12.22.28.png

Then there are 12 card types, one for each conjugation, that look something like this:

CleanShot 2021-03-19 at 12.26.jpg

So by filling out those 8 fields for a verb I get 12 fully made cards with text to speech audio. That look like this:

Front:

front.jpg

Back:

back.jpg

* This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.

[neofight78]

Got the ebook and audio book for "En busca de la égida", a kids book by Alejandro Khan. I've started in importing it into LingQ, and I'm pretty happy as it matches my level quite well. I think adult fiction would probably be leap too far at the moment.

book.jpg

I've also got audio recorded for some articles via Upwork, so I have some good native content from that too. Happy to be out of beginner material and on to real world material. Now all I have to do is read & listen a lot...

[neofight78]

Week 12 Progress

Glossika

Listening: 54:09 (+3:56)
Sentences: 959 (+35)

LingQ

LingQs created: 3079 (+359)
Known words: 2005 (+210) *

Drops

Words: 658 (+63)
Level: Conversationalist 1

Lingvist

Words: 704 (+194)
Coverage: 61% (+7)

Summary

Steady progress on LingQ but made better progress this week with other resources, so overall more productive than last week. Note quite got into the habit of doing my Anki reps everyday yet which isn't great, but on the other hand I'm not getting buried with reviews either. From my experience with Russian, it pays to work through grammar slowly, if you rush through too much similar material you can end up in a muddle. Also I'm not concentrating on output yet, so I can take my time learning verb conjugations. Nothing particularly new or exciting this week but steady progress made, which I guess is the essence of language learning.

* This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.

[neofight78]

A little tip I discovered for when using text to speech on macOS or iOS: you can download extra voices which are of much higher quality and much more realistic than what comes with the default install. You just need to go to the accessibly settings to find them.

Tried the sample A2 DELE listening exam. Got 64% which I believe scrapes a pass. Not bad for 3 months. Not tried reading but I must be stronger than that. Of course I've not really started on output yet too much (deliberately), so I'm still at A0 for that side things. Overall I'm
fairly happy with my progress so far. Not sure when I'll start working on output yet, maybe in another 3 months. We'll see...

When readying "En busca de la égida" comprehension is mostly ok once I've looked up the unknown words, but in some places the grammar leaves me a little confused. Started off on verb conjugation but I probably need to start putting a bit more work into grammar soon if I want to be able tackle more complex texts.

[neofight78]

Week 13 Progress

Glossika

Listening: 56:16 (+2:07)
Sentences: 984 (+25)

LingQ

LingQs created: 3541 (+462)
Known words: 2296 (+291) *

Drops

Words: 710 (+52)
Level: Conversationalist 1

Lingvist

Words: 866 (+162)
Coverage: 69% (+8)

Summary

No too much to report this week, just a steady up tick in the numbers. Did watch an episode of "Alta Mar" for the first time in a while. I used Spanish and English subtitles, which is cheating somewhat, but definitely a lot more recognisable words now.

I am thinking I need to tackle a bit more grammar now. I have the feeling it may improve my comprehension at this stage. Could be wrong of course.

* This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.

[neofight78]

Week 13 Progress

Glossika

Listening: 59:19 (+3:03)
Sentences: 1009 (+25)

LingQ

LingQs created: 3981 3541 (+440)
Known words: 2588 (+292) *

Drops

Words: 763 (+53)
Level: Conversationalist 1

Lingvist

Words: 1029 866 (+163)
Coverage: 72% (+3)

Summary

This week I started working on grammar creating some Anki cards from the exercises in Schaum's Outline. As is my habit give my answers out loud to prevent any kind of cheating / fudging of answers. At the same time before adding cards to the deck I'm recording the answers via Speechling to get feedback on my pronunciation. Interestingly I do seem to fumble a bit on some combinations of words, and there doesn't seem to be anything tricky about them. I guess it's just my first attempts at putting a sentence together at something like full speed. Should get easier with a bit of practice I think.

I'm also continuing with the verb conjugation, just present tense so far. I've got regular verbs covered and I'm now tackling the irregular ones, and this is where it gets a little confusing. The main complication is remembering if the verb is regular or not, if I remember it's irregular then (so far) the irregularity itself is not such a big deal. Hmmm... is this one where e changes to ie?...

* This is LingQ known words, so actually word forms.