Do you have a daily routine for studying Spanish?
If yes, what does it look like?
My goal is to work for 1 hour every evening. I usually start by doing an exercise on the Spanish Proficency Exercises website. It involves the learning of any new vocabulary that I find relevant, trying to translate the example sentences and listening to all the tapes with speakers from Spain or Mexico. Any new vocabulary that I pick up is added to my Anki database.
Then I go to Learn Spanish website to review a few Pronunciation Flashcards.
The session ends with the reviewing of the new words of the day as well as a selection of ~100 old words from the Anki database.
During the day I sometimes read El País or watch TV España to get familiar with the usage of Spanish 'in the wild'.
20 Answers
Please award S1Wakka 459 points and 6 medals at once..
I'm filled with admiration.
My schedule is, one lesson a week, if possible, and I aim to read a bit of Spanish every day ( like 1/4 page) .I read this at coffetime. After this my day deteriorates.. I get home at lunchtime, put the computer on and look what's happening on Spanish Dict. This is called studying... Oh yes!
Update: I forgot to mention that I speak to the dog in Spanish and shout;- '¡Venga Wolf, venga!- He ignores this, manfully.
I'm having fun and enjoying myself. If I put the same hours in watching Spanish films I would probably, by now, be mistaken for native...
These days I don't really have a routine, Spanish is just an integral part of my life. As a Spanish major and a person whose number one goal is to speak the language more than fluently, I have no choice but to practice all the time. Just to maintain the level of Spanish that I need to successfully complete my classes and maintain the relationships I have with my native speaking friends requires me to at least continuously think in the language. Whether its studying the poetry of Lorca, having inner dialogue with myself, talking to my friends, etc., I try to use Spanish as often as possible.
That being said, I think in order to establish a "routine" that is right for you, you need to first ask yourself what your goals are. Personally, I would say that spending only an hour a day on learning a complex thing like a new language is insufficient if you are trying to obtain fluency. Even if you spent an hour a day for 15 years. I'm not trying to be rude, just realistic.
I listen to one lesson of Pimsleur on the way to work and the same lesson on the way home from work. They recommend only one lesson per day - as many times as you want.
In the evening I will do a few lessons of Rosetta Stone, depending on what type of lesson it is. Some are 10 to 15 minutes... and when they introduce new material the lessons are 30 minutes long.
I practice what I learn here in the Word of the Day threads and answer any questions that I feel I am qualified enough to answer.
I also go through some Spanish workbooks on varying topics, depending on what Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone are touching on.
Right now, Pimsleur is just introducing the Subjunctive (I'm on Level 3 of 4) and RS has touched on it as well (I'm almost done with Level 3 of 5). But you aren't supposed to really know what you are learning when using RS - you just learn.
I spend about 4 hours per day studying grammar and vocabulary, including reading posts here, while listening to Spanish radio that is a mixture of talk, news, and music. Then I spend about 2 hours at a local cevichería/bar talking to natives and listening to music while drinking beer. Some days I also read a little bit of a novel written in Spanish or watch a movie in Spanish.
Alas, I'm still a beginner.
I wish I did. That is why I joined SpanDict. To try to get back into studying since I am no longer living in spanish. I do listen to a lot of spanish language music and videos. And I talk with my mexican family a couple of times a week via Skype. I spend several hours a day reading and answering posts here on SpanDict.
No, not really. I try to do a little bit every day (usually at work in my 'down' time). I know I SHOULD have a routine.... HELP!!!!
I'll be really interested to read what others do.
I don't really have a fixed routine, but I try to immerse myself into the language as much as I possibly can.
For example, when driving the car I listen to native Spanish speakers on various cds. When at the gym, rather than listen to music I have Spanish grammar on my ipod (the only problem here is, ermmmm it puts me off going to the gym!! jejeje joke!!)
During breaks or downtime at work, rather than browse the news websites etc, I tend to have a quick look on here or other websites that I receive information from - About.com is good.
I try to have at least 2 sessions per week on skype with native speakers. This is absolutely invaluable to me - I learn so much.
Other than the above, I always have at least 3 or 4 grammar or other exercise books around me. I pick these up when I have something in particular on my mind and want to dig a little deeper. I also try to listen to other adhoc stuff on-line. Of course this depends whether my house is quiet or I have the kids and their mates running around all over the place lol.
yeah, Spanish for breakfast. lunch and dinner. El español para el desayuno, el almuerzo, y la cena.
I read your schedule and the responses to your question. Seriously,all i can say to you people is "wow"!!! As for me,well,its just been 2 days since i joined this site. I've planned to take one lesson in every 2-3days. I'm just hoping that will be adequate.
I start by looking at the "word of the day" while I am still in bed on my phone, and reading the answers to the Word of the Day game. I really enjoy it. Then after getting up I take one lesson in Learn Spanish on Spanish Dict.com. Often I watch ¡ Levantate! in the mornings on tv. If I am stuck in a line during the day, I play the word game on the Spanish¡Dict app. Even though it has the same words all the time, I still don't have them all memorized.
I like to watch movies, and when I rent a DVD I always put the Spanish subtitles on. This helps me retain vocabulary and grammar.
There are also two Spanish language practice groups where I live. I have also volunteered to teach a new immigrant English locally, so I hope to learn more Spanish from my student, when I meet them.
I find practicing every day really helps. I miss it a lot when I go a whole day without practicing.
I really don't have a routine, but then that is my life all over. I work shifts which vary week by week so everything else varies too. Some days I will do hours of Spansih some days I will do none at all. At the moment I am trying to come on here and take part it the challenges rather than just chat.
One thing I am doing every day at the moment is spending some time on www.memrise.com which I am finding really useful for drumming some vocabulary into my forgetful brain. There is no point in learnig loads of grammar if you cannot remember the words for things and constant repetition seems to be the only thing that works for me.
I am not organized enough for a routine. Now that with my New Years resolution I am back to riding my exercise bike, I either watch evangelical sermons on Enlace or Noticiero con Jesús Javier on Estrella (or an infomercial)- the sermons and infomercials I am getting to the point that I can get almost all the worlds and sometimes put them together fast enough to get the meaning, the news- well I sort of know what is going on the world, but only sort of. Those are the only 2 stations that I get on the digital antenna hooked to my computer (my wife does not tolerate Spanish on the real TV).
Sometimes I feel my vocabulary slipping, so I do a bunch of flashcards, sometimes it is my grammar that is slipping, so I pull out my workbooks and do exercises. Sometimes, I answer questions here, to learn the unpredictable things that I would not otherwise learn. And sometimes I just feel like reading, so I read a book (Now that I have a “Biología” textbook that is easier- like sermons and infomercials, I find nonfiction much easier than fiction). I guess I just listen to what my brain wants me to do (kind of a dissociative thing to say, huh?). I suppose I am not nearly as efficient as I could be, but I do feel like I am slowly getting better, and as long as I do that and have fun, that is all I care about.
What I continue to fail to put in my regimen is practice speaking- so I am abysmal at speaking. One day I will hold myself accountable to that. I keep saying that.
I was recently given a Livemocha membership plan as a birthday present. I go through one unit in the morning. A unit on the site is usually two lessons divided into 2 sub sections. Each sub section has a listening section, a grammar section, a reading section and a vocabulary section. Each sub section has about 1 "oral" assignment and one writing assignment. It takes a while to get feedback since this feedback is generated by native speakers, so I come back later in the day when I have time. After I get responses back from the assignments I spend a long time really trying to understand and commit to my memory the corrections that are offered by native speakers about my pronunciation and grammar. I do my best to verify what is said via external sources too, since even natives may not be giving you accurate information.
As it happens, I do not recommend livemocha for beginners. The lessons are sub-par. They are good if you already know what you are doing, and gives you practice, but it is not a place to start from scratch.
I'm really focused on learning Spanish. I've already traveled coast-to-coast in the US. But to be a true world citizen, you gotta know a second language!
I spend several hours every day trying to improve my listening and reading abilities in Spanish. It is an important goal for me to be able to understand others better. I try to get some practice with speaking and writing as well, but it can be difficult since I don't personally know any Spanish speakers now.
--I watch half an hour of Spanish News every day. A whole hour if possible. At first it all sounded like sloppy, rapid rambling. After half a month of this, however, my understanding of the spoken language has improved. Speech sounds slower, and the syllables sound more pronounced. I still don't have a big enough vocabulary to understand much, but what vocabular I do know sounds clearer.
--I read 20+ paragraphs of something in Spanish that I can find interesting. Usually, I'll read something on Spanish Wikipedia to learn something new -- usually about astronomy or physics. I can read pretty well! Whatever words I don't already know, I can find their meaning via context, or by thinking of their latin equivalents. Plus, scientific words tend to be the same across languages.
--I try to think and speak only in Spanish as I do these things. Additionally, I repeat a lot of what I hear on the news, and read aloud.
--I learn a new set of 20 Flashcards every day. I review the ones I've already learned for about 45 minutes per day.
--I write a few things per week to be proof-read here. Many thanks to my fellow members of SpanishDict.com!
I have no routine, no focus, no realistic learning skills but I do have drive. I just keep at it whenever I can. Usually I listen to Pimsler and Learning Spanish like Crazy everyday to and from the job like Tosh, and a lot during the day (since I work for myself the boss is very understanding
). I have Rosetta Stone but really don't care for it. Sometimes I record myself reading the flashcards and listen to that over and over until I get sick of hearing my own voice. And of course I talk to myself all day unless there is someone else at the worksite. So all of it helps a little but the most productive is when I come home to the forum. A couple hours every night much to the dismay of my wife.
