Amanda's 2019 Log: Spanish, Ancient Greek, and French

[philomath]

Week 24 Progress
Spanish:
- Listening: 1 hour
- Speaking: 31 minutes
- Grammar: 20 minutes
- Vocab: 24 flash cards
- Reading: 50 pages
- Writing: 682 words

Ancient Greek:
- Nothing

I think this week's schedule worked pretty well for me! The only thing that was missing was time to review my Anki flash cards. I've been making new flash cards occasionally but never actually review them. Maybe I can make it a habit to review flash cards on the train to work.

Goals for Week 25
Next week will be very busy because I'll have a guest staying with me from Thursday until Sunday, so I doubt I'll have much time for language-related activities. However, I'm going to try reading a news article in Spanish every day, and I'd like to finish Lesson 3 of my Homeric Greek textbook.

[cjareck]

Maybe I can make it a habit to review flash cards on the train to work.

This is exactly the best time to do it. You are learning without investing any additional time.

[philomath]

Week 25 Progress
Spanish:
- Speaking: 12 minutes
- Vocabulary: 3 Anki flash cards
- Reading: 11 pages

Ancient Greek
- Nothing

Last week was very busy for me, as I predicted. This week will be really busy as well, since I decided to be extra social and made lots of plans with friends after work.

I'm very conflicted about how to manage my Spanish studies. On one hand, I know that I should work on Spanish as much as possible if I ever want to get past the intermediate plateau. On the other hand, now that I've graduated from university I finally have time to focus on my other main hobby, which is creative writing. I want to spend a lot more time writing in order to get better at it, and there are other writing-related activities that will take up a lot of time: planning my next writing project, studying the work of other writers, taking online writing courses, etc. It seems to me that if I try to split each day between languages and writing, I'll never get anything done with either. Maybe I can pick a mini goal for each project and focus on one goal at a time?

[philomath]

Well, I definitely experienced some language burnout last week. The only language-related things I did were watch La casa de papel for 30 minutes and take some notes on Lesson 1 of my Homeric Greek textbook.

I think the Spanish schedule I had been following was working well, but I want to simplify my Spanish routine a bit so that I can focus on my other hobby, writing. I still want to make sure that I'm progressing in Spanish though. Since the main thing I want to improve is my speaking ability, my new goal is to practice speaking Spanish every day. If I can’t think of something to talk about, I’ll just read out loud. This will hopefully help me improve my speaking speed as well.

Also, I’ll try to be more consistent about reviewing my Anki flash cards and reading in Spanish during my commute. I’d really like to finish El cuaderno de Maya sometime, because I have a few other books in Spanish that I want to read. However, I also want to read articles from El País and other websites, since I’ve realized it’s important to use a variety of native materials.

That’s the current plan for weekdays, at least. On weekends I hope to do lots of listening and writing in Spanish. I know this is a topic that comes up often on the forum, but if anyone has any advice/encouragement about overcoming the intermediate plateau, I could really use some more motivation.

[philomath]

I've decided that since I'm experiencing Spanish burnout, I'm going to take a break from setting specific language goals. However, I'm not burnt out completely; I still want to study Spanish, just without a rigid schedule. So I've been listening and reading in Spanish every day this week. Yesterday, for example, I watched La casa de papel while I got ready for work, and then I read El cuaderno de Maya on the train going to work. Later that night I listened to part of Martha Debayle's talk show before going to sleep. Oh, and I've also changed my Facebook, Google, and phone language preferences to Spanish. I figured it was about time.

As for Ancient Greek, I finally finished Lesson 3 of my textbook! The exercises were pretty easy, but then again, I've done this lesson before (albeit many months ago).

[philomath]

Last week I did 105 minutes of listening practice in Spanish, mostly watching La casa de papel. I'm on the last episode of Season 1, so I've almost caught up to where I stopped watching a few months ago. The third season will be released on Netflix in a couple of weeks!

I also read 38 pages, mostly of El cuaderno de Maya as well as some articles from El País. I only have ~70 pages left of El cuaderno de Maya! If I'm counting correctly, it will be the 6th book I've read in Spanish. (I've also read the first Harry Potter book, an abridged version of Don Quijote de la Mancha, Como agua para chocolate, El príncipe de la niebla, and El tiempo entre costuras.) Next I'm going to try El amante japonés, which I found at a used bookstore, and if I don't like it I'll try Memorias de Idhún I: la resistencia by Laura Gallego García. I haven't heard much about this book, so I don't know if it's good or not, but I've been having trouble finding fantasy and science fiction novels in Spanish and this fits the bill.

This upcoming week I've decided to try waking up earlier than usual to study Spanish before work. I'm also going to continue reading in Spanish on my way to and from work. I hope that by giving Spanish its own place in my schedule (mornings and commute), I can keep making progress in it while also reserving time for my writing hobby at night.

Over the next few months, I'd like to get into a habit of listening to and reading Spanish native material every day. I also want to polish my speaking skills a bit and increase my vocabulary. Basically, I want to get to the point where I can just use native materials every day to improve my Spanish and don't need to actively study--except for maybe a language exchange or some writing practice on the weekends. If I can get to that point by the beginning of September, I'm going to start studying a new language, either Italian or Mandarin. (Most likely I'll start Italian, get it to B1 or B2 as soon as possible, and then start Mandarin? We'll see.)

Oh, and I haven't forgotten about my promise to post about Somali here! I've just been so busy and I want to do more than just copy and paste my course paper here. I'll try to post about Somali phonology sometime this week though!

[philomath]

Mi nueva rutina de español va muy bien. Esta mañana me desperté temprano, acabé de ver un episodio de La casa de papel, y entonces escuché al podcast de Martha Debayle por veinte minutos. Después leí la mitad de un artículo de El País sobre el ébola. Hice un listo de palabras que no sabía para hacer tarjetas de vocabulario luego. Entonces, mientras caminaba desde mi apartamento hasta la estación del tren, trataba de pensar en español, como si estuviera teniendo una conversación con una persona imaginaria, y ¡me parecía que era más fácil pensar en español con fluidez!

Sin embargo, creo que no estoy practicando hablar con bastante frecuencia. Por esa razón decidí empezar a tomar clases de iTalki cada fin de semana. Encontré algunas maestras que me pueden ayudar. Una de ellas se especializa en la pronunciación. Las demás ofrecen lecciones de conversación para estudiantes intermedios.

¿Soy estudiante intermedia? No lo sé. No puedo hablar muy bien, pero al mismo tiempo he estudiado mucho la gramática y no necesito lecciones de gramática. Solo quiero una maestra con quien pueda practicar hablando sobre temas interesantes.

Pues nada, cuando termine el trabajo hoy, voy a programar una lección de iTalki.

[philomath]

Exciting news: I’ve finished El cuaderno de Maya! Now I’ve officially read six novels in Spanish.

[philomath]

I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been really busy lately. I had to stay late at work six days last week, and I wasn’t very productive on my day off. However I’ve been reading El amante japonés during my commute every day. I enjoy Isabel Allende’s writing style but I can’t say I’m very interested in the book so far...I would prefer fantasy or science fiction, though neither genre seems very popular among Spanish-speaking writers. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I’ve also been listening to Martha Debayle’s podcast for a few minutes every night, but I don’t pay as much attention to it as I should in order to get a real benefit from it.

Despite the lack of time lately, I still feel way freer than I felt during university. I really do need to schedule an iTalki lesson though!

[MorkTheFiddle]

I enjoy Isabel Allende’s writing style but I can’t say I’m very interested in the book so far...I would prefer fantasy or science fiction, though neither genre seems very popular among Spanish-speaking writers. Does anyone have any recommendations?

For science fiction, have a look at short stories by Julio Cortázar. Not all or even most are science fiction. I can't seem to lay my hands on my copy, so I can't provide much more direction than that. Borges has some stores that are fantasy, but probably not the genre of fantasy you are looking for. From the 19th century there is Horacio Quiroga, who wrote a number of tales in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe. Not a fan my self (but to each his own), so I can't guide you there, either. There is also the genre of "magical realism," which I have always thought of as just another form of science fiction, but you may disagree. The master IMHO there is Gabriel García Márquez. You might especially like his story "The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." Lastly I guess I should caution that your idea of fantasy and science fiction may not quite match the subject matters and tones of these works. There is nothing at all like the work of Greg Bear, say, or Ursula K Le Guin. Finally, none of these writers is on the "easy" end of the scale, but if you are comprehending Allende, you will be able to cope with them. Good luck.