#spanishpersonal

[linguastic]

May Review

I accomplished a lot with Spanish in May!

I did 9 hours 10 minutes of listening practice, mostly while watching Las chicas del cable and La casa de papel with Spanish subtitles.

I did 3 hours 50 minutes of speaking practice. This included two iTalki lessons and the rest was just by myself.

I reviewed grammar for 3 hours 40 minutes. I studied direct and indirect object pronouns, the use of the preterite vs. the imperfect, the use of the subjunctive, etc.

I learned 643 new words. For most of the month, I wrote the words in my notebook and then made Anki flashcards for them as well. However I got tired of making so many flashcards, so eventually I decided that I’ll only make flashcards for words that I really have trouble remembering. I also write down example sentences so that I know how to use each word.

I read 256 pages of El tiempo entre costuras. I wanted to read the whole book, but this goal was too unrealistic.

I wrote 2,940 words. I posted some of my writing on iTalki to receive corrections.

This month was a really good month for studying Spanish. I’m going to think of some goals for next month and post them soon. :)

[spanish-3-21]

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[morivardo]

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[linguastic]

I’ve been feeling lazy about learning Spanish lately, but having a Skype conversation made me so motivated! Even though the conversation was kind of embarrassing because I couldn’t speak Spanish well, afterward I was like, “Wow I could’ve spoken much better if I’d studied more,” so I scheduled an hour-long lesson for a few days later. And after that I scheduled another one! Now I have a whole list of grammar and words that I want to review. I also added some pages to my bullet journal to help me track my Spanish goals, and I bought a whole new notebook to write my notes in. So it’s been a good language week!

[linguastic]

I’ve been trying to do a lot of speaking practice lately, both with iTalki tutors and by myself. During April I spoke in Spanish for a total of 4 hours, and in the first 11 days of May I have already spoken for over 3 hours.

However, I don’t think I’m doing the right kind of speaking practice. Especially when I practice speaking to myself, I tend to stick to topics that are very easy for me to talk about, such as how my day went or how my language studies are going. I need to force myself to speak about different topics. 

Aside from a limited vocabulary, my biggest problem is that I have trouble conjugating verbs when I speak, especially verbs in the past tense or the subjunctive. It just takes me too long to think of the right form when I’m speaking. Or sometimes I have to think about what tense the verb should be in or whether it needs to be in the subjunctive or not.

Here’s what I’m going to do to fix these problems:

I’m going to go through my grammar books and write down all of the topics that I want to review. Then I’m going to pick the one that I have the most trouble with.

For that topic, I’m going to take some quick notes in my notebook. If it’s related to verb conjugations then I’ll do some conjugation exercises in my notebook as well. And then I’m going to make a bunch of different example sentences and post them on iTalki for corrections. Once they’re corrected I’m going to make them into Anki flashcards.

Now here’s the important part: I’m going to practice speaking using that grammatical concept. I’ll start with simple sentences and then try to make them more complex and maybe tell some sort of story. 

To solve my vocabulary problem, I’m going to make lists of vocabulary before I practice speaking. For example I might go to this list and decide that today’s topic is going to be gardening. So first I’ll look up some words related to gardening like dirt, plant, pots, soil, seeds, to plant, to water, etc. Then I will practice talking about gardening.

I wonder if it would be helpful to write a script in English and practice translating it while speaking Spanish. I might try to do that as well.

[linguastic]

Guys I am drowning in flash cards though, like I have 100 to review on Anki tonight and I have a few pages in my notebook of words to make flash cards for.

Plus, I’ve been trying to think in Spanish more often, and whenever I don’t know something I type a note in my phone about it. So I need to make all of those things into flash cards too.

It’s 8:22PM in Spain right now. I’m going to start catching up with my flash cards now and we’ll see how long it takes! (I’m going to take a break in the middle to eat ravioli with a friend though.)

[linguastic]

Spanish Update

Sometimes I feel like I’ve been learning Spanish for too long and I want to move onto another language, and other times I feel like I need to learn it for a bajillion more years because there’s still so much I don’t know.

To keep myself motivated, I’ve been making short-term goals for myself. The last set of goals was for April 4 until today, April 21. I think setting goals of 2–3 weeks works for me because that amount of time is short enough that I stay motivated, but long enough that if I fall behind, I can catch up instead of getting discouraged and giving up.

These were my goals and the results:

Goal #1: Do 90 minutes of speaking practice. 

Result: I did almost double the amount of speaking practice I planned, speaking for 165 minutes! 150 of those minutes were during iTalki lessons with tutors. After having lessons with a few different people, I finally found a tutor that I really like, and I’m looking forward to having more lessons with her.

Goal #2: Do 180 minutes of grammar review  (reading grammar notes, practicing conjugations, etc.).

Result: I only did 60 minutes of grammar review, but the day isn’t over yet! Maybe I can make up for some of it later.

Goal #3: Write 1,800 words.

Result: I only wrote 1,000 words, most of which were in my diary. When I was confused about a grammatical feature or the use of a specific word, I used it in another sentence and posted that sentence on iTalki for corrections. Then I wrote down the corrected versions in my notebook.

I think at this point in the learning process, it’s all about quantity. I’ve learned most of the basics, so in order to learn to rest of what I want to know, I think I need to do a huge amount of speaking practice, vocabulary review, and writing. Today I’m going to make goals for myself for the next three weeks, and after that I’m leaving for Spain! I’m super excited. :)

[linguastic]

Trip to Spain Day 4

I’ve gotten a little bit better at Spanish since arriving in Spain, I think. It’s definitely helpful to hear Spanish being spoken all the time. (Except that a lot of the other students here switch to English outside of class.)

Yesterday I met up with a friend from university and his friend who is fluent in Spanish. We practiced speaking Spanish together while we walked through El Paraque del Buen Retiro. I felt like I was speaking a lot better! My accent definitely gives me away as an American but I don’t mind so much. Once or twice people have heard my accent and switched to English, but I just kept replying in Spanish and they switched back.

My first day in Spain, I went to a restaurant by myself and had some trouble ordering food. I got what I wanted to order but I stumbled over some words and just felt a little bit embarrassed. But today I went to a restaurant and was able to speak to the waiters much better! Now I know what to expect them to say and how to reply.

[linguastic]

Mexican Spanish Pronunciation

So far I’ve been using these resources to study Mexican Spanish pronunciation:

IPA/Spanish, Spanish phonology, and Mexican Spanish - I know Wikipedia isn’t always accurate, so I’ve been combining these three pages with other resources.

Spanish language, alphabet, and pronunciation - I’ve been scrolling down to the section on Spanish pronunciation in Latin America. As with Wikipedia, I’m not sure how much I should trust this site, but it seems pretty thorough.

Interactive IPA chart - For when I want to compare an unfamiliar sound in Spanish to sounds in English.

Forvo - When I read about a sound that I’m not sure if I pronounce correctly, I use one of the resources above to find examples the sound in different words. Then I listen to native speakers pronounce the words on Forvo and I try to imitate their pronunciation.

I wish I had better resources to use, but when I Googled “Mexican Spanish pronunciation”, all I could find were articles from people trying to teach me Mexican slang, or poorly designed websites with no sources listed. I also tried searching for linguistics papers, but the ones I found were from unrelated studies or were published decades ago. I’ll keep looking and will write an update if I find a useful resource!

[linguastic]

I’m gonna regret this... but I really have not been reviewing my Anki flashcards as much as I should.

[linguastic]

Yesterday I had another iTalki lesson so I could practice speaking Spanish. It was a little bit disappointing because I felt like I was really struggling to speak well—I kept having to pause to recall conjugations and vocabulary words.

But today I practiced speaking by myself and it seemed like I spoke really well! I’m sure I still made some errors, but I was able to talk much more quickly and I could remember a lot more words. Maybe I was just nervous or tired yesterday, or maybe I talk about easier topics when I practice speaking by myself... I’m not sure. Either way, I need to find a list of speaking prompts so I can practice more.

[linguastic]

Despite enjoying learning languages for over six years now, I’ve never actually done a language exchange with someone. In fact, outside of school I’ve never spoken to someone in one of my target languages. But that’s changing tonight! In 30 minutes I’m doing a language exchange with someone via Skype. I’m really looking forward to improving my Spanish, but I’m also super nervous. Wish me luck!

[linguastic]

Days 24 and 25

Day 24 of my 200 Days of Spanish project, which was yesterday, was super productive! Here’s what I did:

15 minutes of active listening practice. I listened to three audio clips and tried to transcribe the dialogue. Then I checked my work against the actual transcripts.

30 minutes of pronunciation practice. First I repeated individual words, and then I tried repeating whole sentences from a video.

A one-hour language exchange over Skype! This was my second time ever doing a language exchange, and it went pretty well. We’re going to talk again tomorrow night.

Studied the present subjunctive. However, I didn’t finish the unit in my grammar book because I didn’t feel like reviewing irregular forms. I’ll do that today.

Read 6 pages in El tiempo entre costuras. 

Wrote 300 words. First I wrote an entry in my diary, and then I wrote a paragraph about getting over my fear of speaking, which I posted on iTalki. I got some really nice responses. :)

I hope today will be a productive day too! I want to review verb conjugations and do some more listening and reading practice. And tonight I have a 30-minute lesson with an iTalki tutor via Skype.

[linguastic]

Week 1 Review

I can't believe that I'm already on Day 9 in my 200 Days of Spanish project. Here's a review of how Week 1 went and what I think I should change about my studying.

Results

Listening: 2.42 hrs / 2 hr goal. I actually did more listening practice than I planned to do this week! This is because I started watching the show Cable Girls on Netflix.It's pretty good, but I've been watching it with Spanish subtitles on because I find some of the accents hard to understand.

Pronunciation: 15 min / 30 min goal. Speaking: 6 min / 15 min goal, and no conversations with a native speaker. I'm a little bit disappointed in myself for not doing a lot of pronunciation or speaking practice this week. I think speaking is my biggest priority in this project, since I want to improve my speaking skills the most. On the bright side, however, the 6 minutes of speaking practice that I did this week went really well! I recorded myself talking about this project, and I felt like I was speaking with more accuracy and less pauses than I ever have before. So I was really pleased with myself! I think it really helped that I've been doing a lot of listening and reading practice, as well as reviewing vocabulary.

Grammar: Nothing reviewed / ? goal. I didn't end up reviewing any grammar this week because I didn't set concrete goals for myself at the beginning of the month. I'm going to fix that though!

Vocabulary: 122 words / 125 word goal. I generally like to use Anki, but I've been reviewing vocabulary on Memrise this week! I found a course called "First 5000 Words of Spanish". So far I already know all of the words, but I think it's a good review. Also while I'm reading, I make a list of words and phrases I don't know, and I'm going to make flashcards for those too.

Reading: 15 pages / 12.5 page goal. I've been reading El tiempo entre costuras, which is really good so far. I have the ebook on my phone, so I can read it on my commute to work. Sometimes while I read, I write down vocabulary to look up later, but I don't let myself fill up more than a page in one reading session, or else it would take me too long to read.

Writing: 0 words / 500 word goal. Unfortunately I haven't done any writing yet. :(

What I should change

Listening: Try watching a TV show without Spanish subtitles!

Speaking: Practice speaking with a native speaker. I'm going to use iTalki for this, but I'm not sure if I should pay for a lesson with a community tutor or just find a language exchange partner. I might schedule a lesson, but I'll try to find an exchange partner for the future because I don't want to pay for lots of tutoring.

Grammar: I decided that this month I'll review expressions of time and the subjunctive. This amounts to 11 units in my grammar textbook, so now I have a concrete goal to work on. Since I didn't do any grammar review during Week 1, I'll have to review 3-4 units per week for the remaining weeks.

Overall schedule: My original schedule involved studying on Sunday through Friday, and then using Saturday to catch up on whatever I didn't do. However, Sunday is my busiest day, so I think I need to rearrange my schedule. Now I'll study Monday through Saturday, and Sunday will be my catch-up day.

[linguastic]

Spanish Update

Guys, it’s official: I’m going to Madrid for two weeks next summer! I’ll be taking an intensive Spanish course and I’m really excited. I’ve never traveled alone before and this’ll be my first time in Spain too! I can’t wait to practice my Spanish there. :)

Also... going to Benny Lewis’s talk this week really inspired me to do more speaking practice, even before I go to Spain. I contacted some people on iTalki and we’re going to do a language exchange over Skype. Let’s see if I actually do it though because I get so nervous about stuff like that lol.

[linguastic]

200 Days of Spanish

Hi everyone! I know I haven't been updating this blog as much as I used to, but I'm back with a new project: I'm going to focus on studying Spanish for 200 days. I've been studying Spanish since I was 12 years old (I'm 21 now), but I've hit a plateau in the last several years. This is my push to achieve advanced proficiency in Spanish once and for all.

So, why 200 days? Honestly, it's partly just that it sounded cool, but there is another meaning to this number! One of the reasons I'm embarking on this project is that I'm preparing to go to Spain and take a two-week intensive language course in May. 200 days from December 3 (which is when I decided to start this project) is June 21, 2018. That means this project will help me prepare for my trip to Spain, but once I get back I'll have another month to work on the skills I picked up while traveling. Of course, I might decide to extend this project, but I think that 200 days is a good deadline to achieve advanced proficiency given my current level.

This is just an introduction to the project, but in the next few days I'll be posting:

My current level in Spanish.

My goals for this Spanish project, both long-term and monthly goals, as well as my schedule.

An update on the first few days of the project, including what activities I've been doing with which resources, and what I think I need to work on more.

I'll be tagging all of my posts #200daysofspanish, so if I start posting about this too much you can feel free to block the tag. :)