Spoon's 2018 attempt at success [ ES | IT | EO | DE? ] + Greek FLC

[Spoonary]

So I was just reading some more of 'Un figlio e ho detto tutto' and something wonderful happened that I couldn't not share.

The first half of the book was about how Gianmarco and Alice met and fell madly in love, but then the inevitable happened and Alice fell pregnant.

I have just read the few chapters in which they recounted, in that jokey but real way they have of telling a story, what happened when it was time for their son Giosuè to be born, and I cried!

Reading that final chapter from Alice's point of view, reading about her nerves and excitement; the pain and joy she felt as she brought her son into this world, made me cry like the baby I was reading about!

Now, I often cry when I watch/read/hear things about parents and children loving and being proud of eachother, because I'm a big softy like that, but what made me want to share this moment with you guys was that I read this in Italian. I realised that I had been so immersed in what I was reading that I completely forgot that I was reading in Italian, a once foreign language to me. I was amazed that I could have such an emotional reaction to something in a language other than English.

Ok, I'm sure that this has happened to me before, in my language hayday, but it has been a while now since I've felt so accomplished with regards to language learning so I had to share.

Isn't language wonderful?

[Spoonary]

For some time, I have wanted to engage in a creative hobby. After much dilly-dallying, I have decided that I am going to try out watercolour pencils, as I used them in school and remember enjoying how versatile they were.

I have my paper and brushes and will be collecting my pencils themselves from the post office depot sometime next week, so I'll be starting in the new year (of course), but this evening I thought I would watch some video tutorials to make sure that I use them right

I was watching the usual English/American videos, having a grand old time learning all about watercolour pencils, when I had a lightbulb moment and thought 'why don't I watch similar videos in my target languages?'

So I watched videos about lápices acuarelables in Spanish and about matite acquerellabili in Italian and soon came across all kinds of art-related vocab I had only been vaguely aware of previously.

I know there are arguments for and against learning about the same topics in multiple target languages (as opposed to keeping languages separate by using them in different parts of your life), but I like to compare how the same things are expressed differently in two similar languages like Spanish and Italian. Plus, I would like to be able to talk about my new hobby in all of my target languages!

[Spoonary]

Perhaps foolishly, I have decided to take part in the Output Challenge again in 2019. I am dividing the challenge between Spanish and Italian, so I will be writing 25,000 words and recording 25 hours of audio each in Spanish and Italian over the course of the year.

I have worked out that if I try to produce 15 minutes of audio per day and 1000 words per week, I will over-compensate and alllow for missed or less-productive days.

In order to allow for the maximum chance of success, I am trying to eliminate any difficulty or inconvenience which could make me lose the motivation to write or speak. Firstly, I bought myself a bluetooth keyboard. I have a laptop but it's old and sluggish and has a dodgy battery so taking it out, plugging it in and starting it up every day after work is an effort I am very likely to try to avoid. However, this keyboard will allow me to simply use my tablet, which is much more simple to switch on and set up, to type those 1000 weekly words, much more efficiently than using the on-screen keyboard.

I will be using the same tablet to record the audio, using the method I set up when doing my Just Crack On recordings, which is simple and effort-free.

I am also thinking about pre-planning the topics that I will write/speak about but I haven't made a decision about that yet. One thing's for sure though, I am definitely looking forward to cracking on with this challenge.

[Brun Ugle]

I did miserably in the challenge this year, but even so, I completed enough that it made a huge difference in my abilities. Imagine if I'd done the whole thing! One of my problems was just what you described, the hassle of turning on the laptop. My old laptop was terrible towards the end. It had keys that would randomly stop working and the screen went all red and made it hard to read. And that's when I really started to fall behind and somehow I never caught up again, even though I eventually bought a new computer. I'm hoping my fancy, new laptop will make the challenge a lot easier this year.

[Iversen]

If your screen gets red then it is the connection from the screen into the back of the computer that isn't properly inserted and it is mostly enough to wiggle it a bit around. But keyboard problems can't be resolved that easily. Good luck with your new computer which definitely will help you to write those irritating 50.000 words in no time at all.

My main problem is that my trusty old computer is so far removed from my armchair (where I learn more efficiently than anywhere else) that I can't reach it from where I'm sitting. And my portable (or rather 'draggable') is not on the internet because I haven't installed a home network and bluetooth and all that stuff.

[Spoonary]

That's the thing guys, our brains love making excuses, so we have to take those excuses away (or at least reduce them as far as possible) before we even have the chance to make them. If something is simple and fairly effortless, we are more likely to just get it done, in order to avoid disappointment in the future.

That's the theory anyway. Goodness knows how everything will pan out in the end.

[Brun Ugle]

Yes, I was aware what the problem was, but since my computer was a laptop, fixing a red screen is not as easy as jiggling a wire. And since some of the keys would randomly stop working in the middle of a word, sometimes a password , and the computer was getting very slow and cranky, I decided to get a new one. But with a shiny new computer, those 75 000 (50 000 Spanish, 25 000 German) words will practically write themselves. Right?

[Spoonary]

Here's a link to my new log.