Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

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Bex
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby Bex » Fri Nov 10, 2017 7:34 am

Stelle wrote:Chatting is my favourite form of language study! I guess it depends on your end goals, but my main objective is to be able to communicate in my languages, and there’s no better way for me than just chatting.


I think I may just have the mindset that I have to "study" still and that chatting doesn't count, I think I need to loose that mindset. It will be interesting to see how I feel after more textbook and just chatting lessons next week.

Tofu wrote:Have you tried Espanol Automatico? They have a podcast/youtube channel for learning Spanish. I've listened to Notes in Spanish, Radio Ambulante, etc. and I think Espanol Automatico might be one of the best for learning. They have transcripts available as well.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj2Gb3 ... uw7Kpc5QIQ


Managed to listen the first Español Automatico podcast yesterday, really enjoyed it so thanks Tofu excellent suggestion. It is a little above my level but I can follow the gist of it, much like most of the Spanish I listen to these days :roll: . Now I just need to find a way to integrate these podcasts into my day......
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Kwiziq
A0: 100 / 100
A1: 100 / 100
A2: 100 / 100
B1: 91 / 100
B2: 53 / 100

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Bex
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby Bex » Fri Nov 10, 2017 8:07 am

Friday Update

16 hours Italki lessons: 1 hours 15 mins this week. (4 hours 15 mins in total)
Writing 8000 words: 1046 this week (2885 total)
Glossika GSR 1: 63 - 65
Intermediate Notes in Spanish: 3-6
Anki 241 sentences: Young 143 / Mature 2

Italki: Still deciding on how to best utilise my time and tutors. Definitely becoming a lot less stressful the more sessions I have :)

Writing: Really enjoying writing to my penpals, a good way to get writing practice everyday.

Podcasts: Still undecided on how to proceed with these, not sure if I should extensively listen for as much time as possible each day or maybe just listen to one a week and really study the transcript and add sentences to Anki.

Anki: Small deck and only 1 deck at a time, small is definitely the best way for me, as far as Anki is concerned. Much more manageable and I am managing to review everyday and add a few cards, as and when I have time. Must refrain from adding more decks.

All in all the new schedule is good, so far it's manageable and enjoyable, it's still a work in progress but I suspect that will never change :roll:

Edit: updated to include today's writing
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Kwiziq
A0: 100 / 100
A1: 100 / 100
A2: 100 / 100
B1: 91 / 100
B2: 53 / 100

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Bex
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby Bex » Wed Nov 15, 2017 10:04 am

Had another session on Italki with community tutor, I am enjoying the "just chatting" 45 mins sessions with this tutor. It seems much easier for me to talk with this one than the others. We're now working on me speaking in past tense, which is great as it ties up with my past tense Glossika sentences on my Anki deck!

It's been difficult to arrange any other sessions this week as it's very busy at work at the moment so I suspect I'll only manage the one session this week :(

I have decided to keep going with the Intermediate notes in Spanish until I've listened to all of them and then I'll move onto Español Automatico, mostly to avoid any further procrastination.

I am desperate to add more Anki decks but I am holding myself back for now. I fear that I will waste much time building Anki decks once I allow myself to start :roll:
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Kwiziq
A0: 100 / 100
A1: 100 / 100
A2: 100 / 100
B1: 91 / 100
B2: 53 / 100

AndyMeg
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby AndyMeg » Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:59 am

Bex wrote:I am desperate to add more Anki decks but I am holding myself back for now. I fear that I will waste much time building Anki decks once I allow myself to start :roll:

I've done something similar with Memrise before. Sometimes I felt I had spent more time building the decks/courses than actually studying with them. Now I only build decks/courses up to what I'm planning to study in the more immediate/short-term future.
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Bex
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby Bex » Fri Nov 17, 2017 10:56 am

Friday update.

16 hours Italki lessons: Only 45 minutes this week. (5 hours in total)
Writing 8000 words: 1239 this week (4124 total) :D
Glossika GSR 1: 63 - 65 - nothing this week.
Intermediate Notes in Spanish: 3-6 - nothing this week.
Anki 241 sentences: Young 160 / Mature 15

Italki was just one chatting session this week, my tutor said this week "after just 3 lessons you are happily talking away for the full 45 minutes and I can understand everything you are attempting to say"... comments like this are always a good boost to ones ego :o
I have had to move my "textbook tutor" session to next week because this week has just been too busy but the chatty tutor is going well.

Managed to keep on top of my writing and Anki this week despite being really busy, but the podcasts suffered as I just haven't had the time to listen to them. I shall try and listen to extra next week.

I am really pleased with how the writing is going I never expected to be able to write so much each week but it's fun and I enjoy writing to people about their lives and where they live, it's very interesting. Sometimes I start off writing to one person and use google translate to get the vocabulary/grammar right and then check it on SpanishChecker, but then I try and write the following emails using these tools less each time. I am writing 3-5 emails everyday this way and because I can use the same subject material for each email it means I can practice saying the same things multiple ways and really utilise any new vocabulary, it really is a very useful process. Although I do cheat a bit and use google translate and SpanishChecker, my writing is getting much faster and has much more fluidity to it than when I started 4 weeks ago.
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Kwiziq
A0: 100 / 100
A1: 100 / 100
A2: 100 / 100
B1: 91 / 100
B2: 53 / 100

westminstress
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby westminstress » Fri Nov 17, 2017 4:05 pm

I like your method for writing practice. I don't have time to do this right now but I am going to keep this idea in mind for the days when I will have time for this! Maybe after my trip to Paris when I will no longer be studying French.
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Fri Nov 17, 2017 5:05 pm

Bex wrote:Italki was just one chatting session this week, my tutor said this week "after just 3 lessons you are happily talking away for the full 45 minutes and I can understand everything you are attempting to say"... comments like this are always a good boost to ones ego :o


Well done! Your progress and discipline is inspiring.
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Bex
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby Bex » Fri Nov 24, 2017 10:47 am

Friday update.
16 hours Italki lessons: Only 45 minutes again this week. (5 hours 45 mins in total)
Writing 8000 words: 740 this week (4864 total)
Glossika GSR 1: 63 - 65 - nothing this week.
Podcasts: Intermediate Notes in Spanish: 7-9. / Español Automatico 2
Anki 241 sentences: Young 169 / Mature 37

Italki: Still going OK, my Internet broke from last Friday and until this Thursday and so I was 6 days without any Internet at all :shock:
I had to re-schedule my Tuesday lesson (again) to next week but managed to keep the Thursday lesson, although my connection was bad and we ended up with me reading a newspaper article and just asking about anything I didn't understand because we couldn't hold a proper conversation over the bad connection. Made me realise that his is not something I wan't to do with a tutor, I felt like i was wasting my time...I can read a document and work out what it means at home, I don't really need a tutor for this type of exercise but it was better than nothing.

Writing: It was impossible to write on my mobile and so I just sent all my pen-pals an apology and said I'd write as soon as my Internet connection was repaired. So I only managed 2 days of writing this week but I tried to make my emails a bit longer than usual. I am aiming for 1000 words a week. I'm 5 weeks in and I'm only 136 words from my where I should be at this point, so I am OK with the 740 words written this week.

Podcasts: Was tricky as I had to download any podcasts over free wifi in my local shopping centre and I have had builders working at my house all week too. I managed 3 Notes in Spanish and 1 Español Automatico podcast which is not too bad but it meant I didn't catch up from last week.

Anki: Definitely seeing an improvement in my comprehension of the past tenses now, the conjugations and when to use them are starting to stick. I added a couple of questions regarding sentences where I didn't quite understand why preterite was being used over imperfect and vice-versa onto Italki and Lang-8. the responses have really helped to understand why each tense is being used. I will get there eventually :D

All in all not bad considering it was a very hectic week with builders and only 2 days of Internet :roll:
4 x
Kwiziq
A0: 100 / 100
A1: 100 / 100
A2: 100 / 100
B1: 91 / 100
B2: 53 / 100

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Bex
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby Bex » Fri Dec 01, 2017 10:42 am

Friday update:
16 hours Italki lessons: One 45 min and one 30 min lesson this week. (7 hours in total)
Writing 8000 words: 1000 this week (5864 total)
Glossika GSR 1: 63 - 65 - nothing this week.
Podcasts: Intermediate Notes in Spanish: 10-15.
Anki 241 sentences: Mature 56

Italki: 2 lessons with two different teachers this week.....
One was another totally new teacher who I shall mull over working with. She is expensive (twice the price of my other teachers) and I'm not sure I want to work through a book with a teacher.
The other was the text book teacher that I wanted to try again, he didn't use a text book this time and I was more relaxed. I had re-scheduled this lesson twice already due to Internet breakages and work. 30 mins before the lesson.....there was a power cut :shock: .... I had to create a mobile hot-spot on my phone and use this for Skype on my laptop - I was determined not to cancel this lesson a third time and it worked perfectly.

Not sure I have any data left on my phone now though :lol:

I still need to decide exactly how to arrange my skype lessons, although over Xmas things will be all over the place so I'm allowing myself to decide for the new year. Doubt I'll reach my end of year target, as I assumed I would have 1 hour lessons but I definately prefer 45 minute lessons...this and multiple 30 minute trial lessons have left me at least 30 mins down on my target each week. Oh well.

Writing: Still going well and I managed to hit my 100 word target perfectly this week. I am still a few hundred down from where I would like to be but I think I can hit my 8000 word target by the end of the year. Definitely getting easier.

Podcasts: Managed 5 this week, should've done more as I had the time but not too bad overall, and my listening is definitely improving with the Skype sessions and podcasts each week. I noticed the difference last night whilst watching TV, I can clearly hear the words now and I am generally getting the overall meaning when the vocabulary is something i am familiar with. It's a nice feeling.

Anki: Finally finished learning my 241 past tense sentences Anki deck, so now it's just reviews until they're mastered, this has helped so much with my understanding of preterite vs imperfect. I am even starting to question why Glossika is using one tense over the other...I'm pretty sure that some are wrong or because there's no context it could be said either way.

ETA:
Just thinking I only really have 3 workable weeks that I can squeeze my targets into before everything become too hectic over the festive season, which means....

16 hours Italki lessons: 9 hours left = 3 hours a week = unlikely.
Writing 8000 words: 2,136 left = 712 words a week = more than doable.
Podcasts: Int Notes in Spanish: 31 left = 10 a week. Possible but unlikely.
Anki 241 sentences: Mature = 56 so 185 left. Again unlikely.

Seems that the most achievable at the moment is the writing and the podcasts, so I think I will focus my efforts on those. I'm on holiday next week and have no Italki lessons booked and so I'm even less likely to reach my end of year target on Italki.
2 x
Kwiziq
A0: 100 / 100
A1: 100 / 100
A2: 100 / 100
B1: 91 / 100
B2: 53 / 100

AndyMeg
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Posts: 633
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 2:44 pm
Languages: Spanish (N), English (B2-C1), Japanese (A2-B1), Korean (Lower Intermediate?)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 02#p201902
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Re: Bex's Spanish log 2016/17

Postby AndyMeg » Sat Dec 02, 2017 2:18 am

¡Vas muy bien!, ¡Sigue adelante! ;)
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Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522


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