Michael Tipper is going to learn to speak Spanish. BUT, he has a great track record at trying to learn to speak another language but failing miserably!
At school he failed German (getting an unclassified which is worse than an F!) because he wasn’t remotely interested in the subject or the particularly uninspiring way it was taught.
However a brief but successful conversational exchange (in what little German he did learn) with a local Bus Driver on a school trip to Austria ignited a desire to learn another language that conventional schooling had failed to trigger.
The trouble is it only turned him into an occasional dabbler instead of a serious student of a second language.
Over the years since he has seriously attempted to learn to speak German, Spanish and even Russian.
By “serious” he means he bought an audio course, invested in a couple of books and tried to spend some time learning how to say hello and ask where the nearest restaurant was.
Needles to say, each attempt failed and the end result was time and money wasted with an expanding language learning library gathering dust on the bookshelf.
Each time he tried, he set out with the best of intentions, put lots of effort in but still got nowhere.
Even with his specialist knowledge of memory and learning (see his main website at www.MichaelTipper.com) his efforts floundered and little if any progress was made.
And now he is on a mission to learn to speak Spanish.
Why?
Well in August of 2017 Michael will be riding his motorbike (his BMW F800GS Triple Black) around Spain – on his own.
He likes to think of it as a cultural adventure to explore a beautiful part of Europe – his friends and family think it’s just a manifestation of that crisis that hits men of a certain age.
In his defence, at least he is not dressing up in lycra and peddling around Provence this year (already ticked that box!).
But back to the Spanish trip.
Michael realised that it might be a good idea to learn to speak Spanish, even if it just a few words, in preparation for his trip.
He has anticipated needs to communicate to the locals about the following topics:
- Finding somewhere that serves vegetarian food
- Directions when completely lost (he is adamant he will explore the country properly and not be a slave to a SatNave enabled device)
- And trying to explain Brexit to those who discover he is from the UK
And so he has embarked on his latest attempt to learn a language – Spanish (again!).
This time though it is serious and could be the difference between life and death, finding his guest house before the owners give up waiting and satisfactorily explaining how Nigel Farrage can change the future of Europe without being a Member of the UK Parliament.
So this site is dedicated to the journey of learning to speak Spanish that he will now be taking over the next 3-4 months.
Part functional, part needs driven, part journey of self discovery, this learning project is something he hopes that not only he will benefit from but others too.
