I did levels 1 and 2 of Spanish some time ago but unfortunately due to boring life stuff I stopped practising and didn’t do anything with what I learned - I appear to have now forgotten pretty much every thing. I’m back to “hello” and “two beers please”
So - I’ve decided to do it again - all of it - from scratch. I found level one, lesson one a little bit tedious as I actually had remembered it all, despite thinking it was gone, but I’m still planning on working systematically through all the levels again.
I am also starting an OU course in October (BA (Hons) Modern Languages) and have selected my main module in Spanish - so am hoping ssi will give me a bit of help - with what I know is going to be incredibly challenging!
I’m off to Spain in September for a week but the area I’m going to is a holiday resort full of English so not sure if I’ll have the chance to practice there, but I’ll try. I’m also going to try to read Spanish papers and listen to Spanish radio, fingers crossed I’ll be so surrounded by Spanish that some of it will stick.
Can I - strongly, strongly, strongly! - suggest that you do this the other way round? Start at 25 of Level 2, and see how many lessons it takes you, working backwards, before you realise that you just don’t need to go any further?
You might surprise yourself! We’ve seen, time and time again, that even breaks of more than a year don’t lead to the language being lost - just to it falling below the conscious level of control - and that you don’t need the multiple initial repetitions to get words back in your active vocabulary - the single/double instances you get in the later lessons are plenty…
So I took your advice and went backwards Got back to level 11 and thought I had it sussed but just double checked by doing 10 as well and that was all good - so now I’m going on to 13 again tomorrow to work back up to the end (I know that sounded very confusing but I know what I mean lol).
Also (just because I couldn’t quite believe that was the best way to do it ) I also dipped into level one sessions 11 and 17 - both were absolutely fine, I stumbled over a word or two but once I heard the correct response I kicked myself as I actually hadn’t forgotten it - just couldn’t recall quick enough. So onwards and upwards with level 2 again - what do I do when I reach the end? Would the tourist course be of any use or is it just stuff I will already know?
I’m also doing a course on memrise which has been put on by someone who has just done the same module with the OU that I start in October. It includes all the vocab and some of the grammar that’s used in the first level of the module, I’m sure the OU course itself is going to be a major challenge but the memrise vocab/grammar I’m doing is incredibly straightforward and I’m flying through - definitely thanks to SSi!!! It really has provided an excellent foundation to build on so thank you
Thank you for your kind words - really appreciated!
Hmmm… After Level 2, the main thing you need is conversation and listening practice… There will be extra things in the tourist stuff, particularly the latest lessons… But the main thing will be to listen to lots of stuff (including our listening exercises) and get a regular conversation partner…
Thanks for that advice!
I had to stop a couple of months ago after level 1. Now I can - and need to! - get on with my Spanish. I suspect you’ve saved me a lot of time with the process.
Love your method!
Thanks, Laurie - that’s really great to hear - and yes, jump in at the deep end instead of wading back through it all, and you’ll be back up to speed muy pronto…
) I also dipped into level one sessions 11 and 17 - both were absolutely fine, I stumbled over a word or two but once I heard the correct response I kicked myself as I actually hadn’t forgotten it - just couldn’t recall quick enough. So onwards and upwards with level 2 again - what do I do when I reach the end? Would the tourist course be of any use or is it just stuff I will already know?