Final Tests

The Moment of Truth!!!

I have done two tests today to check my progress.

The first test comes from Centro Virtual Cervantes http://ave.cervantes.es/prueba_nivel/default.htm

I realy liked it, because it doesn't only check grammar and constructions knowledge, but also reading and listening comprehension.

I got B1!!!!!!!!!

Then I did the same test as in Day 1. http://www.spanish-test.net

It's dedicated completely to grammar and some vocabulary. There were a lot of improvements, but I reached only A2.

That was something objective, some established way to measure progress. Now about subjective feelings.

I definitely undertand spoken spanish and written spanish much, much better. Speaking metaphorically, it seems that 10 days ago I was in a fog, now it has cleared out and I see a lot around me and more importantly, I know where to go further. I realize there's a lot to learn, but I know that it's possible and it's really enjoyable.

From now on I'm sure 

• I can watch TV in spanish
• I can read blogs in spanish
• I can watch tutorials 
• I can read simple fiction in the original

From this time on, I'll take a much slower pace, as a typical student would do, the one who has work and family commitments. But I 'd like to recommend to all language learners and my english students in particular to try a similar 10 days maraphons, when you commit yourself totally just to one cause, that is studying a language. It's a curious journey where you might rediscover your passion for your language, you may find new ways to improve your skills and even jump to a much higher level.

I'd also recommend to write a blog about your studies. It keeps you motivated and committed! And it can be interesting and helpful to other people like you.

Day 10 - Study time 6 hours

I couldn't help but start with my new favorite songs. I translated and started learning a wondeful song "La Playa".

And my COVER 

 

Now it's so easy to understand the words of such simple love songs! It seems that there's a certain number of verbs and adjectives you need to remember and you're in a position to understand a lot (muchisimo)

I have worked with a number of grammar  exercises on the verbs and I come to the conclusion that it's possible to remember them. The endings make a lot of sense, and what I need is speaking practice.

One more lesson with my teacher went great. I'm still pleasantly surprised how flexible and helpful she is.

Rest of the time is spent for watching "Los Protegidos". I'm officially addicted! I hate to be hooked on a serial, but I justify myself saying that it's for a good purpose.

Day 9 - Study time 5 hours

That day was one of the most productive. I studied one of my favorite topic - Travelling.
I started with a textbook, then I tried to express everything I learnt in a connected text. It turned out that writing didn't take as long as I expected.

An exciting part was surfing spanish blogs about travelling. I used to do it before, but quickly closed the posts, 'cos it was too hard to read. This time though I could enjoy all the advice about travelling to Mexico in Spanish! I can officially admit, that now I can surf the net for practical information in spanish.

The highlight of the day was music.

1) My teacher sent my a song that did not resemble all other songs I heard in spanish - the ones with "besos, manos, cubri tus ojos, me muere de amor" banalities.

But something curious, that reminded me of an old great russian band.

2) I really fell in love with "La oreja de Van Gogh". I listened to the whole albom, and I wasn't bored!
It reminds me of my favourite Abba:)

Day 8 - Study time 3 hours

I can feel that spanish is filling my mind. I'm  absorbing so much information passively, but I don't have time to digest it and learn to express it. I was thinking about finding a language exchange partner, but in my previous experience it took quite an amount of time to find a person who suited me. Now I don't have that time, so I'll have to manage by myself.

I dedicated a fair amount of time to prepare my tasks for the lesson. It's definitely great to have a guidance in a language aquisition. Even if you know how to study and what to study, and even if you can find a lot of speaking practice in language exchange, it's still important to have someone to see to your progress.

I started teaching English quite a long time ago, but only recently I came to think of a language teacher as of a coach. Especially when it comes to one-to-one classes. Teaching a language is not only about explaining grammar and drilling exercises, it's a lot about effective communication and interation between a teacher and a student, and even more about them being partners. It's a kind of a partnership where a coach (a teacher) knows what's going on in the learning process, sees to good results, sets short-term and long-term goals and uses the coachee's (student's) potencial to the fullest, but also informs the coachee about all of that. Therefore the student does not only follow, but also can lead and most importantly take responsibility for the learning process. 

Day 7 - Lazy time 3 hours

It felt like I couldn't do any more studying that day. May be after all it's not by chance that the 7th day of the week is meant for rest. As much as I wanted to push up my progress, I made up my mind not to force myself and just relax. Play my favourite series and drink coffee.

I came to the end of the first season of "Los Protegidos" and after it something unexpected happened!!!

As you know, I'm watching this series with the subtitles in my language. I had only the first season on my computer. The thing is that it ended with such a cliffhanger, that I just had to watch the first episode of the second season. I had some doubts about it, because I'd hate to miss some explanation of the mystery if I watched it in spanish without subtitles. But curiousity won, as usual, and I turned it on on youtube.

After watching it without subtitles for half an hour, I was shocked to realize, that I don't need them. I understood almost everything, and... I even laughed at the jokes!

Not a bad idea to have a lazy day after all.

Day 6 - Study time 5 hours

Let's try to put up the things I did that day in Spanish. Obviously, it's going to be short.

1) Tuve segunda clase con mi profesora.

2) Estudié conjugación des verbos.

3) Hice ejercicios grammatica

4) Escribí un texto corto sobre mi viaje

5)  Estudié las palabras en quizlet

6) Vi dos capítulos de mi serie.

I believe i'm getting the hang of Past Simple:)

Day 5 - Study time: 6 hours

Today I had my first lesson with a spanish teacher. I really enjoyed it, 'cos she seems to be a very nice person, very friendly and dedicated to her job.

I liked the way she started teaching the verbs conjugation to me. She really knows how spanish grammar functions and shows certain logical connections between the tenses that make memorization easier.

1) So I spent more than an hour on grammar tasks. It's not that difficult, but i always have a feeling that it's like doing maths. You solve it, but then don't know what to do with it in real life.

2) Writing has always been my weak point in all the languages. So I made up my mind to practice as much as writing as possible when learning spanish. I'm happy again that my teacher thinks it's important. I spent some time trying to put up a meaningful text.

3) Quizlet as usual

4) 2 more episodes of "Los protegidos"

Day 4 - Study time 5 hours

I have to fight the spanish verbs. That's it. Just do it.

1) And so I spent a significant amout of time learning and practicing the conjugation in Present and Past tense.

2) Let's always remember about a review. Vivo Quizlet!:)

3) He encontrado una professora de espanol! Por fin!

4) He pasado dos maravillosos horas viendo "Los Protegidos".

Day 3 - Study time: 4 hours

Today I felt Spanish gradually getting under my skin. Every time I speak English, spanish words would pop into my mind. However, i'm still very unsure about whether I can speak it at all.

1) I've tried to dedicate some time to studying the verbs, but as it is the most tedious task ever, i couldn't accomplish much here. I realize that I have to just do it, but procrastination is my friend.
I found a useful video, though.

2)The best time of the day is reading my precious "Los juegos del hambre". I even did not look in the dictionary. I enjoy every moment of experiencing one of the most exciting stories in Spanish. 

3) Two more episodes of "Los protegidos". I believe I'm getting addicted...

4) All spanish pop songs seem to have the same words, like

no te vayas, mi vida,                     

me muero

esperanza

te voy queriendo cada día

me voy perdiendo

tus ojos mi mirada

tus labios

Does anybody know spanish songs that do not contain these words?:)

Day 2 - Study time: 5 hours

Today I woke up with Spanish speech sounding in my head:) It was nice. Probably the after effect of watching too much TV.

1) I decided to go over the boring part first and studied some irregular verbs. Unfortulately, this task always makes me sleepy, so I turned to the fun part of learning a song "Cuidate" by heart. I love singing and playing guitar, so my cover version of it was ready in no time.

2) The textbook had the topic "Comida", that I hope will prove very useful in Mexican restaurants:) But frankly speaking, it's one of the most boring (aburrido) things to learn names of fruit and vegetables, and talk about food as well...

3) Thank you, Marina and Ben, your podcast made studying much livelier http://www.notesinspanish.com/2006/10/02/intermediate-spanish-podcast-4-fobias/

Good topic, useful expressions learnt!

4) I enjoyed the third episode of "Los protegidos". I seemed to be reading subtitles a bit less.

5) Writing practice

6) And finally, I was astonished by the way reading of the second chapter of "Los juegos del hambre" went. It seemed I came across all the new words I learnt yesterday and I was very excited to recognize them. Definitely, it was much easier to read.

Still looking for a way to practice speaking though.

"Que la suerte este siempre de vuestra parte!"

Day 1 - Establishing strengths and weaknesses - Study time: 7 hours

Today is the first day of my 10 days Spanish challenge!

I have decided to hold an experiment to see how much Spanish I can learn in 10 days, if I dedicate every minute of my spare time to learning. I have to admit, that I have some spare time due to my flexitime job. I also have a motivating factor - in 2 weeks i'm going to Mexico, where I intend to put my acquired spanish knowledge into practice!

Where do I stand now?

• I have beginner level of spanish
• I speak 4 other languages
• I know how to teach and learn foreign languages
• I believe I have good listening skills
• I believe that reading in Spanish is the easiest thing

I thought that the first logical thing to do was to test my level. So I went to  http://www.spanish-test.net/ and  tried my best to exceed my expectations of A1, 

but failed:(

Encouraged by good results, I thought I could do more that A1, but it proved wrong...

Inspite of my bad grammar, I realise that I'm not so miserable at understanding spoken speech and even better at reading. I'd put myself to A2 level at these aspects.

When it comes to speaking, I'm useless. I can have a small introductory talk, that's all.

Lack of grammar and vocabulary makes further conversation impossible.

I started thinking how exactly I'm going to study during these 14 days. I realize that the best way in general and for me in particular in to personalize my studies, do in Spanish what i like doing in English. In the end I came up with this plan.

I have to

• work with a textbook, cos it gives structure 
• study grammar

I want to

• listen and learn songs
• watch a serial
• listen to podcasts
• read a book 
• test Duolinguo

So I began

1) I started with Duolinguo. It helped to learn some basic, but very necessary vocabulary, like food and animals.

2) I studied a unit from a textbook (El Accion 1) which turned out to be very entertaining.

3) Then I turned to podcasts and really enjoyed listening to Ben and Marina from Notes in Spanish. http://www.notesinspanish.com/

I took intermediate level podcasts and they suit me just fine.

4) I put 40 new words to my Quizlet.

5) I spent about an hour listening to spanish songs trying to find something to my taste, and finally discovered La Oreja de Van Gogh. Here is a song I particulaly liked

6) Writing practice (with my teacher's corrections)

7) I started reading a book that I've read in English and that I know pretty well "Hunger 

Games":) Challening, but possible.

8) Finally, I started watching a funny spanish serial "Los Protegidos". I finished 2 episodes with subtitles, and I wished i could watch more, but it was 2.00 a.m. already:)

I'm thinking of looking for an online teacher as well to help me with the speaking part.

If you know good resourses for studying spanish, please share!!!