?? The patience, right surrounding, encouraging people and little bit of reminders from the learning app on the phone changed the way I look at studying a new language. It was my goal to get better in Spanish for almost two years.<\/p>\n
Having other things on my mind and different subjects at high school, I was basically never able to find a time to open the notebook and to revise some Spanish. Of course, always finding the right excuses for not taking the subject, which we had as a second language so seriously. After the last exam on May 2020 for which I studied only few minutes before the class, I gave up on Spanish for a long time.<\/p>\n
My knowledge from the lessons started to fade away and even when I told to myself that I am about to start again on my own, carried the Spanish book with me to holidays and always having it on the visible place, it was quickly abandoned there and falling into the dust.<\/p>\n
After being accepted to the volunteering project, I decided to get back on track and to revise everything, I\u00a0 took the old Spanish textbook with me and left it on a visible place again, downloaded the learning app and felt overmotivated for a few days. Guess what? I only managed to open the book once. With the thing on my mind – do some Spanish, but no plan or an idea where to start, I only got more frustrated about the whole thing.<\/p>\n
I gave up on the “studies” totally and with feeling of surrender I got into the plane with other Slovak friends heading to Spain.<\/p>\n
But on our way to Santiago, Nikoleta and Filip, the Slovak participants opened the very same book I had at the page one and started to read from the very beginning, just like that. They did not have any experiences at school and even with the idea that it is going to be a very slow process, they laughed and tried to pronounce some words that I recalled to know.<\/p>\n
Wait what? So if they do not hesitate to start from the zero, why do I make so much pressure on myself and than rather do nothing, than at least try?<\/p>\n
I decided to take it easy and instead of unrealistic expectations of speaking fluently in the month, I only made a simple plan – a few minutes of the Spanish app, but everyday. Arriving to Lal\u00edn gave me actually so much space to focus that I actually realised how much joy it can bring to learn something new. I realised that the hardest part for me was to begin. To accept, that the learning would be slower than I wished. That\u00a0 sometimes it is very hard to focus and one word I forget even after few days of repeating, until I finally can use it.<\/p>\n
From the “real pain” that I felt at the begining, after few days I got used to spending some time with Spanish language and the more I do, the more motivated I actually feel. Sometimes it is more about the doing the hard thing and not finding excuses. And probably, I was scared to face the reality that I forgot many things from school, but it is ok to start again. That was one of the reasons of my procrastination.<\/p>\n
With Omar<\/strong>, we are having the lessons with our group each week and I am really enjoying them now, because it makes me happy to see that I actually understand the words he explains to us. As well our coordinator Santiago Gallego<\/strong> and his positive mindset and idea of having a challenge of a week (first I set to learn a 100 words and it was finally a realistic plan, not just “to speak fluently”) make me want to carry on. Seeing other people supporting me now is a great motivation, but “the work” is always up to my decision and it is not responsibility of anyone else.<\/p>\n So far I have a 31-day-streak, which might not be a lot, but compared to previous past years, its a huge difference and finally I understand the saying that it is not only about the results. I realised that when I start, I do more than my “15 minutes a day”, because I actually enjoy the hard part of memorising words and practising it.<\/p>\n Note – Of course, a month ago, I would expect myself to write this artice in Spanish<\/p><\/blockquote>\n ?? La paciencia, el entorno adecuado, el aliento de las personas y algunos recordatorios de la app de aprendizaje del tel\u00e9fono, cambiaron mi forma de ver el estudio de un nuevo idioma. Era mi objetivo mejorar en espa\u00f1ol durante casi dos a\u00f1os.<\/p>\n Teniendo otras cosas en mente y diferentes materias en la escuela secundaria, b\u00e1sicamente nunca pude encontrar un momento para abrir el cuaderno y repasar algo de espa\u00f1ol. Eso s\u00ed, siempre encontrando las excusas adecuadas para no tomarnos el tema en serio, y aprenderlo como segunda lengua. Despu\u00e9s del \u00faltimo examen en mayo de 2020 para el que estudi\u00e9 solo unos minutos antes de la clase, renunci\u00e9 al espa\u00f1ol por mucho tiempo.<\/p>\n Mi conocimiento de las lecciones comenz\u00f3 a desvanecerse e incluso cuando me propuse comenzar de nuevo por mi cuenta, llev\u00e9 el libro de espa\u00f1ol conmigo a las vacaciones, siempre lo tuve en el lugar visible, pero r\u00e1pidamente lo abandon\u00e9 all\u00ed y se llen\u00f3 de polvo.<\/p>\n Despu\u00e9s de ser aceptada en el proyecto de voluntariado, decid\u00ed retomar el rumbo y revisar todo, me llev\u00e9 el viejo libro de texto de espa\u00f1ol y lo dej\u00e9 en un lugar visible nuevamente, descargu\u00e9 la aplicaci\u00f3n de aprendizaje y me sent\u00ed super motivada por unos d\u00edas. \u00bfAdivina qu\u00e9? S\u00f3lo logr\u00e9 abrir el libro una vez. Con la idea en mi mente de hacer algo de espa\u00f1ol, pero sin un plan de por d\u00f3nde empezar, solo me frustr\u00e9 m\u00e1s por todo el asunto.<\/p>\n Renunci\u00e9 totalmente a los “estudios” y con sentimiento de rendici\u00f3n me sub\u00ed al avi\u00f3n con otros amigos eslovacos rumbo a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n Pero en nuestro camino a Santiago, Nikoleta y Filip, los participantes eslovacos abrieron el mismo libro que yo ten\u00eda en la p\u00e1gina uno y comenzaron a leer desde el principio, as\u00ed como as\u00ed. No ten\u00edan ninguna experiencia en la escuela y a\u00fan con la idea de que va a ser un proceso muy lento, se rieron y trataron de pronunciar algunas palabras que yo recordaba saber.<\/p>\n \u00a1Espera, espera! Entonces, si no dudan en empezar de cero, \u00bfpor qu\u00e9 me presiono tanto y prefiero no hacer nada, antes de al menos intentarlo?<\/p>\n Decid\u00ed tom\u00e1rmelo con calma y en lugar de expectativas poco realistas de hablar con fluidez en un mes, hice un plan simple: unos minutos de la aplicaci\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol, pero todos los d\u00edas. Llegar a Lal\u00edn me dio tanto espacio para concentrarme que me di cuenta de la alegr\u00eda que puede traer aprender algo nuevo. Me di cuenta de que lo m\u00e1s dif\u00edcil para m\u00ed era empezar. Aceptar que el aprendizaje ser\u00eda m\u00e1s lento de lo que deseaba. Que a veces es muy dif\u00edcil concentrarme y una palabra se me olvida incluso despu\u00e9s de unos d\u00edas de repetirla, hasta que finalmente puedo usarla.<\/p>\n Del “dolor real” que sent\u00ed al principio, despu\u00e9s de unos d\u00edas me acostumbr\u00e9 a pasar un tiempo con el idioma espa\u00f1ol y cuanto m\u00e1s hago, m\u00e1s motivada me siento. A veces se trata m\u00e1s de hacer y no encontrar excusas. Y probablemente ten\u00eda miedo de enfrentar la realidad de que olvid\u00e9 muchas cosas de la escuela, pero est\u00e1 bien empezar de nuevo. Esa fue una de las razones de mi procrastinaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n Con Omar, estamos teniendo lecciones de grupo cada semana y realmente las estoy disfrutando ahora, porque me hace feliz ver que realmente entiendo las palabras que nos explica. Tambi\u00e9n nuestro coordinador Santiago Gallego y su mentalidad positiva y la idea de tener un reto de una semana (primero me puse a aprender 100 palabras y finalmente fue un plan realista, no solo “hablar con fluidez”) me dan ganas de seguir. . Ver a otras personas apoy\u00e1ndome ahora es una gran motivaci\u00f3n, pero “el trabajo” siempre depende de mi decisi\u00f3n y no es responsabilidad de nadie m\u00e1s.<\/p>\n Hasta ahora tengo una racha de 31 d\u00edas, que puede no ser mucho, pero en comparaci\u00f3n con a\u00f1os anteriores, es una gran diferencia, finalmente entiendo el dicho de que no se trata solo de los resultados. Me di cuenta de que cuando empiezo, hago m\u00e1s que mis “15 minutos al d\u00eda”, porque en realidad disfruto la parte dif\u00edcil de memorizar palabras y practicarlas.<\/p>\n Nota: por supuesto, hace un mes, esperaba escribir la parte en espa\u00f1ol de este art\u00edculo sin ayuda y no fue as\u00ed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ?? 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