A Sixty-Day Extreme Experiment

Inspired by the recently aired pilot of Tim Ferriss’s new  TV show, Trial by Fire, I decided to look for something extreme to try in 2009.  When a colleague at work challenged me to a duel, of sorts, how could I not accept?

The challenge itself is, admittedly, not nearly as extreme as it sounds when I call it a “duel”.  It certainly doesn’t hold a candle to learning horseback archery, but nevertheless, it’s worthy of the effort we will be giving to it.  We are going to learn Spanish as completely as possible in sixty days.  Both of us have some prior experience with Spanish, and both of us have experience learning other languages but Spanish is and has been far from our minds until this year.

I plan to post updates here as frequently as is practical and (hopefully!) interesting.  I anticipate a post every three to five days, for a total of 12 to 20 updates over the course of our little competition.

We haven’t settled yet on how we will determine the winner / loser of the challenge, nor do we have any prizes or penalties for winning / losing.  I guess we will make up the rules as we go!

Feel free to suggest resources, lend your own experiences with Spanish or other language learning, or provide a list of “incentives”, or even suggest my next “extreme experiment” in the comments section.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thanks!