Steps to Learning Spanish
Sep. 21st, 2014 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI need three steps to learn Spanish.
1. Understand it - Read the book; go to class; ask questions; do the lessons; look up meanings of words, parts of words, parts of phrases; find additional explanations for grammar points. I am great at this.
2. Get it in my head - Make flashcards and go over them repeatedly. Just because I understand it doesn't mean I remember it. I can understand it perfectly, explain it perfectly, practice it, and still have it completely disappear out of my life. It's a gift. (Why no, I'm not good at trivia!)
Basically, if it's not on a flashcard, it's not in my head. But if it is on a flashcard, then even if it doesn't really make sense and I have to just memorize it, usually I can.
I have been keeping up with this step but it is not as fun as step 1.
3. Make it a part of me - No telling. Just because I can get it in my head doesn't mean it's going to stay in there. I tried my flashcards from chapter one today and it seems like for half of them I had forgotten the answer, I had forgotten part of the answer, or it took me way too long to remember the answer. This is stuff I knew perfectly two weeks ago.
After a while, reading and watching TV and movies in Spanish should help things stick, but right now I can't really do those things. Although Robin was watching a bunch of videos on how to make Spanish tortillas, most of them in Spanish, and I could actually understand several phrases here and there.
Meanwhile, I'll settle for practicing daily. And going over flashcards from old chapters weekly.
1. Understand it - Read the book; go to class; ask questions; do the lessons; look up meanings of words, parts of words, parts of phrases; find additional explanations for grammar points. I am great at this.
2. Get it in my head - Make flashcards and go over them repeatedly. Just because I understand it doesn't mean I remember it. I can understand it perfectly, explain it perfectly, practice it, and still have it completely disappear out of my life. It's a gift. (Why no, I'm not good at trivia!)
Basically, if it's not on a flashcard, it's not in my head. But if it is on a flashcard, then even if it doesn't really make sense and I have to just memorize it, usually I can.
I have been keeping up with this step but it is not as fun as step 1.
3. Make it a part of me - No telling. Just because I can get it in my head doesn't mean it's going to stay in there. I tried my flashcards from chapter one today and it seems like for half of them I had forgotten the answer, I had forgotten part of the answer, or it took me way too long to remember the answer. This is stuff I knew perfectly two weeks ago.
After a while, reading and watching TV and movies in Spanish should help things stick, but right now I can't really do those things. Although Robin was watching a bunch of videos on how to make Spanish tortillas, most of them in Spanish, and I could actually understand several phrases here and there.
Meanwhile, I'll settle for practicing daily. And going over flashcards from old chapters weekly.
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no subject
on 2014-09-23 01:17 am (UTC)Yes, ideally having friends in the class gives me someone to try your advice with. Though we don't have too much to work with yet. (Sadly, I rarely see my old Spanish-speaking friends at work and there aren't any in my new job, though there are two French speakers.)