WEEK 16So, it’s the end of week sixteen of my project to swap a misty slog up Croagh Patrick for a cloudless stroll on the Camino de Santiago. I’ve been continuing with part 3 the Pimsleur course, the Notes in Spanish and Vino Para Principiantes podcasts and the news on Últimas noticias de CNN en Español and RTVE Radio 5 this week. I’ve also tried the Spanish Obsessed podcast which is quite similar to Notes in Spanish though I don’t like it quite as much. I think I’ll come back to it once I’ve finished the Notes in Spanish ones. I’ve also tried a couple of other podcasts which seem interesting but are a little too difficult for me to manage just yet which I’ll also come back to. In particular, Mejor vete Cristina and Historia de España para selectividad look very interesting.
I’ve been continuing using the AnkiApp to learn vocabulary (words and phrases) that I get from different sources such as the Pimsleur course, the Busuu app, podcasts, news stories, books and – the largest amount – from the word frequency list I got from Wiktionary. I’ve been aiming for thirty words per day and have now managed to get to 2,770 words, though how many of them I actually know well enough to use when speaking – as opposed to ones I could recognise if I heard or read them, or ones I’ve forgotten – is a bit unclear. I’ve seen a few estimates online that a vocabulary of 4,000 words is about right for B2 level, so I’ve decided to keep up my current pace for another few weeks until I get to there. I can then consolidate what I’ve learnt and focus on relearning the words that I’m not sure about or have forgotten. This week I read High Intensity Language Training: An introduction to the key principles (H.I.L.T. – Sprints and Intervals for Accelerated Language Acquisition Book 1) by Aran Jones. This is a short, but very interesting book which I really enjoyed. Although it is described as “book 1” it was published in 2014 and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of book 2 just yet. I found the “high intensity training” aspect of the book a bit gimmicky, and am not convinced that short bursts of intensive training with longer rest periods will work as well for language training as it does for physical training. The author cites a neuroscience paper in support of this view, but having read it I think he’s stretching what the science says a little. Looking past this aspect though, I really liked the advice given in the book which was clear and made a lot of sense. Essentially, the author advises learning a foreign language not as a series of words but of “formulaic blocks” and then saying lots and lots of different sentences that use these blocks in different configurations. He also advises listening to the language being spoken at twice it’s normal speed so that you tune into it sufficiently that when you hear native speakers they sound like they are speaking slowly and distinctly. The problem with the advice is in getting access to the necessary materials. It is not all that easy, especially for a beginner, to find the right formulaic blocks to learn, and once you have it is hard to test yourself on them in varying combinations. It is also difficult to find recorded materials using the blocks you have learnt which you can listen to at double-speed to tune your ear in. The author does have online and face-to-face courses, which include Spanish, and five thirty-minute Spanish lessons can be accessed free with a purchase of the book. They are beginner-level and involve learning a relatively small number of words (around fifty words or blocks in close to three hours of lessons), but these words are drilled relentlessly in various combinations in a large number of different sentences. Apart from that, the author recommends Pimsleur and Michel Thomas, though they don’t take exactly the approach he does. It would be unfair to see the book as being a way of upselling you on to the courses (which are fairly expensive at £120 for fifty lessons), as the advice given is very clear. If I were starting Spanish again, I think I would probably start here, notwithstanding the cost. Instead, I’m going to work on ways of implementing the ideas in the book. I have already been trying to learn formulaic blocks, but will try to find ways to testing these in combination. I am also interested in trying the idea of listening to native speech at double speed. I’ve been continuing to read Harry Potter y la Piedra filosofal and have been enjoying it, but after 56 pages have run out of enthusiasm for La Noche de la Usina. I think prize-winning literature is just too difficult through a foreign language, and a lot of what makes it a great book probably just doesn’t come across unless you are at a much higher level than me. Marina from Notes in Spanish recommended a Spanish children’s book called Memorias de Idhun by Laura Gallego, which she said is like the Spanish Harry Potter, so I’m going to start that next week. My film this week was Los ojos de Julia (Julia’s Eyes) from 2010. It was co-written by Oriol Paulo, though not directed by him, and it doesn’t quite measure up to his later Contratiempo and El Cuerpo where he was at the helm. The plot is just a little too far-fetched for my tastes, though it is a watchable thriller and has some genuinely tense and creepy moments. Well that’s about it. Week sixteen of fifty-two done and I reckon that I now know 2,770 words in Spanish. I learnt 210 new words this week, which comes to 30 per day. One small step towards a pilgrimage through Galicia and the adventure continues … |
Here are some of the resources I was using this week
|