This has been a rough week. And I don’t really mean for me specifically, as it was pretty much normal stuff in my day to day life, but the world is just so crazy right now, and it’s hard to not be wound up and numb at the same time from all of it. I felt bad not commenting on all of it last week, but that blog was time-sensitive in terms of this project, so I felt I could justify letting the blog be self-contained and non-topical to the world. Now I’m struggling to focus on anything else.
At the same time, I don’t know what I should say, or if I should say anything at all. The murder of George Floyd was horrifying and unjustifiable, and I am happy to condemn it as loudly and insistently as possible, but I feel like this is a time to be listening to black voices, so I’ve spent most of the week quiet and trying to listen. In that time I’ve been frequently emotional and distracted, a common reaction I’m sure, and it’s been hard to focus on “language learning” as a concept.
I’ve stayed on top of my routines throughout all of this, as much for getting a bit of escapism from the world as for the language stuff, but it’s hard to focus and make sense of the dry academia of it. While ostensibly about making it easier to form connections with others, language learning is a pretty intensely solipsistic activity for me, and it’s easy for it to feel abstracted and aloof from reality. Part of that’s super welcome, between protests and pandemics, but it also makes the pursuit ring as false and shallow compared to what’s going on in the world.
I don’t know what to say or what to feel. Minneapolis said they’re going to dismantle their police force in favor of building a different model of support for the city. Maybe that’s a trend that will spread throughout the country and change it. Maybe something good is coming from all of this suffering and pain we’re going through, like a violent metamorphosis for the country, and we’ll be able to look back on this year as the start of something. I certainly hope so, because I’m finding this current world more and more surreal, and those silly memes about how we’re in the “bad” timeline—the alternate reality where all the bad things happened and it was always The Bearenstain Bears—are starting to feel compelling. Maybe we’re just coming out of the bad timeline and into something new and wonderful.
I think I’m going to leave off there and just go onto this week’s numbers now. It’s happened a couple times these last few weird, quarantine-filled months that I’ve been left without a main blog topic to want to cover, and my sincere hope is that we’ll eventually be at a point in the world where thinking about the logistics of language learning can feel important and vital again.
Tuesday 6/02
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 4% of El Bucanero del Rey, ~90 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 2 episodes of Ducktales, 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, 1 episode of Arte Divierte, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Wednesday 6/03
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 4% of El Bucanero del Rey, ~90 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Ducktales, 1 episode of Gravity Falls, 1 episode of La Zona Cero, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Thursday 6/04
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 4% of El Bucanero del Rey, ~90 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 2 episodes of Plano de Juego, 1 episode of La Zona Cero, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Friday 6/05
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 4% of El Bucanero del Rey, ~90 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Ducktales, 1 episode of Kiwillius, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Saturday 6/06
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 1% of El Bucanero del Rey, ~30 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 3 episodes of Ducktales, 2 episodes of Gravity Falls, ~120 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Sunday 6/07
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 1% of El Bucanero del Rey, ~30 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Ducktales, 2 episodes of Kiwillius, 1 episode of Calex MP, 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~120 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Monday 6/08
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 4% of El Bucanero del Rey, ~90 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 2 episodes of Ducktales, 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
- Total Duolingo: 140 XP, 0 minutes
- Total reading: 1/5 books read, 510 minutes
- Total watching/listening: 12 YouTube episodes and 13 television episodes watched, 540 minutes
- Total speaking: reading out loud, 210 minutes
- Total Time: 17 hours 30 minutes
A rather normal week overall. Work was slightly busier than normal, so I don’t have any spikes in numbers, but not so busy that it caused any disruptions. Things continued on their way.
After mentioning last week that I haven’t been enjoying El Bucanero del Rey very much, the plot managed to kick into gear and get piratey, so I’m having a much better time of it now. I’ve mostly enjoyed this series as I’ve read it, but Feist definitely has some weaknesses as a storyteller that hold the books back from being anything amazing and sometimes get in the way of enjoyability. Everything’s been readable overall, though, and I’m glad this book isn’t an exception.
I’ve continued to work my way through Ducktales this last week, and am approaching the end of available episodes for it pretty soon. After that, I’ll probably put heavier focus onto Gravity Falls, at least for the time being, because I still have quite a bit of that. I’ve also been branching out here and there, trying to find more youtube channels to add to my rotation, with limited success. Overall, though, I don’t feel like I’m starved for watching/listening material.
As we continue into the month, it’s crazy to think that 2020 is nearly half over. This is such a bizarre and difficult time, I really do wish it would all end soon. Not so that it’ll go back to ‘normal,’ because the normal of before will never exist again, but hopefully it’ll find a new normal that we can be comfortable with. I’m tired of feeling anxious and sad.
Anyway, y’all stay safe and take care of each other. And keep washing ya hands. TTFN.
Fumbling Toward Fluent 