Studying: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
I suppose everyone has their own special methods for studying Spanish (or English). I have been practicing and studying Spanish for over a year now, mostly with SpanishDict, but occasionally I use other methods to supplement, such as LightSpeedSpanish (YouTube and Facebook page), reading childrens' Spanish books, Spanish Facebook pages, and conversing as much as possible with my Hispanic neighbors and nearby shopkeepers and sampled Fluencia. I still rate myself as a beginner.
I now have two spiral notebooks crammed with multi-colored highlighted notes and Flashcard sets. I try to say aloud the SD posts as I read them, and only recently felt confident enough to try the Grammar & Quiz section here. 
Now, I'm supplementing that with Breaking out of Beginner's Spanish and finding it fascinating. It's not necessarily a phrasebook or grammar book, but more a book of etiquette, how and when to use Spanish and how to interact with others in the Spanish-speaking community. I bought this used and have decided to treat it as another notebook, since there is space around the margins to write notes. It also covers tricky words that confuzzle us gringos as well as magic words to toss in.
Does anyone have any cool tips that they use that have helped them further their use of Spanish, or know anything that just ended up being a waste of time? I suppose one bit of sage advice would be to keep your tequila jello shots to a minimum during study (hey, it's Saturday!). 
(And, yes I corrected the spelling of etiquette after I took the photo).
Also, this may be a bit nosy, but I'd love to see how other people write their notes (yes, take a photo of a couple of pages of your study notes!) Thank you! 
4 Answers
I have been studying Spanish off and on for about 12 years and never really got serious about it until about 2 months ago when I decided to retire and live in Mexico full time. I am 67 years old and my biggest problem with the language even though I can read quite well and can pronounce OK my problem has always been, like most, my listening comprehension. It is almost non existent! After all this time when I have listened to a Spanish newscast or a Spanish movie it is like I can understand 20% of what is being said. I now realize that my problem has been that I have just not listened to enough spoken Spanish!! I have always had my head in a book or a dictionary and was forgetting that the real reason for me to learn Spanish was to communicate and I wasn't doing that. That has all changed. For the last two months I have spent at least 90 minutes per day listening to live Mexican television news, sports etc. at www.milenio.com. Also I have been spending a minimum of 1 hour a day reading out loud. These are two things I had never done and I am proud to report that my progress has been amazing. I know I am older than most on this site but I have proven to myself that if you put in the time even an old guy can learn.
Tus apuntes son muy impresionantes!
El único consejo que tengo es que leas en voz alta, pero eso ya lo haces tú. A menudo, escucho a alguien, como por ejemplo en un podcast, y repito la frase inmediatamente después. Este tipo de práctica me ayuda mucho con la pronunciación y especialmente la entonación de las palabras.
A propósito, me alegro de que tengas las conjugaciones de "vosotros" en tu cuaderno.
Que tengas un buen sábado con tus Jello Shots.
I don't really study Spanish anymore other than spending time here on SD and looking up words and expressions that are new to me.
When I first came to live in Mexico six and half years ago I treated learning Spanish as my new job. I took an immersion course for a month. Six hours a day, five days a week and then I would spend another six hours a day studying, Mostly writing hundreds of sentences using various verbs and tenses. I would write ten sentences with each verb. I would then take them to class to discuss.
After the fist month the mix changes, fewer classroom hours but more self study and the classes I did take were one-on-one. This continued for five more months. At the end of this period of six months my Spanish was terrible. I met a Mexican woman and we began dating. She speaks no English. My Spanish began to improve: slowly at first and then a little more rapidly.
I concentrated on growing my vocabulary more than fine-tuning my grammar. For me, language is mostly spoken and heard. Yes everyday I read signs and advertisements but more than 90% of my communication is spoken and heard. Spoken language, ie. conversations, happen very rapidly. If you get the grammar wrong the other person will ask a question or respond wrong and you can immediately correct your mistake. But if you do not know the word for something then all conversation stops as you revert to sign language and pointing at things. Vocabulary is King. Long live the King.
As for listening, I live in La Paz, where they speak very fast and do not finish their words. I have heard many native speakers complain about how hard it is to understand the Paceños, people from La Paz. I now understand most of what is said to me and in conversations between friends. I do however still have trouble with idioms and complex sentences. But I just ask for clarification. I have made tens of thousands of mistakes in the six and a half years and will make tens of thousands more. So what? Communication is talking and listening. Be willing to take risks and laugh at yourself and your learning will grow a lot faster.
No apunto nada en libretas. Guardo frases y palabras en WordPad, sólo en español y normalmente con contexto.
Estoy tratando de sumergirme en el idioma, así que la mayoría de lo que veo y escucho es en español.
La verdad es que no "estudio" mucho. Me aburro fácilmente y pierdo la concentración. Intento hacer cosas que me interesen y a la vez me ayuden a aprender. Disfruto ver videos en YouTube o Educatina, leer las "reviews" (opiniones) de mis aplicaciones favoritas en Google Play y a veces chatear.
Cuando sí estudio, me gusta leer lecciones de gramática y hacer los ejercicios (en internet). Mi página favorita es Bowdoin. Para aumentar mi vocabulario, prefiero usar Memrise y Duolingo. Algún día, preferiblemente más temprano que tarde, me gustaría combinar esto con el método de Chileno.
También me gustaría intentar hablar sólo en español. Se me hace difícil, pero si logro hacerlo, creo que mejoraré drásticamente mi expresión oral.
¡Buena suerte con tus estudios!
¡Las correcciones son bienvenidas!
