As it's Friday night, I haven't time to give you a comprehensive introduction.

I've taken up Spanish as a hobby. Each day I'll post something here to report my progress.

To begin: This is my 5th or 6th day. I can't remember exactly. I haven't done anything in the way of study today. All the same, I did try to apply to do Beginner's Spanish at university, without success. My enrolling would require me to take a diploma or drop Ancient Greek, neither of which options is practicable - the first because the commitment is too big, the second because I'm already hooked to that language. So university study is a no go - unless I should attend Spanish lectures on the sly. This might be worth doing, I don't know.

Something about my materials. I've taken out a book from the library called Spanish Step By Step, which mostly contains dialogues with phonetic transcriptions and English translation. The dialogues progress in difficulty and grammar is introduced by means of side notes. This suits me because I'm often able to infer grammar without explicit knowledge, and I can cover up the English translation after I've read the dialogue the first time. Also my knowledge of French often allows me to guess at vocabulary.

So far I've mostly read newspaper articles, translating difficult words and phrases into French by means of Google Translate. Once read with the aid of translation, I will read the article again another three times, with the minimum of translation: after the second time it is unnecessary.

There is more to my study - which admittedly is only a hobby - however, I shall elaborate on it later.