Katy’s Study Diary and So On

the verb “to go” very, very “irregular…. copy out and learn!!!!

need to spend some quality time with my grammar book….. she’s talking like we should know about verb endings and I have no idea sadly

I’m thinking here…. (rare thing but happens sometimes!) I have blank tapes, I have a microphone, I have lists of vocab…. so, if I record the “lexico basico” at the end of each chapter, write or type out the words I have a litsten and look vocab practice to go with the “official” ones. No idea if it will help but it’s practice if nowt else!

The “stress and strain” TMA came back and I acheived all bar 1 “learning outcome” on that (and nearly acheived the last one) Feeling a bit miffed on the nearly acheived as I thought I *had* set out all the workings and I used nice clear pencil crosses for the relevent points on the graph and drew lines from those points to the axes (axies? those lines at the side of the graph anyway) but he put great big red ink crosses over the points, presumably he likes multi coloured graphs. He also said I should have included this that and the other in one of the questions, well I’m sorry but I had a bloody word limit adn I had hit it so I stopped. And I wasn’t consistant with my question headings - I’d written Q1 then Question 2… and this matters because? Ho hum, it’s only 10 points ffs so what am I bothered about? I took the course to see if science would be an option. Obviously physics isn’t so it’s been useful.

So now I can finish that ECA reflecting on the useful feedback of my tutor and how it has helped me inestimably in the completion of the course and my continuing study. BS.

Also got the first Spanish TMA back. 98% I can live with that. I dropped my 2% on a wrong ending, I gave something a feminine ending that shouldn’t have had one…. doh! I know the first one is easy and they get harder but still, it gives me just that little leeway for later on as I need to maintain a 40% average.

sat and did 2 sections this evening, as soon as Becca was in bed. Made a determined effort to move the keyboard out of the way and do thw written work too. I printed off some “handwriting paper” which helped keep the writing slightly more on track, still messy but more legible than when I write on normal lined paper (sigh, 35 and still need guide lines to write in…..)

I still don’t feel it’s “going in” but if I can do 3 sections a week that will give me week 4 of each month to properly review/revise etc and hopefully get it to sink in. If I can do each section twice within a week it would be better still but hey, lets not push it!

I’ve done half a “unit” from the Accelerated Learning and nothing else this week. The AL is meant to be sort of “supplimentary” to the course, something to give me a bit more practice, a bit more hearing the language over and above the course, not instead of it but it’s easy, I just stick the tape in, open teh book and curl up in bed. I’m not sure it’s “working” but I can con myself I’m learning. I have the ECAs for the 2 short courses due in the next 6 weeks (okay, they are pretty much sorted but not yet actually finished) and I need to be doing 2 or 3 chapters of the Spanish a week to keep up.

Tim is F all use. He comes in, asks what’s for tea and once tea is done he waltzs off to play on his PC pretty much until Becca goes to bed by which time I’m knackered. I’ve asked, I’ve reminded I’ve given up. I have to find a different way.

Becca will “allow” me some PC time during the day when she has some TV time. Usually it’s about 10 or 15 mins. That’s not a lot but you learn more in the first 15 mins of a session aparently so it will have to do. He’s out with Red Cross most weekends so I don’t get time then either.

So I need to get a bit of discipline going here. I need to say no “playing” on the PC until the 15 mins study is done. I need to listen to the AL tapes every night so that I actually hear them often enough for the language to sink in adn if that means going to bed earlier then tough. I need to go through the “to do” list from last week and bloodly well do some of it!!!!

I’ve got as far as ripping a CD of just the vocab for Disc 1, now all I need to do is remember to bring in the CD player from the car so I can play the CD away from the PC…. or even record the CD over to tape (assuming I have the technology to do that!!!)

I’ve even wondered about a flippin star chart for me… you know, if I’m a good girl adn do all my homework I can have a treat on Sunday….. Not sure if that will work though!

What on earth made me want to do a degree??? For goodness sake!

got my paper back today and I’m really pleased. Not only have I got another good mark but her comments have been really helpful. I think I can now finish the ECA for that particular unit. I’m Becca-free on Thurday AM so I may slog through it then. Still waiting for the second TMA from the other Breakthrough course to land, should come soon I expect, then I can put the other course to bed too.

Thinking about 1 of my “To Do”s, getting my notes organised…

I need a file with dividers. 1 for vocab and phrases (in alphabetical order or by catagory, can’t decide yet), 1 for verb tables, 1 for general grammar stuff and a final bit for the cultural notes that come into the course here and there.

Until I get the file sorted I think I need to start by setting up Word docs for each bit then I can slot stuff in as and when i find it.

Didn’t mean to hit publish…..

Donde trabajas? where do you work?

Granjero = farmer
granja = farm

counting and numbers - need to work more on these!!

family/personal details, again need to learn the vocab a bit better

Still not feeling that I get a lot out of the tutes compared to the informal meetings in between but I think it’s down to having an agenda for hte tute against us working on what we feel we need to on the informal meets.

Arg! Sound levels have gone totally to pot, I’m being deafened! Am going to have to hand the headset round my neck which isn’t handy for keeping the mic in place…. **** technology!

I did it! I did it” I really really did it!

Sorry! just had to…..

Am now caught up on the OU course having sat very comfortably at the PC with the text book open as a PDF and playing the CD on media player. It definitely works!

So, how am I doing?

I surprised my self with how much I had picked up from just reading the book even without doing all the listening stuff so taht’s good. I didn’t really find it all that time consuming once I got into gear and got on with it…. there’s a pattern emerging here in all my studying isn’t there!!!!!! It’s taken me 2 hours to work 10 chapters so ffs what on earth have I been fannying arround with???? I could easily do a full chapter in 1 sitting (half or 3/4 of an hour) even allowing for stopping to write stuff down and note take.

Looking at the study callender it looks to be half a book every 4 weeks, that’s 10 chapters in 4 weeks, the last 2 of which are normally review. So If I did 2 or 3 nights a week I could stay on target and still have time to do other stuff. If I get behind I just need to do an hour twice a week to pull it back without overdoing it/getting too bogged down. I can do this, I bloody well know I can and I am not going to let “oh you aren’t good enough ” get in my way. So there!!!

to lisp or not to lisp….

in mainland Spain if c or z comes before e or i they “lithp” but not in Latin America…. so cinco can be thinco

To Be (or not to be…)

I am = soy
you are (informal) = eres
he/she/it or a more formal you is = es
we are = somos
you (pl) are = sois
they are = son

to be called…

most verbs you don’t bother with the I you he etc but this one is different. it uses a sort of “myself, yourself” etc

me llamo (pronounced yamo)
te llamas (yamas) * for informal you
se llama (yama) * for he/she/it AND formal you

Alphabet pronunciation - most of it as in the book (as spelt basically) but note following…

g = “he” - short e, phlemy h
h = atche
j = hotta

The letter j has a harsh, throaty sound like in the Scottish ‘loch’. The letter g has a softer sound, as in the word ‘gateway’. However, when followed by e or i : gerente, gimnasio (gym), g is pronounced like j.

This is

Esta (F) or Este (M) es …. used to informally introduce etc

belonging to….

Esta es Freda, la jefa de Bod - the boss of Bod aka Bod’s boss
Este es Frank, un amigo del gerente - a freind of the manager Note! De + el = del so if it’s a male something of the something else it’s DEL

As an asside…. I’m not terribly sure how helpful having someone yawn their way through the numbers from 11 to 100 is really… ho hum! I have that on the Kid’s Spanish CDROM anyway so it’s not critical!

To Live - Vivir

Vivo
vive
vives

Donde = where?

That’s all folks!

Go through typed notes and start to make them into headed/orgnaised/coherent reference notes

(and learn how to spell in English….. what hope have I in another language if I can’t get my own right!!!!)