It's a leap year, let's learn Spanish

[Chupito]

Thank you Hagestolz and Brun Ugle. Good point with putting myself in Spanish mode first. I had thought about it for later down the road, if I go to a meet-up or something, but I hadn't thought to apply it to writing. That's a good idea.

Also I just realized that I wasn't subscribed to my own log, so I didn't get a notification

[Chupito]

January report:

A) I spent about the same time on audio as last month (21 hours), which reached the 50% mark. I have started listening to radioambulante while reading the transcript and enjoy it a lot. I'm happy with how much I understand, although it varies wildly by episode. I often do a second listen without the transcript afterwards. I split my time between about 2/3 on TV show (still Fullmetal alchemist, which I did not finish as a result of the split) and 1/3 on podcasts (radioambulante exclusively at this point). While the volume is good, I wasn't as consistent as I wanted. There's a whole week where I did almost nothing; part of that is that I got myself overwhelmed at work and part of that is that I took a while to get back on track after that.

B) I'm progressing extremely slowly with Bitacora. I hadn't even finished the 4th unit by January 31st. It has become clear at this point that I won't reach my initial goal. Not only am I way behind, but I am thoroughly uncommitted to making it a priority. I did keep up with vocab' learning but even that feels tedious and not worth it. Some of it seem pretty asinine. Do I really need to know how to say Gallician and prerroman at this point of my Spanish journey? I worked on it sporadically and dedicated about 5 hours to course study this month (not counting the vocab).

C) I'm continuing down the Duolingo tree, but the same comment on consistency applies and as a result, I have spent even less time on Duo than last month (5 hours, slightly less than planned). I spent less time on the stories because I read them "intensively", so I have started not doing stories on days where I don't want to add too many Anki cards.

D) I learned 652 "words". It's less than my target but it's about what I expected. Same gap as the previous months and I am fine with that. In fact, I slowed down deliberatly, because I don't want the review to take too much time. They are manageable but I don't think it's the most valuable activity, so I am setting limits. Still on track for my long-term goal. I've been good at doing the reviews everyday though, missing only 1 this month.

E) Decided I have too much on my plate.

[Chupito]

February plan:

A) I am going to finish Fullmetal Alchemist and have chosen my next TV show, which will be live-action and dubbed, as mentioned. I have also decided to watch the complete Harry Potter movie franchise; since I intend to listen to the audiobook later, I figured this could be a good introduction to it. I might try to watch one intensively or at least jot down some vocab' to help with understanding the books later. I'm also continuing with radioambulante. That's a lot of potential content but I can decide which ones I get into. My metrics are more in terms of audio/total study time ratio (50% minimum) and consistency (7/8 missed days max).

B) I'll keep studying Bitacora sporadically. I don't want to make it a priority right now. I'll do a little bit when I have time and have done my other stuff and it will take whatever time it takes to get through the course. I am also not going to try to keep up with my schedule on the vocab'. Worst case scenario, I might go through the grammar summary real quick to get a brief overview and prepare for the test, if I take it. I have also started skipping exercises that I consider a waste of time. I am committed to finishing the 7th unit without a deadline. I will decide at this point whether it's worth it.

C) Just keep going down the tree, miss less days. I think I'll finish the tree towards the beginning of April, but that's an estimate, not a deadline.

D) Let's say 700 words. I have set 2 new guidelines for myself: 1) I try to add a few words on "off" days; 2) I check the number of cards due the next day before adding new cards and if it's too high, I skip that day.

February will be a test of sort, as I anticipate I'll be crazy busy. Hopefully, I can still study consistently, even if it's less time per day. I don't foresee myself having more time for a loooong time, so I need to be able to push through.