The Language Habit

We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
-Aristotle

In the last few days, I've found myself drifting more and more to kervarker.org, more and more picking up my Barzaz Breizh, more and more skimming my other Breton resources. And each time I do so, things come a little more naturally. Last night, I picked up the Assimil Breton sans peine and read through the first ten dialogs with as much ease as I read Spanish, a language far more familiar and that I've studied a lot longer. Is my competency in Breton anywhere close to my competence in Spanish? Of course not. But it is improving. And it is not improving by leaps and bounds because of some new miracle course. It's improving steadily by steady effort.

So for this weekend, there are no new earthshaking secrets to share. But there is one old and earthshaking secret too often forgotten about all aspects of our lives: If you work at doing something as well as you can and consistently, you are on the way to excellence. So whatever your method or technique for learning language these days, stick to it. If it fits with what you're trying to achieve, you'll soon be on your way.