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My wife was very nice and got me some children's books in Spanish when she was visiting Mexico last year. It's very humbling how I can't even make it through the back cover blurb without being stumped on things I'm reading. I took Spanish as my language requirement in college, and I started practicing again with Duolingo a year or so ago, but it turns out I still would be put to shame by a 7-year-old in my grasp of the language.
The first three books are going to be very hard. I took some highschool Spanish and basically took a break for ~7 years before starting to get serious about the language in 2020. The first thing I read was Harry Potter and it was decidely not fun until book 3. If you're interested, I keep a pretty detailed log of my spanish learning here. Here is the first post in the series, which may be the most useful to you.
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But you try, and that is worthy of respect, just as it sounds like she is if she gave it with the spirit and intentions you received it with.
Bi- or multi-lingualism is something many people do, but it's always worthy of respect all the same. Especially if you could get away in your life without it, or move too often to justify it, and even more so if you try later in life than earlier. Deliberate learning after your formative years is even harder, but putting in hard work to improve yourself is always meritorious.
To paraphrase a parable- a polygot who picked up every language with ease is less impressive than a bi-lingual who did it with much difficulty, because what impresses are things that are hard, not easy.
Kudos to you, and feel no shame.
(Plus, sometimes you get some funny dynamics if you try to learn via media you already somewhat know. Think 'spanish Harry Potter,' or 'Mexicans love Dragon Ball Z.')
This is similar to Scott's "Parable of the Talents", where he feels that his C- in Calculus that he had to sweat blood and tears for is more praiseworthy than his world-class essays that just appear whenever he has free time because he was born with incredible writing talent.
I... disagree? This kind of thinking is like the labor-theory of value for personal accomplishment. It matters the quality of the output you create, not how much effort you put in it.
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