I recently came across a language learning goal-setting challenge hosted by Lindsay at Lindsay Does Languages and Shannon at Eurolinguiste. As language learning is my favorite pastime, I have decided to participate!
Since graduating from the University with a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish Education and a minor in Languages, I haven’t done much consistently to maintain or improve my French or Chinese, and sadly, my abilities in these languages have gotten a little rusty. Setting some language goals and following through is just what I need. Spanish Fortunately, my Spanish is the best it has ever been. Being that I am a Spanish teacher, I try hard to do something every day to improve my Spanish skills, be it reading, listening, writing, or speaking in Spanish—sometimes all of the above. Recently, I’ve been focusing on improving my pronunciation and speaking fluency. I want to speak like a native! I’ve been listening a lot to the podcast Español Automático by Karo Martinez, filling my mind with lots of authentic Spanish, and I’m actually amazed by how much my Spanish speaking abilities have improved in such a short time (a little more than a month) just through lots of active and repetitive listening. (The first time I listen to each episode, I read the transcript while I listen, and then, I listen to the same episode several more times so that the vocabulary and grammar structures are solidified in my brain.) If it isn’t obvious, I LOVE this free resource--Español Automático, and highly recommend it to anyone looking to improve their intermediate Spanish! Another really great podcast I like to listen to and shadow (I repeat everything the speaker says) is 1001 Reasons to Learn Spanish by Juan Fernández. Because Juan Fernández speaks Spanish slowly this podcast is perfect to shadow. The content is also highly entertaining and fun!
I really want to improve my French fluency this month. Since listening to podcasts has helped me so much with Spanish I will do a lot of podcast listening in French.
I want to bring my Chinese writing back to speed as well as my speaking.
Egyptian Arabic I can’t forget my Egyptian Arabic! Although I often do, and that is why my progress is slow.
For German I’m going to keep it simple. I can’t not study German, because it has been calling me! But, I don’t want German to distract from my Arabic learning, however, I am finding that German is much easier for me than Arabic.
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AuthorI'm Holly. I love learning languages! I speak English, Spanish, French, and Chinese. I am currently learning Arabic, Hindi, and German. Archives
December 2016
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