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Fighting Windmills: Spanish experiment 1

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ellasevia
Super Polyglot
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Germany
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Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian

 
 Message 17 of 71
21 May 2010 at 11:45pm | IP Logged 
I see that you have begun to watch El Internado. Were you able to understand it? The first couple of episodes are a bit confusing because you have no idea who anyone is and such... But it gets really good!

As to where to find the next episode, it has them listed there on the right-hand column. The latest episodes (actually it only goes up through the fourth season instead of all six) are listed first, so you have to click on the second page to see the earliest episodes. :D

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evandempsey
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Ireland
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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 18 of 71
22 May 2010 at 8:06pm | IP Logged 
I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I can't wait to see how this turns out. Ad Maiora!
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Emerald
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United Kingdom
languagedabbler.blog
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Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English
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 Message 19 of 71
22 May 2010 at 9:13pm | IP Logged 
Teango,

While my Spanish studies do not contain only L&R, your experiment has inspired me to
focus more on it, besides usual lessons too.

I am enjoying it.
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Teango
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 Message 20 of 71
22 May 2010 at 9:54pm | IP Logged 
"FIGHTING WINDMILLS", DAY 6/14
(un pequeño experimento en LR española)

SUMMARY

LR in Spanish today: 1 hour ("Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal" by J. K. Rowling)
————————————————————
Total LR in Spanish so far: 39 hours
Sum total of Spanish immersion: 48.5 hours

Today's reading test: 83% [-2%] (first 100 words of chapter 6 in "La Sombra Del Viento" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón)
[...a bevy of beverages later, and dog-tired at the end of a busy day without much study behind me...I can't say I'm really surprised at the results tonight... ;) ]

NOTES

The Little Prince was great to start with (although it made me sad at the end), and Harry Potter is an ideal story to follow on from this (closer to my level anyhow and a fun story). I've already moved on a fair few paces from my initial version of the LR method, and have been experimenting with all sorts of ideas since, but I still haven't quite settled down on a clear established method of my own yet. However, after toying with all sorts of approaches to listening-reading and early study, I'm leaning very much towards...

i) including an initial parallel comparison of the text and translation, with pauses if and when necessary, to acquire vocabulary and grammar as efficiently as possible given the short period for study;

ii) spending some time at the end of each study cycle to really listen to the audio (i.e. without any texts) and trying to distinguish the new words I've learned in a section by ear alone;

iii) studying more actively (this is more of a personal preference really), and hopefully getting even more out of texts than ever before (i.e. a few more squeezes of the orange to fill up the glass);

iv) and consolidating and using what I've learned during various steps in my study cycle to much better effect, focusing on active retrieval without too much active production of the language at this stage.

I've still got one more experimento to finish off tonight, but on the whole I've taken things much easier today, spending my time out in the sunshine eating Kochkäse mit Musik, drinking Trappist brews straight from the copper kettle, and focusing on other necessary tasks in preparation for the weeks to come. This includes researching and ordering a digital voice recorder over the Internet for speaking activities with my tutor in the fourth week of study, and buying a new external hard-drive from my local Apple store for backing up all my data (including language media and notes), just in case I have another Mac meltdown anytime in the near future (see previous logs). I also treated myself to some awesome new lego kits to help me along with motivation in my studies (see my post on fun motivation techniques). Let the child within awake! :)

I'm really enjoying learning Spanish and am so glad I haven't managed to burn out in the process so far. I feel bad for not achieving the 10 hours a day I had previously signed up for, but this is the first time I've really tried to put in these type of hours, so I'll hope you'll forgive me. I'm looking forward to reading up a little bit on the Spanish language in Wikipedia tomorrow, in addition to some more LR, and might see if I can download a few new tunes during the day. I also plan to research English and Spanish phonology/orthography and add both libraries of phonemes (along with their corresponding sound files, IPA notation, and descriptions) into Anki for later review. Having a better knowledge of both my own native sounds and the sounds of the target language, should hopefully help improve my listening and pronunciation skills along the way.

Edited by Teango on 22 May 2010 at 9:56pm

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Kubelek
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chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal
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Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish
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 Message 21 of 71
22 May 2010 at 11:28pm | IP Logged 
Justin TV has quite a few channels in Spanish. I keep telling myself to create more of an immersion environment, but then I can never decide on what language to play in the background :)

Translated programs on discovery channel in Spanish are very clear and easy to understand. Shows like Friends or South Park aren't much harder, but they contain some slang. All of Justin TV I've seen so far used Latin accent, which I'm not focusing on either, but which I found easier to understand when I was starting out.



Spanish tv shows   a legal website with plenty of shows.

One 'travel' show I like. I like it because you can listen to different accents from Spain while learning about some beautiful places. In this one we are following Spanish expats. There's a similar program about foreigners living in different parts of Spain.

These two are quite a step up in dificulty compared to latino discovery channel, but they motivated me a lot because I really liked how they sounded before I could understand them :)

Keep up the good work!

Edited by Kubelek on 22 May 2010 at 11:45pm

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Teango
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 Message 22 of 71
23 May 2010 at 10:37am | IP Logged 
Some great links there, Kuba. I particularly like the idea of attuning my ear to different accents once I get better whilst also learning more about the country - gracias! :)

Edited by Teango on 23 May 2010 at 10:38am

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Teango
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Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
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Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 23 of 71
23 May 2010 at 10:40pm | IP Logged 

"FIGHTING WINDMILLS", DAY 7/14
(un pequeño experimento en LR española)

SUMMARY

LR in Spanish today: 2 hours ("Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal" by J. K. Rowling)
TV: 1.5 hours (“El Internado”)
————————————————————
Total LR in Spanish so far: 41 hours
Sum total of Spanish immersion: 52 hours

Today's reading test: 88% [+5%] (first 100 words of chapter 7 in "La Sombra Del Viento" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón)

NOTES

I've finally finished off all my experiments now, and am really looking forward to trying out the new system I've been developing over the next week to the very max. It's a combination of all the best lessons learned "in the field", alongside a shedload of research, and hopefully also a little common sense picked up after a total 170 hours of LR in German or Spanish so far this year. So let me take the method out for a good test-drive first, and if she handles and takes the corners well, I'll write all about it later... ;)

I didn't get to finish all the tasks I planned today, but that's ok, as I do have a life outside of study, and was just very glad to catch up with friends and family over the weekend. I also managed to tick off many outstanding items on a long scary list I've been hiding in the dark recesses and far-flung reaches of my in-tray, and took some time out to relax a bit and recuperate too. My mind and study environment are both consequently a little less cluttered than before, and I'm feeling much better prepared for the study-fest to come.


Edited by Teango on 23 May 2010 at 10:41pm

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Volte
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Switzerland
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 Message 24 of 71
24 May 2010 at 10:16am | IP Logged 
First: I applaud your work in studying Spanish.

Second: The originator of the L-R method has asked me to point out that what you're doing has absolutely nothing to do with L-R. I concur - 1 hour a day and dropping vocabulary scores are patterns I've fallen into myself.

Good luck with the rest of your studies.



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