I took that saying to heart when I first heard it years ago. And I keep thinking of it now when I play with all my toys. I also think of Kaitlin as a baby, lying in her crib experimenting with all the sounds she could make. I’m back to that “beginner’s mind” now as I learn about Spanish pronunciation. I’m also playing with loosening up my tongue so I can speak the words faster, and that includes Spanish tongue twisters (trabalenguas). I never expected to focus on speaking much, but I’m having fun with it and I’m guessing it will eventually help me understand rapidly spoken Spanish.
I agree with the people who say the best way to learn a foreign language is to have a spirit of adventure and fun, and to be comfortable with all the things we don”t know.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about one of my favorite new toys.
July 17, 2023
You’re right, it’s never too late.
Yes 🙂
” … and to be comfortable with all the things we don”t know.”
Gosh, I’ve got to spin that around my brain. What a nice alternative to Anxiety.
I’ll write a post about that in the future.
Maybe that is why I love my digital colorbooks/scissors/paste 2nd childhood.
can’t wait to see what the new toy is. I deleted one of my toy apps and am now looking for another.
Good for you! Aehen we were first retired years ago and people asked me what I was doing, I said. “Enjoying my second childhood even more than I did the first one.”
Way to go! How nice that you are learning a new language.
It’s a great time to do it. Summer is my least favorite time of year so I always like to have a project I can immerse myself in. That makes all the difference in the world when it’s warm.
Can’t wait to find out what you are into now!!
Thanks. 🙂
I think that’s what my mom was doing when she volunteered so much at my school and in outside organizations. She didn’t have but nine years of an actual childhood when her mom died and she entered the work force, her siblings all separated.
Good for her!
You’re right, and it’s never too late. I’m cheering you on in the only language I know, as you learn Spanish – I love and admire you for that, and so much more!! <3!
Thank you!!
You know everyone who is listening to native speakers in a language they don’t understand thinks they are speaking very rapidly. Probably because they’re trying to parse it out word for word.
Yes, there is that. That’s why I no longer think it’s hopeless for me to eventually understand Spanish speakers. But there is a difference: Rankings of 17 languages from faster to slower:
Japanese
Spanish
Basque
Finnish
Italian
Serbian
Korean
Catalan
Turkish
French
English
German
Hungarian
Mandarin Chinese
Cantonese
Vietnamese
Thai
That said, some people think the rate of information sent is about the same, some languages use more syllables to convey the same amount of information.
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/language-speed
interesting that English isn’t even in the top 10
maybe it’s not the actual language but the body mechanics of the individual speakers of any language.
and the style of the envirnoment that the speaker is in
and lastly where they are in the world, as I said in your last post, NZers apparently speak too fast, have tendency to run spoken words together…
Spanish has short vowels, and it’s easy to remember that when I try to read aloud fast. I tend to speak fast in English, but have to remember to slow down so people can understand.