Where I'm Going to Go With Spanish

I am going to spend a lot of time in 2013 on Spanish grammar and vocabulary. I have my own room now, and its all set up so I'm probably going to label things that I don't know over the next several weeks. I don't need vocabulary like la cama or  el armario but I don't know a word for bedsheets or poster. There are also hundreds of everyday words that I don't know that I'll be working on learning.

My approach, will be Sentence Based, Grammar Conscious and I must build my aural comprehension. I must! I'm going to try and build my way up to watching/listening to 100 hours of Spanish a month. But not right away. Between now (12/25/12) and April 1, 2013, I want to just revise grammar, build vocabulary and practice conversation as much as I can.

Fortunately for me, I happen to work with a couple of Spanish speakers and have met a couple more on campus so I should be able to find the time to speak in Spanish with others at least a couple of times each week.

Pimsluer Spanish Comprehensive

So, even though I left this blog by the way side, I did in fact complete 90 lessons of Pimsluer Spanish (Levels 1-3). I didn't do Pimsluer Spanish "Plus" it was an addition 10 lessons that made no real difference.

Pimsleur is good at what it does, but it doesn't do that much, in my experience. It took me a while to finish and I restarted a couple of times but I'm so glad that I did, in fact finish. I hate not finishing things.

I probably would not use Pimsleur again for another language. Well, actually I might, but I would have to use it very early on in the language learning days. I would never use Pimsleur to learn a language I had a foundation in, unless the sound system was really bugging me that I couldn't replicate it.

Back in the Spanish Saddle

So, today is the first day of my new Spanish regiment!

I'm starting on a more aggressive study schedule, speeding through with high accuracy as much of my materials as I can. Hopefully this will help me minimize my possessions and improve my Spanish in the same task :).

I'm sooo excited, wish my suerte.

Riddle Me This: Language Fatigue :).

Yesterday, was a wonderful Spanish day. I went to the lounge where many of the SPN speaking students hang out in my school, and wasted time with them. I had a book of Adivinas (Riddles), so we had a lot of fun with that.

One girl from Honduras was really kind, she went over some Adivinas with me that I couldn't solve alone and she patiently provided translations and interpretations of them and their answers until I understood (this was in English, duh!)

It was a ton of fun! I really enjoyed it. She even went over caza vs casa with me a few times. They sounded the same to me, the difference is soooo subtle to my ears, I love it!

However, a family from Mexico came in, they were looking to enroll their oldest daughter in the school. Mostly, the family didn't speak English and so I was quickly left out, as the students explained to them about the school and the international program, but I was so surprised also!

I found that I could understand a great deal 1-on-1, (I talked to the Mexican father, mother and to my friend in spanish) and that my group comprehension had really picked up too. The Mex. Father spoke little to no English, so when he shared stories in Spanish, I was forced to keep up. It was fantastic!

He told of the tourist city he lives in, and how the roofs of homes are built into an ancient tunnel and so you can park on your roof. :).

He talked about his younger daughters school and how they needed to go shopping (didn't understand all of that, but I know the younger daughter wanted some new clothes)

There were many things I didn't understand, I couldn't tell if they'd had to move from a city in Mexico, or if they had to do something else.

He really threw me with the story about a gay duck fighting his friend.

I was immersed in Spanish for probably more than an hour, I got dizzy/tired towards the end but man, it was amazing...I felt really fatigued after

PS. I LOVE The Mexican accent. Its so clear, so pronounced. The Hondurans that I know speak moderate but their words seem to run together. The Columbians are so nice, but I can scarecely understand the Columbians that I know when they speak Spanish...*sigh*. But the Columbians are some of the nicest people I've met in my college experience, they're really cool, all of the Latin Americans that I've met.

The Latinos that I've had the pleasure to encounter are some of the warmest, kindest, most open and friendly people I've met in the last 10 years. I :heart: Los Latinos.

Daily Spanish Time

So, for the past 6-7 days, I've been doing Daily Spanish Time with my little sister. During the Spanish Time with my lilSis.

She's super. :).

We've just started in on The Complete Book of Starter Spanish, but we've skipped the 'fluff' (ie alphabet, shapes and numbers) and are doing just the vocabulary.

Starting today, I'm going to try and work in a session with The Learnables 3x a week. She loves the DST we have together 1 on 1, and so do I, but I want her to get the best exposure and best pronunciation possible. We've got a bare basics schedule-outline that if we stick to, we'll complete the book by the 23rd of this month. We're also slowly working our way into using Spanish for Beginners. I want her to learn the phrases and such, and have an idea about the grammar that goes into the language, but right now we just use it for skits and such.

We're on track to finish Starter Spanish around the end of this month, I'm not sure if we'll jump right into the The Complete Book of Spanish, which is going to be a more sophisticated review of most of the vocabulary we already know and will probably take us about 3 weeks to complete.

or if we should do something else. Complete Book of Spanish has some very down to earth grammar explanations/instruction in it also, so I may just use it Right away...I reckon it will take us about 3 weeks to complete it.

I'm working on a few simple stories to read to her using the vocabulary she's learning in Starter Spanish now and I'm debating whether we should go through The Everything Kids Learning Spanish book, my lil sister is doing so well already, that I'm probably not going to present the book to her, but teach most of the grammar points from it. By the end of april we'll probably be working more from Spanish for Beginners than anything else.

I'm thinking well just continue to use Spanish for Beginners along side Starter Spanish, Complete Book of Spanish and then use Everything Kids Learning Spanish book, it will be a lot of review and I think thats what we need. I'm also going to start converting my carboard collection in to games and manipulatives and such to reinforce the vocabulary and grammar that we're learning from these books.

I need to definitely push to get her through The Learnables, and we've got a few story books around here also....

Anyway, these are just the thoughts and ideas cluttering up the limited space in my brain.

General Spanish Updates

Alrighty, I haven't got nearly as much to report as I aught to.

I restarted Pimsleur from the beginning and am currently trying to do 1 lesson a day. I'm on lesson 21 right now and almost done with it.

I haven't gotten a chance to go through my Spanish textbook because I've lent it out to a friend who's taking Spanish III.

I have no excuse as to why I haven't done more with the other Spanish materials that I do have. I promise to better starting on the 7th. The first official day of Spring Break from school.

During Spring Break (3/7 - 3/13) I have 3 Simple goals:

I'm going to finish the Realidades Spanish 1 Workbook that I have approx. 134 pages in it.

I'm going to finish the first level of Pimsleur. I've got 9 lessons to go.

I'm going to Find my Easy Spanish Reader, I know its around here somewhere....

Where I stand and Where I want to Go

I completed my 3rd semester of Spanish at community college and received an A. I'm so happy!

That means there is no more Spanish for me to study until I'm ready to complete my transfer, hooray! Just about a dozen math and science classes left and then I'll be on my way to a bigger, better 4-year degree.

Anyway, with the New Year right around the corner I thought I'd begin taking this blog a little more seriously and try to keep on track. It is now up to me to maintain my Spanish.

I am probably at a basic conversational level. I am honest, I dont feel that I learned much in 3 semesters of Spanish, even though I tried to do everything right. Dont get me wrong, I studied a good deal of grammar and loads of vocabulary and I even have a few diddies and jingles store away in this head of mine too, but I cant really SPEAK the language.

I've seen marked improvement in my own abilities, sometimes I'll over here something on TV or in the store and understand it. I read semi-regularly in Spanish and have a good idea of the content or whatnot, but I want to be able to speak and understand Spanish in a normal, conversational way. I want to get to the point that by the end of this year I can appreciate basic puns and language based jokes in Spanish. I can speak and be understood by almost any Spanish speaker, and listen and understand. I'd also like it if I could write a touch better than the average spanish speaking 2nd grader, but I think that based on the type of person I am, and how much I write and because of my literary-strengths in language, that if I improve in Speaking, listening, conversation that I'll improve in the writing department also.

My goal is to really cement all the grammar I learned in the last year and half in school and internalize them, as I did with the English language.