Pacing Yourself at Pod101?

[ddewinter]

Hi all, I'm looking for ideas on how people pace themselves when starting with *pod101. For the past couple of months I've had a basic subscription to spanishpod101, and I've listened to two lessons in the morning while reading the associated PDFs. It takes about an hour every day to do this. I also enter all the words in the vocabulary lists into a flash card application, so I spend time with the flash cards as well.

I was trying to "catch up" with the podcast, but I don't think this is the smartest thing to do to learn. Now I also want to learn French over at frenchpod101.com my time is going to be sucked up if I keep doing this schedule of two lessons a day.

So, what do you do in order to ensure high comprehension but also high rates of progress? (By that I mean, yes, I could spend a week per lesson, but that doesn't help me progress rapidly through the material.) Those checklists I've seen seem to be a step in the right direction - listen to the lesson, read the PDF afterwards (not during), and then listen to the lesson again to ensure comprehension. Doing that for one lesson each day for each language sounds feasible. However, I wish the PDFs were editable (i.e. I could type in my responses to them), as I really don't want to print hundreds of pieces of paper.

What have people found that works for them?

Thanks!
Dave

[cacevedo222]

Hey ddwinter,
We release a certain amount of lessons per week. We never want to overload the student. Keeping in mind that all students are different, I find it beneficial to focus on one topic at a time. I know this sounds general, but what I mean to say is that you should spend as much time as you need per lesson until you feel that you comprehend the material completely. Focus on each series individually. Listen to each of the lessons repeatedly, creating your own immersion program. If it is grammar and not the vocabulary that you are concerned with, listen to the grammar section while referencing the PDF's grammar section and also check out the grammar bank. Learning a language is about small amounts of daily repetition. Try listening to the lesson once a day for a week. You mind will absorb the information and you will then be ready for the next week's following lesson.

If you have any other questions, let me know!

Carlos

[ddewinter]

Thanks for the advice Carlos. What you're saying makes sense; I think my problem was that I was trying to tackle all the lessons you guys put out because I wanted to bulk up my vocabulary. I understand a lot of the basics of Spanish grammar but I often find that the conversations expose me to vocabulary I don't know. Because of this I was listening to multiple series at a time and just trying to learn as much as possible.

Maybe this isn't the best approach. I know I can cut back on which regional series I listen to since I don't plan on visiting these countries anytime soon, but it still seems beneficial to listen to the newbie, beginner, and audio blog series to learn vocabulary.

I guess it will just take some experimentation to find what's best for me!

Thanks,
Dave

[DMcAuliffe9058]

Personally, my strategy is to focus on 5 lessons a week, listening two a day one new and one review from the previous week. I also try to listen to the dialogues themselves from the previous lessons which only takes a few minutes once or twice a day. Then on the weekend I'll review the lessons from the week. In addition, I'll look over the pdf's at night and go over the flashcards too. I feel with this method I listen to each lesson three times, and the dialogues several times. I've only been doing this for a few weeks, but its convenient for me as I'm a student at my last year of university. I plan to go to wok in Spain next summer, so I hope this method will get me to a good intermediate level of Spanish by then. If anyone has any ideas or feedback let me know.

hasta luego
Daniel

[RebelDogg]

I'm new to Spod, but I just came over from JapanesePod101.com I'm using basically the same approach here as I used there. However this may not be as much as an option for some people. What I do insofar as *Pod101.com (keeping in mind this is only ONE facet of my studies) is I load a fair number of lessons onto my phone (Blackjack II) and I have an earphone (hands free device) that I listen through at work. I drive a truck for a living so I can just listen between stops. In some cases this is a period measured in hours. But I try not to get burnt out, so I stop every so often and listen to the radio.

I don't try to memorize everything. I just listen. Repeat out loud. Sometimes I space out. But when I get home, I break out the PDF's and make flashcards with words, phrases, and sentences. I relisten to the audio tracks for a few days to a week. This knocks out about 20-30 lessons in five days. Sometimes more if stuff is easy. I spend the whole week going through PDF's then on the weekend I make sure I've got everything. I don't move on until I'm completely comfortable with what I've gone over.

[Connorre]

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Thank's!!