It’s time for a Spanish update, but I’ve been having such a hard time writing one. I’m feeling very bipolar about the whole thing; there are some days I could jump with total joy at how far I’ve come, and other days I feel like the most linguistically challenged person in the world. Those days pretty much suck BUT I need to remember there’s a lot to feel good about.

First and foremost, I can roll my r’s with the best of them now, honestly to the point where I can’t remember the struggle. It’s like winking–once you can do it, you can just do it. No thought or effort required. I can also read fairly well–things that I saw when I first started studying and had NO clue what they meant, I now fully understand. My listening is getting better, too, and my pronunciation has improved quite a bit. At this point I’m just over half way through the second Pimsleur level, which means I’ve started with the preterite and the conditional. I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on indirect/direct object pronouns, regular verbs in preterite/imperfect, and just a lot more confidence overall. The problem is that I’m at an impasse on where to go next, which is overwhelming and frustrating.

Other than Pimsleur, I’ve made myself stop moving forward until I feel like I’ve fully grasped everything I’ve covered thus far. I’ve got a fairly decent understanding of the preterite and imperfect, but don’t feel very comfortable with most irregular verbs, in any tense, and my vocab is also seriously falling behind.

For grammar I’m mostly following the studyspanish website, which I love. I bought grammar books, and while I do still love Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish, the website is far better than the workbook I bought. That said, the next section I’m up to is the subjunctive, and a big part of me feels like I should master the irregular conjugations, get a more comfortable with por vs para, and maybe review comparisons, which just refuse to stick with me, before moving forward.

That said, I have taken a break to review, and don’t feel like that’s helping much either. I think maybe the best plan is to move forward with grammar, continue with Pimsleur like normal, but maybe place a (much) higher emphasis on vocab. Considering I’ve basically only been learning the words from Pimsleur and the few duolingo words that stick, it’s probably prettttty necessary.

I also keep putting off getting a language partner, and I feel like I’m like so close to being ready for one. But maybe I’ll never actually feel ready for one and it’s just about making the leap. I think I’ll continue with the Pimsleur and self study for the next few weeks, and when Gareth leaves at the end of May, I’ll hopefully be finished with level 2 and then I will definitely get one!

Also I made yet another super embarrassing video of myself talking. It’s crazy how much I freeze as soon as I feel pressure, even just the pressure of a computer camera alone in mi oficina. But so I can continue to track: