The Death of a Loved One This is a sad week for my family. My mother died 5 days ago. In English it sounds better to say someone "passed away" instead of "died" . I think because when you say "died" it sounds so permanent and final. But when you say "passed" or "passed away" it sounds more like the person is passing from one room to another, or passing from one dimention to another. In your language is there a euphemism for "He died."

I just finished my first italki session I just finished my first italki language lesson and I am so happy with the results. Why? Did I speak so fluently without any pronunciation or grammar mistakes? Absolutely not. I made many mistakes of all kinds. So why do I feel that the session was an astounding success? Because the teacher corrected my mistakes and gave little drills to see if I understood where I went wrong. You see, I'm not afraid of making mistakes. That's how I learn. I have no doubt that, down the road I will be making less and less mistakes. Do the parents freak out when the toddler falls down when trying to walk? Do they think, "Oh no. Our baby has fallen down three times in a row! She will never learn to walk." And is the toddler discouraged? Of course not. You must have that attitude when you're learning a language or a new skill. Of course you will make mistakes. Just don't give up. Also, I realized that I am PAYING someone to tell me where I make the mistakes. Many friends and acquaintances will brush aside your mistakes for fear of embarrassing you, but you will continue to make those mistakes unless someone points them out to you...then you will improve. I always say, "It takes a true friend to tell you your zipper is open."

To accomplish a worthwhile goal, you MUST step out of your Comfort Zone Tomorrow morning I will have my first lesson with an italki teacher. When I was a young man I could speak Vietnamese comfortably. But after forty years of working, raising a family and being distracted by life's requirements my fluency in Vietnamese has suffered. Now that I am retired and I can, more or less, do what I want with my time, I decided to rekindle my love for the Vietnamese language and culture. So, I signed up for a conversation tutor. Am I nervous? You bet. But after many years on this earth, one of the things I have learned is that to accomplish any worthwhile goal, I must step out of my comfort zone. That goes for physical and mental things. So, tomorrow I will take a deep breath, then jump into the water. At first, the water will be very cold but soon, I will get used to it and will be swimming around asking myself, "Why did I wait so long?"

So many languages, so little time My main challenge is choosing which language to study and for how long. I believe I have to allow only 90 days to focus on each language. I must also remember to allow time to maintain the languages that I have already studied. On one hand, I wish I were a young man so I would have more time. On the other hand I have worked all my life so I would have this time to enjoy the rest of my life doing what I love, learning, teaching and traveling.