Luke Likes 'Maniac'

It's summer time. It is summer at last. Well, not at last, but it's the middle of July right now. The middle of, the middle of July. So it must be summer, it must be summer time, at least in this part of the world, in this part of the world, of course.

And here is a question: What is summer best for? What is summer best for? Is it best for holidays? Yeah, sure it is, but not that. Is it best because you have a lot of rest? Yeah, a little bit, yeah, but not that. Oh, I know, I know. It is best because you get plenty of sun. Yeah, we do like the sun, but no, it's not that.

It is best because you get to do, so you have a chance to do. you get to do whatever you like, whatever you like. This is at least how I see it, so this is my opinion, I think so. I see it this way. And to be honest, I see it every year with me. And I ask myself, what do I like?

And I like languages. You just must know it by now. But what I noticed, so I saw it, I noticed, is that somewhere around summertime, every year, I get this new energy to listen, read, talk, and explore so that I can't get enough of that, I cannot get enough. Oh, I love this feeling.

Especially when I get to explore something new. And surprise, surprise, not a surprise for me, this happens regularly, I must say. So here is what happened actually.

So the other day, the other day, which in English means not long time ago, a few days ago, so the other day, I was talking to one of my students and her family lives in Portugal. And very often, actually, we were wondering, 'Hmm, how do you say this in Portuguese?' Or 'Hmm, what is this in Portuguese?' 'How do you say that in Portuguese?'

I think you know what happened next. Aha, Portuguese happened. Now I want to know everything about it. To read, to listen, to understand, to be able to say a few words, a few sentences. To know 'What is this in Portuguese?', 'What is that in Portuguese?'

And the fact that we can do that together makes it so much fun and much, much easier. So we use some materials, apps and obviously podcasts, which is an amazing help. So we focus, focus on listening and, well, trying to figure out, which means to understand, try and understand, to figure out what it really means and how it really works.

Yeah. And you know what? I have no idea where this is going. I have no idea. And people often keep asking me, so ask me a lot, a lot, keep asking me, in general about languages, but for example, Portuguese, 'Hey, Luke, you're learning Portuguese, right? Why are you doing that? Do you want to go there?' Hmm, maybe. But I'm not planning to. 'Maybe you want to work there?' Hmm, not really. I'm not thinking of that at the moment. 'So why on earth would you do that? Why on earth would you learn it?'

And I don't really know what to say and how to react because the answer is so obvious to me. The goal is not to go there or to work there or even to be able to speak fluently, fluently, so speak very well. I realized, I realized that the goal is something different.

Learning and exploring. That is the goal. That is the goal. And why? For one thing, it makes me happy, but it is also because I'm obsessed. And I'm a maniac. And I love it.

Well, it's your turn now. Embrace the day, people!

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Intro/Outro Music By:

Joakim Karud -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Longing⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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