Learning the Spanish Language — Project Day 21

This last day is a natural time to reflect on the project.

I'm not surprised that I've learnt less new Spanish than I'd hoped. Because, the project was always partially intended as an experiment — to see what could be achieved in period of planned, sustained and mindful effort.

In the end, I spent more time than anticipated on embedding previously half-learned Spanish and on re-learning how to learn.

In truth, I'm more than content with my progress on Spanish 'content'.

Much of the new stuff I've learned has been among the details that matter in making the transition from understanding the essentials (the basic grammar and sufficient vocabulary) to speaking and expressing some nuance in a language — e.g. the use of prepositions with other parts of speech and critical sentence-building idioms.

Most of the already-learnt content that I've worked on embedding has been in the area of irregular verbs, in particular their preterite forms. Because the stem and end patterns in that tense provide keys to deriving the bits of irregularity with which I am least confident — and also to unlocking the most-used parts of the subjunctive mood.

Together these two areas of work have allowed me to become greatly more fluent than I was three weeks ago.

While I'm still years from full fluency, and months from being able to utter complex hypotheticals on demand, I can now speak quasi-immediately and appropriately in response to oral questions — whereas at the start of the project I often found myself tongue-tied and was prone to high error rates when pressed to respond immediately.

All that said, I've spent very little time blogging about either the substantive content of my Spanish learning or the techniques I've developed/adopted to achieve it — as I had intended to do. But I fully intend to rectify that ommission in the coming weeks.

I certainly never intended to expend so much time and effort on figuring out how to get stuff done — or to spend so much time talking about the process in this blog.

I don't expect anyone else to find its rambling introspection of much use or interest. Nor do I feel any psychological impulse to confess my failures to the extent that I have done.

But the simple processes of trying to account for what happened each day, in both prose and checklists, has been of great material — not merely psychological — benefit.

I haven't managed to stick entirely to my planned routine, or tick off all the practical tasks on a single one of the 21 days. But I've been better at it in the last week than I was in the first. And I don't think that I've stuck so doggedly and so long to a single learning project in many a year

Which indicates 3 positive outcomes of some value:

Greater motivation — at the end than at the beginning
High levels of focus — almost throughout
Greater resilience — in the face of still intractable problems

But I think there's a few more positives worth noting.

For all my slips and falls on the big isssues of sleep and diurnal rhythm, my small-scale time management has rarely been so good. For example, I've never failed to devote an acceptable minimum portion of each day to the higher quality language learning activities.

Perhaps the most gratifying of many 'wins' in the time-management field has been an enhanced ability to recognise and regulate relatively small swings in attention and focus.

I can't remember any recent period in which I've so successfully prevented distractions from stretching beyond more than a few minutes — I'd normally measure distractions in hours or days, and occasionally in weeks.

In the last few days, I've become particularly adept at responding to flagging attention by switching to very short, well-bounded, alternative tasks which have high use-value, but allow me to quickly return to the primary learning job with renewed focus — within a few minutes.

Some might call this 'mindfulness', but I'm inclined to think of it in mechanical, rather than spiritual, terms. Because 'productive distraction' simply doesn't work for me, without an already-prepared stack of well-bounded tasks, immediately to hand.

By 'well-bounded', I mean short, entirely scoped, discrete, and completely devoid of 'rabbit holes'. The kind of rabbit holes I have in mind are:

Previously unconsidered pre-requisites
An 'interesting problem' to solve or understand
An enticing 'next step'

All three of which incite dangerous 'completist' impulses, that can easily overwhelm any rational plan for a swift return to the planned learning programme.

Routine Checklist

Legend

Ticks — right activity on time
Crosses — not done to schedule
Hyphens — not applicable to currrent routine configuration

Task	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
0730 — Get going	✕	✓	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕
0845 — Session 1	✕	✓	✕	✕	✓	✕	✓
1015 — Break	✕	✓	✕	✕	✓	✕	✓
1030 — Session 2	✓	✓	✕	✓	✓	✕	✓
1200 — Dinner	✓	✓	✕	✓	✓	✕	✓
1245 — Session 3	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✕	✓
1415 — Break	✓	✓	✓	✕	✓	✓	✓
1430 — Session 4	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
1600 — Transition	✓	✓	✓	✓	✕	✓	✓
1630 - Session 5	✓	✓	✓	✕	✕	✓	✓
1800 — Tea	✓	✓	✓	✓	✕	✓	✓
1830 — Maintenance	✓	✓	✓	✓	✕	✓	✓
2000 — Relax	✓	✓	✓	✕	✕	✓	✓
2230 — Review, uwind	✓	✓	✕	✓	✕	✕	✕
2330 — Bed	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕

Learning Tasks Checklist

Task	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
Reading comprehension	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Read aloud	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✓	✓
Just read	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✓
Word & phrase exercises	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Sentence exercises	✕	✓	✕	✓	✓	✓	✓
Socratic dialogue	✕	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
A song	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕
Aural comprehension	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Verb exercises	✓	✓	✓	✕	✕	✓	✓
Pronoun exercises	✕	✕	✓	✓	✓	✕	✓
Preposition exercises	✕	✕	✕	✓	✓	✕	✓
Conjunctions	✕	✕	✓	✕	✕	✕	✕
Eng.→Spa. translation	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Spa.→Eng. translation	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Physical exercise	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✕	✓
Subbed video	✓	✓	✓	✕	✕	✓	✓
Non-subbed video	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕
Research lang. acquisition	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕	✕
List 'issues'	✓	✓	✕	✕	✕	✓	✓
Prepare materials	✓	✓	✕	✕	✕	✓	✓
Review this checklist	✓	✓	✕	✓	✓	✓	✓

Routine Mark 3 — Teaching Days

Legend

Ticks — right activity on time
Crosses — not done to schedule
Hyphens — not applicable to currrent routine configuration

Task	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
0730 — Get going
0845 — Session 1
1015 — Break
1030 — Session 2
1200 — Dinner
1245 — Session 3
1415 — Break
1430 — Session 4
1600 — Transition
1630 - Riding
1800 — Tea
1830 — Maintenance
1930 — Active leisure
2130 — Reading
2200 — Review
2230 — Wind-down