Weekly Tip – 10/19/17 – Bask in your accomplishments!
Weekly Tip – 10/19/17 – Bask in your accomplishments!
I had a conversation with a student this week that inspired this blog post.
This student just spent a year on and off in a Spanish-speaking country and has reached a C2 level.
My reaction was a very positive one, congratulating him for reaching fluency. His response was that on occasion he is still lost.
This is actually a very typical response. Most of the time when I congratulate students for their accomplishments they tell me everything that they don’t do well in Spanish or what they still need to work on. While it is important to know where your weaknesses are so that you can improve them, it is also incredibly important to take a moment and think about how far you have come with the language. This is not your native language, this is not a language that you speak and listen to 16 hours a day. This is a language that you have worked very hard to learn.
This week I recommend that you sit down and write a list of your accomplishments in Spanish and take a moment to bask in how far you have come.
Here is my list for Italian:
- I am now able to greet people in Italian without stopping to think about it
- I am able to understand the gist of what is being talked about in News in Slow Italian, rather than just understanding a word here and there
- My reading comprehension has improved by about 20%
- During my lessons I am able to express myself in a basic manner about 50% of the time (it was zero 6 months ago)
- During my lessons I am able to understand what my teacher is saying about 75% of the time (it was about 10% 6 months ago)
- I understand the past tense in Italian and use it fairly well
- My vocabulary has grown from using about 20 words six months ago to maybe 300-400 now
- Most importantly, I am not afraid to make mistakes. I put myself out there say some crazy things, laugh about them along with my teacher and then learn something new
What are your accomplishments in Spanish?
Besos,
Caro