Somewhat Reserved: May 2018

My Spanish Language Learning Journey! (Gonna be a long post so bring some snacks)

Language May 24, 2018

Oh my gosh. I can't believe I'm doing this.

Just to let you know, this post is going to be a bilingual one. *gulps* Let's hope it all goes well!

(Also, some parts of the post are permanently blue and I can't change them back because blogger is being a jerk)

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!

¡Hola todos y bienvenidos a mi blog!

To be honest, I've been putting off this post for quite a long time. Mainly because of my limited Spanish skills and also because I wanted to change the design of my blog (sorry for changing it so often, by the way). It's honestly so hard for me to be content with the design as I want this blog to not only focus on books.

Para ser honesto, he estado escribir esta entrada por un largo tiempo. Principalmente porque mis limitados habilidades de español y también porque quise cambiar la diseña de mi blog (lo siento por lo cambiando mucho). Honestamente, es difícil para mí ser contenta con el diseña como quiero este blog no solo enfocar en los libros.

I will be using an online dictionary to help me with some phrases or words that I don't know, so that I won't mess up this post a lot. I originally wanted to translate all the phrases I wanted to say before deciding that that would not show any improvement.

Voy a utilizar un diccionario en línea para ayudarme con algunos frases o palabras que no sé, pues no usar demasiada palabras incorrectos. Originalmente quise traducir todos los frases quise decir antes realizando que eso no vería alguna mejora.

Finally, About My Journey

I have studied Spanish (the type spoken in Spain) for about 7 years in total. Though, it was kind of on-and-off after learning it for 5 years in Secondary School. When I was in Primary school, I thought I would be fluent after completing Secondary school! Boy, was I wrong!

He estudiado español (o castellano, jajaja) por sobre 7 años en total. Aunque, estaba un poquito a intervalos después lo aprendiendo por 5 años en mi instituto/colegio/Secundaria (school names are confusing in Spanish). ¡Estaba muy incorrecto!

In school, we would write down a lot of vocab and grammar into separate copies/notebooks. We also had another copy for writing down exercises.

En el Secundaria, escribíamos muchos vocabularios y gramática en cuadernos separados. Somos también tuvimos otra cuaderno por escribiendo ejercicios.

I remember having listening classes every Friday. It was somewhat easy in some bits and hard in others. There were speaking classes sometimes and also Oral exams but none of it improved my speaking skills if I have to be honest.

Yo recuerdo tuve clases de escuchar todo el viernes. Estaba un poquito fácil en algunos áreas y difícil en otras. Había clases de hablando a veces y también exámenes orales pero ninguno ha improvado mis habilidades de hablar, ser honesto.

My Spanish teacher (I had the same one for five years) often told us to watch Spanish shows and YouTubers and also listen to music to improve our Spanish. I thought I wouldn't need to but during the years after I finished Secondary school, but now I wish I had done it earlier.

Mi profesora de español (tuve la misma por cinco años) a menudo nos decía ver programas en español y los YouTubers y también escuchar a la música para mejorar nuestra música. Pensé no necesita pero durante los años después terminó la Secundaria, pero ahora, espero tuve hecho lo más temprano.

Thankfully, I was able to find quite a few YouTube channels and even a website to watch Spanish shows. It was hard to make myself listen to them at first but I still did it.

Afortunadamente, estaba poder buscar por algunos canales de YouTube y un sitio web para ver programas en español. Estaba difícil para hacer yo mismo escuchar a los al principio, pero lo hice.

I'm glad that my Spanish skills have improved a lot since leaving Secondary school. I can't believe that I'm able to read a lot better now. I can actually listen to YouTubers without hurting my brain.

Estoy feliz de que mis habilidades de español hayan mejorado tanto desde que dejé el colegio. Ahora, me puedo creer que pueda leer mejor. Actualmente puedo escuchar algunos YouTubers sin dañarme el celebro.

I've read a comment that said Spanish speaking people don't speak fast, we just need to train our ears.

He leído un comentario diciendo que los hispanohablantes no hablan rápido, somos nosotros los que necesitamos entrenar nuestros oídos.

Hahaha. What a lie.

¡Qué mentira!

Spanish speaking people do in fact speak very fast. I am not saying that this is their fault, (because obviously it isn't) but they generally tend to speak quite rapidly. I am also aware of the fact that some speak a lot slower, like the Peruvians, for example. (Love you guys!)

Los hispanohablantes actualmente hablan muy rápido. No estoy diciendo que es su culpa, (porque obviamente no es) pero en general, ellos hablan bastante rápido. También, ya sé el hecho que algunos hablan más despacio, como los Peruvianos, por ejemplo. (¡Ellos se amo!)

And don't worry, my ears will eventually be trained.

Y no se preocupes, mis orejas voy a entrenar.

I'm not going to talk about that one year I spent doing a course which included Spanish because I barely learned much. Also, most of my classmates were beginners. I did pretty badly on that course and learned a lot more after that course. This year, I practiced a lot during lunch breaks. I wrote sentences down and would type them on lang-8.com later that week.

No voy a hablar sobre eso año pasé haciendo un curso lo que incluido español porque no aprendí mucho. También, la mayoría de mis estudiantes estaba los principiantes. No hice bien en eso curso y aprendí mucho más después eso curso. Esto año, practique mucho durante mis descansos para comer. Escribí los oraciones y escribí ellos en lang-8.com después esa semana.

My Abilities

I am not satisfied with my level of Spanish. I am an A2, which means that I am a high beginner. I want to be intermediate so badly, a B1.

No estoy satisfecho con mi nivel de español. Estoy un A2, lo que significa estoy un principiante alta. ¡Quiero estar intermedio ahora!

reaction gif please GIF by Brett Eldredge

In order of first to last I am best at: Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking. Listening is hard because I can't find a whole lot of content that I like in comparison to looking for stuff in Korean, and speaking is hard (though my accent is not bad) because I barely speak in real life.

Para ver al principio y el último. Estoy mejor de: Leer, Escribir, Escuchar, Hablar, Escuchando es difícil porque no puedo buscar muchas cosas me gustan en comparación con coreano, y hablando es difícil (aunque mi acento no es mal) porque no hablo mucho en la vida real.

Resources I Use

(This part is not going to be bilingual because the post is already so long (takes long to write as well) and I assume that everyone reading this post can understand English. Basically, I'm a little lazy)

I used to use hellotalk a lot during the time of self studying but I use it less frequently these days.

Hinative is an app I use to ask natives quick questions about what a certain thing means in Spanish or how to say a certain thing in Spanish.

I use an app called Quizlet for vocabulary.

I use Duolingo for Spanish as well. It has lots of mixed reactions from people but I find that it helps with vocab. Not the biggest fan of the new update but I can work with it.

There's this app called webtoons (By the company Line?). Basically Korean webtoons that are translated into Spanish. I take down vocab and add it to Quizlet. I also, look at the English version afterwards otherwise I would be lost.

For reading, I have my Spanish Bible (finally!) which I use in Church (obviously) and at home. For words I don't know, I have a separate vocab copy for it. Not gonna lie, my mind is super blank when it gets to the more poetic bits in the Spanish Bible. But my reading is improving.

I use the blogger Julieta miuniversoliterariowriter's website to practice reading as well. I use readlang.com (can be used for other languages as well!) to click on words I don't understand. Those words will automatically be transferred to the website and you review the words. (which I haven't. Oops)

studyspanish.com is a great grammar resource. I also use various websites for listening and stuff.

As for YouTubers, there's this brilliant one called Umber and she's a Scottish girl who records her language learning journey on YouTube. She also includes subtitles. Woo-hoo!

There's also this channel called CoreanoVlogs, which is about a Korean guy that practices his Spanish by creating vlogs. He's more fluent and doesn't include subtitles so I need to do more active listening. Thankfully, he can speak at a speed I can follow.

Honorary Mention to Easy Spanish on the Easy Languages YouTube channel. They also have a separate channel called Easy Spanish on YouTube. And for you French learners, they have Easy French on the Easy Languages channel.

Another mention to Ambie Gonzales Tv for being one of my first Spanish resources on YouTube!

What I Intend on Doing With Spanish

Firstly, I want to be able to read in Spanish and also watch shows and YouTubers in Spanish freely.

I want to be a translator/interpreter

I also want to be a writer and hopefully to be able to translate my books into Spanish. If my Spanish is fluent enough it would be more accurate, I guess because it would be my own interpretation.