Chove's Log

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
gsbod
Blue Belt
Posts: 839
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 3:22 pm
Location: UK
Languages: English (native)
German (advanced)
French (intermediate)
Japanese (intermediate)
Spanish (learning)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=1152
x 2900

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby gsbod » Thu Sep 10, 2020 5:09 pm

Yes, sometimes you just have to suck it up and deliberately try to force things into your brain. Given that the problem areas you have highlighted (conjugations and declensions) are more grammar than vocabulary oriented, you may find that regularly working through grammar drills targeted to your problem areas will be enough.

Another option is to make your own drills and put them into Anki so they're regularly repeated and really hammer things home. Translation exercises work best for me, other people make cloze cards but these just don't work for me well enough to be worth the effort. I'm also using an Anki deck to specifically drill conjugations of Spanish verbs at the moment and I think it is helping, to an extent.

I agree with everything devilyoudont says on Anki, except my happy place for using the app is below 20 minutes a day. I can do more over shorter periods of time, but eventually I get sick of it too.
2 x

User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
x 920

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:55 pm

I could write things down over and over again maybe, sometimes that seems to work.
0 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby tungemål » Thu Sep 10, 2020 9:20 pm

I don't know if it is the best way, but I used to write out (longhand) all the conjugations of a handfull of spanish verbs. I think writing is good for memory.
4 x

User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
x 920

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Thu Sep 17, 2020 5:38 am

tungemål wrote:I don't know if it is the best way, but I used to write out (longhand) all the conjugations of a handfull of spanish verbs. I think writing is good for memory.


Yeah, I do find writing things out longhand is a great help for me. Not sure *why* but if it works it works! :lol: I've actually added an extra step to my university note-taking this year -- first I write vocab on A4, *then* in my A5 notebooks, then I put them into Anki. Seems to be helping a bit, which is good because in general I'm finding German words harder to remember than Spanish words, I think just because of the cognates factor in Spanish.

Anyway, I've been getting on with the German course at what I hope is a reasonable pace. Still doing a bit of other languages as a break from all the German, though I'm probably dropping my iTalki Polish lessons for the foreseeable future. (I remind myself that I've been learning Polish for years and there's no need to rush.) Trying to mix in some media for Spanish, latest thing has been watching Star Trek Voyager with English subs and Spanish dub. (I unsubscribed from Netflix because it was far too easy to end up bingewatching TV shows but I have the DVDs now.)
1 x

DaveAgain
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1968
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
x 4049

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby DaveAgain » Thu Sep 17, 2020 5:56 am

chove wrote:Trying to mix in some media for Spanish, latest thing has been watching Star Trek Voyager with English subs and Spanish dub. (I unsubscribed from Netflix because it was far too easy to end up bingewatching TV shows but I have the DVDs now.)
I've been watching a lot of Channel 4's French TV with English subtitles recently, mostly 6 episode miniseries.

For Spanish I noticed they have one series called Locked Up (Vis a vis?) with 44 episodes. (All the Channel 4 'World Drama' programmes have always on English subs)
1 x

User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
x 920

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Sat Sep 19, 2020 7:34 am

Which is better for improving my intermediateish Spanish -- Spanish audio with English subs, or English audio with Spanish subs?
0 x

DaveAgain
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1968
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
x 4049

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby DaveAgain » Sat Sep 19, 2020 8:27 am

chove wrote:Which is better for improving my intermediateish Spanish -- Spanish audio with English subs, or English audio with Spanish subs?
You could be the test-subject-Chove in an experiment to discover the answer! A week of one, followed by a week of the other: which was better?
0 x

User avatar
lingua
Blue Belt
Posts: 951
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:23 pm
Languages: English (N)
Maintaining: italiano (B2/C1ish)
Studying: português, Latina
Dabbling: siciliano, Deutsch, français, piemontèis
Abandoned: ไทย, español
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12257
x 2024

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby lingua » Sat Sep 19, 2020 8:58 pm

chove wrote:Which is better for improving my intermediateish Spanish -- Spanish audio with English subs, or English audio with Spanish subs?


If you're at the intermediate level I recommend Spanish audio with Spanish subs as the only way to go. That's what I do with Italian when I don't have them completely off.
2 x
Super Challenge 2022-23:
DE: books: 0 / 2500 film: 1654 / 4500
IT: books: 3065 / 5000 film: 5031 / 9000
PT: books: 2921 / 5000 film: 5010 / 9000

Output Challenge 2023:
IT: write: 0 / 50000 record: 84 / 3000
PT: write: 0 / 50000 record: 0 / 3000

PT: Read 100 books: 28 / 100

User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
x 920

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Sat Sep 19, 2020 9:41 pm

lingua wrote:
chove wrote:Which is better for improving my intermediateish Spanish -- Spanish audio with English subs, or English audio with Spanish subs?


If you're at the intermediate level I recommend Spanish audio with Spanish subs as the only way to go. That's what I do with Italian when I don't have them completely off.


But what if I get lost!
0 x

User avatar
tungemål
Blue Belt
Posts: 947
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:56 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N)
English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17672
x 2181

Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby tungemål » Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:33 am

I agree, it is a waste of time to use english subs or english audio as a crutch.

chove wrote:But what if I get lost!


You will get lost, and the consensus among accomplished polyglots seems to be that one should have a high tolerance for not understanding everything. I don't have that, but I'm working on it! I will usually pause the show and rewind to check subtitles and look up words when I get lost.
1 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests