It’s been a long time since I posted anything on this website and I’m sorry for that. Life has been pretty hectic as of late and I had to kind of put the blog on hold while I took care of things in my personal life. To anyone who enjoys reading my posts and was waiting 5 months for an update, I apologise, but I’m back now and ready to write!
I recently suffered a fracture to my scaphoid in the same wrist where I already have soft tissue damage, so that put me out of action for a little while and limited my computer access. I have a sturdy brace now, though, and another x-ray appointment next week… so things are looking like they’re getting back on track.
Anyway…
While I enjoy inspiring and encouraging others with their language endeavours, lately I’ve found myself slacking with my own language learning. This is partly due to the fact I’ve spent the last 3 months travelling and finding hardly any time to sit down and focus, and partly due to sheer laziness. I’ve mentioned before that even 10-20 minutes of language learning per day can have a huge impact, so not having much time really is no excuse. It’s time for me to get back to work!
To motivate myself and give myself something to aim for, I’ve decided to put my Spanish on hold for a little bit and undertake a 90 day Esperanto challenge. I haven’t participated in a language challenge like this before but I’ve seen it done and heard great things about it. If you have a target to aim for and set a goal, it is easier to find inspiration and motivation. At least, that’s what I’ve found.
It’s not a challenge in the sense of competition. There’s no materialistic prize at the end of it, but hopefully a lot learning to be done, which is even more rewarding! This challenge is a challenge to study at least 15 minutes of Esperanto per day for 90 days straight. I’ve thought about doing it before but was always too preoccupied with work and trying to juggle multiple languages at a time.
Now that I am self-employed and working from home I have much more time to dedicate to things that I want to do, even though it is so much easier now than ever to find myself distracted and procrastinating. That’s part of the reason why I’ve vowed to dedicate several hours per week to this website, so that I won’t be able to put my language learning on hold any more. I started this blog for a reason and it’s time that I remembered what that reason was. I, like those of you reading this, love languages!
If you’ve read my blog and know my language history, you may be wondering why I have chosen Esperanto above Spanish or Dutch. The answer is simple, really. I wanted to take a language I have little to know experience with and see how much I can get out of studying it for 3 months without any other language distractions. This is partly to see for myself, and partly to show others that it doesn’t have to be difficult and take years and years of lessons to be able to pick up a language to a decent level. I’ll be updating frequently throughout the challenge to keep you all update on my progress and to keep a diary for myself, too. I’m pretty excited about it, to be honest.
So, if you’ve ever been curious about Esperanto or wondered if you are capable of learning a foreign language, please do join me in the challenge! You’ll be surprised at just how much you can learn in a short amount of time and maybe it will inspire you to take on other languages in the future! We can even partner up and become study buddies, if you want!
If there is enough interest in the challenge I will set up a forum for us to communicate and discuss Esperanto, learning methods and offer inspiration to each other. Please leave a comment below if you want to take part. I’m aiming to begin the challenge on January 1st!