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Sep 15, 2023Liked by Jeffrey Streeter

Another great post Jeff. It made me reflect on some of my language learning successes and failures - plenty of both. Methods (or lack of), motivation, time (often a cop out I think), relative difficulties, teachers ( or not), and then there’s also age perhaps. Oh and long term retention - how’s your Spanish today. I look forward to part 2.

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Looking forward to Part 2. I flew to Shanghai as an emergency to see my daughter who was pregnant and in a Chinese hospital. She had completely gone off Chinese food so, only hours after arriving from the UK, I went in search of a supermarket selling Western fare. Armed with only the address of the hospital on a piece of paper, the taxi dropped me off I know not where late in the evening. I had to ask 12 people before I found someone who spoke English and could direct me to the supermarket.

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That sounds really tough! A lot of taxi drivers, at least when I lived there, were from outside the city, which didn't help. But now I guess they all have GPS. I also remember having to learn two names for each major hotel, as the Chinese and English ones often bore little or no relation to each other. It's a wonderful city but a tough place to get lost in.

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Thanks, Andrew. I agree that there are many reasons for success and failure. Motivation for me is a key one, which we have little control over. We can make ourselves study, but we can't make ourselves want to study. As for my Spanish - I don't speak it a lot these days but still read it. I guess I'll always have Gabo... How's yours?

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