Learning a new language

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This is really interesting. I wonder if there is a compromise to be had. For example, on the days when you are feeling motivated and able to join a conversation, do your usual Skype thing. But, on days when that is too much, maybe you could practise in other ways like watching a show in Spanish or listening to a podcast if you want to improve your comprehension. If you want to improve your "active" language knowledge you could have a text conversation with ChatGPT or another AI. They are getting really good at conversations in other languages especially common languages like Spanish. You'd be able to practise without the social pressure and you can ask it to guess the word you're looking for or just ask it to translate a word form English if you want.

Just an idea. Feel free to ignore if it doesn't sound helpful to you. Suerte con tu español!

This sure seems like reviving a dead thread to me.

But it's a topic I have strong feelings about.

I'm not sure whether those feelings are DREAD or FRUSTRATION or HATRED or DISGUST or….

I tried to learn foreign languages when I was young and in school. In the 7th grade I tried French and did terribly; in the 9th grade I tried Latin and it is the only course I've ever failed; in the 10th grade I tried Spanish, did so-so so was continued into Spanish 2 in the 11th grade...where I did terribly. If you took all of my grades from four years of foreign language and added them together I'd have enough for one "A".

Computer languages, however, are FUN!