Stop learning, start speaking.

I read a website that argues against nearly every method of learning/using the Spanish language. The author poo-poo's intercambio as the fail-proof method of improvement. His argument went in two directions: one, that a learner is inclined to 'listen' rather than 'use' the language (perhaps, I gather out of anxiety of embarrassment); two, that the learner assumes the intercambio as a silver-bullet to fluency. I fell into both of these categories. More the second as of late than the first. The first, fear of embarrassment, exists more so in the formative language years. I recall with horror my getting lost in the monastery of El Escorial earlier this year, unable to form the words to describe my predicament. Now, on home turf and after a decade of exposure, the fear is gone. Now, I want much more to impress. The second reason, the assumption that intercambio is a panacea, is one to which I certainly "fell victim." I know nearly no one with whom I can use the language. It seemed (seems) fair to presume that using a language -- like any skill -- keeps and develops the mastery of such. I'm not sure why the author concludes this, but it does bring an mount of space for relief. His suggestion to abandon verb tables gets my whole-hearted applause. He advocates that one should treat verb conjugations as separate, distinct words rather than iterations of the infinitive. For example: sé and saben mean two different things in a sentence, so treat them as such. This works for me! Especially salient are the modismos created from tener, hacer and echar. Moreover, the best advice that I read - and that oft-repeated by teachers - is to it every day but not an hour. No, much more than sixty minutes. Throw out the idea that one needs/should take "breaks" from Spanish. Can a native English speaker take a "break" from English? Nope. This makes one hell of a lot of sense. I might revise the motivational scrawl at my office desk from una hora todos los días to una hora a la oficina sino mucho más en casa. This hours are mind to find and exploit. ¡Viva castellano!