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How I Became Fluent In Spanish By Bending Reality

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In today’s daily shortcut, Dave talked about time compression and bending reality. Don’t worry, it’s not anything weird.

In fact it was all about how to master something – anything.

So the question is, how do you become good at something? How do you become REALLY good?

You’ll have to watch the episode to learn how, but for right now, I wanted to share a story about how I used what was taught today, years ago to learn Spanish.

In fact, I learned so well that not only did people think I was from Columbia, but I almost forgot English!

No, that’s not a joke either.

How I Became Fluent In Spanish By Bending Reality

In the episode, there is a phenomenon that happens when you reach a certain amount of experience – not just practice, but experience out in the world.

In that phenomenon you, all of a sudden, become fluent.

For example, you’re practicing and trying and you’re horrible at it. As you continue, you get better and better, and then all of a sudden, you’re really great for seemingly no reason at all.

It’s like one day you’re trying to figure out how to do something, and the next day, everything falls into place and you just “get it”.

That is an actual, proven phenomenon.

I did it with Spanish and it wasn’t until I saw this episode that I understood what happened.

Ready? Here’s what happened…

So I took two years of Spanish in school and I learned a few things that stuck with me over the years, but I wasn’t even good enough to carry even a short conversation.

Then? I dated a Hispanic girl for about 6 months.

She was the only one in her family that spoke English beside her brother, and I liked hanging out with them because they all seemed to have so much fun just hanging out, telling stories and I badly wanted understand completely, not just pick up the bits and pieces.

So I bought a really good book (Madrigal’s Magic Key To Spanish) and for about 2 months, every day, I went through that book twice, cover to cover.

I was learning really quickly just by immersion.

Then I took it to the next level and I started doing something that really changed how my mind works.

It was spending a lot of time thinking in English. Meaning, I’d have to think about what I wanted to say, then translate it from English to Spanish before I spoke.

I decided that I wanted to “think” in Spanish, so I decided to stop speaking English first.

Before I’d say anything, I’d speak it first in Spanish, then say it in English to the person I was talking too.

Yeah, I got some REALLY weird looks and people thought I was crazy, but after about 700 hours (I checked after this episode), I just started speaking Spanish without having to think about what I wanted to say first.

Suddenly I could fully understand conversations and even read and write in Spanish. I got so good, I could tell what country someone was from by the inflections when they spoke and the words they used.

For example, poquito and pochito. They both mean small, or a little bit, but some countries use one, while some use others.

Anyway, I was fluent within 4 or 5 months and I didn’t just pick up the language, I picked up the accent and intonation.

I’m from the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago) and I lost my accent years ago, but when I spoke Spanish, it came right back, even when I spoke English.

People thought I was from Columbia.

It was funny, because for about a month, I didn’t speak a word of English at home and my dad and sister started learning Spanish because I’d talk to them like a game of charades so they figured out what I was saying.

After that, for about 2 weeks, I didn’t speak a word of English outside the house, except when talking to co-workers. Suddenly I had all of these Spanish-speaking friends and I was spending all of my time with them.

Keep in mind here that for almost 2 months Spanish was my primary language… I almost forgot English.

I was working as a store clerk and found myself having trouble speaking English naturally and had to do with English what I did with Spanish – thinking about what I wanted to say, then translate it from Spanish to English before speaking.

I haven’t had a Spanish-speaking friend to keep up in conversation with, and language is like a muscle – if you don’t use it, you lose it, so I’m not fluent anymore.

I can still read and write and understand, but only at a basic conversational level.

I have noticed though that if I thumb through Madrigal’s? It all comes back and I’m fluent again after a week. I know it’s stored in my brain permanently. lol

Long story short… mastery of anything can come quickly if you follow what Dave shares here.

So, how do you get good at something? How do you get REALLY good?

Watch Today’s Daily Shortcut >>


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