3650. On Learning a Language and Enjoying the Pathway to Mastering that Language (or Nearly)

 Today I wanted to share with you several points which can help both teach and learn a second or foreign language. 

For example I’m still learning English and I know that I will finish my days on earth by still learning: When can you say, well, ok, I’ve already finished to learn Croatian or Polish or Spanish? 

Something I’m doing lately is reading an interesting book. I confess I’ve been reading it – with some stops anyway – for almost a year. The book, about the Apollo missions to put the first man on the moon and written by a space historian, is a volume of more than six hundred pages and I’ve been reading it since last December. 

You know, it was a present from the Wise Men or Kings on 2018 or so Christmas when we were going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely. 

Then, in 2019, when the 50th anniversary, I read it more quickly – namely several months – and now I’m studying it, let’s say, because I try and notice any relevant and meaningful detail from the text, and I focus on nearly every sentence. I’m learning a lot. Phrases, vocab, grammar… all in context. Plus I’m enjoying it a lot. 

Other times I’ve read other books in another way, for example stopping just if necessary to look up a word in the dictionary that blocked the text meaning and my understanding it, you know. And thus I could read a book in a few months. 

But now, like I said, I’m focusing on each detail and using the dictionary for close to any unknown word to me. Well, it’s just one way of learning and acquiring a language. And it does work, you know. Have a nice day.

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