Sandía Struggles with Spanish

[Sandía]

Hello everyone! I am Sandía (because a Spanish speaker once told me my name sounded like the Spanish word for watermelon), and I am currently learning Spanish. I have been following this forum off and on for a few years now, and I have finally created my own log.

I started learning Spanish about three years ago, and I made it to a lower intermediate in reading, advanced beginner in everything else, in about a year of Spanish study. I then stopped studying anything related to the language for about two years, and now I am trying to start again. I live in the United States in an area where Spanish is very commonly spoken, and I work in healthcare, so the language is very useful for me to know.

I am finding getting back into Spanish both easier and more difficult than I expected. Easier because so much is coming back to me so quickly, harder because I am having to start from scratch in a lot of things. I really wish I had kept my last Spanish learning adventure going, because I would be a lot further along, but nothing I can do about it now. As it is, my Spanish, though at the level a one or two year old would speak, is VERY useful at work.

Current Study Plan:
Grammar: Kwiziq.com, which I have paid for three months. This was very expensive, but I think it will be good for me. It is easier for me to pull up a website and learn grammar than it is to pull out a book, especially at the lower levels where I have learned most of this before and just need a review. I am also using Conjuguemos.com and the app Conjugación to drill verb tenses.
Reading: I am currently reading the first Harry Potter book in Spanish, a book I am incredibly familiar with as I have read it at least a dozen times in English. I am looking up and highlighting all the words I don't know, and right now I am adding them to an anki deck, but I don't know if I will keep this up because I never had much luck with anki last time and I just learned words by reading a lot.
Vocabulary: Previously mentioned anki deck. I also do some clozemaster reviews everyday. This is easy for me to do in downtime during the day that I would normally be scrolling social media during.
Listening: I listen to at least part of the podcast Buenos Días América every day, and sometimes I also listen to an episode of Notes in Spanish Intermediate. I aim for 30-40 min of listening practice a day, but I don't always manage. I might try to start watching That 70s Show, because I just discovered that the Spanish dubbed version is available in Netflix and I have seen the show several times through in English so hopefully I wouldn't get too lost.
Course: I used Assimil three years ago and only made it halfway through. I have discovered that Assimil is now available as an app (albeit an expensive one), and I have taken the leap and purchased it mainly to use for review and shadowing purposes. I have done the first seven lessons this past week, and plan to do a lesson a day, as intended. I go much quicker using the mobile app than I did with the book because I cannot make notes in the margins, and when shadowing don't have to figure out where in the audio a sentence starts each time I want to go back to it.

That is pretty much the plan for right now, and just trying to incorporate Spanish into my daily life again. It is encouraging to see how far people who started studying Spanish in the past few years have gone with the language, and I hope that in the next few years I will go far as well!

[Jaleel10]

Hi, Sandía. Always nice to see a fellow struggling Spanish student on this forum . Your study setup looks pretty great and I am sure you will have tons of fun studying this infuriating and beautiful creature we call the Spanish language. It's very gratifying. And it's awesome that you live in an area with so many Spanish speakers, jealous!

Will be following your log. I am also nearing the purgatory that is the intermediate level so feel free to ask any questions or vent any frustrations

Have you heard of NachoTime Spanish? He always has very good advice on how to improve your Spanish on all fronts. And here is some more listening material with which you can practice

Good luck with your studies!

[Bex]

Lovely to have another Spanish learner here. I will be following you log with interest.

Looks like you have a good set of resources to work through, and with all the lovely helpful people's on here... you're in good hands.

Good luck with your Spanish studies.

[eido]

A B1! A B1! Welcome to the forum. Well, you've been here for a while, I suppose. But I'll still say it. I'll be following your log

[Sandía]

Have you heard of NachoTime Spanish? He always has very good advice on how to improve your Spanish on all fronts. And here is some more listening material with which you can practice

Good luck with your studies!

Jaleel10 I have seen Nacho Time Spanish before but I haven't remembered it in awhile, thanks for pointing that site out again. That spreadsheet is very helpful, thank you for posting it!! I am always looking for more listening practice options Thank you for the warm welcome and I look forward to following your log as well!

Lovely to have another Spanish learner here. I will be following you log with interest.

Looks like you have a good set of resources to work through, and with all the lovely helpful people's on here... you're in good hands.

Good luck with your Spanish studies.

A B1! A B1! Welcome to the forum. Well, you've been here for a while, I suppose. But I'll still say it. I'll be following your log

Bex & eido thank you! I will be following your logs as well, I love to read about what other Spanish learners are working on!

[Sandía]

Update of work done for this past week:

Courses: I am up to lesson 10 on Assimil, and I have been shadowing the audio for each lesson as well as doing scriptorium, in addition to reviewing the notes and completing the exercises. I am also almost done with the A1 section of Kwiziq.com and hope to be starting on the A2 section soon. This is mostly all review for me, but I haven't looked at any grammar rules for a long time and I needed a good review.

Reading: Read up to chapter 9 of Harry Potter. Still adding all unknown words to anki, and completing my anki reviews every day. I also do clozemaster reviews every day for vocabulary review.

Listening: I listened to at least 20-30 min of podcasts almost every day, mostly the news shows Buenos Días América and Democracy Now. I watched two episodes of That 70's Show dubbed in Spanish. It is difficult for me, and the Spanish subtitles don't match the audio at all. I am still trying to decide if this is the right thing for me to be watching. Maybe it will encourage me to stop using subtitles, as I am pretty familiar with the show and I know my comprehension will improve as I go along.

Output: I wrote two short journal entries on lang8.com, and it amazes me how far my productive skills lag behind my receptive skills. I know this is just something I need to practice, and I really need to take the plunge and start working with a tutor and having conversation exchanges. I am nervous about it though and keep thinking that maybe it would be better to wait until I can say more before I try and get a tutor.

That's all for this week. Goals for the next week are to keep chugging along at this routine, and settle on a show to start watching in Spanish. I do not really watch much television in English, so this is not my favorite task, but I think it will be beneficial.

[Sandía]

I have had a busy week and a half and haven't gotten as much done as I would have liked, but that's life I guess.

Courses: I have only made it to lesson 13 on Assimil (3 lessons in the past week) Hopefully I will find motivation to kick the pace up on this soon. I am beginning the A2 section on Kwiziq.com, and will probably be working on this for a week or two. It is still mostly review for me, but it is nice to be reminded of things I have forgotten and practice things I already know.

Reading: Read chapters 10-13 of Harry Potter. I am still adding unknown vocabulary to anki but I am lagging behind on this. It is boring making flashcards I've also started reading the first The Walking Dead comic in Spanish, and I've read 45 pages so far. I am also adding unknown vocabulary to anki as I go. I also have read an article from El País and a Radio Ambulante transcript intensively (adding unknown vocabulary to anki). I am doing 25 new cards per day on Anki, and trying my very best to do daily reviews, though I don't always succeed.

Listening: I listened to the Radio Ambulante podcast for the article I read intensively twice, once with the transcript and once without. For podcasts, I have listened to 3-4 episodes of Buenos Días America and one TedTalk. I watched only one episode of That 70s Show in Spanish, but as I have said before, I don't like watching television very much in English either. My favorite thing right now is AuronPlay on youtube (thanks @Jaleel10!!), and I have watched about 2 hours total of his videos. I love that half of the speech has subtitles in Spanish, so I can't get completely lost.

Output: Two entries on lang8 this week, followed by scriptorium after I receive corrections. I signed up for a free trial of baselang.com based on a thread I saw here regarding unlimited tutoring sites, and I forgot to cancel before the week is up so now I have at least a month of tutoring sessions to fill. I have only done three half hour sessions, and so far I haven't been impressed. Baselang uses their own program to teach the language, and I am not sure I would like to use their program. I don't speak nearly as well as I can comprehend, and much of what they are trying to teach me is well below my level. I need to figure out how best to use my month of lessons so I get my money's worth. I know I have read several threads here about using tutors, so I will peruse those soon. If anyone has any specific suggestions, let me know!

[Jaleel10]

I've also started reading the first The Walking Dead comic in Spanish, and I've read 45 pages so far.

Oh nice, I have only seen the first season of WD but enjoyed what I saw at least. Upon reading your post I tried to see if I could find the comic and luckily I could! And the layout of the Spanish text in the comic looks great, you can tell it was done by professionals. Thanks for the recommendation! The only thing that will be a problem is now having to read the speech bubbles from left to right haha

My favorite thing right now is AuronPlay on youtube (thanks @Jaleel10!!), and I have watched about 2 hours total of his videos. I love that half of the speech has subtitles in Spanish, so I can't get completely lost.

De nada. He is easily my favourite youtuber. Hopefully you don't pick the huge array of swear words Spaniards use. It's already too late for me, save yourself!

[Sandía]

Last weekend I went on vacation with the family for labor day and I didn't study even a bit of Spanish. I am working on balancing Spanish with my other hobbies, especially reading in English, which is my favorite pastime. I normally feel guilty when I read in English because, well, I could be reading in Spanish. But I am working on balancing this with studying Spanish because I can't give up my favorite pastime completely. I am trying to give up wasting time on the internet in order to have more time for all my actives.

Courses:
-Assimil: lessons 14-17
-Kwiziq: only about 40 min total

Reading:
-Harry Potter: ch. 14-17 (finished book)
-Harry Potter 2: ch. 1-2
-Walking Dead: 25 pages
-Anki: about half of the days

Listening:
-Podcasts: 1 hour 45 min total between Buenos Días America and other random ones
-That 70s show: Season one, episodes 2-11. Now watching while I work out in the mornings and it seems to be helping me get through them.
-YouTube: about an hour total of AuronPlay videos

Output:
-Lang8: Two entries and scriptorium with corrected entry
-Baselang: nada I accidentally paid for month of this so I have got to start using it!

Total: 11 hours, 10 min

[Sandía]

It's been awhile since I posted because I have been busy working a ton, but I have kept up with Spanish study though in the three weeks I've been gone. I took a test to estimate my vocabulary size in Spanish today, and I guessed I would know about 3000 words in Spanish, but the results said I knew around 5020!! That made me really happy, but also a little sad that I can't use those words better to express myself. I can still speak only really in the present tense and about very simple things. I struggle for words I have absolutely no problem reading frequently. Who knows how accurate the test even was. You can find it here if you are interested: https://www.arealme.com/spanish-vocabulary-size-test/en/

Courses:
-Assimil: lessons 18-22
-Kwiziq: 1 hour, 20 min of level a2 quizzes

This is the area I have fallen short in. I need to find a way to motivate myself to actually study more. It is so much easier to just read or watch tv, but I know dedicated study will help me a lot.

Reading:
-Harry Potter 2: ch. 3-4
-Pídeme lo que quieras: finished book (464 pages)
-Pídeme lo que quieras, ahora y siempre: finished (432 pages)
-Several articles from El País
-Anki: about 60% of the days

As you can see, I spent a lot of my time reading during the last few weeks. I got caught up in the romance novel Pídeme lo que quieras by Megan Maxwell and am now reading the third book of the series. This book as been really good for language learning because was originally written in Spanish is very idiomatic. I feel like it is written much closer to how people speak than most novels. Plus I have learned what just about every body part is called in Spanish, which is useful to me as a nurse

Listening:
-Podcasts: about 4 hours total between Buenos Días America and other random ones. I got a lot of ideas from the Spanish podcast thread, so thanks everyone for commenting there!
-That 70s show: Season one, episodes 12-19. I am understanding about 90-95% of this now without subtitles (of course I have seen this show in English several times, so that helps a lot)
-Movies: Fantastic Beasts, half of Pearl Harbor. I can understand enough to follow along without subtitles (also because I have seen both of these in English as well), but I miss some details.
-Harry Potter audiobook: ch. 1-4. I thought I would do me some good to listen to the first Harry Potter book, which I already read and made vocabulary flashcards for, to see how well all that vocabulary is sticking. So far it is easy and enjoyable to follow along.
-Chumel: tried two episodes of this talk show on HBO, but it is a little to advanced for me to follow comfortably, even with the Spanish subs on. I'll try again later on.

Output:
-Lang8: Only one entry this whole time
-Baselang: I cancelled my subscription because I never did start using it. Opps. Maybe I would do better with a consistent tutor on iTalki.

I am thinking about trying to translate some material into Spanish and checking it with DeepL to see how close I was. I think this might help boost my production skills. I know translation is not viewed very highly here, but has anybody had good results trying something like this?


Total: 40 hours since last update