Where do I go from here?

[cdowis]

The past few weeks I've been asking myself this question. I am in a self-directed study program, and I have so many options, so many areas to work on.

Recently I read an article which divided Basic Level into three levels:

know nothing, basic 1, and basic 2.

Reading his description of each level, I know now where I am at and, more importantly, what I need to do to get to the next level.

Basic 1 == vocabulary-- around 500 words. Some words I recognize immediately (hablar), give me a moment (esperar), let me think about it (ventana and verano, etc), and words I just don't know or remember.

reading/writing -- can pretty much figure out basic text with time and occasional use of the dictionary.

listening comprehension == very basic dialog with lots of hola and me llamo types of phrases spoken very slowly. On normal speed conversations such as a soap opera or live conversation, I can pick up an occasional word here or there, and can usually figure out the general topic of conversation, not the details.

speaking == I have given a basic introduction and can ask a few basic questions. Probably will not understand the response, however. Working on pronunciation and get an occasional funny look (I said " look at all the stuff" , they heard "look at the bull". Generally, however, I have a passable pronunction.

verbs == generally know present, preterite, imperfect, perfect, an introduction and passing knowledge of the future, conditional and subjunctive for certain verbs.

Now, to understand how to move to the next level, need to know where I'm at and what the next level is.

Everthing above shows that I'm a Level One Beginner. Took me eight months to get there.

My next post will be about Level two and how to get there. What I need to focus on.