Finally, after much procrastination, tackled and completed challenge 16, just about to do 17. As you probably know (cos I keep mentioning it) I’m off to sunny Spain on the 22nd so I’ve decided it’s time to get my head down and get on with it. I have 15 days left before I travel and 8 challenges remaining in level 1 and I have a plan
I’m going to complete levels 1 and 2 before I get on that plane, so that’s 33 challenges in 15 days, except I don’t intend doing any at the weekends as these will be for listening exercises only. There are 2 Saturdays and 2 Sundays before my trip so i have 11 week days - if my maths is better than my Spanish then I can do it if I complete 3 challenges a day.
So I’ll hopefully be completing lessons 18,19 and 20 tomorrow - will let you know how it works out.
If I can’t keep up or meet my target I’ll go for plan B - learn something easier like Swahili!! just kidding, the course is so good and I really do feel like I’m getting there, thanks for all the fab support on the forum too.
That’s awesome, and definitely do-able - you might like to join our ‘Accelerated Welsh’ group on Facebook - although it’s about Welsh, it’s exactly the same in terms of methodology - and lots of people in there have tested doing loads of lessons in a day, or for several days in a row - so you can definitely do this…
Oooh, that’s very exciting Nikki. I think we need a detailed account of how that goes day by day, it will be very instructive reading for everyone else on the forum. Aran is very keen on accelerated learning as he has probably mentioned, and I am fascinated by the whole (neurological) theory behind the SSI method, so keep us in the loop please!
Well! 18, 19 and 20 done today and my head is about to explode! I found one of them extremely difficult, but as they have now all merged into one nightmare - ish blur I can’t tell you which one lol.
I struggled a lot with how do you feel (18 I think) and also, why oh why oh why is such a simple little word as nice so blooming hard to say in Spanish, after multiple attempts I’m sure I was saying abracadabra.
But, many, many more positives than negatives. I am absolutely loving this course, I’m just amazed that I can say I met my sister in the pub and an old man who works with me who told me he knew my brother and I watched the football game on Friday, had a few drinks with some friends on Saturday, read an interesting book, watched a film at the weekend about a young woman who wants to learn Spanish … I could go on - I mean REALLY I could go on. I can actually say all these things and to be honest I’m just amazed. (I would say speechless but as you can tell by my waffling on that isn’t quite the case )
An observation - which I’m sure everyone else realised long before me, I have found in most challenges a word, phrase or sentence that I can’t get my head around. Whenever Aran says it (whatever ‘it’ is in that particular lesson) I go blank, can’t remember a thing and end up missing out on saying the whole sentence because I’m floundering over the first word or couple of words. But then, the magic happens - and in the next lesson when that word or phrase comes up - i know it! I say it as if I’ve always known it. I have no idea how that works but you can’t argue with the facts - it happens time and time again.
Which means there will come a time when I will be able to talk about my feelings and stop saying something is abracadabra
Thanks again Aran, Stu and everyone else for all the support - it is such a help.
You’re doing brilliantly. Don’t worry about the sense of nightmare - it’ll be interesting to see how you feel in a week or so from now - you may well adapt to three in a row - but either way, keep on charging through them and even when you feel out of your depth, you WILL still be learning (and the sessions will still be there if you decide you need to revisit them once you’re back from Spain!)…
Just completed 21 and was lulled into a false sense of security ha ha. Thought it was remarkably easy and was steaming through at quite a pace and smugly patting myself on the back as I got my responses in every time before Rosa and Gaby said them. With about 95% accuracy I think, just the odd misplaced que instead of lo que.
That will teach me not to get complacent. About 8 minutes from the end I faltered. All those “everyone wants” and “everyone says” - could not get my head round the changes to the ends of the words. Ended up wishing “everyone” would go away (though I wouldn’t have been able to tell them to")
Anyway, off to walk the dog with challenge 22 and 23, I know from previous challenges these issues will be ironed out as I continue.
Don’t underestimate what a phenomenal achievement that is - doesn’t matter at all that you ran into a snag at the end - that level of accuracy for the bulk of the session is hugely, hugely impressive. Doesn’t matter if 22 and 23 sting a little - it all gets deliberately much tougher in the last few sessions - so keep on pushing on, and then romp off into Level 2 for some new fun…
Did challenge 23 last night, a much “nicer” challenge than 22 I must say! (And on the subject of nice things I have now mastered the Spanish for nice and can say agradable without any abracadabras creeping in). I struggled with pronouncing esperar and still really, really can’t say prefereria from a couple lessons ago but on the whole felt good about 23.
Completed 24 today with no issues on any of the new stuff, seemed to go through it fairly painlessly. I do still keep saying para and que in the wrong places but am hoping this will get better in time with lots of practice.
Work schedule hasn’t allowed me to do my other 2 yet to stay on target today but the night is young, just about to do 25 and level 2 session 1 before I listen to a Spanish radio station for an hour (while playing Candy Crush), I know how to party!
How does Level 2 compare with Level 1? The gaps in Level 1 are pretty generous, but I recall that @ianblandford says that the is a lot less time to response at the higher level. How did you find that? And how do you listen to Spanish radio please?
Well, I did not like level 1 session 25 and definitely will be revisiting it after a few days, honestly think I did it much too late at night and was too tired so my mind was wandering. Could kick myself as felt I was doing well until then. So I left level 2 until today and didn’t notice that the gaps were any shorter, I believe though that they actually shortened half way through level 1, so although the gaps are less than in level 1 sessions 1, 2, 3 etc I felt they were the same as level 1 sessions 15, 16 etc…That may be just my perception though.
Here is the link to how to access Spanish Radio stations online, and also the link to my personal favourite although I’m sure you’ll find your own. I’ve found that just having it on in the background while I do other things is great but I get much too excited when I recognise a phrase or understand a bit of a conversation, I need to get out more
Maravilloso, muchas gracias Nikki I will try that radio station as soon as I can. Some Spanish imersion is going to be called for before long, I can tell.
Interesting about the gaps getting shorter in Level 1, I will watch out for that around Challenge 15 or so. Currently I can manage most responses twice in the allotted time, but the psychological pressure of knowing that the gap is small will be an interesting experience quite soon, I am sure! This is after all what makes this method so effective in producing conversational speakers rather than grammaticians (you may be able to tell that I have an aversion to grammar for some reason, an affliction that, until I discovered SSI, caused me to fail at language learning. It is quite odd that, as I have a scientific background so you would have thought that I would love rules and stuff. Problem is, rules always get broken in natural languages, and grammar has always been a turn off for me. Others love it though, so more power to them for that!)
Slower than planned
I was wrong previously, the gaps are definitely shorter, just didn’t notice in challenge 1. Plodding through them though and think it’s sticking (well most of it) Am behind my target, just about to do challenge 6 but so tempted to go back to 2 and do it again!
Some of it’s tricky but I still feel I’m retaining a fair bit.
I went back and did level 1 challenge 25 again as it went so badly on the first attempt but still not happy with it, think I am probably only hitting a 75% success rate, but I won’t give up.
Hope you’re doing ok, only just logged on so will take a look at your learning log thread next
Catch ya later
I remember my first post when I started with SSiS was me saying how dim I was feeling - well that was nothing compared to how dim I feel now. I am really starting to struggle with Level 2, not sure if it’s genuinely that much more difficult or if my pace is wrong, or if I’m trying too hard …
I’m not putting the right endings on the words, I’m missing pronouns all together and completely forgetting vocab! Have actually found myself shouting at the pc this evening as I couldn’t drag up the correct responses from anywhere. As you know usually shouting at a pc will solve most problems - but nope, it just isn’t happening for me at the moment.
Not sure whether to carry on pushing water up hill and do another challenge or have a break of a day or 2 and just do listening exercises. Any thoughts anyone?
Take a break for a day or two and let your brain rest a little, would be my advice. A large part of learning is the time spent resting - it gives your brain chance to sort out all the new stuff it’s just taken in.
I am a great believer in taking a short break Nikki, as @hectorgrey has suggested. These days, I tend not do anything but listening exercises over the weekends because they are so busy, and I find it quite helpful as it allows the brain to consolidate what I have been learning, and also helps put some perspective on any difficulties I have encountered.
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About 8 minutes from the end I faltered. All those “everyone wants” and “everyone says” - could not get my head round the changes to the ends of the words. Ended up wishing “everyone” would go away (though I wouldn’t have been able to tell them to")
