Earlier today, Duolingo reminded me that I was on the verge of greatness - or, at least, a 100-day learning streak.
My wife and I have been working on Spanish with Duo for… well, 100 days now. She’d got a bit of a head start on me, to be honest. She took four years of Spanish in high school, and another four years in college; so this is more like an refresher course for her.
Me? I took two years of French in high school, and absolutely despised it. I came out of that class able to fluently say “I don’t know,” “What time is it?”, and not a whole lot else, unless you count a deep and abiding loathing of the idea of learning a foreign language.
I tried taking a language in college, partly because it was required for my ROTC scholarship. That went about as well as, well, a really horrible thing that didn’t go well. Use your imagination. It was such a complete disaster that I managed to convince someone somewhere to double-count my high school French classes so I could wiggle out of my college requirement.
The irony, of course, is that I went on to become a computer programmer. I am comfortably conversant in half a dozen different programming languages, and can get by in another dozen.
For the record, not a single one of them is French.
Fast forward a few decades. I am absolutely convinced that I just don’t have a knack for languages. It’s something other people do, but not me. My wife and I go on a missions trip to Tanzania. It’s a wonderful time, and we meet a lot of great people.
Yet… one of the things that I find myself deeply regretting is that I am struggling to even say hello correctly. Shari made the effort to try and learn a little Swahili using Duolingo, but it’s the classic case of too little, too late. She learned a bit, but not enough to be really conversant.
On the way home, we discuss the next missions trip we want to go on. This year, there’s one to Chile. Shari’s excited; this is an opportunity for her to renew her familiarity with Spanish.
At this point, I wish I could say that some noble spirit overtook me. That I decided to give myself over to the prompting of the Spirit and let God lead me. Unfortunately, the truth is that I was a bit ashamed of myself, very much disappointed with myself, and feeling more than a little bit ornery.
I’ve taught myself computer programming. I’ve taken theology classes for fun. I’ve run for President; managed a state-wide campaign; started a new writing career! Good gravy, what kind of spineless wimp am I if I am going to let Dora the Explorer intimidate me?
So that’s how I ended up starting in on Duolingo Spanish. Has it been easy? Not always. They have gamified the language experience pretty well, though. I do at least one lesson or review a day to keep my streak going. Every week they put you on a competitive ladder with 30 other people, and let me tell you something: there is no way that I am letting that little snot Katerina bump me out of first place again.
So, yeah. Duo’s done a pretty good job of keeping me engaged.
To my surprise, I’ve actually been learning, too! Not terribly quickly, mind you. Still - I can put together an almost-coherent sentence here and there. Which, after 100 days of Spanish with Duo, is light-years ahead of where I was after two miserable years of French. So I’m going to keep it up, and go do my Duo for the day. That Katerina is trying to sneak up on me, the crafty little bugger.
Have you ever come back to a task, a job, or a subject you were convinced was out of your league - only to realize the only reason it was impossible was because of your own imagination?
The Business of Writing
A mid-week update on my three major commitments: to write, to edit, and to read.
I’ve worked on the outline for the unexpected short story a bit. It’s mutated significantly since inception. One of the reasons I usually like to mull these things over a bit before diving in. I’ve made some initial edits to the weird west story, and I’ve got two scenes to move around and rewrite before I address various comments.
Stories for the Tull anthology have continued to flow in. I got half a dozen submissions yesterday, which… man. There’s some good ones in there, too. I also know for a fact there’s at least half a dozen still en route from some really solid writers. Submissions for Stories in the Key of Tull end on midnight March 1st, though - so get hopping if you’re have something to finish!
Cannon Publishing put out the Kindle version of their 2024 High Caliber Awards Anthology. This is the one that includes my novella, “Blue as Sky, Black as Sin”. I’m still adding to my ideas for expanding on this story
I’ve been asked to make some opening remarks at the 2024 Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania state convention. I’m a writer, a preacher, and a politician, and they ask me to be brief… oy. I’m actually looking forward to it, using some of the lessons I’ve learned over the past few years to talk about reaching voters in this election year. We’ll see how that all comes together.
Reading-wise, it’s been reviews and reading the 2024 High Caliber Awards Anthology. Reading in the future will likely be Tull submissions in every spare moment.
Other Stuff
My friend Aaron is doing much better! Well, stroke-wise, I mean. He was able to walk nearly a 1000 feet today, and he’s learning how to move his arm and leg again. He’s even moving fingers and toes. Not much, relatively, but for someone post-stroke, those are amazing strides. We’re hoping and praying that he will continue to improve and make a full recovery, or close to it.
I’ve also been teaching a finance class at our church on Monday nights. Short, sweet, and to the point. We’re basically covering the Dave Ramsey baby steps, and some of the younger couples in the class are really getting it. I think we have a few that will be out of debt in a few months, or by the end of the year; a wonderful place to be early on in your life. I’m really excited to be able to help them in whatever small way I can.
Shari & I are off to the LPPA convention this weekend. I’ll give you the (hopefully not too) gory details in my AAR.
See you next Wednesday!
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I used to be able to pick up languages fairly quickly, and I always attributed that to my involvement in high school choir. It really helped me to distinguish the different sounds, but now, with 4 years of deployment related hearing damage, my ability to even hear my native tongue is severely hampered. I can only go with the long remembered stuff I learned back when I could hear.
Duolingo is a cute and insidious language game. I finally quit it a week ago. I had a 2 1/2 year streak. I was working on 13 languages (but only about 6 consistently and 2 more that I had in HS and College.) I have my reasons for quitting, and I intend to find a different language learning platform at some point. I do think that there are some people who have the gift of languages, some have a talent for languages, and some can work hard and learn them. I think that other skills in life can fall in the same categories. And I do think that there are some things that even if you work really hard you will never be more than mediocre, but you never know what those things are, unless you try, and try again, and try once more.
Congrats on your streak and congrats on powering through.