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
I’ve tried to be careful on this blog when referring to input to not be overly biased in favor of reading specifically. I won’t pretend that I don’t have any bias, because I do think that reading is superior to other forms of input based solely on the density of input. Even though I’m still … Continue reading Preferred Input Styles
There’s been an aspect of language learning that I’ve been worrying about in a low-grade way for a long time now, because it’s a common concern/idea that gets bandied about when the subject of language learning comes up, related to the age you are when you start learning a language. It’s commonly said that it’s … Continue reading Reading in a Foreign Language Vs. Reading in one of MY Languages
With November finished up, we have another month’s worth of numbers, bringing us to a total of six months’ worth of data logged through this blog. Six months is a nice, round number, which sounds like a good time to reflect and analyze how things have gone and see if any more long-term patterns have … Continue reading A Look Back on Six Months of Progress
As I round the first year of this language project, I’m feeling pretty good about where I’m at. My reading ability is at a high level and I’m continuing to feel improvements, with my listening ability catching up at a steady pace. My output abilities are still left rather undeveloped, but more and more expressions … Continue reading What I Know Now About Starting
Fumbling Toward Fluent 