Another ride around the sun

The Journey of Growth: Celebrating Progress

Luckily I have the feeling that every year things are going better. I'm definitely happy to be able to celebrate my birthday the way I have been doing it since 2021, but I also feel a bit confused.

I had a lot of ideas for this piece some days ago and now I'm staring at the page thinking “What did I want to say?” (by the end of my writing what I wanted to say came to my mind again, so if you want the spoiler browse until the end of the piece).

I'm definitely workaholic and my mood fluctuates a lot depending on how work is going.

I'm super happy for how I’ve revolutionized my way of working.

I keep not liking live classes that much unless they're occasional and only with people I really enjoy working with, because they are extremely tiring and not so effective compared to the energy they require on both sides (also for the students). That's why the monthly programme on WhatsApp has been a great solution, even more after I decided to base all my work on this and offering it as a default solution for my new students (it was only since mid-October or so, while I have been offering it since January). 

Daily Reminders: A Simple Path to Language Mastery

Now thanks to a habit accountability group that I have joined last year - my best investment ever - I have tested language journaling on myself (on that case I both do language journaling and daily stretching exercises, in the rest of the year I’ve been testing different habits, mostly related to physical activities). Should you need something like this I really strongly recommend you to join us.

And just like Vera’s group, also this journaling test has become another thing I want to offer to my students. I'm gradually proposing it to everyone and since people really talk about their lives - just the same I do because if we speak about what matters to us the memorization is much faster - I have the feeling that I’m knowing everybody better and better. I really love it.

People who struggled with voice messages before are now managing to be more consistent and this is all going to help them from any point of view, because they're doing it almost every single day.

People are calmer too without the stress of a class and it can really help with fluency too (of course at a slow pace) if we start saying out loud what we want to write so that we connect the mind to the mouth. Even if we can use a language every day, which is not something many people do anyway, this is a great add-on because when we speak we have no time to reflect, to improve, to refine what we want to say.

So, it's suitable for any level really.

1. You get a reminder on WhatsApp every day at 11pm
2. You answer with a picture of your language journaling
3. Write 3-4 sentences in the language you want, using what you know
4. Check dictionaries for new words
5. Once completed, doublecheck everything on ChatGPT and correct your own writing
6. Take a picture and send it

I recommend doing it on a paper journal - why? For these reasons.

You can either join the full monthly program with voice messages and more tailored exercises and corrections from my side or you can also just get these reminders - check out my website, for the reminders only you can start anytime while for the rest there’re fixed starting dates until the end of the year. The next group is starting on 13 January for 4 weeks + a buffer week as usual before the next one.

Lessons from the Past: Speeding Up the Learning Curve

If there's anything I regret for my previous years, it's that the learning curve is too slow.

I would have loved to learn anything faster and better (what about you?).

Hence, my brain is too focused on seeing problems repeating themselves in front of my eyes and not being able to convince people to get rid of them faster ahah, it’s quite an obsession for me.

In the meanwhile I'll go back to my elucubrating in this rainy day and occasionally playing daf drum to get my brain some oxygen.