Resolutions 2019

[asakiyume]

This'll be the fourth year running that I post resolutions.

I didn't do a good job with last year's. I didn't find a way to incorporate conversational Spanish practice into my learning, and I didn't work on the novel twice a week. However, this year I have two possible leads for conversational practice, so even though I failed last year, I think I'll try again with that this year:

(1) Continue to practice Spanish every day, and find a way to work in conversational Spanish every week. Grace period of a month to get that up and running.

As for the novel, what I found helpful was what I did in November, slip-streaming along with the NaNo crew--namely, keeping a tally of words written each day. When I did that, I put much more effort into at least opening the document and turning attention to it. So this year the goal will be ...

(2) to open the document each day and to record words written. If I don't write anything, but I stare at it, musing at possibilities, that's still something (I'll record zero words but note that I opened the document). If I undo a bunch of words and tinker, that's still something too.

A third, less-important-to-me resolution is to continue with Duolingo Portuguese. Still, it's a resolution.

(3) Do Duolingo Portuguese each day

Comments

[queenoftheskies]

Those are some AWESOME resolutions!!!

I think keeping track of daily words (even if it's 10 words) is good motivation for the entire year. For me, I can look back and see that at least I tried.

More power to you as you attain your 2019 goals!!!

[asakiyume]

Thank you! And you too!

[osprey_archer]

I should practice my Spanish, too. I studied it from middle school through university but since then I've let it slide, and while I started early enough that it's still there (unlike Russian, which I didn't start till college and has disappeared more or less entirely from my brain) but I can feel it atrophying.

Do you have an app that you use? Duolingo, or something else?

[asakiyume]

I do use Duolingo, and it's good as far as it goes--but it only goes so far. I was *greatly aided* by taking a trio of Spanish classes online through a local community college.

One thing that Duolingo has for Spanish and a few other languages that is really excellent is Duolingo stories--these are stories, with questions throughout that test your understanding. The stories are done with real people voicing the dialogs as opposed to the robot voice that Duolingo uses for its teaching. Also good are the Duolingo podcasts in Spanish. BUT I HAVE DONE THEM ALL. So now I'm stuck replaying stuff. I'm also reading a couple of things, very slowly, in Spanish, and there are a few other sites I visit for grammar exercises... but it's nothing on going to a Spanish speaking country and spending a lot of time there--that really solidified my Japanese, and I know it would help my Spanish. Still, you have to work with what you have, so.

[okrablossom]

I miss the Viking. Did you ever get a little conversation bot in Duolingo with a Viking? And you went to visit his home? And met his son and wife and pet bear? It disappeared after a Duolingo upgrade but I thought it was the best. I was so pleased I recalled how to feed the bear a fish. Ha!

[asakiyume]

By the time I joined, he was already gone--or at least, I didn't encounter him--but let's hear it for memorable lesson presentation aiding in language retention!

[amaebi]

That was funny.

[osprey_archer]

I've downloaded Duolingo and I think I may know Spanish too well for Duolingo to be of much use to me. Buuuut I have intended to learn French for a while, so Duolingo might be helpful for that...

I ought to give to Duolingo Spanish podcasts a try, though. Listening is much harder for me than reading, and more potentially useful.

[asakiyume]

The Spanish podcasts are *excellent* There's a really extremely informative and sobering one by one of the cofounders of Duolingo about when his aunt was kidnapped: "El Secuestro"

And this one on Antarctica was one I alpha tested for them and really liked: "Antártida"

... And actually, looking now, I see there are a bunch that I've missed--yay! New listening opportunities.

[amaebi]

Have you tried Spanish-language radio? Is there such a channel in your area?

There are here, unfortunately-for-me in Mexican Spanish, which I find difficult, though ideally that would be the sort of Spanish I have.

[asakiyume]

I have and do! I listen to Bomba radio, a pop radio station in the area, which gives me a great reggaeton fix, plus plenty of ads for ambulance-chasing lawyers and used-car dealers. And recently I discovered a Spanish-language Catholic radio station, so before you know it I'll be able to do a whole rosary in Spanish. My favorite newly learned phrase from that is "por los siglos de los siglos"--"for ever and ever."

It also turns out there are some Duolingo podcasts I *haven't* listened to, so I'm happily adding them to my mix. They're great for exposing you to all sorts of different Spanish accents--Argentinian, where they say "yo" like "sho"--or Colombian (but this one I'm already familiar with from telenovelas), where double ll has a j-sound, so "Medellin" is pronounced like "Mede-jeen" Puerto Rican Spanish turns some r's into l's, so "en la tarde" sounds like "en la talde." Puerto Rican Spanish--and I feel like I hear this in other Latin American Spanishes sometimes, but not in Mexican Spanish--also seems to drop a lot of s's, so that "nos vamos" can come out "nos vamo," etc. ... Castilian Spanish I only hear when I watch from-Spain dramas, like Grand Hotel (a period drama like Downton Abbey, but more melodramatic).

[amaebi]

Wow, a rich assortment!

[asakiyume]

I really enjoy Spanish. I had no idea I'd like it as much as I do. NO IDEA.

[sartorias]

Those sound like reasonable goals, which (I think anyway) is half the battle. Steady on!

[asakiyume]

I agree that it's half the battle! I'm trying to formulate ones that will take effort but that are achievable.

[sovay]

(2) to open the document each day and to record words written. If I don't write anything, but I stare at it, musing at possibilities, that's still something (I'll record zero words but note that I opened the document). If I undo a bunch of words and tinker, that's still something too.

I am glad this was a useful practice during NaNoWriMo. It sounds like a good resolution to me.

Happy New Year!

[asakiyume]

I have a presentiment that this very mechanical, quantitative method of spurring writing might be very antithetical to you... in some respects it is for me. I think what makes it worthwhile for me in this case is that the project is a long one about which I feel uncertain but yet I want to finish. In other cases, my faith in the project was enough to propel me forward. This time I'm just not sure, but willy-nilly I want to finish it.

[amaebi]

This is helpful. Thank you.

[gwynnega]

Those are excellent resolutions. Happy New Year!

[asakiyume]

Thank you! Happy New Year!

[wayfaringwordhack]

I really like the idea of opening the doc everyday. As you said, sometimes you will record only a à, but it keeps the story present in your mind.

I know we have talked before about rolling with the seasons in one's life, but I feel so desperate sometimes that I am not getting my creative urges met with ACTUAL FINISHED or even LEGITIMATELY ADVANCING projects. I need to make myself wisely use the time that I do have.

Here is to meeting all your goals this year!

[asakiyume]

Thank you, and same to you! And you know, every writer/artist I know, with maybe one exception (and that person has only one child) has found creativity with small children hugely, hugely challenging. Please remember for your sense of accomplishment that everything you do with land management, sustainable gardening/food production, etc., is also worthy and a form of creativity. And please have no doubt that when you find the time, you will go roaring back into productivity. Frankly, you always amaze me with the breadth of your activities and all you accomplish.

[amaebi]

Do you think the keeping-track is helpful? I mean, I see people who keep track and find it helpful, and I know that. What I'm wondering is about it's helpfulness to you, and how it would be helpful, as a guide to whether I might find it helpful. Because me me me me me, of course.

[asakiyume]

For the language learning side of things, it definitely helped me be more concentrated in my efforts, which I do think helped. Looking over my "resolutions" tags, I see I've been working at Spanish for three years. The first year was pretty lackadaisical, the way I'm doing Portuguese now. If it sticks, great, if not, eh, there's always tomorrow. But then I decided I really wanted to master it and really buckled down. At the end of the second year, I felt like I could understand a fair amount of written Spanish and some spoken Spanish. Now I feel like I can understand a *lot* of spoken Spanish (though there's still lots and lots of room for improvement). My speaking still lags behind--hence the conversation element, take two.

With the writing, as I was saying to Sovay, normally I don't need this kind of spur, but for this project I think it'll be helpful to get me to keep needed momentum going. In November, expending the effort made me feel much more connected with the story, less like a stranger just visiting.

[e_d_young]

I can't articulate succinctly where I'm coming from and can only say it's nice to hear that other people advanced in age are taking on language acquisition. There was a brief period a while ago when I kinda thought my effort to improve my French might be juvenile or something. I didn't really care then, and definitely not now. More power to us all! :-)

[asakiyume]

Amen!

I know I don't hear as well as I used to, so my chances of producing new-to-me combinations of sounds accurately has gone down, and I think it takes me longer to commit things to memory too, but WHO CARES?? Speaking with a heavy accent is okay--it's still communication! And any effort to stretch our minds seems like a good thing. Plus I just really, really like learning other languages, I find. I wish I had done more learning earlier in life, but now's definitely better than never.

...In conclusion, three cheers to us!