![]() In fact many of the things I did for study in Canada I dropped upon arriving in Spain. Maybe Anki is simply better suited for learning in a non-immersive environment? This could be the case, but I’m always worried about tools that give you the feeling of accomplishment without direct translations to ability. I had even worked out a system to only add cards to my deck that I had previously translated, to try to triage out unimportant words. The memory associations aren’t learned in context and are doled out irrespective of the actual importance of words. My main critique of Anki is the one I voiced originally, before working extensively with the software. I’m still holding out hope that it will prove more useful in learning Chinese characters, which was my main use of Anki in Canada. Unfortunately, I haven’t found Anki useful at all here. The advantage of this software over paper flashcards is that the software tries to anticipate when you’ll forget a fact, and tries to remind you right at the cusp of that forgetting curve. ![]() It’s a spaced repetition software that gives you flashcards you can study from (and you can make your own). What Hasn’t WorkedĪnki was a program I enjoyed using in Canada prior to my arrival here. On it’s own, it’s probably fairly useless, but a small amount of grammar study has been quite helpful because it’s combined with so much practice. It has little exercises to help explain and practice things like the past tense and subjunctive. The only “tool” I’ve found effective for me has been a simple Spanish grammar book. This was a hard step for me as a blogger who practically lives online, but after a two weeks with this new system I think it has also helped immensely. However, after my first two weeks I switched to omitting all my consumption of English in books, movies and the web aside from one day per week. Originally, the constraint of the trip was going to be not speaking in English, and I had thought keeping a constraint of not reading or listening to any English might be too difficult or unpleasant. Upholding this constraint has worked better for me than any trick, class or piece of software.Īfter the first two weeks, I noticed myself using the internet a bit too much in English. I can say this with confidence by comparing my experience in learning French to learning Spanish. What has worked really well is sticking to the no-speaking English rule. I had expected I would be doing a lot of Anki flashcards, tutoring and deliberate exercises for advancing my ability. My learning schedule is actually quite different from my original plan I formulated in Canada. That means by the end of my 3-month adventure, I’ll probably have logged nearly a thousand hours of practice. I’d guess I spend at least 10-12 hours speaking, reading, listening or writing in Spanish every day. Here it’s more like 10 hours per week.īut what I’m foregoing in study, I’m making up for in practice. During the MIT Challenge my schedule was 10 hours of studying every day. The first thing that may stand out is how little studying I’m doing, in general. My days aren’t identical so that’s only a rough outline of the routine I’ve established here. Go out to a party or spend time with friends.Head home, relax to some television in Spanish and eat dinner.Read from my book (currently reading Errores Geniales que Cambiaron el Mundo).Take my grammar booklet to the park and do some exercises.Get lunch with Vat and record the daily conversation (listen to our recordings here).Go to a private tutor for 90 minutes (4x per week).Wake up around 9 (or later if there was a party the night before).This includes speaking with my roommate Vat, who is also working on this challenge with me. But, otherwise I’ve managed to eliminate English communication from my life. I talk to my parents in English once a week, I write an article here in English once per week and I need to answer work-related emails in English. I hadn’t thought of it initially, but around week two I added a second constraint: no reading or watching anything in English except for one day each week. The principle constraint of this project has been not speaking in English. What’s a Typical Day Like Without Speaking English? If I’m going to give language learning advice, I’d rather wait until I’ve had the chance to see how these methods hold up in Chinese and Korean. I want to tell you how I’m learning, rather than suggest my approach is the best. I want to stress that this article is intended to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on what I’ve been doing to learn Spanish, what’s worked well and what hasn’t. I’m reaching the halfway point in Spain, the first of four countries, in my year without speaking English.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |