Some of you might know me from the Welsh part of this forum but I am here to write something about not that recently began Spanish learning journey.
I’m only at Challenge 4 of Level 1and to be honest I don’t do lessons regularly at least not every day however here’s my first challenge which I tend to set infront of me in all languages I learn or have learnt in the past, which is starting to write a blog.
So, at only Challenge 4 of Level 1 and some aid of the dictionary to remember some words here’s my first blog post in Spanish. It is not much but it’s the atempt to challenge my skills. I’m bound to do new post every 2 months or so and I’m really interested to see how I’ll improove. It’s clearly seen now that I just couldn’t remember even a quarter of what I’ve learnt in these 4 Challenges but still. I bet I’ll remember more as I go further on and improve.
I hope the reading of those 4 or 5 sentences would still be somehow enjoyable anyway.
Muchas gracias! But this is not much yet. It’s clearly seen I didn’t know what I’ve already learnt and what not and I’ve forgot almost all words, however yup, why not adding this one to the mix too!
After 7 months I’m still at the (almost) very beginning of the level 1 but being at home I’ve accepted the challenge which @brigitte has put infront of me last Saturday - to learn more Spanish so here I am at Challenge 7 today which, I just have to say this, is quite confusing for me with so much of past tense in store. Hope next challenge will be a bit less challenging so I can finally remember something and put it right.
To be honest I thought my konwledge of Italian could help me in this process of learning but I found out it’s rather a bit confusing. Some words are also very similar meaning something different that I somehow have stored in my brains. The special challenge is to get rid of old “perceptions” of the meaning of some words from my brains. When I’ll acheave this I think I’d also be more capable to remember certain words and structures properly.
And, no, I didn’t write any other blog entry in this periode of time.
I’m also starting to learn spanish, Tatjana. I got to about challenge 6, then didn’t do any for ages and forgot it all, so I started again and I’m back at challenge 3 now and planning to do challenge 4 this afternoon while doing the ironing.
At the moment, I don’t seem to be able to remember any of it when not actually prompted by the challenge, but I’m not going to give up!
It always feels like that… I remember before I did a video chat with Louis to test a day of intensive Dutch a few years ago - I was absolutely certain that I didn’t have more than about half a dozen words I’d actually be able to use…
In aproximately half an hour (09.11.2018 17:11 it is now) I’ll start my Challenge 8 hopefully with less confusions on the past tense and less brain mess with Italian on top.
Well, I already for a while ponder the thought of doing 5 minute Challenge from Welsh in some other language also (in Spanish for example) and then it would be interesting to have the same “questions-answers” challenge to go with. But … I believe Level 1 should be very firmly finished before I can play with this one.
But i’m tempted … very tempted …
I admire you for that. What was more difficult - intensive day in Dutch or Intensive day in Manx. To me the Manx is still much harder to cope with than Dutch though. In Dutch there are some familiar things from German for example while in Manx I don’t see many of them if any at all.
You will all of a sudden remember a lot of it when least expected. The downside is that it might happen that you’d find other things you’ve already known slipping away for a brief time. But we will both eventually come to a brilliant finish, you will see.
Make sure you’re kind to yourself with the pause button - and if you’re really saying absolutely nothing, consider going back a couple of challenges - but always, always be kind to yourself with the pause button - it’s frustrating, I know, but it’s always best to be kind to your brain when you know it needs extra exposure…
I didn’t find Manx or Dutch more or less tricky - the levels of effort were the same - and I think once your brain is tired enough, even things that ought to be a little more familiar still seem tough to get out in time…
Upsy … I didn’t like myself at all because I ABSOLUTELY NEVER use pause button. Perhaps it’s time to find it and use it some time though. To be honrest I forgot pause button exists at all. Thank you.
Seriously, Tatjana - you’re a higher repetition learner - and it’s superb how much effort you’ve put in, and how much success you’ve had - but you are going to find it all much, much more achievable if you really USE that pause button.
This quite amazes me, Tatjana. I’m afraid I’ve always had to make copious use of the pause button, maybe a bit too much in the opposite direction. But I wouldn’t have been able to participate in our recent chat, or any other chats for that matter, if I’d not done so. All I can say is, there must be some middle ground here - try not to be so hard on yourself!
I’m not sure if I ever talked too much about that, but it is true. I never use the pause button. I sit back and try to say as much as possible in the gap even if it’s only one word I manage to produce. However because of that my brain had to work with full steam and when I started to learn Welsh it wasn’t rearly that I found myself literally sweating and i finished the lesson very tired.
Thank you. Here’s much work to be done yet though.
Thank you @AlanP. I’ll try not to. I have to admit I still have quite high expectations to myself but I at least don’t say anymore that something is impossible for me to do. I’ll just have to take into considderation that some things take more time to acheave them than the other.
You do superb work and your Welsh is good. I enjoyed both conversations we’ve had very much and I’m looking forward to the those yet to come.
Seriously, Tatjana - all those numbers and stats you gave me on your Welsh - without the pause button, they were all FANTASTIC. You are clearly much, much better at this than you’ve realised - and if you add enough pause button to say something in every gap, you’re going to find your learning improves significantly…
Will try this and report back. Although I’ve had a thought doing it, wouldn’t it result for my brain to become a bit lazy(ish) having more time to process things? I find doing lesson without pause button as like listening to the 2x speed listening practice where brain is forced to speed processing in order to understand at least something if even one doesn’t actually put too much effort into understanding the whole thing. You know, like we, people in general, when someone says “you can do it tomorrow” it’s more likely we’ll actually decide to post-pone the thing until tomorrow (although not all people are like that of course).
It is good to try and train your brain to respond faster - not least because you get through the lessons more quickly, as well as improving your skills at producing in conversation - but it CAN’T be at the expense of actually speaking in the gaps.
Pausing and speaking in the gaps will lead to much, much better learning than not pausing and not speaking…
Another high repetition learner here. I’ve never actually found the pause button helpful. The words are either there, in which case I can get most of them out during the gap or they’re not. If they’re not, racking my brains while I pause the challenge isn’t going to help. But that’s just me. Other people’s memories might work differently.
Lovely to hear your journeys. I am going out to Spain for the first time this year… and after experiencing the Welsh course, my thought was ‘great, I can learn Spanish!’. (That was real enthusiasm, not irony.)
