Spanish update

 

I’m a great fan of spaced repetition learning.  I was exposed to the concept early in my college career and I’m sure it helped my grade point average.  The results of my Spanish language effort suggest that there might be limits to the effectiveness of spaced repetition though.  It may not work as well for older people as it does for younger people.

 

I studied at least some Spanish every day for a year.  (I’m sure I missed a few days in June, but otherwise I was diligent.)  I used Rosetta Stone and Babbel.  They both employ spaced repetition and review.  I thought by the end of a year I might be something close to conversational; very basic simple conversation.

 

The result is that I know a few words.  I can figure out most  billboards that are only in Spanish (Spanish only billboards are not uncommon here in the Valley).  A lot of words look familiar even if I can’t recognize what they mean.  I recognize some simple phrases.  When it comes to constructing sentences from scratch though, I’m not really there.  To test my understanding of spoken language, when I find myself in a situation where people are speaking Spanish around me, I just sit and listen, let it all in, and see if I understand what they are talking about.  Generally, I don’t.  (I wonder if any of that is due to Tex-Mex.  That’s what’s spoken here.  It sounds like Spanish to me, but I don’t know how significant any differences between Tex-Mex and Latin American Spanish are.)

 

So here I am after a year of less-than-intense effort, but a consistent effort nonetheless.  I didn’t get to where I had hoped I would be.  I would like to know more Spanish than I know now, but after an entire year, I think I’ve had enough of devoting time to do Spanish every single night.