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Spanish Log (TAC 2014 Team Lobo) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4823 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 121 of 271 19 April 2012 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Decided to start unit 36 yesterday, which is the start of the subjunctive. Pretty easy
unit really, I definitely feel comfortable to move on tomorrow. Decided to leave the conversation stimulus's till a later date. I really just need to go through those difficult tenses, and get the complete structure of the language ingrained at a deep level. The conversation stimulus offer extreme training in the language though, and will be an essential tool on the road to fluency, but I just feel it's going to be much more efficient to leave them for the moment. So tomorrow its onwards and upwards to unit 37, and level 6. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4823 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 122 of 271 21 April 2012 at 2:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I think I am only just beginning to understand what a challenge the subjunctive
is going to be. There are just so many set phrases it is used after, and so many variations. These are not slipping of the tongue naturally! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4823 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 123 of 271 24 April 2012 at 12:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Going to the Czech Republic tomorrow morning, so I'll have to give the drilling a rest
for a while, mores the pity. I will be taking a lot of listening material with me though. This is a skill I seem to be making a lot of progress in. As they say, practice makes perfect. BTW minor milestone the other day, I managed to watch a couple of documentaries on RTVE the other day, and understand a lot of what was going on. I just know that if I keep stabbing at it, eventually Il be able to watch stuff in Spanish for enjoyment. To this end I've sent Ive signed up to the Super Duper Challenge: 100 movies, 100 books, and 50 hours of conversation in the next 20 months, starting from May 1st. I need to sleep, but I would have liked to write more, maybe in a few days. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5176 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 124 of 271 24 April 2012 at 1:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I just read the subjunctive chapter in Breaking out of Beginner's Spanish and I found it quite helpful. It explained it in a very practical way instead of a textbook way. If you have the book it may be worth it to read that chapter.
Have fun on your trip. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4823 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 125 of 271 11 May 2012 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Hey thanks, I'll be sure to take a look at that tonight. I'm quite fond of that book actually. Very good for dipping into in quiet moments. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4823 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 126 of 271 11 May 2012 at 7:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Okay so I'm back from my trip, and super hyped up for learning Spanish. I actually
managed to use Spanish around every other day while I was in the Czech Republic and Hungary, and I think I fared rather well. Now,I am not a fan of guided walking tours, prefering to discover cities on my own, but I decided to do a guided walking tour of Prague.... In Spanish! I didn't understand a lot of it, but it gave me a few hours in the company of Spanish speaking peoples, which was a great opportunity to get some practice in. There where also two girls from Chile staying in my dorm in Budapest, Who I spoke to in Spanish every chance I got. I would have spoke to them solely in Spanish, but there where many more English speaking people in our informal “ group“ and as they both spoke excellent English it would have been rude to speak Spanish ALL the time. I think I did well though, and was rarely, if ever at a loss for words. I spoke to one of the girls for an unbroken half hour as we walked up to the public baths, without any strain, although using, I imagine, quite basic language. Later on in a local club I met another Chilean girl who I spoke to for quite a long time, which was great as I really felt like I was socializing in Spanish. Later the same night, an American guy asked me if I spoke Spanish while I was sitting next to one of the Chilean girls,to which I replied " a little". The Chilean girl chipped in and said " no, you speak A LOT of Spanish"! To say I was over the moon to hear this would be an understatement. A couple of days later, on my last day, I heard a group of people speaking Spanish as we where checking out of our hostel. I asked them where they where from (Alicante) and had a very nice conversation with all of them (there where about ten of them) My Spanish was actually a lot stronger than there English, which is unusual. They asked me how long I had been studying, and where amazed that it had only been 18 months. It was actually quite embarrassing as they kept speaking about it, and said they had been studying English for 5 years and couldn't speak as well. I relate this not to boast, as I really don't speak that well, but I think it is important to celebrate these small victories. So needless to say I have had a massive confidence boost, confirmation if you will that the hard work is worth it, and it is with renewed enthusiasm that I push on..... Edited by dbag on 11 May 2012 at 7:11pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5176 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 127 of 271 12 May 2012 at 11:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Those sound like huge victories. Congratulations. What a great trip. I tend to "freeze" when talking to strangers in Spanish... you are lucky to be able to chat with new people. Sounds like you had a lot of fun.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4823 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 128 of 271 31 May 2012 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks James. I must say though I always feel a little nervous beforehand, and
strangely, much more if I am with a friend than if I am alone. So, a quick update on what I've been up to, then I had best move on with writing about how I got on in Spain. At the moment I am on unit 42 of plati, which is the last unit of level 6. I have also revised all the previous units of level 6, except unit 41. I need to go through the unit of suffixes 1 more time, for some reason despite being a very easy unit, the responses don't come as naturally to me as those for the present subjunctive. I find this reviewing of units to be incredibly useful, without it it seems like the contents of a unit are just stored in my short term memory. I have actually found the subjunctive quiet easy (although it will be much harder to remember to use in practice) but unit 42 is really quiet hard. I have also joined the super challenge, but I will update about that later. In the last couple of days, I have done something I have been meaning to do since Christmas, namely start working through the Programmatic workbook. I much prefer this book to the pmp books I have, and I have been writing my answers out in full rather than just filling in the blanks. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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