@Steve Washington , wow

@Matthew Thomas , i agree with everyone. You are doing a lot and sometimes taking a few days off is great, like Toni says, even though I avoid it. I don't know anyone who doesn't think language learning is like a roller coaster. You have days where you feel stuck, or are going backwards and it is normal. The subconscious is doing a lot. If I am learning a new piece on an instrument,sometimes it is great and sometimes my practice is awful too. i think sometimes the brain is trying to process and is overloaded or tired, and sometimes it is asking us to rest, or step back so the brain can rest and digest, so we pause and celebrate what we can do, and is letting us know to try or focus on a different way, like Tony is saying with having conversations. And it is also knowing that your conversation time grows. I was told that and it helped with the frustration, so if i have calls with sentences prepared on paper it helps, and a big whiteboard of questions i can choose to throw the ball back, and being okay with "okay, at the moment my limit is five minutes of conversation for now, and that is wow compared to zero." And then it is great when you see it has organically grown to 8 minutes, then 10 with learning, practice etc. For me it really helps to ask about what the other person likes talking about - you know the theme because you asked, so it is not vocabulary coming at you from nowhere, and it helps me to pick one topic to talk about that i am passionate about because it really makes a difference having emotion. i saw on a group call you want to talk about your craft,which is so understandable, yet maybe start with about your dogs, or your trip to Mexico, and you could arrange an italki mini lesson sending the teacher ahead of time that you want to talk about axe building and would like them to give you these technical terms. Two of the many super things Tony says have calmed my horses at times and I am grateful. They are "Say what you can say, not what you want to say." This was so tough for me at first, yet thank goodness I finally got it, because it then creates space and peace and opens doors to sneak in repetition and the odd new wow sentence. And the second thing he says is about treating it as a game not work. This helps me too.

@Andrew Willimott this is fabulous. Thank you.

Bon dia! ¡Hola! Bienvenida, Janis! Happy learning!

@Janis Sheppard , grinning. How wonderful.

@Steve Washington, what a lovely message from him. I am so happy for you that you have this lovely friendship.

@Jack Mason, inspiring. Thank you.