I have had a lot of embarrassing moments learning Spanish. I have referred to these moments as failures. But the best thing about failures is that they tell a story of what doesn’t work.
One of the best ways to learn is to work out what doesn’t work. That way you can get to what does work faster.
If you want to learn spanish quickly you have to work out how to learn spanish slowly. This is what today’s podcast is about.
In today’s episode I focus on what didn’t work for me. More specifically I focus on what slowed me down. Once I knew what slowed me down I could work out what would speed up the learning process.
This episode was inspired by a post from the archives where I talked about the things spanish students should avoid. Here is the link:
The Top 5 Things Every Spanish Student Should Avoid.
Not every tip in that post I have actually tried. For example, one of the tips was about learning 2 languages at the same time. I have never tried that. But a polyglot friend recommended that I didn’t try to learn 2 languages at the same time. I followed this advice because it makes sense.
What I focus on today in the podcast is the techniques that I have actually tried. I will go through these tips one by one and explain why they didn’t work. I will then talk about how to adjust to find ones that do work.
There are 10 ideas that slowed me down. These ideas are what I experienced as unhelpful if you want to learn spanish quickly. Some of the ideas are related to mindset and some related simply to writing things down.
Some of the ideas are also covered in more detail in other mindset episodes. You can see the other episodes mentioned on the podcast here:
Quote from today’s episode:
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work” – Thomas Edison
Which of these ideas are holding you back?
Podcast: Play in new window
I like hearing about what didn’t work for you and for other people. We all can have some similar and some very different things that get in our way. I absolutely agree about writing things down to help remember them, but I know with hand writing I tend to be a perfectionist (and typing doesn’t seem to help me remember things). Because of that I would start making flashcards and then throw them out and make them over, and over until I got frustrated and gave up. Having them printed with space underneath has been great. I can write practice sentences or more detailed definitions and since the main word and definition are typed my handwriting doesn’t bother me.
For me, I found trying to make myself do things that don’t work for me (but I think I should) just doesn’t work. Weird sentence, but still…
Also, about procrastination, I took a course on organization and anything is done and one of the best things I got from it was actually the idea that motivation is unnecessary also, about procrastination, I took a course on organization and anything done and one of the best things I got from it was actually the idea that feeling like doing something is unnecessary. Just start to do it and then you’ll feel like it. And even if you start and you still don’t feel like it, at least started. At which point either stop or keep doing it or whatever your preference.
Anyway thanks for another podcast!
Hola Rebecca, thanks for sharing! I like your suggestion, it’s a good way to approach the problem. For example:
1. Is it better to think your way into a new way of acting? Or
2. Is it better to act your way into a new way of thinking?
¡Gracias de nuevo!