Hola chic@s,

Espero que estén bien.

A few weeks ago, I showed you an idea I’d been working on:

Moving from a student → participant.

With this shift being broken down into smaller shifts, the first one being ‘People Before Perfection’.

Hoy (today), we’re going to look at the second one.


Shift #2 - Stories Over Streaks

I think the best way to explain this one is to tell you what I actually remember from all these years learning Spanish.

I remember the evening my Chilean flatmate Victor invited me to his culinary school and convinced his students that I was a member of the British Royal Family.

I remember Felipe pretending he was a priest.

I remember Daniel in the co-working space in London.

I remember smoking cigarettes out the window in Madrid with Iván.

I remember a Chilean woman asking my friend Stu if it was his first time dancing.

And along the way, I can’t for the life of me tell you how many consecutive days I was studying Spanish when any of these things happened.

I couldn’t tell you how many words I knew, or what level this translated to.

Unconsciously, I think I’ve been using a different scoreboard for my Spanish for a while now.

Stories Over Streaks.

I’m not totally against streaks, although I do think they belong in the student part of the equation, and we want to make the shift to also being a participant.

But streaks don’t tell us what Spanish is adding to our lives.

For that, we need another scoreboard.

Stories.

They don’t even need to be that impressive, just a reminder that Spanish was there while you were living it.


The student measures what has been learned.

The participant measures what has been lived.

Of course, you need a bit of student mode, but life is found in the participation.


Start a Story Log.

At the end of every week, ask yourself one question:

What did I live through Spanish this week?

Write down the answer, big or small, and watch yourself become a bit more courageous in the process.

Keep getting out there, chic@s.

Un abrazo,
Harrison

Spanish for living, not just learning


P.S - I’d love to start collecting some of your stories. What’s something Spanish has allowed you to experience that you wouldn’t have experienced otherwise? Hit reply and tell me. Funny, meaningful, embarrassing, completely ordinary - everything is welcome.