Another week with Spanish...

On the hypnosis front, I've found the language self-hypnosis download to be very nice for relaxing into studying after work. Yes, it takes an extra twenty minutes before studying starts, but when you get started it's like getting up in the morning and starting to study afresh with nothing from earlier in the day to worry about.

And what have I been studying? At work, I've gotten access to Tell Me More Spanish, and have been through the first unit. It's a step up from most programs, with games, fill-in-the-blanks and, most impressively, a speech recognition system that allows you to participate in guided conversations - when you answer the question, it figures out what you answered and follows up appropriately. However, I have the beginning version, and there wasn't anything in the first lesson that I didn't know. To that end, I've picked up Topics Entertainment's Instant Immersion Spanish Advanced. It's silly going back and forth between Borges and beginning Spanish books, but I haven't found much of much use for somebody who speaks a lot of bad Spanish and learns to speak correctly, as opposed to someone starting from ground zero. We'll see if this is a better option.

The music listening continues in the meantime, as does the reading. And while I'm not sure about starting with content strictly in the language you're learning, I'm increasingly in agreement with The Linguist about target language materials alone for more advanced students, except that there doesn't seem to be nearly as much available as one would like.

Coming soon: the February resolutions update.

How about those resolutions?

We're coming up on the end of the first month for 2007, and resolutions are useless without accountability. In fact, they're of limited efficaciousness with accountability!

Here's the list, with updates in italics.

Spanish:
Low-level conversational: Able to tell stories, use past, present and future and have basic conversations without those awkward "I know this but I have to remember" pauses.

-Regular reading from self-teaching manuals to get structured examples of the language in use.
January 29: Learn in Your Car 1-1st 7 lessons; Lonely Planet grammar section; Mastering Spanish - 1st four chapters
-Regular reading of stories and poetry in Spanish.
January 29: First 50 pages of El Poder de Ahora.
-Read Borges' Ficciones in the original.
January 29: Section I of "El Inmortal"
-Learn 4 songs in Spanish.
January 29: Most of lyrics for Pausini's "Escucha atento" - can't learn song lyrics

Italian:
Really low-level conversational: Able to handle basic conversations in the present tense.

-Michel Thomas Beginning and Advanced Italian courses
January 29: not yet
-Regular reading from self-teaching manuals to get structured examples of the language in use.
January 29: Opening chapter of Berlitz' Shortcut to Italian
-Read Pinocchio in the original.
January 29: First five pages
-Learn 4 songs in Italian.
January 29: Come se non fosse...

January 29: All items below - not yet, at least not really
German:
Regain at least basic functionality.
-Michel Thomas Beginning and Advanced German Courses

French:
-Re-read Les Misérables.
-Finish my translation of "Melancholia" from the Contemplations.

Turkish (a curiosity language):
Slightly greater familiarity
-Finish Pimsleur Turkish Basic Conversation (16 lessons).
-Read Le Petit prince in the Turkish translation.

Uzbek (a curiosity language):
Slightly greater familiarity
-Learn at least 3 songs in Uzbek.

I know I'm not setting the best example for the full-bore polyglot, but my Spanish is picking up considerably without destroying my Italian. And my French is as fine as it has been in the last couple years, thanks to other reading plus everyday conversation. Part of setting resolutions for a year is you can put off till later. It's just a question of remembering that you can't put things off a whole year! But I've actually been surprised by how much I've been doing with Spanish.

Next update on resolutions in one month, with an update on Spanish and a review of Learn in Your Car in the next day or so.

New Year's Resolutions

The Aspiring Polyglot posted her New Year's Resolutions, which got me thinking that I should look at the goals I set for myself last year and how I'd done. To choose a generous phrasing, I could have done better. In 2006, I fussed with a number of languages and learned alot. In my work - at a language school - I have been able to do a lot in terms of helping potential and struggling students get a sense of what's up with their languages because of the breadth of languages I've looked at. Depth is another story, and one thing I've concluded is that, to be honest, while there are some languages I really want to be able to use, there are a lot that I'd just like to fuss with to satisfy my curiosity, without any real purpose in mind. For these languages, I'm going to try to stay away from serious goal setting.

Giving myself a little credit where it is due, my Spanish is much improved, my Italian is more solid and I have renewed my French. Additionally, I completed the beginning program for Mandarin at my language school and have the certificate in my office to prove it. Finally, though I'm light years from being able to use either of them, I've learned a great deal about Turkish and Uzbek and how they fit together. The year wasn't a wash, but I did come way short of my oversized goals.

My biggest goal for 2007 is to stick to a limited number of goals for a limited number of languages so that I can enjoy my fussing with other languages without eroding my skills in my core languages or spending too much time or money on "curiosity" languages. My more precise goals follow:

Spanish:
Low-level conversational: Able to tell stories, use past, present and future and have basic conversations without those awkward "I know this but I have to remember" pauses.
-Regular reading from self-teaching manuals to get structured examples of the language in use.
Update: Starting with Hippocrene's Mastering Spanish by Robert Clark.
-Regular reading of stories and poetry in Spanish.
-Read Borges' Ficciones in the original.
-Learn 4 songs in Spanish.

Italian:
Really low-level conversational: Able to handle basic conversations in the present tense.
-Michel Thomas Beginning and Advanced Italian courses
-Regular reading from self-teaching manuals to get structured examples of the language in use.
Update: Starting with Assimil's L'italien sans peine.
-Read Pinocchio in the original.
-Learn 4 songs in Italian.

German:
Regain at least basic functionality.
-Michel Thomas Beginning and Advanced German Courses

French:
-Re-read Les Misérables.
-Finish my translation of "Melancholia" from the Contemplations.

Turkish (a curiosity language):
Slightly greater familiarity
-Finish Pimsleur Turkish Basic Conversation (16 lessons).
-Read Le Petit prince in the Turkish translation.

Uzbek (a curiosity language):
Slightly greater familiarity
-Learn at least 3 songs in Uzbek.

This pared down list still has six languages, but with real expectations for only three - French, Italian and Spanish. There are a million other things I'd like to do, of course, and I will do many of them. But this is my checklist for 2007. Should I be able to cross off every item, I'll set second stage goals. In the meantime, I'll be starting the new year with the hope of building on the enthusiasm that comes when you can say, "I accomplished X."