New and I can hardly remember what the guy says in my own language

Spanish
#21

This is absolutely key to the approach, and will make it much more enjoyable for you - great decision!.. :slight_smile:

#22

Oh dear!

That said, Iā€™ve found that ā€œstop thinking, start speakingā€ (i.e. after listening to the English prompt, just blurt out whatever your brain gives you rather than stopping to analyse it and carefully craft the proper tenses etc.) has done wonders to my learningā€¦ and the blurt is nearly always correct!

I think it shows that sometimes I need to ā€œlet goā€ and trust in the course, that things are sinking in even if I itā€™s not as perfectly structured and compartmentalised into nice little grammar boxes as I might like.

I guess Iā€™m learning more things than just a language with SSi :slight_smile:

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#23

Yes, this! Itā€™s well known that some elements of learning that lead to consistent improvements almost always feel less effective - Iā€™m thinking most particularly of interleaving. It can be very hard to trust in a system if you havenā€™t done the research yourself, of course - weā€™re not wired to take other people blindly on trust - but over time, the moments of discovery that you have about your own learning should help you feel more confident that youā€™re doing the right thing to trust the methodā€¦ :slight_smile:

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#24

I realise this thread was last December, but I am having the exact same issue - struggling to remember the long sentences in English before I even try to translate! I decided to get a pad, pause it and then write it down. I do know the Spanish and it reassures me that I am able to translate it then quickly.

Is that a good method, or should I just remember as much of the English as possible and translate, even if I miss the end of the sentence?

TIA, Ali x

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#25

Youā€™re best off trying to remember as much of the English as possible, in my experience. Itā€™s hard (most of us have some difficulty with the longer sentences), but the difficulty here is whatā€™s commonly referred to as a desirable difficulty - itā€™s a difficulty that actually helps you learn faster (even though it really doesnā€™t feel like that).

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#26

The second one of these! As Hector says, the longer ones are tough - but just saying whatever you can and then listening carefully is the best way to get the most value out of themā€¦ :slight_smile:

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#27

When this happens to me I fill in the bits I canā€™t remember with something else. Sometimes it turns out Iā€™ve said more than I was supposed to, sometimes I say something completely different. Usually Iā€™m pretty much spot on with it though - I have noticed I can often predict with reasonable accuracy what Aran is going to ask me to say next.

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#28

Excellent approach! And then when youā€™re comparing what youā€™ve said with what you hear, you get all sorts of extra information about how the different bits fit togetherā€¦ :slight_smile:

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