Hundetier está estudiando español...

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Hundetier
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Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Hundetier » Fri Nov 04, 2016 9:39 am

¡Hola!, me llamo Susan y estoy estudiando español desde hace dos terceros del año. Me gustaría viajar a España en un año y entonces saber comunicar con la gente suficientemente.

What I've done so far:
- Duolingo for Vocabulary: Level 16, still not finished, but every day I do two refresher and sometimes a new topic
- Babbel: completed beginner and intermediate; no me gustaba mucho
- Self-study "complete spanish" course: up to intermediate as they said
- Grammar learning with "Practise makes perfect: Spanish Complete Grammar" and ""Practise makes perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses" (both not completed yet, some weird tenses still missing)
- free courses / exercises on the internet
- switched my laptop and smartphone to español (it is weird to write with this keyboard-layout, I still confuse letters and symbols)

Now I can read simple to intermediate texts and listen to simple to intermediate podcasts. But I miss a lot of words and I cannot speak spanish so far. My pronunciation is bad and I still have to think a lot before composing a sentence. I need to get "fluent" - my new favourite word :lol:

At the moment - still doing:
- Listening to podcasts and spanish learning videos (youtube butterfly, sol, etc)
- Reading articles (Veintemundos)
- Grammar revision with school repetition books
- Practising to speak with audio courses

To the last point: I caught the last offer ten days ago and treated myself with the Rocket Spanish language course. I hope to develop a better pronunciation and a faster way of producing correct sentences with that training. Also I gave LSLC a try and purchased level one. Every day so far I heard the mp3 files while commuting or walking the dog.
With Rocket I started Lección 3 and heard the 12th lesson of LSLC (old version).

What I am thinking about:
- another pronunciation training, but which? The automatic correction of rocket isn't so good as I hoped
- Platequemos? is it worth it? I looked into FSI - at the moment I'm not interested - to dull
- continue LSLC? it's fun, but is it really efficient?
- Pimsleur: I really want to give it a try, but it is far to expensive (library is not an option)
- Glossika: interesting concept, I'm really tempted, but I also read many negative comments (faulty, no good pronunciation)

Some weeks ago I began to read Harry Potter in spanish - I thought an easy book I already know would be fine, but at the moment it is a bit boring and so I prefer to spend my learning time with other things like the audio files. I need some structure in my learning and so I'm looking for courses. With all the good things found on the internet I'll only get lost. These things are good to supplement.
The differences between Castellano and Latino Spanish don't concern me - I hope to get to know all important accents and words. Or should I better try to stay in one direction? Feel free to comment...

¡Hasta pronto!
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Fatih
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Re: Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Fatih » Fri Nov 04, 2016 3:06 pm

¡Buena suerte!

I did Pimsleur, LSLC and 37 lesson of Platiquemos and 2 levels of Glassika yet I still have difficulties with Harry Potter.

Regarding of your questions,
I think LSLC is a really good course. It advances more fast than Pimsleur and might be difficult to catch.

Pimsleur is also usefull, especially the fourth and fifth levels. These units focus much on the advance subjects yet it is still a beginner's course.

Glossika may also be useful. But i think it is not designed to teach a language from scratct but designed to activate what you've already known. It's more like a speaking activation tool.

Lastly, Platiquemos is simply an amazing couse. After LSLC it will be a wonderful follow up course.

Good luck with your studies
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Marais
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Re: Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Marais » Fri Nov 04, 2016 3:12 pm

Personally i would get some context and get straight into native material.

Luckily, the Easy Languages team has you covered with dozens of Spanish as spoken by the Spanish on the streets in every day life. In my opinion if your L2 has an Easy Languages channel then you should be using it because it's a fantastic resource !

Youtube it and good luck !
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Marais
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Re: Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Marais » Fri Nov 04, 2016 3:26 pm

Hundetier wrote:Some weeks ago I began to read Harry Potter in spanish - I thought an easy book I already know would be fine, but at the moment it is a bit boring and so I prefer to spend my learning time with other things like the audio files. I need some structure in my learning and so I'm looking for courses. With all the good things found on the internet I'll only get lost. These things are good to supplement.
The differences between Castellano and Latino Spanish don't concern me - I hope to get to know all important accents and words. Or should I better try to stay in one direction? Feel free to comment...

¡Hasta pronto!

Reading will do wonders for your comprehension because once you know words you will begin to understand sentences more often. Structure is good but courses won't get you as far as quickly as consuming native material will. The words you know will snowball if you learn your words in context.

To add -

- another pronunciation training, but which? The automatic correction of rocket isn't so good as I hoped - Don't pay for pronunciation training ! Simply shadow native speakers. Copy what they say as closely as you can. Do this from free videos on youtube or the internet.
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Hundetier
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Re: Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Hundetier » Fri Nov 04, 2016 4:26 pm

Thank you very much for your answers!

Fatih wrote:Glossika may also be useful. But i think it is not designed to teach a language from scratct but designed to activate what you've already known. It's more like a speaking activation tool.

In some reviews/posts on the internet I read that especially the spanish version is not without faulty sentences and constructions, and that the sentences sound sometimes weird to natives. Isn't this a problem? I don't want to memorise wrong things.


Fatih wrote:Lastly, Platiquemos is simply an amazing couse. After LSLC it will be a wonderful follow up course.

For which level is it intended? I looked at the "test" sentences on the site, these showed no unknown content for me. Or is the course simply intended to activate speaking proficiency?


Marais wrote:Don't pay for pronunciation training ! Simply shadow native speakers. Copy what they say as closely as you can. Do this from free videos on youtube or the internet.

Simple and efficient. Thank you very much! The easy language youtube-channel is already subscribed.
(beginner question: L2 is "language t(w)o learn" or?)


Reading real books is still aiming a bit too high. HP1 is OK since it's a childrens-book and I know it well... First I tried "La sombra del viento" because I own the translation, but both languages were too high for me (i didn't understand most of the spanish, and the translation was way to convulted to be enjoying for me).
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Fatih
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Re: Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Fatih » Fri Nov 04, 2016 5:11 pm

Hundetier wrote:Thank you very much for your answers!

Fatih wrote:Glossika may also be useful. But i think it is not designed to teach a language from scratct but designed to activate what you've already known. It's more like a speaking activation tool.

In some reviews/posts on the internet I read that especially the spanish version is not without faulty sentences and constructions, and that the sentences sound sometimes weird to natives. Isn't this a problem? I don't want to memorise wrong things.


Fatih wrote:Lastly, Platiquemos is simply an amazing couse. After LSLC it will be a wonderful follow up course.

For which level is it intended? I looked at the "test" sentences on the site, these showed no unknown content for me. Or is the course simply intended to activate speaking proficiency?


Glossika has some errors, unfinished sentences, weird transactions and also narrator speaks slower than normal rate. Even it has these flaws, it can still be used as a tool to activate speaking. It isn't greate but it's usefull.

As for the Platiquemos, it's pretty advanced. I'm not done with the whole course but If one finishes it, he/she will probably be at least b1 or maybe a lower b2.
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Hundetier
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Re: Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Hundetier » Sat Nov 05, 2016 11:54 am

Thank you for your evaluation. I will keep those courses in mind, and wait for a good offer.

At the moment I want too much different things for my learning time, I'm afraid. So I made up a list for the next weeks (as I said before, I need structure for not getting lost :shock: ).

To do - for the rest of this year:
1. finish Rocket Spanish Level 1 (best before december 15th)
2. finish LSLC Level 1 (with all necessary repetition)
3. finish my current grammar revision book (Durchstarten 2)
4. watch three episodes of "Español en Episodios" and " three episodes of "Easy spanish" a week (youtube)
5. listen at least to two episodes of "A mi aire" a week (Podcast)

If I achieve my goals, I will be allowed to buy another course :-)
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Hundetier
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Re: Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Hundetier » Sat Nov 12, 2016 6:12 pm

The first week went quite well. I achieved almost all of my sub-goals for this week. To keep track with my learning sessions I started an excel sheet. It's amazing, how much time "gets lost" with spanish and organisation :D

1. Rocket Spanish: finished Module 4 and started with Module 5
2. LSLC - skipped for the moment and replaced with Pimsleur; almost every day two repetitions and one new episode
3. grammar revision book: only three pages ... at the moment not my thing :oops:
4. "Español en Episodios" and "Easy spanish": check
5. "A mi aire": only one episode - much listening time was spent with LSLC

I feel like my speaking has already improved a little. The loud repetition with Rocket Spanish and Pimsleur helps a lot. My tongue is a bit less knotted and it's slightly easier for me to get the words and syllables out of my mouth :mrgreen: Practise is everything!
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Hundetier
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Re: Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Hundetier » Sat Nov 19, 2016 7:31 pm

The last week was almost successful. I didn't reach all of my goals, but that isn't really so important since I have learnt much things and there was no day without doing something for spanish and five days with more than two hours of learning. :mrgreen:

1. Rocket Spanish: finished Module 5 and almost Module 6 (my "work" for tomorrow)
2. Pimsleur: 6 new episodes, with two repetitions before each one
3. grammar revision book: 12 pages, I finished the past tenses, and started with the "subjunctivo"
4. "Español en Episodios" and "Easy spanish": 4 and 3 episodes watched
5. "A mi aire": none, I think of pausing this; it's too much listening now for my time, and Pimsleur has priority
6. not planned: newest VeinteMundos-article, some Butterfly-videos, a chapter of HP1

On the one side I'm content with my work, but I also get impatient. I want so much more. Especially my active knowledge is still bad. I also started to attend a beginners conversation class. At the moment my speaking really sucks.
Next october I'll visit Spain, then I want to be at least at a B1 (better near B2) level in speaking and also be able to understand the people there. I've been learning spanish for nine month now, and I begin to doubt, that I'll reach a good level by october with my current speed and my skills. But I'm not willing to give up and hope to improve my speaking skills fast with sticking to Pimsleur and then LSLC.
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Hundetier
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Re: Hundetier está estudiando español...

Postby Hundetier » Sat Nov 26, 2016 4:45 pm

Although I was very busy last week, I managed to do a lot things for Spanish. Using the smartphone as mp3-player is very convenient for listening when I'm out of home.
RS Module 7 is at 94%, I did 6 new Pimsleur-episodes, some youtube-watching and some reading (I started "La Ciudad de las Bestias" by Isabel Allende because HP1 gets a bit boring). That's not great, but listening to Spanish invades slowly into my life. Today I had to set up my TV again and found 8 spanish-speaking channels; at the moment I can only understand fragments, but this has room for improvement :mrgreen:

: 7 / 22 Rocket Spanish
: 21 / 150 Pimsleur I
: 13 / 58 Español en Episodios
: 111 / 184 Grammática
: 3 / 100 La Ciudad de las Bestias

The Black Friday Deals let me buy Glossika Fluency123 Mexican Spanish. I decided against the Peninsulan variant because of the speaker: I don't like the woman's voice. I hope, this isn't too bad for me as I'll travel to Spain mainly ... but I have had more Latin spanish learning resources as others from the beginning so this was only a logical step. :?
And I'm not sure how to use it ... at the moment I am thinking of doing five GSR (repeating) and then the corresponding GMS (dictation and translation). That should be 25-30 minutes Monday to Friday and then the long part on the weekend for at least 63 weeks. :shock:
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