La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and Russian log]

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Jaleel10
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La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and Russian log]

Postby Jaleel10 » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:23 am

I also wanted a cool log name xD

Just continuing where I left off. 1 year ago yesterday I started studying Spanish. It was fun, difficult, but fun. And now it's a just a matter of constantly trying to identify and improve on my weak points.Oh and I started studying German the day before yesterday as well lol. It came a little bit earlier than I would have liked but I felt I needed a new challenge and hopefully the German language can provide that.
Spanish, being the light of my life that it is, will still get the lion share of my study time of course : D

Thanks for stopping by and a happy new year to all of you!

2018 Log
Last edited by Jaleel10 on Tue Mar 12, 2019 7:32 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Querneus
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Re: La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and German log]

Postby Querneus » Thu Jan 03, 2019 4:06 pm

Pues a decir verdad sí es un nombre con mucho cachet...

De paso, ¿qué tanto eres fan de Yu-Gi-Oh?
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Jaleel10
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Re: La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and German log]

Postby Jaleel10 » Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:15 pm

Ser wrote:Pues a decir verdad sí es un nombre con mucho cachet...

De paso, ¿qué tanto eres fan de Yu-Gi-Oh?


Queda bien, ¿eh? jeje, gracias.

La verdad es que no. Sólo me gustan los dragones en general, a decir verdad. Es triste que un dragón tan impresionante pertenezca a un dibujo animado tan mal escrito. Me encantaba cuando era niño, pero el otro día intenté verlo de nuevo y tuve que parar porque estaba muy mal xDD

Week 1

Nothing special to report on, it wasn't the most productive week :C I was slowly recovering from a trip back from Namibia.

Writing

Zilch. Just messaging on Discord.

Speaking

FSI Platiquemos
- Units 1, 2 and 3 (out, of 55 each unit approximately 60 to 90 minutes long )

I actually like it, a lot more than the original FSI course. Let's see if I stick with it

Reading

Enid Blyton - Los Cinco y el tesoro de la isla - Chapters: 1
Paco Ardit - Perro que habla no muerde - Chapters: 1 - 6

Many of you may know Enid Blyton. Ever since last year I wanted to read a proper children's novel. I did some research and it seemed she was a pretty big deal. I chose one of her most well known series ''The Famous Five'', 21 books lol, woohoo!

A while ago I bought the set of Paco Ardit B2 graded readers. I had never really gotten around to them but on my trip back from Namibia a week ago I began reading one out of boredom lol and I liked it a lot. I was surprised at how familiar I was with the grammar structures and the vocabulary. With the Enid Blyton book a lot of the vocab was unknown to me but I still was able to follow the plot. And I assume with 21 books I'll get used to her (the translator in this case xD) writing style and the vocab she uses.

Listening

Podcastspanish.org - I transcribed 5 podcasts

That's it really lol. I had big plans for my listening practice lol, I'll try to implement them as the year rolls on. Overall I am okay with the podcasts, there are just a few instances where it seems like they mumble lol and that really gets on my nerves. I post the transcripts in the Español room if any of you are interested. I feel I've come so far when it comes to listening but yet it feels like I still have a long way to go :C.

Grammar

Gramática de uso del español C1-C2 - Units 1 and 2 (out of 106 lessons :shock: , each unit containing 4 - 6 exercises)
Perfecting the Past in Spanish - Exercises 1 - 4 (out of 50)


Mostly just revising some things I already knew although the C1 book seems very daunting lol, the next few units are gonna be hell. I couldn't find the B1/B2 in South Africa so I had no choice but to buy it : P. I'm glad it has so many exercises and that everything is in Spanish.




I'll list some of my goals and resources on the weekend. Thanks for stopping by : D
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Jaleel10
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Re: La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and Russian log]

Postby Jaleel10 » Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:39 am

Hey guys o/

So I kinda took a month long break from studying Spanish. I didn't go cold turkey, I still watched TV and listened to podcasts in Spanish. But anyway, nothing interesting to report other than the fact I'm not studying German anymore xD. Last week I was thinking about what I wanted to do going forward: Drop German and pick a new language or drop German and just focus on Spanish. I picked the former. German didn't really do it for me, idk, it didn't excite as much as Spanish did/does. I really do want to learn it one day tho, so I'll just put it on the back burner for now.

I kinda mulled over which language I wanted to learn for quite some time now, long before I made that decision . My choices were French, Japanese and Russian. French for it's usefulness in other African countries and the sheer amount of content it offers and the latter 2 because they're difficult, the difference in culture from my own and meh, I like a challenge. So here I am, a South African learning Russian xDD

So yeah, I'm gonna be starting super small with Russian. My goal going forward is 10 minutes a day and ramping it up as I get into it.

Anywho....

Monday - 11/03/2019

Spanish

- 1 episode of Netflix's Carmen Sandiego, el doblaje latino
- 1.5 episodes of Español Automático podcast, 7 Leyes

Russian

- 0.5 episode of Michel Thomas Russian
- Learned 6 letters from the Cyrillic alphabet: А, Е, К, M, O, T

I'll try and update my log daily this time, emphasis on the verb try lol

Any tips on starting out with Russian would be more than welcome. My short terms goals are familiarising myself with the alphabet and listening to the Michel Thomas audio course.

Bye bye o/
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Re: La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and Russian log]

Postby Arnaud » Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:20 am

Jaleel10 wrote:Any tips on starting out with Russian would be more than welcome. My short terms goals are familiarising myself with the alphabet and listening to the Michel Thomas audio course.
Michel Thomas is a very good start. Just keep on using it, learn the alphabet if you want but don't forget that the mobile stress and the final reduction of voiced consonants deeply affect the way the alphabet is pronounced in real life: trust your ear, not your eye. (more details here)
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Jaleel10
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Re: La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and Russian log]

Postby Jaleel10 » Wed Mar 13, 2019 7:44 am

Tuesday- 12/03/2019

Spanish

- 1 episode of Netflix's Vivir Sin Permiso
- Transcribed one podcast from podcastsinspanish.org, intermediate level - aeropuerto

I'm nearing the end of Vivir sin Permiso, I have one episode left. It's a good series, not great. I'll write a review on it when I'm done.

It's been a minute since I last transcribed something. It took me almost half an hour to transcribe a 3 minute podcast lol. One of the speakers, Reyes, speaks soooo fast sometimes lol, but it's good practice.

Russian

- 3 episodes of Michel Thomas Russian
- Learned 7 letters from the Cyrillic alphabet: B, E, H, P, C, X, У

Wow, wow, wow. A completely different experience lol. I'm gonna have to relisten to those three episodes tonight before listening to the next 3.

The new letters are tricky. They look exactly like Roman letters but they're pronounced totally different. So far it's not a big deal. The letter P is pronounced exactly like the r in Spanish (rolled) and Afrikaans. I'm struggling with the X tho, even in Spanish because that sound is so guttural in Afrikaans and I'm really struggling to limit it. But it's just an observation, I probably don't want to spend a lot of time perfecting my accent as I did in Spanish.


Russian resources:
(for now)
Michel Thomas
The New Penguin Russian Course

(for later)
Assimil
Pimsleur
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Jaleel10
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Re: La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and Russian log]

Postby Jaleel10 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:09 am

Wednesday - 13/03/2019

Spanish

- Read some of Erik Vogler y los crímenes del rey blanco by Beatriz Osés
- Made attempts at reading two articles about the UEFA Champions League
- Watched 1 episode of Archer, el doblaje castellano

My short term goal is to get used to newspaper Spanish, it's difficult at times lol. I don't read the news at all to be fair but I'll make a concerted effort to read and decipher one article a day

I still don't have a solid schedule for my Spanish but I'll fix that soon!

Russian

- Listening to the first 4 episodes of Michel Thomas Russian again
- Going through the first 13 letters I learned

Slow and steady wins the race
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Jaleel10
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Re: La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and Russian log]

Postby Jaleel10 » Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:55 pm

Thursday/Friday - 15/03/2019

Spanish

- Read some of Los Cinco y el tesoro de la isla by Enid Blyton
- Read some articles on the tragic Christchurch shooting :[
- Watched 1 episode of Archer, el doblaje castellano

I'm currently rotating between Los Cinco and Erik Vogler

I'm planning on watching the Spanish dub of that 70s show, as recommended by @Stringerbell

Russian

- Learned Л, Ф, Ц, Ч, Ы and going through the first 13 letters I learned. I'm having fun :^D

No Michel Thomas today because I lost my headphones xD Gonna buy a new pair tonight.

I downloaded memrise to help me review and learn the alphabet.
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Jaleel10
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Re: La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and Russian log]

Postby Jaleel10 » Sun Mar 17, 2019 7:31 am

Saturday - 16/03/2019

Spanish

- Read Erik Vogler y los crímenes del rey blanco by Beatriz Osés
- Watched 2 episodes of Archer, el doblaje castellano
- Watched 1 episode of Vivir Sin Permiso

Finished Vivir Sin Permiso. The last three episodes really left a bad taste in my mouth. I guess I'm so used to expecting happy endings lol. I'll write a review on it and post in the telenovela review thread

I watched two That 70s Show episodes dubbed in Spanish and the show has a lot of Americanisms and jokes that don't really translate well. I think I'll opt for a original Spanish language show. I was just looking for a show with lots of everyday vocab. I asked around in the forums and I'll take a look at those that have been recommended to me and report back o7

Russian

- Learned the rest of the alphabet.
- Pimsleur 1 episode
- Michel Thomas 2 episodes

We had a record three power outages on Saturday so I had a lot of free time lol. For now I'm just gonna review the alphabet and continue with the audio courses. I'm probably gonna drop the New Penguin course. I don't know, it makes me feel uneasy using a resource with no audio lol. During the week I'll start using Assimil.

I'm genuinely having fun with Russian woohoo!

Future plans for Spanish

- Continue and eventually finish FSI Platiquemos
- Read more articles!
- Intensive listening practice a lo iguanamon
- Prepare for the B2 DELE or SIELE Global exam.
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Re: La guarida del dragón [2019 Spanish and Russian log]

Postby MamaPata » Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:56 am

Jaleel10 wrote:I'm genuinely having fun with Russian woohoo!


Glad to hear it!
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Corrections appreciated.


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