I am now seven lessons in and I have got to be honest, I have got further than I ever thought I would, especially in so short a time. I expect the rest of the class just rock up every Wednesday and forget about it in between but I have to slog away daily to keep, well not exactly up but in order not to totally lose the plot. I have absorbed a fair bit of vocabulary, maybe five hundred words or so but I am struggling to put the words together into sentences in any meaningful way and I can’t yet see any logic to the grammar, perhaps there isn’t any.

I am interested in how I am learning. I am definitely relying on visual memory and I have to see the words written down in handwriting and picture these in my head. There’s a fair bit of word association going on. I did go back to the audio lesson and I got about ten minutes in before getting totally lost. Progress from three minutes I suppose.

I am looking forward to the end of the term so that I can consolidate what I’ve learned so far. It will be a relief not to be bombarded with new vocabulary each week.

I even managed to purchase some Cornish stout to add to the Christmas pudding. The stout is always a challenge as you only need a little but then in order not to waste it I feel obliged to quaff the remainder. As I rarely drink, this is sometimes entertaining. In case you are wondering, I have no idea how to translate the brand name, possibly something to do with jets.