And Manx in the pipeline 
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This is a hugely important piece of learning - well done!
And when you can tie that in to a confident understanding that even when youâre not feeling great, and donât think youâre doing well, the base of memory formation is still happening, youâll find it easier and easier to skip repeatsâŠ
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ÂĄHola a todos!
Challenge 11 done on a humid and overcast day. Whilst walking down the bike path, I was disappointed to note signs that they are going to build houses all long the side of the path, but far from disappointed with the lesson. Great stuff, beginning to work on the informal âyouâ. A lot of the verbs using te were introduced in a past tense, so I can see immediate uses for them at my Spanish meet up. Slightly concerned about recalling them at this point though. Hopefully my fears will amount to nothing when I do Challenge 12. quĂ© te pareciĂł? meaning âWhat did you think?â highlights once again how flexible some of these verbs appear to be. So far, parecer is being used for âto thinkâ (in addition to pensar) and âto look/seemâ, and I think it has some more meanings as well. Interesting stuff.
Hasta luego,
Stu
Or 13, or 14, or 15 - different items will need different amounts of repetition - but you know youâll get there in the end⊠
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ÂĄHola a todos!
Challenge 12 demonstrated to me that I can remember the vast majority of the material covered in the previous lesson, which was great. I needed reminding of ÂżquĂ© te pareciĂłâŠ? though, but I am very happy with tuviste, viste and leĂste, and vas a and vamos a now, as these had a good workout in this Challenge as part of the interleaved repetition.
Thinking back, I remember feeling like I was never going to remember stuff from Level 1, but it is (mostly) all there in my long term memory to use when I need it, as last Wednesday night proved.
I am really trying to concentrate on pronouncing things like queremos vs querĂamos, sabemos vs sabĂamos and deberĂamos correctly, so that the accenting is accurate. queremos and querĂamos have given me particular issues during the first third of Level 2, and still need more practice to differentiate between them.
Some tremendously useful stuff covered in this Challenge. I particularly like Âżtienes ganas de hacerâŠ? and Âżpuerdo ofrecerte âŠ?, which will come in very handy at my meet ups, although un vaso de vino will be a more common request that una taza de tĂ© On to 13 tomorrow, which I hope will not be unlucky for me! Nearly half way through now, and starting to get concerned about running out of new material⊠I just love learning the SSi way, I donât want it to stop.
[@aran I noticed that the Vocab List for this Challenge has crees for âdo you think?â rather than piensas, which is actually what is taught in the lesson.]
Hasta luego,
Stu
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Thanks - some minor hiccups in there, which are a bit fiddly to fix because of a lack of version control⊠
But I may have a burst of inspiration and remember to shoot that one down at some pointâŠ
Dal ati. Maeân amlwg bod tiân gwneud yn wych. Cawn sgwrs yn y Sbaeneg rhywbenâŠ
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ÂĄHola a todos!
Challenge 13 done and I am now over half way through Level 2 A good solid lesson that presented no difficulties, so onwards to 14 in the morning.
Hasta luego,
Stu
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I went through this recently for the iPhone app, so Iâve got an updated vocab list just awaiting cycles from Ifan to process (itâs in the queue for after Eisteddfod!). But if you use the iPhone app, youâll have it already
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Gracias Lewie. I only actually use the app for helping out with testing, as I download all of my lessons onto my iPod which has an awful lot more space on it that my crowded iPhone. I also burn CDs for playing in the car. I will check out the latest app however, so thanks
Hasta luego,
Stu
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ÂĄHola a todos!
A busy couple of days delayed my run through of Challenge 14, but I managed to squeeze it in driving home from Coventry city centre last night. A hugely enjoyable lesson with some great new stuff, I particularly liked en algĂșn momento de la prĂłxima semana, although it proved a real mouthful to begin with! deberĂas sentirte orgulloso I also enjoyed, and I learned that sentir is the base form of the verb âto feelâ. On to 15 this morning, and I am 3/5 of the way through the level, and feeling very excited by that. Oh, and I can actually remember puedo ofrecerte? which was a lovely bonus!
Hasta luego,
Stu
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ÂĄHola a todos!
Challenge 15 is, well ⊠a Challenge. To be fair, Aran says that it will be. Especially towards the end, the difficulty ramps up with some long tongue-twisters. I am definitely going to do this one again tomorrow. Hard but fair (and fun) would be my current assessment, but this is one of those lessons it will be instructive to come back to once I reach Challenge 20, I think. I was going to weigh my brain at the start of the lesson and again at the end, but I could not figure out a way of doing it accurately, so I cannot confirm that my neural mass has indeed increased - ÂĄpero no me gustarĂa sorprendido!
Hasta luego,
Stu
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The passing of a cherished family pet has floored me. I am going to have a few days off.
Hasta luego,
Stu
Oh, so sorry to hear that, Stu - sending our sympathies. We know how shattering that can be. Be kind to yourself - the Spanish can wait.
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ÂĄHola a todos!
I have worked through Challenge 15 again, and it went better than last time - still a Challenge, but in a good way. On to 16 in the morning, and looking forwards to the meet up on Wednesday evening.
Hasta luego,
stu
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Looking forward to hearing how that goesâŠ
ÂĄHola a todos!
Well, Challenge 16 is a really packed lesson, full of Spanish goodness, but it promises to be a little difficult to remember all of the fantastic new stuff it covered. I know, I know, Iâve said this before, but there really is so much in lesson 16 that its a real concern.
I love little touches like ⊠si quieres as they make you sound very natural if you can work them into the conversation. The same with siempre me encanta de ⊠and sabes que âŠ. I tend to use âTake careâ as a farewell, but I am not at all sure that I can use ten cuidado in the same fashion - I would be interested in knowing if that is possible. At the moment I am working on the principle that if someone says hasta luego to me, I respond with nos vemos (and vice versa). It would be great to be able to add some variety to leave-taking.
I am going to run through 16 again, and them move on to Challenge 17 I think. Listening exercises have fallen by the wayside, so I have made up a CD of them to play in the car as an alternative to lessons. Sometimes, I am really quite tired on the drive home, so I will put this CD on instead of working on a lesson I think. I recognise that I really need to put the time in with these exercises. One thing I have found however, is that I was able to follow an awful lot of the Spanish spoken at my last meet up, even if it was only the gist, so I am feeling okay about it. Tomorrow will be interesting to see if the meet up goes as well as the first (which gave me a real buzz), because (a) it is the difficult second meet up - did I use up all my conversation at the first?; and (b) Iâm pretty tired in the evenings because its appraisals time at work, and they can be hard going sometimes!
Hasta luego,
Stu
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Remember, youâre never aiming to remember it all - some parts will stick, others will work themselves out a few lessons down the line, some may not activate at all until you hear them in conversation - itâs all goodâŠ
Pob lwc yfory!
ÂĄHola a todos!
Wow, Challenge 17 is a hard one! It starts off okay, lulling you into a false sense of security, before hitting you with dĂĄrselo, no se lo darĂa and darle suficiente tiempo in rapid succession; it left my head spinning. Then the killer blow: si te tranquilizas which I can say during the lesson, but stumble over now. Mix the whole lot up by prefixing everything with en tu lugar and you get an intense, brain-melting workout with some pretty long sentences. You know, I am going to move right on to 18 tomorrow and see how that goes. I can always come back to this Challenge laterâŠ
Hasta luego,
Stu
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Hola a todos!
As I feared, I was very tired even before tonightâs meet up due to my granddaughter not sleeping well over the past week, so I was somewhat subdued. The conversation in the smaller group was much harder to contribute to this time, but I did manage to chime in with mi esposa estĂĄ alĂ©rgico a la leche and follow up with some contribution to the subsequent discussion of the difficulties of living with food intolerances. It got difficult when I was asked if I had any pets, but I think I managed to get across my current sadness, even if I had to use the odd English word (for which I gratefully received the Spanish words, but I did not manage to retain them). Once again, I was able to grasp quite a bit of what I heard, which is encouraging!
It is a very friendly group, and I am not too bothered about not managing to say a lot. I remember the same thing from the early days with Welsh. I am just looking forward to some sleep and the next meet up in a fortnight, when I vow to contribute more! Also, I am hoping to get at least one Skype chat in sometime before the end of the month, if arrangements can be made.
Hasta luego,
Stu
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Itâs inevitable when youâre tired - it takes really extensive exposure to get you producing confidently even when youâre tired - so donât give yourself a hard time about itâŠ