italki World Cup Language Challenge Week 1 Reading a Book on Camera

italki World Cup Language Challenge Week 1 Reading a Book on Camera Lindsaydoeslanguages is blogging about her World Cup Language Challenge and were reposting here to share with the entire italki Community. This blog post originally was posted on Lindsaydoeslanguages.com website. Week 1 So far, so good! I’m four lessons into my italki World Cup Language Challenge learning Portuguese and it’s going pretty darn well. I’ve had three lessons with Brazilian Portuguese speakers and one with a European Portuguese speaker and I’m really glad I’ve opted for the mix. Learning the two variations parallel is surprisingly fun and kind of helpful. Somehow they’re managing to stay separate in my brain. For now, anyway! This Week’s Goal This week, I set myself the task of reading a chapter of the book Caro Bruce Springsteen on camera. Why? That’s a good question! This may seem completely random but the reason is that this book cost just 50 cents from a book stall in Portugal last summer â€" proof that language learning doesn’t have to cost the earth. I’m also reading because in these early stages I want to focus on pronunciation to stop me from making potential mistakes later on. If I’m reading something out loud, then all of my attention is on what’s on the page. I don’t have to think about what I’m going to say at the same time, which takes a lot of brain power out of pronunciation practise. I also really hate those pronunciation sections at the start of language books when they teach you completely random words just because they have a letter combination or unusual vowel sound. I learn by doing, so this is a way I can learn by doing: reading! Here’s this week’s (sun-tinted!) video of me reading a short chapter from the book. Enjoy!