HANG ON, I'M READING! -Spanish Journal W3

I’ve come to the end of week three in my attempt to teach myself Spanish. I learned something interesting this week about language learning and it’s one of the top reasons I believe people give up. While sitting st my desk, stuck on an exercise in the TYS book I began feeling like I was never going to get anywhere. The dreaded thoughts came flooding in Had I even learnt anything so far? Is Spanish something I just can’t learn? Much less on my own? Maybe I should pack it in- I’m never going to learn anyway. While staring at the book, frustrated and feeling a little lost something dawned on me. I was READING! The questions I was so frustrated with as well as the paragraph I was so desperately hunting for answers within was completely written in Spanish. Something I hadn’t taken into account? Or possibly something I just wasn’t taking the time to notice nor appreciate. I WAS indeed getting somewhere and I HAD infact learnt something! So what if I was stuck on this section? Instead I should be grateful for the simple fact that I can actually read and understand enough in order to be frustrated with the questions.
I think when we’re learning a language it’s important to check back in with yourself and monitor your progress in some way. A chart or self-reflection of some sort, something to boost your motivation when it’s lacking.

Semana tres (week three) GOAL CHECKLIST

[x] Spend 30mins a day practicing

[x] Complete Teach Yourself Spanish Unit three
[x] Emotions
[  ] Learn a Spanish song
[x] Write a short letter in Spanish introducing myself & a reply letter
[x] Complete SENSEI app section: Date/time/numbers/time phrases

Resumen semanal (WEEKLY SUMMARY)

This week went pretty well actually, although I don’t feel like I ‘progressed’ very far I do feel 100% confident in retaining what I’ve been learning. I spent much of this week reviewing over and putting to use in different contexts what I’ve already learnt as well as doing further research in the best language learning methods.
Speaking to a native is definitely imperative when learning any language and I’m finding I retain words better when they’ve come up in conversation & I’ve needed to make the effort to look them up myself. That and actually forcing myself to construct small sentences (or attempt to) is giving me a better understanding of the correct sentence structure. There’s no better way to learn than make mistakes, right?

¿cómo lo hago -HOW DID I DO IT?

(Some of the resources I used or memory tricks)

·         Learning the emotions: Google images has some great pocket-friendly images worth printing and carrying around! I regularly whipped out my picture, folding it in half, and practicing whenever I could.

·         Anki flahscards Now using both the desktop & phone versions! Great for instant syncing on the go

·         TYS unit three & began unit four

·         I highly recommend the SENSEI app on your phone. (available on both Google play and Itunes- link for android users) Great little resource for practicing words on the go. It has a number of themed sections with built in phrases to learn and the option to practice with flashcards, a game of hangman, audio and a word list The hangman option is a great twist on the regular flashcards giving you better chance to learn a the correct spelling of a card and not just memorize and link word to word images.

·         I’m finding it helpful to write letters to myself and reply while trying to use not only the sentences I learnt as a phrase but use new words and give descriptions. Just going for it and attempting to express something has been challenging though good fun! Cross checking my letter with goggle translate afterwards has made learning correct structuring much easier.

Este es el fin de la semana tres!
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