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      3 <title>My Biggest Shame</title>
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      8 <h1>My Biggest Shame</h1>
      9 <small>[<a href='../2020.html#my-biggest-shame'>link</a>&mdash;<a href='my-biggest-shame.html'>standalone</a>]</small>
     10 <!-- LB -->
     11 is being a mono lingual grug brain.
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     13 It's not that I haven't tried to learn a language before, it's just that I don't know _how_ to learn. The goal is, and should be, to speak the language. However when I look back at my previous efforts I seem to have been practicing anything but. Far too much time spent memorising moon runes, not enough trial by fire. The choice of languages hasn't helped either; Japanese, Mandarin, both exotic and esoteric to the native english speaker. Why didn't I pick something closer to home? I think 5 years of secondary school french and nothing to show for it was a bit of a blow to my ego. "I know, I'll pick something MUCH HARDER than french!". Well, I'm over that phase now, and my new aim is to be able to speak fluent Spanish.
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     15 What is the best way to learn to speak Spanish?
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     17 My first experiment has been with DuoLingo, and I am sad to say I have found it wanting. Something about the teaching style is just not for me, but it's hard to put my finger on. I can blaze through lessons without retaining a single thing, and I am rewarded for doing so! Is that really my fault? The owl is telling me he's proud of me!!
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     19 It seems to be that the reward structure does not match up to the intended original goal, which is again, speaking the language. For example, why am I put in an arbitrary league with other people? Well, it's to motivate you through competition right? True, but the competition metric is experience gained over time. Acrruing fast XP certainly takes wit, but it's not a suitable proxy for having improved linguistic prowess. The pressure of maintaining a streak is another example where you are not necessarily being incentivised towards the true goal.
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     21 I can ignore these aspects, but for me they notably detract from the learning experience.
     22 <footer>by <strong><a href='https://michaelpercival.xyz/'>Michael Percival</a></strong></footer>
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