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Still studying Spanish on a daily basis. It's been a little more than three years since I learned about Duolingo and committed to fulfilling a nearly lifelong dream of learning a second language. At this point, I have the fluency and joy of a three-year-old child learning a language, which is immense progress. This came to my attention recently and has been encouraging. My reading comprehension is far beyond my listening comprehension, although if a person speaks slowly I can understand much that I never dreamed I would be able to understand. Although my accent is good (except for those rolled r's -- and even those are coming along -- something I never thought possible), my confidence in being able to speak is still a work in progress. It's not difficult for me to come up with a large number of nouns and the "to be" form of verbs, but my ability to speak the way I would like to speak is limited. I know that as long as I don't engage in daily conversation, my knowledge of Spanish will remain focused on reading and listening. It has occurred to me that I am more of a reader and listener and writer than a conversationalist in English. It's okay. The joy of language is still there.
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Not sure where I learned about this website. On a daily basis, thoughtful essays are suggested to me, some of which I read and many of which I have meant to share for some time now. That day has come. When I read something on a specific topic, the website sends me more essays on that topic.
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It's that time of year when the cloud cover can be so heavy that it looks and feels like dawn or dusk all day long. This morning there are openings where blinding light comes through the dark clouds. Interesting to see that on 4.0x Zoom on my cell phone, the image is textured.
