I have been teaching the IB for over 30 years and I have been a workshop leader for about half that time and even though I won't be teaching for many more years it's good to go on a workshop as a participant now and again. So I am going to attend a workshop on the new syllabus but to make it more interesting I will be doing it in Spanish. 4 weeks ago I couldn't say a word in Spanish but the workshop is in Ecuador next June so I thought I would try to learn enough to get by. After 40 days I have close to 1000 words so I am getting there. I have also had a look at the Spanish section of this website and realise that the "physics words" in Spanish are quite similar to English. So I can almost understand it already.

I am of course now addicted to Duolingo, it's amazing how powerful the simple act of winning a competition is. I spend a lot of hours on the site but don't have to think very hard so it's quite relaxing. Repetition is the key and Duolingo creators know exactly how often to repeat, the words just stick after a while.

Could this technique be used in physics? I think it could for remembering definitions and laws but that's about it, I don't think you can learn much physics by just letting it wash over you.