Spanish is Easy...ier

“Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

Is there anything superhero movies can't teach us?  When I returned from vacation I was ready to be productive again, so I dove into Spanish.  And I was ready to apply what I learned studying Japanese.  No, not what I learned about conjugating verbs.  I'm talking about what I learned about learning.

For starters, I'm back on Anki.  Anki is an amazing tool for simple memorization.  But this time I'm memorizing words, instead of alphabets.  I'm starting with a list of the 5,000 most used Spanish words, as compiled from movie subtitles.  Most of these are prepositions, conjunctions, and such.  In a few weeks I plan to add in common phrases.

Then there's Rosetta Stone.  I gave my Japanese subscription to my cousin, and got a Spanish subscription.  Last time I studied what it was teaching me, and that was all wrong.  I was doing one lesson a day, if that.  The benefit of the program is to make you practice it as often as you can.  It kind of simulates immersion, or as least the best you can without other people.  This time around I'm spending less time thinking it through, and more time doing it, and getting that practice in.

Most speaking is done subconsciously, and these two methods are great at that angle of a new language.  But I am 36, and it's too late to just absorb a language like a child would.  The third method I'm using is old fashion studying.  I'm watching youtube videos explaining how the grammar works, and taking notes.

I have some other ideas for the future, but this is a great start.  There is some commitment involved, but it's not pulling teeth.  It feels good to learn, and I'm still very enthusiastic.  Plus I am bundling my enthusiasm for my upcoming vacation with that studying.