So after the previous blog’s disaster of dealing with the market crash, I had all of this week to work on getting back into the swing of things. The market’s still been volatile, but work’s evened out again for the most part, which meant I had the time available to ramp back up on my … Continue reading Trying (and Failing) to Ramp Back Up After a Tough Week
There are good weeks and bad weeks. I’ve covered this topic before, a long time ago, but as I just weathered a pretty difficult week it feels like a good time to revisit. This week was pretty rough for Spanish studying time, as will become apparent down in the number section of the blog. I … Continue reading Working Through Rough Weeks
A lot of advice and conversation about language learning gets devoted to the amount of time needed to spend per day working on the new language. Of course, the exact amount of time recommended per day tends to vary with who you’re talking to, and everyone has their own minimums, too, but the consensus is … Continue reading A Day In the Life of a Language Learner
(This blog is the English translation of this week’s primary blog, which was originally written in Spanish.) There’s a common piece of advice for language learning (and perhaps learning anything) that you should enjoy the journey. The end goal is fine and it’s important to have one, but you shouldn’t worry about the goal, rather … Continue reading Don’t Enjoy the Journey, Enjoy the Things
(This blog entry is written in Spanish. There will be an English translation available tomorrow morning / Este blog está escrito en español. Habrá una traducción de inglés disponible mañana por la mañana.) Hay un consejo común para el aprendizaje de idiomas (y a lo mejor el aprendizaje de cualquier cosa) que se debe disfrutar … Continue reading No Disfrutes el Camino, Disfruta las Cosas
I’ve done my best to not do this very often, but like I did right around the holidays I’m taking a week off from writing a pre-numbers content post. Most of the week was fine for me, but I went through some pretty heavy emotional stuff over the weekend, which is when I normally draft … Continue reading Weekly Update
There are a number of knowledgeable, interesting voices on the internet that offer advice on language learning. I follow several of them and enjoy hearing their takes on different things. Often times they present interesting ideas and techniques, and I have taken a large amount of inspiration from a number of those voices—most notably Stephen … Continue reading Understanding Language Levels Comparatively
I’ve talked before about how a lot of the general discourse of language learning as it exists online is centered on motivation. Which makes sense, as it’s probably the single largest failure point in a hopeful learner’s journey. Motivation dwindles as time and difficulty ramp up, until you start missing days here and there, shrug, … Continue reading The Value of Motivation Advice
(This blog is the English translation of this week’s primary blog, which was originally written in Spanish.) Most of the time I talk about my successes in these blogs. There are a few reasons for that: because successes make me happy, because it’s better to share something if it works than if it’s a failure, … Continue reading My Failures Learning Spanish
(This blog entry is written in Spanish. There will be an English translation available tomorrow morning / Este blog está escrito en español. Habrá una traducción de inglés disponible mañana por la mañana.) La mayoría del tiempo hablo de mis éxitos en estos blogs. Hay unas razones para eso: porque los éxitos me ponen feliz, … Continue reading Mis Fracasos del Aprendizaje de Español
Fumbling Toward Fluent 