Motivation is a perennial topic of discussion when it comes to language learning, because so much of what it takes to succeed at the endeavor hinges on a learner keeping their motivation high. Most of the advice that floats around about the subject attacks from two points: advice on keeping your motivation up day-to-day, and … Continue reading The Third Variety of Motivation
As time has gone on in this language learning project, I’ve tried to pay attention to how things have changed and adjusted for me since I first started. A part of that is just to try and keep in mind how I’ve improved, as a means of keeping my confidence up, because remembering how much … Continue reading Patience in Language Learning
So after last week’s blog musing over the idea of switching over to just reading, I decided that even if I didn’t stick with the experiment, it was at least worth a shot. So at the start of the week, I bought the remainder of the Dresden Files books that were available in Spanish (which … Continue reading Adjusting to Just Reading
At the start of the new year, I outlined some of my yearly themes that I’m keeping in mind, not resolutions per se, just general courses of action I’m trying to take for both this language project and my life in general. The theme of The Year of Striving was the new one I added, … Continue reading Reevaluating Methods
This week on Duolingo I ended up hitting level 25, which is the max level, in Inglés para Hablantes de Español, something colloquially called the “reverse tree” when using Duolingo to help with language learning. After completing the tree of courses in the language that one is interested in learning, so Spanish for English Speakers … Continue reading Learning Tool Deep Dive: Duolingo
I’ve discussed motivation for language learning in a roundabout way a couple of times before in this blog, because it’s such a key component to success. Without motivation in the big picture, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day to day, get discouraged or bored, and drop the endeavor like it was an … Continue reading Finding Motivation Day to Day
Very early on in my journey to learn Spanish, a common theme among the blogs and videos giving language learning advice was about having a clear goal in mind for what level you wanted to get your ability in the language up to. Overall I think that’s a really solid piece of advice when starting … Continue reading Understanding Language Levels
I talked somewhat recently about a concern I’ve had over how far I actually take this project and if I’d ever be capable of thinking in Spanish the way I think in English, whether I could have a running internal monologue that operated in Spanish, and how it felt out of reach because when reading, … Continue reading Applying Labels to Myself
2018 has come to a close, which puts us in the time of year when a lot of people talk about new year resolutions. I’m not fond of resolutions myself, I feel like it’s more or less starting off with a handicap and setting yourself up for failure. A lot of the things people resolve … Continue reading Yearly Themes
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and happy bank holidays and Designated Chinese Food Day to those who don’t! So this week, as I finished off Tormenta, the first book of The Dresden Files in Spanish, and picked up the second, Luna Llena, I happened upon a language acquisition academic article specifically about reading book … Continue reading Narrow Reading Vs. Wide Reading
Fumbling Toward Fluent 