rpg wrote:I believe we just crossed the halfway mark. How's everyone doing? Are you on track? How's it been going?
I signed up for a full SC in Spanish and half in French. I'm behind on everything but French reading--I'm 47% and 42% of the total goal for Spanish reading and films, respectively (88% and 78% of where I should be at now), and 56% and 29% on French reading and films(104% and 54% of where I should be at now). This doesn't bother me, as the daily amounts to catch up aren't bad, but I need to be more diligent about the films portion. Not too long ago my Spanish film % was closer to the French film % (in the 50s overall), but thanks to listening to a bunch of Spanish podcasts while driving/doing chores and getting back to watching an episode of TV a day it has been catching up. I still have yet to watch actual French TV, but I have been delving more into YouTube (only logging >10 min videos), but I do look forward to checking out some of the French series. Honestly, the biggest roadblock was for a bit recently I didn't really feel like reading--in any language, even English. I knew going in the film portion would be tough and I'd rely on podcasts because I don't want much TV in English, much less other languages.
Now that the quantitative side is done, the qualitative: reading and listening are much easier. Duh, how could they not be? Especially in Spanish, since I've done more (and it was better in the first place). I really don't have hesitation going into Spanish books now, maybe if I were to read something very academic or literary I'd struggle, but I don't plan on doing that soon anyway. I realized last night while watching
Ingobernable that I really didn't need the subtitles, although for something like
La Casa de Papel I would because their accents are pretty nonstandard, from what I understand. But regular Castilian Spanish on YouTube hasn't posed a problem, and beyond slang-heavy talk Mexican Spanish doesn't either. French is still pretty tough if they're talking fast, but I imagine by the time I'm done with that half challenge and have acquired more vocabulary and listened more I'll be a bit better--but we'll see. The podcast InnerFrench is very comprehensible to me, although if I zone out even slightly it all washes over me and I don't really absorb any of it.