1 week to go before I demonstrate publically just how much Spanish I have been able to learn.  It seems like I have been learning Spanish forever.  Now I don’t mean that in a "ooh this is taking too long" sort of way.  I mean it in a "this is really great and I am glad I am doing it" sort of way (honestly….no I mean it….I do!). 

Now yesterday I took a day off to give me a break from all this Spanish I have been learning.  Breaks are an important part of learning and it is essential that you give yourself moments of respite from the onslaught of verbs, vocabulary and dialogues that seem in possible to understand.

I have found that after a short break, in this case just one day, I always tend to bounce back very quickly wanting even more of what it was I was learning.  That is because I am refreshed and excited about the learning because I have had time to chew it over in my mind.

So I am back, hard at work (and play) learning even more Spanish.

I have mentioned elsewhere in my notes that it is really important to consolidate what you have learnt by repeating, or reviewing your notes.  If you don’t you run the risk of having something called the confusion factor affect your ability to recall what it is you have learnt - in our case that might be Spanish vocabulary, aspects of Spanish grammar or just some simple Spanish phrases for a particular situation.

You see our minds are a mass of brain cells that connect in a variety of ways.  When we learn a new fact or piece of information it is stored in the brain as a connection between two or more of these cells.  The stronger that connection, the easier itis to recall.  What weakens the recall of that fact is a weak connection that is only ever repeated once (or not at all) and that gets easily overwritten (and therefore confused) by other similar or related information.

So what happens when we learn something is that our ability to recall it from memory fades with time so that within 1-2 days of first encountering that information we are unlikely to be able to recall 80% - our retention is only around 20% within 24-48 hours.  That is unless we do something with it.

They key thing to do with this information that is helping you learn Spanish is to recall it it from memory as often as you can, especially in the first week.  That way the connection gets stronger in your mind and then it eventually becomes permanent and easy to recall.

This means that you will recall more and for much longer (eventually permanently), increase your confidence in both your learning skills and your ability to communicate in Spanish and have more "mental hooks" on which to place data at a different time.

Try it out - It works