Hey, guys.
I’ve been keeping up with Aran’s Croatian progress and have been following along in the background (though not quite as consistently) with Romanian. I am currently 2/3 of the way through Blue Belt.
I just started recording my sessions and putting them on YouTube. I’m sure it will be boring to watch, but if It’s helpful/encouraging to anyone, here is the link:
I am just so excited to see this. This is currently my favourite thing on the forum! Absolutely brilliant 
Day 3
Thanks, Aran! Means a lot. Hopefully, this helps keep me on track…
There’s something really powerful about public accountability 
This also gives me the opportunity to give you some personal feedback, too, which is a nice chance - you’re doing really well! I’m impressed with your speed of response and with your range of memory, you are without any doubt on the path to real confidence with your Romanian 
But I’m feeling intimidated and humbled by your moustache game, sir. I may have to consider getting some kind of transplants 
Thank you so much, Aran! I really appreciate the positive feedback, although any successes I achieve in Romanian are largely due to the amazing program created by you and your team. Cheers!
I also cannot take credit for the stache; it’s a product of my upbringing, being produced from the spicy foods and ungodly Summer temperatures here in Texas.
Day 4 - I ended up getting tickets to the Word Cup game between Sweden and Japan! I did get my Romanian session in, but it was in-transit, so I didn’t get it recorded. I will be recording today’s session here in a little while.
Day 5 -
Day 6
As stated in the video’s description, I think I’m going to only record roughly 30 minutes each day. I’m going to still try to get in one hour per day, but I realized I do better when I do two shorter sessions per day, than one longer session. There have been times where it’s really flowing and I’ve done two hours straight, but typically, I do better with shorter sessions. Also, I realized I enjoy doing some of my learning while walking around.
So, now (hopefully) I’ll get the best of both worlds. I’ll get the accountability and peer pressure to produce at least a 30 min video AND have the opportunity to do some learning while moving around and not being tied to a computer.
Yeah, I think that’s a good call - an hour a day of livestreaming is a pretty brutal commitment! Which is part of my recent switch to doing some listening stuff (which I probably also needed to be getting on with anyway).
Thanks for your kind words - but as I’m busy reminding myself, nobody gets anywhere, with this or any other method, without a hell of a lot of hard work, and that’s the make-or-break ingredient
Still kind of jealous of the tache, but not to the point of being willing to suffer either spicy foods or lethal temperatures, so thank you for softening that blow 
Bloody hell Mike, you’re doing brilliantly! What belt are you on now?
Thanks so much! Some days feel relatively easy and some days feel like I’m just mumbling.
I have 3 seeds left on blue belt. So I should start brown belt this next session. 
I think we hit you with purple before we let you get to brown
Yeah, it’s a strange process. You only really get to find out how much you’ve internalised when you put yourself into a 1:1 conversation. I’m kind of excited and terrified at the prospect of my first attempt to talk to someone in Croatian
Gah! I knew that! I guess I’m subconsciously trying to skip a step.
Luckily, my godparents are Romanian, so I’ll have no shortage of practice.
How do you recommend using the in-app listening function? Do you treat it as another session?
Well done you monster!
Listening - we’re still actively building/thinking about that - I think the increasing elements that we’re weaving into the main flow of the speaking work (you should I think be getting the listening reps of the earlier seeds by now, although we might not have activated the extra ‘conversational’ listening for Romanian yet) is the main thing - and then listening mode itself is really something I think kicks in once you know you can say quite a lot of things, and you start to want to focus more on being able to understand other people, where I think it’s going to make a really valuable difference
I’ve got to drive down to Devizes on Monday and then back, so I’m going to be hammering the listening mode half to death in the car Which should give me some extra insights…
Mother Nature threw a wrench in my plans yesterday and our air conditioner broke down. The house is currently sitting at roughly 30 degrees Celsius. So, I’m working on getting it running again and doing my Romanian sessions while driving to supply houses. I have finally reached People Belt! So I’m stoked about that, at least.