Sam tries to learn Spanish

The reality of language learning like a lot of things can be sugar-coated. You can depict it as an enjoyable endeavor that is relaxing and fun. To be fair that is one approach. If you spend 20 minutes a day it is in theory possible to achieve this. If that is what you are seeking by all means go for it. In my personal experience, this effort won't be enough. In fact, in my personal experience, you will have to do a lot more.  Learning a foreign language can be super tedious and sometimes it feels like you are climbing a mountain. I'm not implying that it isn't worth it. Because I certainly think it is. However, repetition is maddening at times. Meaning there are certainly days when you want to quit. But there are other days when you are so excited you can't even imagine quitting. I'm saying this because my goal is to capture how difficult it can be to try to learn a foreign language.  Capturing the process is more interesting than anything else in my opinion. I'...

Duolingo has evolved over the last many years. But one of its biggest flaws is the vocab it offers. There is defiantly a lot to be desired. A few times I have reached a 100 days ish in a row. While these milestones were nice they still ultimately didn't keep me engaged. I ended up not using the app for a while because I felt I outgrew it. Very recently I changed my mind.  When I initially stopped using Duolingo Spanish I was convinced I would be able to easily replace it. I enjoy writing and figured at the very least I could replace this element. To my surprise, I found replacing the app's writing component was trickier than I thought.  It isn't always logistically to practice writing in a foreign language. Evidently, there are options. However, using Duolingo makes writing practice so easy. Plus some of its speaking lessons aren't horrible either. It is very easy to dismiss it as a tool aimed only at brand new speakers. If this is how you view the app I strongly recomm...

  I have tried to learn how to speak Spanish on and off for many years. Being fluent in English certainly helps a lot. Due to the obvious similarities between the two languages. The fact that work-related tasks are the only thing that I'm good at certainly helps as well. Despite both of these factors learning Spanish still hasn't always been easy. Thankfully I have begun to make practice and since I have had to figure out a lot on my own I figured that I would do a blog post featuring 5 tips that I believe you will find the most helpful.  5. Repeat Repeat Repeat  If you master a foreign language in a day and can retain your mastery long term you deserve a lot of credit. I say this because mastering a foreign language can be a tedious process. This is the case because it requires a significant amount of repetition. More specifically it requires daily repetition. Initially, this might feel daunting however in the long run it will pay off tremen...