The intention of these posts is to give you an honest account of what I’ve been doing here in Cáceres, Spain, to learn the language and, in part, to help show that it is ACHIEVABLE FOR ANYONE. I don’t use any scripting techniques in my videos. Everything you see here is spontaneous and natural.
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Un saludo from Spain! It’s that time on the My Spanish Adventure again where I like to step up and get accountable. This one’s quite a big one as it underlines a whole four weeks of blood, sweat and tortillas, studying Spanish under the fading summer sun and remaining immersed 24/7 in the culture. This is my third learning goals post, you can see my first two here.
How am I doing at this point? You can check out the video above where I roped my friend Juan into having a conversation. Hopefully it can help you get a sense of my progress. As we mention in the video, we met when I approached him on the street one day using one of the many techniques I’ve outlined here in my post on making friends.
A month in? I think I’m doing alright. I’m still making some grammatical and pronunciation howlers here and there but my general comprehension is coming on and my answers are becoming more detailed.
Onward to the progress report.
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Progress Report
Two weeks ago I set myself the following goals. Underneath I’ve commented on their effectiveness and state whether I’ve achieved them or not.
1. Converse in Spanish with 3 Strangers Each Day
Conversing and holding conversations has been the hands down most enjoyable way of learning Spanish for me. Not only has the achievement of this goal really helped to improve my Spanish but I’ve been able to find out much more about this city and its people too. Achieved? Done
2. Complete One Chapter in Spanish Grammar Book
Studying grammar helps me tidy up my knowledge and help with putting a structure to my sentences. Yes it’s a little boring, but completing one chapter a week hasn’t been that much of an ask. Achieved? Done
3. Learn 20 New Words Per Day
Learning new vocabulary is probably the easiest of my goals to achieve as I can simply carry this task with me, right at home on my phone, at all times. Waiting at the bus stop as given me ample time to learn new stuff. I also stumbled across Learning With Texts, a great open-source resource for expanding vocabulary and reading skills in the target language on inspirational blog Fluent in 3 Months. It even has the ability to export study words to Anki! Achieved? Done
4. Watch 1 Spanish TV Programme Each Day
Started well at the start of the week, then, due to problems that I will reveal next week the goal fell badly by the wayside. One way I could counter this failure is by downloading and watching movies again as I was doing before. Especially easier now given that I have an Internet connection finally! Achieved? Fail
5. Listen to Notes in Spanish Intermediate Podcast and Write 300 Words Each Day
As much as I love this podcast I’ve found studying it without a transcript and not having had the time to get my writing checked as demotivated me a little. Initially I started well going into the task but have repeatedly missed the last few days of study in this area. Achieved? Fail
6. Complete 3 Tracks of Michel Thomas’ Spanish: Advanced Course Each Day
A great learning resource and something that was helping me out leaps and bounds at the start of the week but again, after going out and finding actual people, my time for listening to 3 tracks a day suffered. Achieved? Fail
Not a great deal of progress to report on this time but a lot of what I’ve been coming up short on has been replaced by actual practice with real people. These past two weeks I’ve had more conversation practice than ever before and more exposure to the language in real-life situations away from things like recorded podcasts or audio tracks. Yet I can still I can notice, from conversation, the need for structured, disciplined study. I feel a long way off from fluency just yet!
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Goal Setting
I’m going to set base my goals this week on a similar number and not change so many things. So, in no particular order:
1. Converse in Spanish with 2 Strangers Each Day
As I’m getting a lot more opportunity in my apartment, on the street and with friends I’m regularly meeting, the need to seek out more than 2 people a day for conversation practice is a little needless.
2. Complete One Chapter in Spanish Grammar Book
This week I’ll be studying the subjunctive mood.
3. Learn 20 New Words Per Day
I’m going to stick with Anki and top it up with reading in newspapers, online and using the LWT system at Fluent In 3 Months.
4. Watch 1 Spanish Film Per Week
I’m going to miss nude-fest drama Tierra de Lobos, wacky trap-door game show Ahora Caigo and the odd bit of sport here and there, but I think it’s about time I got more up close and personal with Spanish cinema. Especially given the problems I’ve encountered with dubbing.
5. Listen to Notes in Spanish Intermediate Podcast and Write 300 Words Each Day
If I only do one thing then it’s posting my writing to language learning site lenguajero.com where I can get it corrected by natives. 25 minutes a day should keep the writing doctor away no?
6. Complete 2 Tracks of Michel Thomas’ Spanish: Advanced Course Each Day
Taking my workload down in order to concentrate on real conversation practice, but with 2 tracks a day it’s a pretty low time consuming commitment. Should have no trouble sticking to this. I hope!
7. Read Spanish Aloud: 15 Minutes a Day
I’m going to attempt to read from papers, novels or whatever materials I come across, first with speed and then secondly a little bit more slowly to get the gist of the piece. Hoping this will help iron out a few kicks in pronunciation.
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And that’s what I will be doing week! I’ve decided not to go back to the novel of the first progress report and have dropped my TV goals in place of film once again.
I also want to point out that at the end of the third week my circumstances here changed making the TV goal a little difficult to execute – don’t worry you’ll be find out all about it later on the blog.
Check in with me in another two weeks to see how I’m doing. Hopefully I’ll have another video conversation up with a native too!
NOTE: My Spanish Adventure is also a month old today and I wanted to thank everyone for the on-going support, kind messages and all the comments! Thanks to you this blog is growing pretty quickly (1100 visits in its first month alone) and hopefully is inspiring other people to get on out there and live their language and travel dreams. Anyone can do it!
In the meantime, I want to know: what language learning goals have you set for yourself this month?
Again what can I say but WOW!! Will, your spanish has improved a lot since you first come here, also you have done a real good translation of what the guy in the video is saying although you are still making some mistakes but they are very basic, so you don’t have to worry much about them.
anyway, I hope that you can realize of how good your spanish is getting during your stay here, and you also can realize how worth it is… keep on fighting like this, and you soon will speak as well as a Spaniard does.
(sorry if I have make some mistake by writing, as our friend Will knows I am learning english too)
Will! It is so amazing to see the level of Spanish you have acquired.
It’s quite the feat!
Juan did a very good job!
@Megan Thanks for your comments! Yeah he’s a pretty decent teacher!
Bravo, Will! Tu acento is muy autentico! Me encanta el video.
Buenas Will,
Desde que te conozco he notado la mejoría con el español, tanto en el vocabulario, como a la hora de conjugar verbos. Aun hay fallos no lo puedo negar, pero date un par de semanas y ríete tú de los nativos españoles.
Me legro de poder ayudarte en tu aventura Española. Para lo que necesites ya sabes.
Un abrazo.