|
|
|
|
|
|
by mclbdn
1642 days ago
|
|
|
I learned Spanish. I'm from Central Europe, so my mother's tongue isn't English, but learning English was kind of natural for me - all the games, TV shows, movies and the majority of pop music is already in English. Approximately 3 years ago I signed up for Duolingo and spent +- 20 minutes every single day learning Spanish. Then met Mexican GF and later decided to move to Mexico for some time, which only improved my level of Spanish. Anyway, it's amazing to see how only 20 minutes per day can compound into speaking a foreign language. And the fact that you can do it completely for free w/o needing to visit some institution makes it even better IMO. |
|
|
Back in April I saw that they offered Yiddish as a beta. It sounded like fun, so I tried it.
Duolingo is excellent for establishing a habit because it let's you set a daily goal and it gives you reminders and little bits of encouragement along the way. I am currently on day 207 of continuous study of around a half hour a day. That sounds pretty hobby like! I'm having so much fun that some days I have to cut down my time. Otherwise, the rest of my life might suffer..
To further show that it's become a hobby, I've branched out beyond duolingo. I bought a book that has dual English and Yiddish pages. I listen to podcasts in Yiddish (understanding almost nothing but it's slowly improving). I even wrote a poem in Yiddish!
It helps that this particular hobby is one that can be done from my laptop when I'm at home or even (as I did a couple hours ago) from my phone while sitting in a waiting room. If I needed a lot of equipment or a special place to do it (like a dojo), it would be harder to maintain, though with the right amount of passion it would still be possible.