For me, I am absolutely slamming it in the gym right now. Consistency is great, eating is great, quitting drinking for now has been great. Some non-gym guy even called me a big lad a few days ago. I’m stoked.
Also, the general sentiment in the country regarding social issues has become more radical all of a sudden, and I think it’s forcing our party to do more radical things themselves. A thing I have been calling for for a while now. Let’s hope it takes off and snowballs from there on.
How about you guys?
Simple things.
I’m eating better. A bit more veg and salad. Fewer processed foods.
And I’m able to enjoy reading fiction in Spanish now. I love reading fiction but cannot easily justify the time spent on novels. If I read in English, it’s either theory or for work. But I told myself that I could read fiction if it were in another language. So I started learning Spanish. And at the start of this summer I got through my first full novel. I’m on #4 now, and while I have to check the odd word, I can more-or-less breeze through (at a slower pace than I read in English). So now I can read fiction and improve my Spanish at the same time. It’s been fun, but it is a bit of a chore in the middle, after you’ve learned the easy bits, but before you can fully enjoy native content.
Thats amazing! Learning another language is one of best experiences you can have, as well as a good skill!
Thanks! It’s been a fun process. I just have to crack the speaking part now :)
Do you speak a second language?
Trying currently. Learning Spanish and Hawaiian, not very good at either tho :(
Nice one! It takes time, comrade, but you can do it. It’s all about the anti-imperialist languages. Spanish is hit and miss in that regard, admittedly.
How are you studying them?
I take courses for spanish, and am taking a mix of duolingo and IRL learning for the Spanish one
Nice one. Are you doing any extra reading / watching shows in Spanish?
haven’t attempted it, but I do want to try. I understand that it is an important step in learning how to speak a language.
It’s hard at first. But if you’re taking a course, it will come easier.
One thing to get you started might be looking out for whatever you’ve learned in class. Maybe a verb conjugation/tense or something to do with word order, whatever.
This will really drill in whatever it is. It relies on the memory curve (really, the forgetting curve – something worth knowing about in general if you’ve not heard of it before).
I really struggle with grammar. And I don’t find textbook explanations all too helpful because they tend to assume that I will know what they are talking about in English. But I don’t. So when the textbook says, oh an imperfect conditional is so and so in Spanish, I’m sat there wondering what an imperfect conditional is in English. But if I spot the e.g. imperfect conditional in a TV series or book, in context, it makes much more sense and seems to stick.
(BTW, I’m not confident that the imperfect conditional is even a thing.)
Also something that I was not informed of in language classes for another romance language – not Spanish, but the principle still applies – is that you can get by with native content without knowing / while still learning the grammar. Because much of it, especially non-fiction, is the same as English. Either it’s international vocab or Latin, with minor adjustments. There are thousands of cognates. The first few Language Transfer lessons (they’re short) gives some tips on this. (E.g almost all words ending ‘al’ or ‘ion’ are the same in both languages, with maybe one or two letters different: capital/capital or attention/atención.)
If you do have a look at native content. The trick is finding things at the right level. This can be frustrating. But you’ll know it when you see it. It’s also worth focusing on what you do understand rather than what you’re missing.
I’ll end my unsolicited advice at that. But feel free to ask for recommendations etc if you do fancy jumping in.