A few updates:
I'm on Season 1 Episode 11 of Ingobernable. I'm definitely remembering things that happened in the show which I have since forgotten about. Glad I decided to watch the first season over again before finishing the second season. This show is definitely one of the few that can be watched multiple times. I think La Reina del sur and Kate del Castillo's podcast helped me out big time. My comprehension was great the first time I watched this show, but now it is even better. I plan on finishing this season ASAP and watching season 2 before the month ends.
There are some really good Spanish shows on Netflix now. I watched the trailer and about 20 minutes of the first episode of the show Élite. It looks really good. I think that will be the next show I watch. I still have to finish Casa de Papel too.
I've been getting back on track with my reading habits. I made a goal last week to have a 30 day period where I do the following every day: Read for 30 minutes, intensively listen to a podcast for 30 minutes, and then work on my pronunciation for about 5 minutes by working with an audio my tutor gave me). I'm reading another book by Raul Garbantes called El Ausente. I really like this book and every other book I have read by him. They are interesting, not too difficult to read, and often times I come across the same (or similar) vocabulary in all of his books. I really prefer this method of SRS over anki.
I've been making podcast listening a priority right now over everything else, and it's really paying off. For the last few days I've been listening to a show called "El show de Piolin". I like it because it is 100% Mexican Spanish, with multiple people talking at the same time and lot's of "chistes". It's really challenging my comprehension, but in a good way. I can remember a time when this type of show would have been impossible for me to follow.
I've been practicing regularly with my Spanish tutors and conversation exchange partner on italki/Skype. Each week varies but I am averaging between 2 - 3 hours of spoken Spanish each week.
I've been focusing on improving my grammar as well. I think I've mentioned it before, but I've reached a point in my Spanish where absolutely nobody will correct me because my mistakes are so small that they don't get in the way of the conversation or change the meaning of what I'm trying to say. The only time I get corrections if from my tutors or my language partner, so I'm really glad I have those resources available to me.
I was looking for some grammar books on Amazon and kept coming across the same books I used in the past. There is nothing wrong with them other than the fact that they are really boring. I then remembered that a long time ago (like a year ago?) I bought a book called: Pocket Por and Para: The only book you'll ever need!
https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Por-Para- ... 1519347367I broke that book out a while back and put it away for some reason. Well last week I sat down with the book and worked through about 80% of it in one sitting. I was very happy with the results. It was a great refresher for me, and there are so many exercises in the book that if you do them all you are sure to use por and para correctly about 95% of the time. I have noticed that there were some instances where I've never really been sure on if I need to use por or para, so I have always came up with other ways of expressing things to avoid using por OR para, and thus, not making any mistakes (although sounding less native while trying to take this kind of a shortcut). I've done the same thing with the subjunctive and I'm dedicated now to working out any confusion or uncertainty I have in order to sound more "native like" when I speak.
I was impressed with the Por and Para book so I went out and bought three of their other books. I have only worked through a little bit of their Demystifying the Subjunctive book. If I like the other books I will talk about it in my log so others can make a good decision before buying. They have a ton of good reviews on amazon but it lead me to believe that either their books are truly amazing or people are getting discounts or something to write good things. The couple who wrote the books I'm talking about hosts the Light Speed Spanish podcast and youtube channel.
Fall is here and the winter is just around the corner, so I see images of myself binge watching Spanish shows on netflix in the next few months. Hopefully I'm able to use this time to finish the Super Challenge.
Until next time...