Week 4 - Passion Project 2017 - Letters and Learning

My task this week was writing a letter to Katherin. I received a new photo of her in the mail this week, which seemed like fortuitous timing and gave me the added push to finish my letter to her. I let her know about my decision to do Passion Projects in class, and that I will also be learning something new this year as part of that initiative.

Katherin

Writing my intentions to Katherin has significantly increased the pressure and motivation to learn Spanish and to continue to practice every day. I think that a lot of our motivation needs to come from inside, but it is also helpful to have a nudge from the outside world to keep us on track sometimes. Knowing that there is a person out there in the world who would be disappointed if I don't follow through on my plans makes it that much more significant.

I took a one-day break from Duolingo last Friday, and I didn't realize how much I would care about breaking my streak! I was on a 14-day streak, and I have had to start over... I'm back up to a 5-day streak, and I'm determined not to break this one! My mom has also decided to start using Duolingo to learn Spanish (she is going to visit my sister in Costa Rica this May, and wants to be able to communicate with people while she is there). It's motivating to have someone else doing a similar Passion Project with me!

PS - "hija" means "daughter"

I have found myself thinking of Spanish words now and then during the day - not so much at school, because I spend a lot of the day speaking French, but certainly at home. I am starting to talk about clothing and food in Spanish (those are the two biggest sets of words I have learned so far) - my husband isn't sure what to make of it! Maybe he will learn some Spanish just by listening to me ;-)

Week 3 - Passion Project 2017 - Plateau

I feel as though I've reached a bit of a plateau in learning Spanish. What I mean by that, is I seem to be doing the same activities over and over and not making much project. I think this is because I am still trying to build up my vocabulary, so I cannot yet really communicate in Spanish - but at the same time, I'm a little bored with building my vocabulary one or two words at a time.

I've been finding it slightly difficult to make time to practice with Duolingo every day. I know that 10-15 minutes is not very long, but some days it feels like more of an effort to take that time. I haven't missed a day yet, however, so I'm feeling good about that!

A 14 day streak is pretty exciting!

Moving forward, I think I need to challenge myself more during those 10-15 minutes. Rather than only doing vocabulary learning lessons, I will make it a priority to do one of the chats, one vocabulary learning lesson, and one review lesson to strengthen the skills I have already worked on. I hope that this will make my Duolingo sessions more motivating and meaningful.

I haven't yet written to Katherin to tell her about my Passion Project, and that is high on my list of things to accomplish this week. Adding that extra layer of motivation will be extremely helpful for me!

In the middle of writing this blog post, my husband asked if I would like to try a video game that he is really enjoying. It is called Terraria and is similar to Minecraft in many ways. I was ready for a break, so I agreed that we could install it on my computer and give the multiplayer version a try.

What came next was very exciting for me... you can choose to play Terraria in SPANISH! All at once, I was excited about learning Spanish again. I set up my Terraria character (I named her La Erina) and entered the game with Spanish as my default language. I felt gleeful as I tried to navigate the world, and really excited to meet Scott (the first NPC you encounter in the game) - I was able to decipher most of his dialogue, and I plan on speaking to him multiple times within the game so that I can practice understanding.