Background:
When I was in Guatemala learning Spanish I spent a lot of time reading in Spanish… I read the Harry Potter, Hunger Games and Percy Jackson series all in Spanish. It was a great way for me to expand my vocabulary and reinforce grammar while enjoying the process. By the time I left Guatemala in Feb-2014 my Spanish level was very strong. Since relocating to Peru my Spanish level has dropped a bit thanks to using much more English on a daily basis. While still pretty good, I would like my Spanish to return to its former level… therefore… Jen the reading nut and I decided that in April I would re-spark my Spanish but reading in Spanish for an average of 30 minutes a day for the month.
How did I Go About It?:
The 6th season of the television show Game of Thrones was going to be premiering on the 24th of April, I had already read the first Game of Thrones book in Spanish and started the 2nd book… so… I decided that I would focus on tearing through as much of the 2nd Game of Thrones book, “Choque de Reyes” as I could in the month.
Successful?
Sadly, not so much. I averaged about 15 minutes per day of reading in Spanish for the month. Lots of work, lots of travel, and not making enough time to read daily all resulted in a fail. I did read, and when I did I enjoyed it… but I just did not get to the goal amount and found that I binge read more so that read with daily consistency. Moving forward I should add more simple and consistent Spanish readings into my daily life… for example, I could easily read that news article in Spanish as opposed to English.