SSIS in a month

Spanish
#1

So I’m going to Havana for Christmas and I don’t want to feel out of my depth with the language barrier.

I did some of SSIW a few years ago, finishing Course 1, the Vocabs and some of Course 2. I did some of Level 1 when it rebooted but didn’t keep it up. I still use my Welsh infrequently, I feel confident saying what I know how to say, but end up reverting to English when there is something that I don’t know how to say, so my Welsh hasn’t really progressed much in the last few years.

My plan is to get as many challenges done as possible in the next 28 days before I go, averaging 2 a day means I can complete both levels with a few days rest/consolidation before I go, averaging 3 a day means I could get the tourist lessons done too. On top of this I will try and do as much of the listening exercises and Spanish media as possible.

Work are sending me to the San Francisco area for the next three weeks and I plan to take advantage of the glut of Spanish speakers to try and practice. I’ve found a meetup group for Spanish learners, and I’m open to meeting up with other SSIS’ers if there are any in the area. Failing face to face I’m going to try and get some practice in through iTalki and the like, or if there are any Spanish speakers out there in US timezones I’d love to practice with you.

I started with the first two challenges last night and I’ve done two more this morning, I intend to do a few more this afternoon, which will include the dreaded 6 and 7.

So far I haven’t touched the pause button and I hope to keep this up, I’m going to not repeat any challenges unless I’m really stuck (<10% correct?). The first four challenges were about what I expected, I at least got the majority correct before Rosa. There are still a few phrases that kept messing up nearly every time like ‘I enjoy’, ‘have been for’ (since?) and ironically I kept forgetting ‘I forget’.

I still struggle with rolling 'r’s, I’m definitely a lot better than I was when I started learning Welsh. I can’t get my tongue around ‘mejorar’ without sounding like a drowning cat.

Sorry for the wall of text, to summarise: punishing myself by trying to do the whole Spanish course in a month, while away on a business trip, before Christmas trip to Havanna. Open to language partners in US timezones.

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#2

Good luck!! I’ve managed 11 lessons in a week. It’s great fun to go through the material, particularly with experience of the method (I’ve also learnt Welsh with SSIW).

Keep us posted!

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#3

Yesterday didn’t quite go to plan my partner was back from her sister’s an hour earlier than I was expecting. I managed to get half way through challenge 6, just as it was getting challenging.

This morning I finished off 6 which I managed at least 50% correct, maybe even 60%. I’m hoping to fit in 7 and 8 this afternoon but I’ve got a lot of prep still to do for my trip.

I’m still looking for Spanish speakers or learners to practice with in the US timezones, is it worth creating a new topic for that?

What’s the advice on the vocabulary popups, are we supposed to be looking at them? The old advice from the original SSIW stuff was to avoid looking at words so it didn’t affect pronunciation.

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#4

They’re only really there for the people who feel worried about not seeing them… :slight_smile:

Great project - good luck with it, and keep us posted on how it goes! :star: :star2:

#5

@mattcridland Great work, and good luck! It sounds like you’re off to a great start.
Have you managed to get onto any further challenges yet?

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#6

Wow, so this week has been busy busy. I’ve only managed to get up to challenge 10.

I did 8, 9 and 10 with sub vocalisation on the plane.

Weds was a 16 hour day in the office, Thurs a 12 hour day. Friday wasn’t too bad but we went socialising with the clients after work, and I did get to use a bit of very simple Spanish to people who were impressed that I’d only been learning a week.

Looks like my goal was a bit ambitious, but hopefully I can start getting some momentum back.

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#7

You might find that choosing some of the core verbs from what you’ve done so far - quiero, puedo, that sort of stuff - and then giving yourself 10 or 20 minutes a day where you focus on saying sentences out loud - would give you a good kick forward with production - because you’re doing very well with how many lessons you’ve got done.

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#8

@mattcridland I’m interested to know how you feel the subvocalisation has worked for you.

And @aran Is it as beneficial as speaking out loud? Can a learner make as much progress with the SSIS using subvocalisation?

I’ve not done it myself, so I have no experience with the technique at all as regards the SSIS process.
I tend to have to space out doing the challenges more than I’d like to, as I have to wait for appropriate the times in the week where I can practice out loud!

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#9

Fascinating question - my gut instinct is that it can’t be, because it means fewer neural networks (for all the mouth muscles for starters) - but as an occasional option, it clearly doesn’t do much damage, so there may not be all that much in it… it would be interesting to try and test at some point, but tricky to remove all the other variables…

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#10

When I was first using SSiW I used to do the lessons while walking and catching the bus or train to work. I was fine speaking out loud(ish) as I was walking, but in the bus or train I just ‘said’ the response in my head. It’s hard to be specific about why I felt it was much better actually speaking the phrases, but I definitely noticed a difference.
As Aran mentions, I felt like my jaw and mouth muscles were getting a workout and learning to be in new positions. I didn’t get that with just ‘saying’ the Welsh in my head. That coming to terms with pronouncing new words and moving into position for different combinations of sounds made a big difference when it came to actually talking to a person. My mouth formed the words almost automatically, and it gave me a lot more confidence.

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#11

I suspected so, and definitely from the muscle memory point. And also (especially so with SSI method) ensuring the words/sentences are pronounced as closely to the native speakers as possible. Which, of course, comes better with hearing our attempts with speaking the language out loud.
Subvocalisation though is good to keep in mind for those times when speaking out loud isn’t possible, as i’d definitely think keeping some learning and continuity going is better than stopping the learning altogether!

Interestingly, when learning Welsh (which I did completely speaking out loud) I spent a lot of time ‘retraining’ my mouth and tongue to those sounds of Welsh not found in English. I feel this has really really helped me with Spanish sounds.

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#12

Yes, definitely - there’s a limit to how many curious stares any of us can put up with…:wink:

Very interesting to hear that the Welsh is helping with your Spanish… makes sense, though… :slight_smile:

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