Learning Spanish

Learning Spanish – It all adds up (Day 13 of month 2)

~ diana ~ Leave a comment

This day was one of those days when it seemed I’m so busy that there won’t be much time to study at all. However, by end of the day it still added up to 48 minutes. That is all thanks to my daily routine and habits. A Duolingo session or two in the very morning while still in bed. Then listening to podcast after a shower as I dress and pack my bag. Then on Memrise app on my phone as I wait for the bus and as I transfer buses and on Memrise again in the evening as I wait for the bus to go home and a little on the bus as well.

Here is the breakdown:
9 Duolingo
18 Coffee Break Spanish episodes 53
21 Memrise

Till tomorrow!

Learning Spanish – Duolingo and Memrise combo (Day 12 of month 2)

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This is how my Duolingo tree looks like:

I’m done with 21 skills and so far I have been trying to keep the tree Golden as in the first picture, but to no avail as you see in the second. As I get certain skills gold by reviewing, soon enough their “strength” expires and they become green or red. However the frustrating part is that when doing the practice session not always some skill turns golden. It is very de-motivating when that happens.

So the question is do I keep learning new lessons or do I review first and have everything golden before going on to new lessons.

I went on to Duolingo forums and the internet at large (here, here and here) and the general consensus is that if you review more often and keep the tree golden you will know the material better. However racing through the tree is more addicting and motivating.

I have decided from now on to focus on racing the tree – meaning give priority to learning new lessons than reviewing. Here are reasons:

  • At Coffee Break Spanish I’m at an episode that starts to cover past tenses. In Duolingo I’m still ways away until I reach that lesson. I would prefer to reach them at the same time in different materials so that the concepts settle in better after attacking them from different sources. 
  • Duolingo is not my only Spanish learning material, so learning every single detail from it is not that important.
  • Memrise is much more efficient for acquiring vocabulary in long term memory (the app is faster, you can learn each word individually (instead of typing a whole sentence))
  • and finally! I found a Memrise course with Duolingo vocabulary. 

So my strategy going forward is going to be keep going forward in Duolingo tree and only review when the average strength drops below full bars and also be at the same place in the corresponding Memrise Duolingo vocab course (though will need to do catching up!)

Here are the numbers for Day 12. Total was 41 minutes. Here is the breakdown:
9 Duolingo
20 Coffee Break Spanish episodes 52
12 Memrise

Till tomorrow!

Takeaways from TEDx talk How to learn any language in 6 months by Chris Lonsdale (Day 11 of month 2)

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Yesterday I watched a great TEDx talk by Chris Lonsdale

He claims anybody can learn a second language in 6 months applying the following principles and actions. Here they are plus my takeways (after the “=>”) of how I can apply them to my studies.

Principles:
#1 Focus on language content that is relevant to you => I did this by going through the basic Spanish courses on Memrise that focused on vocabulary useful for introductory conversations (instead of starting with grammar books or podcasts that focus on grammar right away). Plus I did the El Menu Memrise course because I wanted to be able to order tacos.

#2 Use the new tool to communicate from Day 1 => I haven’t quite done this, but after weeks one, two, and five I made a video of me speaking in Spanish. Also, whenever I see my friends that speak Spanish I try to chat with them in Spanish for as long as I can (in the very beginning it was only a hello).

#3 Use comprehensible input – when you first understand the message (even through body language and pictures) you acquire the language => I think this indeed means I should do the Spanish only podcasts after I finish with the English-Spanish podcasts and my Spanish level has improved.

#4 Speaking takes muscle

#5 Psycho-physciological state matters – if you are sad, angry, worried you are not going to learn. If you are happy, relaxed, and can tolerate ambiguity you will learn quickly. => I’m all good in this department 🙂

Actions following the principles that Chris lists in his talk:

1. Listen a lot (“Brain soaking”) => as much as I can 🙂

2. Understand meaning first (get clues from body language) => I’m pretty sure by now I’m doing this automatically as when I first came to United States I didn’t speak that well and it was hard to understand spoken English so I was basically forced to pay attention to the body language.

3. Start mixing (10 verbs x 10 adjectives x 10 nouns = 1000 things you can say) => not sure how practical is this advice. Don’t we do it automatically?

4. Focus on the core – use frequency lists => good, that means those Memrise courses are not a waste.

5. Get a language parent – safe environment where you can practice and make mistakes => yeah, I should probably do more studying with a tutor.

6. Copy the face of native speaker speaking => I guess its time to watch more youtube videos 🙂

7. “Direct connect” to mental images => memrise is good for that as each word has mems (pictures or sentences) that help create associations for the word.

As for Day 11 (of month 2) of learning Spanish I got in whole 2 hours! Had quite a bit of walking to do! Here is the breakdown:

11 Duolingo
64 Coffee Break Spanish episodes 49-51
36 Memrise
10 speaking Spanish with a friend

Till tomorrow!

Learning Spanish #2 Day 10 – Strategy for switching back to Spanish in conversations

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This was a tough day for studying Spanish. I fell in bed super tired after a busy day, but I couldn’t let my Duolingo streak go! Talk about successful gamification and addiction, hehe! So I did a bit of Duolingo and Memrise until it added up to 30 minutes, my minimum goal for this month.

I also had an opportunity to speak in Spanish with somebody at a party, but we managed to have just couple of minutes of conversation before I switched to English. I need to build an arsenal of questions that I can use to switch back to Spanish and continue the conversation.

Till tomorrow! 🙂

Learning Spanish #2 Day 9 – List of podcasts in Spanish

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A fellow Spanish learner pointed me to the following video “How I became fluent in Spanish by dychui”. It is somebody’s account on how he became fluent in Spanish over the years. One of the things that I took away is the importance of listening the language – he listened to podcasts every day. That is encouraging for my strategy of using of Coffee Break Spanish – so I will stick to it.

Here are the podcasts that he mentioned (he mentioned other good resources as well):

I can’t wait to have good enough Spanish to listen to Spanish only podcasts. Perhaps I will start those after I finish the Coffee Break Spanish Series (now episode 48 out of 80).

On Day 9 (of month 2) I had quite a bit of commute time so I got in 97 minutes in total. Here is the breakdown:
21 Duolingo
38 Coffee Break Spanish podcast 47-48
38 Memrise

Till tomorrow!

Learning Spanish #2 Day 8 – Focus for the next week

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Last week’s progress have been good, but I still would like to kick it up a notch. Previously I have felt the most progress when I have learned a lot of new vocabulary. Duolingo is more effective for grammar than vocabulary. Coffee Break Spanish episodes are getting into more grammar than new vocabulary. That leaves me with Memrise. Its a great tool for learning vocabulary so for the upcoming week my focus will be to do more of Memrise. Last week’s average was 16 minutes per day of Memrise, so I will try to do more than that 🙂

Also, if I could get to it, it would be great to write up some things in Spanish. Especially stories that would be useful in potential conversations. Like, why I’m studying Spanish, how I’m studying Spanish, about my travels in Mexico. These are the questions I couldn’t expand on more than just the basics in my last attempt to speak Spanish at a meetup.

On Day 8 I managed to get in 50 minutes of studying Spanish. Here is the breakdown:
15 Duolingo
20 Coffee Break Spanish podcast 46
15 Memrise

Hasta pronto! – Till soon!

Learning Spanish: Week 5 progress

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Hard work is not sexy. While you are in the midst of it you may not seem to notice the progress, but all those little steps add up. That’s why I like to look back at weekly progress and see how much the daily work has added up to.

Overall I’m happy with my progress last week. What’s more, I loved it! I look forward to walking or running errands because they are an opportunity to study. I’m looking forward to new Coffee Break Spanish episodes – I like the continuity of them. Also its pretty amazing that I’m now at episode 45. When I started I didn’t think I would get that far.

I haven’t missed a day, and each day was at least 30 minutes, but on average almost an hour. Also I haven’t missed a day on Duolingo. This hits 2 of my initial goals for this mission. So far so good.

I’m a nerd, so next I will nerd out with the numbers 🙂

In the past week (week 1 of the second month of learning Spanish, so week 5 or 6 in total) I have studied Spanish for total of 387 minutes or 6 hours and 27 minutes. Or an average of 55 minutes per day.

Here is the breakdown:

  • 209 minutes of Coffee Break Spanish in which I listened to 10 new episodes (36 to 45).
  • 66 minutes of Duolingo in which I went from 881 XP points to 1094 XP points, but still Level 7. (Now at lesson Determiners 1/3)
  • 112 minutes of Memrise in which I kept previous courses watered (324 Learn Basic Mexican Spanish + 108 El Menu course) and learned 114 new items in the Spanish vocab by frequency course 1 to 675.
Till tomorrow!

Learning Spanish #2 Day 7 – Duolingo 7 day streak

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Being on a streak is addictive. You don’t want to break it. That’s so smart that Duolingo has it as a feature. And not only that, after each successful session you get reminded that you are on a streak. That probably is one of the reasons why Duolingo is successful and why so many people keep coming back using the app every day including me. Here is actually a comment from somebody who finished Duolingo Spanish tree and the Duolingo app was the only that the person used consistently every day for a whole year.

Here are the numbers for yesterday (total 48 minutes):
14 Duolingo
24 Coffee Break Spanish podcast 45
10 Memrise

Till tomorrow!

Learning Spanish #2 Day 6 – partying related phrases in Spanish

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Qué haces durante el fin de semana?

Finally a very useful phrase. That means “What are you up to this weekend?”

This is why I like learning Coffee Break Spanish podcast instead of other more official language programs. Coffee Break Spanish podcast hosts are two young people and vocabulary is more relevant to current times and what a young person living in a city might do.

Here are more phrases that I learned. All of the following mean “let’s go party!”

Vamos juerga!
Vamos de fiesta!
Vamos de pachanga! (pachanga is also a cuban dance.)

The following phrase means “Let’s go out for drinks!”:

Vamos de copas!

Damos una fiesta. – “We are throwing a party.”

Quedamos en la plaza – “Let’s meet up at the plaza!”

Yesterday I managed to get in 51 minute of studying. Here is the breakdown:

8 Duolingo
38 Coffee Break Spanish podcast 43-44
5 Memrise

Till tomorrow!