La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir un párrafo acerca de alguna experiencia que hayas tenido  durante un verano en el pasado.  El párrafo no debe tener menos de 5 oraciones y no más de 10.  Para los atrevidos, en vez de escribirlo, les recomendamos grabarlo.  La próxima semana pueden compartir sus experiencias escritas o grabadas con el grupo.

(La tarea extra de la semana * para los que quieran más tarea * es seguir con el capítulo 17, Nouns & Articles, en “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect.  Les recomendamos leer las páginas 217 y 218  y hacer los ejercicios 17.21 a 17.23)

How many hours does it take to become an expert in Spanish or otherwise?

 

I recently read the book The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  If you’re interested in cultural anthropology, you may find this book as fascinating as I did.

 

According to the author it takes about 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything.  He backs up his theory with numerous stories, but the one about the Beatles I found most interesting.  Here is an excerpt from his book:

 

The Beatles ended up travelling to Hamburg five times between 1960 and the end of 1962. On the first trip, they played 106 nights, of five or more hours a night. Their second trip they played 92 times. Their third trip they played 48 times, for a total of 172 hours on stage. The last two Hamburg stints, in November and December 1962, involved another 90 hours of performing. All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half. By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, they had performed live an estimated 1,200 times, which is extraordinary. Most bands today don’t perform 1,200 times in their entire careers. The Hamburg crucible is what set the Beatles apart.

 

As he states in his book, the Beatles had their success after Hamburg, after completing their 10,000 hours.

 

So how does this relate to you?

Well, here you are, learning a language.  So many language learners say things like “I’ve been studying for 2 years, I should be fluent by now.”  This is absolutely not the case.  Yes, some people have a natural ability for languages and advance faster than others, but the majority of students who move up quickly are the ones that put in the time.  

One of our students, just moved up a level for the 2nd time in less than a year.  This is not common.  But I was looking at his profile and he has been to class 119 times in 10 months (he has the unlimited package).  Most students average about 30-35 classes in 10 months.  He has put in the time, therefore is reaping the rewards faster than most.  

 

So what does this mean for you?  I would say one of two things:

1 – If learning Spanish is your goal, be patient…as you put in more hours, you will continue to improve.  Enjoy the process and know that every time you practice, even for 5 minutes, you are adding to your 10,000 hours.  You WILL get there; it’s just a matter of time!

2 – If learning Spanish quickly is your goal, putting in more time will help you achieve that.  The more you practice your Spanish, the faster you will advance.  It’s quite simple really.

 

Do you feel like you’re moving at the right pace in comparison to the number of hours you dedicate to learning Spanish?

 

Besos,

Caro

Weekly Tip: Learn from your mistakes!

As you all know by now, making mistakes is part of the process of learning a language. As a matter of fact, we encourage you to put it all out there and make as many as needed. However, we assume that you want to improve your Spanish, which means learning from them.

Here are a few tips on how to do that:
– When someone corrects you, before continuing with what you were saying, stop and repeat what you said, but this time correctly. If you just nod and keep going, you will not learn from it.
– Write corrections down. You can write it incorrectly and then correctly, but all you really need is the correction.
– Review your corrections after class and if you can, write out a few sentences using said correction.

One thing to note is that it takes between 12 – 20 times (on average 16-17) to learn something new. So if you’re corrected 5x for the same mistake, don’t think that you’re not learning. As a matter of fact, if you realize that you’ve been corrected before on the same thing, you are making progress.

So put it all out there, do not be afraid to make mistakes, but make sure that you’re taking the opportunity to learn from them!

Besos,
Caro

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir 4 preguntas de conversación para la clase, usando uno de los tiempos compuestos del indicativo diferente para cada una.  Por ejemplo: ¿Has viajado a Italia? – ¿Habías tomado clases de español antes de PBO? – ¿Habrás tomado vacaciones antes de que termine el verano? – ¿Qué habrías hecho hoy si no hubieras venido a clase?

(La tarea extra de la semana * para los que quieran más tarea * es terminar el capítulo 11, Compound Tenses: the future perfect and the conditional perfect, en “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect.  Les recomendamos leer las páginas 125 a 128  y hacer los ejercicios 11.12 a 11.15)