If Age Makes You Wise, Why Ain’t I Smarter?

For some years now I have found it difficult to retrieve seldom used words. Even some that are not-so-seldomly used. I often cannot recall the names of movies and actors that I should know well. I have spoken to many people about this. I would tell you who, but their names escape me right now.

As far as I can remember, everyone my age or older has reported the same experience. The English language has been slowly draining from that organ in our heads. What’s it called? I know it starts with a “B”.

This should make learning a foreign language much easier. Spanish words should slip into spaces previously filled with useless information like the name of that movie starring What’s-His-Name. You know, the guy famous for holding onto a cigarette, the fellow who frequently starred with Loren Somebody. You know. But she wasn’t in this movie. This movie had Nazis in it. C’mon, you know!

You may be surprised to learn that forgetting English words does not make it easier to learn Spanish. In fact, it actually is harder to learn a foreign language when you are over 60!

Denise and I went through a number of apps dedicated to teaching Spanish. They all had the same flaw. They required too much memorization and offered too little explanation. Eventually, however, we found a course called Pro Spanish.

Pro Spanish is a series of exercises, most of them about 15 minutes long. Each exercise teaches a new grammatical rule and a few new words, then asks you to build sentences based upon both the new rules and words and those learned from previous exercises. The lessons all are downloaded to your computer or phone, so you can practice without Wifi. Also, you can repeat them as often as your ancient brain requires before moving on to the next exercise.

I don’t get any kickbacks from Pro Spanish. But it is a very good program, so I offer this link for those who believe an old dog can learn new tricks, and want that dog to learn Spanish. For example, "Perro! Hablar!"