Shalom y’all.
When I was in middle school, I used to hide away in the mahogany lined study of my grandfather, reading blogs, forums, and books about learning languages. A particular influence was Benny Lewis of fluentin3months.com. He used to go to a new country for three months (the usual length of a tourist visa), fully immerse himself in the language (no English), and aim for fluency in the short time he had. He used language “hacks” such as mnemonics, memory palaces, and spaced repetition, as well as a relentless drive to use the language whenever he could.
Even when he fell short (like when he narrowly failed the German C1 exam), the level of achievement was mind-boggling for my 12 year old self. It inspired me to start learning Spanish outside of school, speaking to Spanish speakers every chance I got, and Skype-ing with people from other countries. I dreamed of all the languages I would learn and the dimly lit, smoky café back room I would visit on escapes from the gray, cold, western New York winters.
But just like everything else, I kind of got lazy and haven’t pursued that dream since.