The aim of this series is to give you a clear response to the question “is Spanish hard to learn?” These articles demonstrate what I’ve been up to during my trips in and around Spain studying the language. My aim is to show that this kind of progress is ACHIEVABLE FOR ANYONE. I don’t use any scripting in my videos nor think about what I’m going to say. Everything you see is natural.
__________________________________________________________________
How’s it all going in the world of learning Spanish? Yes it’s me, back once again with another learning report on the anniversary of my second week in Granada. It’s been a tough old week this, full of all the ups and downs you would expect from settling into a new place. Yes, the initial rush of being back in Spain has died a little and now it’s beginning to sink in just how much work lays ahead of me if I’m to achieve my goal of fluency before the summer rolls around!
Having said the stars have aligned and brought a few pieces of good news along this week. My Spanish learning friend Benjamin Spall will be coming over soon to begin his own “Spanish adventure” and kick-start a whole new chapter to his already impressive site Life Rapture. The second piece of news is that I’ll be heading up to Madrid again soon to write a piece for the next magazine issue of Vagabundo Magazine.
Anyway let’s get on with the nitty gritty of Spanish learning shall we?
Onward to the progress report.
P.S. The video above is probably the best yet for any new learners trying to find examples of a native speaking at a SLOW and very comprehensible pace.
____________________________________________________________________
Having been preoccupied with a lot of other projects – not just this Spanish travel blog – the past fortnight has erred somewhat on the crazy side. I brought to life my new project TraveSexLife, took on some new freelance clients over on WillPeach.com and even started to take some formal classes in a school here (I’m still undecided as to whether I’ll continue them right now) – all in the past few days.
Still, excuses excuses, eh? Let’s see how I got on.
Last fortnight I set myself the following learning goals. Did I see them through?
1. Remain only in Spanish between the hours of 3pm-7pm
Having not quite remained in Spanish during these hours as much as I’d have liked, I did manage to somewhat salvage the challenge and receive around four hours of immersion practice a day. This usually came late at night and lunch hours when I’d dip into La Marca (the football paper) and read BBC El Mundo. I also found myself becoming addicted to RTV’s Españoles en El Mundo series. Watching without subtitles (it’s not like I have a choice – there aren’t any) is definitely the way forward and has improved my comprehension considerably. Achieved? Fail
2. Read each day and register 10 new words in Anki to practice directly afterward
Definitely achieved this one dipping into my collection of stories from Cuentas de Amor de Locura y de Muerte on my Kindle as well as reading various newspapers and stories over coffee and breakfast (thanks to the advice of previous posters). Improved my reading comprehension massively – still have someway to go on vocabulary. Achieved? Done
3. Find several intercambios or language exchanges and maintain a conversation on a different topic every time
Managed to get in several session with different intercambios throughout the fortnight! First one was at an intercambio night I found through CouchSurfing, the others were through contacts I made just chatting to locals. You can see one of my intercambio partners in the video above! Achieved? Done
4. Introduce myself to two randoms each day for the sake of practice and embarrassment
If bar staff/shop assistants count as randoms I’d say I did a pretty fine job. Sadly I count “randoms” as stopping people in the street – which I haven’t had the balls to do yet here in Granada (I don’t understand – I did it so often in Cáceres!). A big fat fail then. Achieved? Fail
5. Write 200-250 words about myself in Spanish (with a link to this website) each day and leave them in random places around Spain
So not a bad recovery after the misery that were my studies during Christmas back in England.
I got back in the saddle quite nicely, got social with the language and made a few new contacts and friends in doing so. I’m happy that I mixed the goals up in the last Spanish learning report.
Here’s what I plan to achieve over the next two weeks. Some of the ideas from last week I liked so much I kept again for this week.
1. Do all English-language based work with Spanish music/radio in the background
2. Read each day and register 10 new words in Anki to practice directly afterward
3. Continue with Intercambios and have at least 3 sessions per week
4. Introduce myself to one random person each day for the sake of practice and a comfort-zone challenge
5. Start a Spanish writing blog and write 200-250 words about myself in Spanish (with a link to this website) each day.
6. Leave random notes in Spanish about myself and my site in every bar and pub I visit in Granada
____________________________________________________________________
I’m especially curious to see how six works out. Will I be seeing some increased traffic by old-fashioned methods of marketing? We’ll have to wait and see.
Check back with me again soon and let’s see how much I’ve improved.
Just always use the language that you want to learn and make a tutorial. There are sites that offers toturial in language learning.