I’m going to be honest for a moment; my handwriting sucks. It’s bad, really bad. It’s awful, really And did I tell it sucks? Well, actually, it sucked. At some point in life I realized that I could write, yes, but that my handwriting was awful. But not until recently I did something about it.
I’m pretty busy at times, and therefore improving my handwriting seemed a waste of time. But I got nasty comments from professors at college and even at my intership they weren’t happy with how I was writing. Now, this seems to have nothing to do with learning Spanish, but it has.
Every day I do my SRS reps, and every day I more or less do this:
- I see the sentence and read it out loud.
- I think for myself what each part of the sentences means and click on “Show answer”.
- I grade myself.
Lately, however, I’ve been tweaking my method a bit. Now it looks like this:
- I see the sentence and read it out loud.
- I write down (read: copy) the sentence by hand.
- I think for myself what each part of the sentences means and click on “Show answer”.
- I grade myself.
I added another step; writing down the sentence. This has two advantages: 1) I get to practice writing [Spanish] and 2) [something I recently noticed;] it improves my retention rate. How is that possible?
It’s actually quite logical. If you read the sentence your brain processes it one time. Reading it out loud let’s it process it again. And writing it down by hand let’s it process it for the third time. Now, this may look like a bit too much, but it gives you an easy way to practice writing Spanish (and no, it doesn’t matter than you already know English, which uses the same alphabet, or that you’re simply copying the sentence; pratice is practice).
I actually learned this method from some people learning Chinese. By writing out every sentence they practice their Hanzi, but it also greatly improves their understanding of the language. I too have seen great results when it comes to writing down every SRS sentence.
Now, there is a possible downside. Because I was writing really badly and used/use this method to improving my handwriting, I was concentrating a bit too much on the handwriting part. That’s why I go over the sentence again after writing it, giving me some extra exposure to it and giving me some more time to think about its structure.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I have done something like this in the past too, almost exactly as you describe.
Read sentence.
Read aloud.
Read aloud without looking at the screen (by memory).
Write sentence down without looking at the screen (by memory).
Show “answer”
I’m not sure if that is overkill… it definitely slows down how quickly I go through reps. But the idea is that I need to have a firm grasp of the sentence for me to be able to remember it for the time it takes to write down.
I think this is a great idea. I always recommend that students keep a language journal where they write at least 4 sentences per day. I’m big on reading out loud as well as it helps you to hear what the words look like. I always had a listening comprehension problem because the words on paper did not look how they sounded to me in my head. Finding audio that had transcripts and repeating them over and over out loud made big difference. Good post.
Another great article. I have never used SRS, but want to give it a try. Any recomendations as to what I should download? In other words, I know absolutely nothing about SRS.
Thanks,
David
Ramses,
Although I do not study Spanish, I still consider myself to be learning Japanese, and have enjoyed following your blog. I don’t always agree with you or use the same methods, but I too have felt gains from handwriting a language. I don’t use an SRS and I do study grammar* but I do copy sentences, by hand, from my various text books.
I actually got the idea for this from Professor Arguelles, perhaps the creator or main proponent of Shadowing. He calls this idea Scriptorium and, whether the source is an SRS entry or a novel, pretty much follows the same idea. Just like you, I’ve noticed that writing the sentence makes me pay greater attention to the individual parts and I’ve also been using it to improve my handwriting. And just as the Chinese learners have figured out, it also helps with remembering the characters.
Cheers,
ES
*Using an SRS is boring, grammar is interesting, and Japanese is much more regular and internally consistent than something like Spanish. I do look forward to a less grammatical approach when I move on to Korean which is irregular but my knowledge of Japanese should allow for faster intuitive pick-up.
@David
I’m a hardcore Anki user. The are other programs out there (like Mnemosyne, jMemorize, SuperMemo, etc.), but Anki is free, is updated regularly is has a huge community supporting it (both with donations and good ideas that get implemented). A nice feature of Anki is that you can also download and write your own plugins, adding functionality. I’m currently writing a serie of posts on SRS’ing, which you might find interesting.
@ES
. I’m not saying your method is wrong (if it works for you, I’m happy), but I (and many other persons) find it really boring. Do you know AJATT, by the way?
Funny to see that someone find grammar learning fun, shows that we’re all different
David,
My only experience with SRS is with anki
http://ichi2.net/anki/
It works on all platforms, and can even work through a browser. It seems to be quite popular, so there is lots of support and help you can find here and on other sites.
Good luck
@Rames/@Ryan: I am now hooked on “Anki”. I set up some of the more difficult (OK, difficult for me) expressions/vocabulary that I seem to always mess up. Utilizing Anki and writing the sentences seems to really work for me. Thanks!
*Side note: I do well when in a Spanish speaking country. Actually, I think (biased opinion here) that I do great. The Spanish seems to just flow. In the states (U.S.) though…, well, it is a different story. Each day speaking Spanish becomes less and less, even though there are opportunities (limited) where I could have used Spanish -McDonalds, Mexican Restaurants, etc. Some days I think to myself screw it and just speak Spanish as if I couldn’t communicate in English. This of course isn’t that easy since I have the typical gringo look. Any others go through this? Also, HINT – maybe a possible future article, How to remain in Spanish when not in a Spanish speaking country. Just a thought. Oh, and sorry if this isn’t the right place to ask/suggest this.
David
@David
.
Great so that it goes… ehh… great(?)
I learned all of my Spanish with only spending one month in Spanish the last two years. The key is to find people you like with whom you can speak. This can be friends, but you can also use a tutor for this. I recommend a good friend though; it’s way more fun to hang out with a bunch of natives and connect to their culture.
@Ramses
You are right (tutors, friends). I was, well, just hoping to learn some type of secret I guess. I did the tutor route, in addition to years of formal schooling (grammar nightmares), and of course speaking with friends. Still, it isn’t the same as running down to your local McDonald’s and ordering your coffee in Spanish, or talking with the Spanish speaking librarian in Spanish. I think I am having Spanish withdraws having spent the last six months in Central America where all I did was speak in Spanish. Ha!
David
@David
Well, I guess I’m lucky. I’m currently living in Spain, and none of my friends here speak another language other than Spanish (unless you call crappy Spanglish a language). In the Netherlands I attend college (will do one semester starting in September) and many of my classmates are latinos, so I get practice from them as well (apart from my Spanish-speaking friends who don’t attend the same college and with whom I spend much time).
However, in the past I had some really nice language exchange partners, and they became more or less my friends. Finding a good language exchange partner which who you can connect is important, and is great fun as well.
And about the coffee and food; aren’t there any Spanish/Latin restaurants where you live? Or a supermarket? In the Netherlands there aren’t many Spanish restaurants, but the times I found one and went with some (Spanish) friends we were only talking Spanish. It’s a good practice and great immersion, apart from the confidence boost you get after an evening like that.