Understanding English: 1000 Challenge Update

Here is a journal of my progress since the beginning of the month.

Day 2

Spent 1 hour finding and putting down my first 60 words (Day 1 was a non-starter). Hopefully I’ll get faster at this. I’ve also found a few websites with common verbs, words and Argentinian phrases. Added to this, my Facebook is now in Spanish. Let the learning commence!

Day 4

I have to go to Uruguay today. Yesterday I added a total of 2 words only. I was very tired. Not good enough!

Day 5

I'm going to try learning from Spanish to English instead of English to Spanish. I’m hoping that after acquiring the Spanish to English, I’ll have quicker success with the English to Spanish.

For this challenge it is important not to get overwhelmed* by the task… I am only at Day 5 so I should not be trying to do too much too quickly. Every word learned is a success!

* overwhelmed = to feel too much pressure or stress

Day 6

I quickly moved back to English to Spanish - starting from L1 to L2 works much better.

Day 7

Unfortunately I’m not following some of my own rules here. I have to learn a lot of words quickly so I am looking at word lists and finding any words I don’t know. This means that I have a lot of unrelated words written together and not in groups, like I recommended.

Words that I’m having problems with at the end of the first week:

To shake or jerk – SACUDIR

To help or assist – SOCORRER

To find out or investigate – AVERIGUAR (I remember this one but not the spelling so I can’t pronounce it.)

Posh/snobby – CHETO

To happen – SUCEDER

To scold or quarrel – RENIR

To distribute – REPARTIR

To put out or extinguish – APAGAR

To heave or pick up – ALZAR

To exhaust or use up – AGOTAR

T-Shirt - REMERA

Day 11

Okay, I have recorded (written down) more than half the words/phrases I need for 1^st July. See links below for websites I have been using. I want to give a big thank you to Silvia Bernaudo for some of these links – they have been really useful!

I have probably learned about 100-150 words from English to Spanish. I haven’t learned any words Spanish to English yet.