Hey, how’s it going?

There’s a saying in Portuguese: a river doesn’t go through the same place twice, meaning if you go to the same place more than once the water won’t be the same, obviously. The same happens with learning. You may have enrolled in language courses once or twice and then when the teacher says, “Now let’s learn how to use the Pretérito Indefinido in Spanish”, you think, “Oh, boy, that again!”

The thing is, it’s never the same, and let me give you a very important tip that I learned and I use it in anything I set out to do: learn things thoroughly. What I mean is, when you’re enrolled in a language course in a school, you will go from unit to unit, take tests, get average points and at the end of the school year you’ll get a little diploma. Does that help you? Yes and no.

Just think with me: did you learn everything on Book 1 to go to Book 2? By everything I mean every single thing and that’s what makes you excellent at anything you do in your life. Let’s take the example of a pianist. He starts practicing his scales up and down and if he skips an exercise or doesn’t practice one crucial exercise enough, that will show in his performances in the future. This is like learning a language: if you haven’t mastered the Simple Present, you will end up with fossilized mistakes that are so hard to correct (I’m sure you know what I mean).

So my suggestion is: take your time and review, review and review some more. Don’t try to learn a lot in a short period of time, you will only feel frustrated. You are a brave person to want to learn another language, because that’s no easy task. Choose your materials correctly and don’t go farther beyond your learning level, learn things thoroughly and you will see how it pays off!

This is my tip for today and remember to leave your comments with your opinion on this topic, ok? Nos vemos prontito.