Thursday 25 March 2021

I did it!

 Our news has been somewhat dominated this week by the fact that this week marked the year anniversary of our first lockdown in the UK.  But there has also been one other (possibly more trivial) anniversary too 


Yes, I made it.  One year of learning Spanish on the Duolingo app!  I am only doing one short lesson a day so I'm not going to be anywhere near fluent for quite a while but in addition to learning Spanish I've learnt something else.  American English can be very different to UK English!  I've been caught out a few times when I've translated something and been told it's wrong when it is actually grammatically correct in the UK.  I'm not the only one, if you click on the comment box where you can report errors, it seems it is a big issue to us Brits!  It makes me realise just how many differences there are when apparently we speak the same language!  For example Duolingo does not realise that in the UK, pants are underwear not trousers and fall is something you do if you trip over whilst the season after summer is autumn!

Something else I did this week was a bit of a freak accident where I ended up picking cactus spines out of my forehead.  Yes really!  We have some small cactus plants on the window sill in our conservatory and whilst bending down to pick up a ball that Max had thrown behind an armchair I head butted the cactus and ... well you can visualise the rest!

I hope your week is less prickly than mine has been!


7 comments:

Patio Postcards said...

Congratulations on your Spanish lessons & since it will probably be another year before international travel is safe to do, you have more time to become proficient. In Canada we also have to deal with many words spelt in American English ... I'll say no more.

Ouch on the cactus encounter.

Ruth said...

Well done with keeping up with the Spanish lessons ... and cactus spines in your forehead sounds awful!

♥ Liz ♥ said...

Congratulations on your anniversary. By the time you are able to go to Spain you will be completely fluent. Sorry to hear about the to do with the cactus. Hope you're now prickle free.

Susanne said...

Yay on a whole year of learning, whether in big bits or little bits, it all works to your advantage. I think you British can blame all the differences on us Americans. After all, you started it all. My fave difference is that you call jumpers, what we call sweaters. I guess if one jumps up and down enough in them, one sweats. ;-)

Barbara Eads said...

Just the fact that you did something for a solid year is something! I did the same with walking. Now I've developed a really good habit that I need to keep up! It's been good for me.

onceuponatimehappilyeverafter.com said...

Poor baby!! Sorry about your run in with the cactus. I was trying to pull clover off from around one of our cactus and was pierced several times. Hurts, huh?

I am so proud of your Duolingo accomplishment! I had managed to get up to 56 consecutive days then Disney happened and that was that. Back at it again but can't imagine that I will ever have a streak like yours. Well done, my friend.

Eileen T said...

Congratulations on your one year of learning Spanish. I'm doing the same but with Italian and have also completed my first year. I understand the frustrations with the American bias but am still enjoying it enough to keep going!