Morning Musings on Learning

When I first began my quest to learn Spanish, I came to understand the importance of the four facets of learning a language: speaking, hearing, reading, and writing, as well as the importance of all four. At first, all four were equally difficult, since I knew few words and less grammar. As time progressed, a "continuum of difficulty" seemed to emerge for me, with reading being the least difficult, followed by by writing, and hearing and speaking being of about equal (greatest) difficulty: Reading > Writing > Hearing/Speaking I was thinking this morning about how my continuum has changed as I have learned more. Now it is probably more like Reading > Speaking > Hearing Writing > I take this change as a sign of progress: my ability to form and express thoughts has improved, so my writing skill has caught up with my reading skill, and it seems a little easier for me to speak than it does to hear (and understand) spoken Spanish, probably because I can control the speed when I am speaking, and while trying to listen, part of my mind is thinking about how to form a response. I wonder if others have noticed that the aspects of learning Spanish have changed for them over time?

I am improving but still not on the level I would like to be. I am giving myself three years with daily lessons in RS and supplementing with classes in the Senior Center. I started in January of this year, so we'll see.

I think my german goes a little bit like this, at this time. Reading, which I have found easier and easier as I go, but, I added comprehension of what I have read, and that is why I have 2 >>, I place writing almost at the same level, I still find it hard to write a sentence, but I know a bit more about the structure of it. Finally, and very very far away >>>> I have speaking, even though I find pronunciation a bit more easier (at least in my mind it sounds like that) but speaking (and making sense whilst doing it) i still find it hard...and not as far away I have, hearing or listening...with all the different accents, and speed...well I just understand a few words, and the rest...well, KEINE ANHUNG! (No idea)! Reading >>Comprehension or reading> Writing >>>>Speaking>Hearing

Sounds about right. As for me, I think I will be done with Rocket Spanish by the end of the year. Yesterday I was able to improvise responses at pretty much any point in the lesson (not today though, so it probably depends on the content). I will eventually try to do a few live lessons with our Spanish tutor Paula via Skype to see how fluent I am. I have no native Spanish speakers to practice with where I live so I'm still a bit clueless as to my level.

Another observation. It often seems like I plod along and don't notice much in the way of progress. And then, at some point in time, there is a jump where I seem to be at a different level. In the past few weeks, I've noticed a distinct difference in my endurance. I don't seem to get mentally fatigued in doing Spanish like I used too (despite significantly increasing the time I put in now). It strikes me as being somewhat akin to physical training where a runner slowly builds up his/her capacity to run longer and longer distances.

I experienced the endurance effect back when I was in college studying courses for my math major. The key was keeping the intensity going while studying. You can't learn mathematics without really thinking hard. So, I found I could only keep the focus going for 20 minutes at a time after which I would take a break. A year later, I was able to go 60 minutes and longer.

I absolutely hated the two years of math courses I had to take at university. It was that thinking hard part that just didn't work for me. :-)