How was 2023 for you? It was a happy one for me, because of family and friends, including all of you, of course. But it was extra special because of deciding to play with learning some Spanish. I started it as mental exercise because I had read that learning a foreign language is great for that, it involves more than one part of the brain. I had been playing word games and Sudoku so when I read about Duolingo I decided to try spending a little bit of time each day on that instead. So for the past 240 days (it will be eight months next Saturday) I have been doing that…a little bit every day.
I like its approach, it doesn’t try to make you memorize a lot of rules of grammar, it tries to teach you the way kids learn, by listening, observing, trial and error. It does occasionally mention some grammar points and I sometimes read about why sentences are constructed the way they are, but the main emphasis is on getting a feel for the language, knowing what sounds right, letting it all sink in.
I’ve added to Duolingo by watching videos with Spanish subtitles, sometimes stopping and looking up words and phrases when I need to, and also reading some comics in Spanish. Gocomics.com has several, but the ones I like best are Garfield and Snoopy in Spanish because they also have the same comics in English (Garfield and Snoopy). My main emphasis is on having fun, enjoying the experience. It tickles me that some of it is sticking so it’s getting easier and easier.
Yeah, 2023 was a great year.
December 31, 2023
2023 was a pretty lousy year for us here but I’m so glad yours was a good one. Aprender español no siempre es fácil, pero mucha suerte y diviértete. Happy New Year from all of us!!!
Thank you, I’m sorry about your losses and hope 2024 will be a lot better for you all.
I’m delighted you discovered something that bring you so much joy.
Happy New Year!
Thank you! Happy New Year to you, too!
for me it was mixed – but hey, life does that, sometimes
what of 2024, n/a at this point in time…although this is nearly 9pm on the first
I hope it all goes well. I’m looking forward to hearing about your new adventure. 🙂
I can’t really say anything bad about 2023. It wasn’t an overly exciting year but nothing majorly bad happened either.
Happy New Year.
That’s worth a lot!