Last week, I had a new hygienist for my dental cleaning. It was obvious that English wasn't her first language, and she apologized for her difficulties in communicating. While she was searching for a word, I asked her what language other than English she spoke. "Portuguese." she replied. "Eu também," I responded enthusiastically. She grinned from ear to ear.

For the rest of the appointment, the hygienist cheerfully spoke in a mix of Portuguese and English ("abrir/open, fechar/close"). I mostly listened, as one does at the dentist. When my dentist popped in to do her part, the hygienist proudly told her colleague—also a Portuguese speaker from Brazil—that I spoke their language. Our conversation continued in a mix of the two languages: anything complicated was communicated in English, while day-to-day pleasantries were exchanged in Portuguese.

I had a similar experience in Wrexham, Wales. I started talking to a woman and, detecting an accent, asked her whether she spoke another language. Like the hygienist, my new friend was from Brazil and spoke Portuguese. I seized the opportunity to practise my Portuguese, and she seemed happy to encourage my efforts.

I find that when I actually use a new language, I progress more quickly than when I simply do my lessons in Duolingo. When a new word comes up in conversation, I'm much more likely to remember it than if I simply learn it in an app or an e-book. I'm not alone in this impression. According to author Mark Manson, who speaks four languages, "language is something that needs to be processed, not memorized." In his blog post 25 Tips to Learn a Foreign Language, Manson states:

If there’s a "secret" or "hack" to learning a foreign language, it’s this: hours and hours of awkward and strenuous conversation with people better than you in that language. An hour of conversation (with corrections and a dictionary for reference) is as good as five hours in a classroom and 10 hours with a language course by yourself.

Manson surmises that our minds prioritize memories created by actual human and social experiences (as opposed to those from book learning) because they have emotions attached to them.

A friend asked me yesterday whether I've gotten bored with learning languages. I haven't. Learning a language continues to feel like a game—one I'm determined to win. Adding Portuguese and Italian to my base in English and French has felt like learning a secret code that unlocks the meaning of words in other languages. My natural competitiveness plays to my advantage, giving me the motivation to keep working at language acquisition even when it becomes difficult. And my love of connecting with people through language and helping them in their mother tongue provides an additional impetus to keep going.

Manson insists that you need to know your motivation for learning another language. He writes:

You can know all the tips and tricks there are to learning a language, but if you don’t know the why behind it all, how it’s going to enrich your life, chances are you’re going to lose motivation and the learning will fizzle out like an engine sputtering out of gas.

Learning Brazilian Portuguese has unquestionably enriched my life, allowing me to connect with others on a deeper level than if we spoke exclusively in English. Every time I meet someone from Brazil and exchange even a few words with them in their language, I'm inspired to persevere in my studies.

Indeed, today marks my 800th straight day of using Duolingo to learn Brazilian Portuguese, plus at least two years of brushing up on my French and nine months of dabbling in Italian. I'm blessed to have the time to learn another language, and "doing Duolingo" remains a rewarding part of my daily routine.