Spring Spanish Challenge
Today is the first day of spring according to the calendar. As usual Ukrainian weather does not hurry to adjust accordingly but I’m sure it’s just a matter several weeks. For me the winter that just ended was awesome in all regards. In fact I was able to achieve 2 of my 3 yearly goals set up for 2011 in just two months — I got a decent photo camera and went to an unforgettable trip to Spain. So now in remaining 10 months of the year I can fully concentrate on my third and the most ambitious goal of becoming fluent in Spanish.
A serious goal requires decisive actions so I’ve come up with an idea of a public challenge that should motivate me. During this spring I will be reading a big book in original Spanish version with the goal to finish it by May 31. The book is “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez and the edition I have has 500+ pages, which means that I’ll have to read about 6 pages per day on average. It doesn’t seem to be a big deal, however with my current speed I’ll need to spend at least 60 min a day. Such slowness is explained by a special thoroughness I exercise while reading books in languages that I’m learning. For example, I look up every single word that I don’t know and make a note on it. The effectiveness of such approach can be debated, but I’m sure that it will work for me, because it has already worked with the English language.
To make it even more accountable I will be reporting on the progress regularly in the comments to this post. As of today I’m on schedule — 6 pages have been read. ;-)