Hi, I started the Spanish course a week or two back and have just finished Challenge 7. I’ve been going through without pausing or repeating, as Aran reccommends, and it’s getting kind of hairy now we’ve passed the basic bits. I understand the idea of no repetition - revision is built in - but i’m wondering if I’m going too slowly. You see, I listen to the challenge on my way to work for about 10-15 minutes, then I have to work and maybe I get some time in my lunch break but more likely I get another 10-15 minutes on the way home from work, after which it’s rare for me to find the time to continue. This means I finish the challenge in 1-2 days. But the 7 hour break between the beginning and end of the challenge (or the overnight break sometimes) worries me. The idea that the revision will kick in at the right time, does this still hold if I’m breaking the lessons up? Ideally i know I should do the whole 30 mins at one sitting but a) apart from weekends i can’t easily find the time for this and b) after 15 minutes or so i find it very… tiring? difficult? it’s hard to say but I find it hard to do more than 15 min at a time.
This has become an issue because it’s started to get hard. I know Aran says we should make mistakes, but i was kind of pleased not to make too many on the first 3-4 challenges. Since then, though… I’m making a lot of mistakes and finding it hard to remember the more complex stuff. So, shopuld I try tomake time to finish a whole challenge in one sitting or is OK to split them up?
It’s natural to be concerned about this - pushing the limits never feels comfortable - and if you find that it becomes an emotional choice between ‘changing the approach’ or ‘stopping learning’, then go with what you feel you need.
Having said that - it’s fine to split them up like this, and it won’t damage the repetition pattern - in fact, even much longer breaks would still be okay (we’ve seen this time and time again).
It is always temptingly nice to avoid mistakes - but it does mean that you’re nowhere near your limits. The mistakes are genuinely healthy/helpful, so it’s worth doing everything you can to embrace/accept them.
Why not think of it like this: once you get to Challenge 25, and have given it some time to consolidate, the earlier challenges will still be there - revisit one of them and see if it seems easier - if it does, the process has worked for you, and you can carry on with Level 2…
Ok, good to know. I just finished challenge 8 and whereas I did make some mistakes, I also started to get a handle on some of the stuff that was frustrating me, so that’s good - as long as i can see some progress, I’m happy.
I have done a lot of the Welsh courses, but mainly the old ones. I did a few of the new challenges, but I repeated them when I felt I need to. Doing them without repetition is a new thing for me and, obviously, I make more mistakes and get more frustrated. But I appreciate the idea of stretching my limits and learning as fast as possible (I’m planning to go to Spain on the 3rd April and I’d like to have some small ability with the language before that.) Finishing Level 1 would be good.
The key here is if you can manage the frustration - which is entirely natural. If you can start to respond to the mistakes as a positive sign that you’re stretching your boundaries, and feel better about them, then this approach will work for you - if the frustration gets you to the point where you’re not enjoying the process any more, then it would be much better to go back to repetition instead of giving up…
Good luck with it! If you get to the end of Level 1, you’ll certainly have more than ‘some small ability’…
