I mentioned recently that I have resumed my attempt at learning Spanish with the Duolingo app. I am sitting on a 12-day streak and am enjoying doing things rather differently.
In the past I was always obsessed with racking up points and moving up the league tables. This made me afraid of making mistakes and losing all my hearts in a few minutes. So I made a lot of notes as I went along to have something to refer to when my memory failed.
This time, I am not worrying about points or the league tables. I am not taking notes. And I am not referring to the notes I made before. I am just winging it — as the app is intended to be used. If I run out of hearts before I am ready to quit, I just do some practice exercises to get a couple back so that I can continue with the lesson.
I must say that I am enjoying it a whole lot more. And even though I am progressing more slowly through the lessons, I think I am learning better. I had to redo one lesson about six times before I finally completed it. So I saw/heard/spoke/wrote the same phrases over and over again. But when I used to refer to my notes, I saw them far few times — because I often got it right first time.
In college, I was a straight-A student all the way. And I have often wished that I might have got a few Bs early on so that I would not have had a 4.0 GPA to protect (which I did right through to my PhD.) I think I would have accomplished just as much and been happier and more like able in the bargain.
If I could have given myself permission to be like this when I was a teenager (and if teachers had also given me permission), I think it would have made a huge difference to my life.
Blue Sunsets 