¡Hola de nuevo!
Se acerca la Navidad…
Y con ella, el final del año 2023.
Este año, como otros, pensé hacer un mensaje navideño para los que siguen mis lecciones. No hablo mucho de mi vida personal porque con las lecciones de gramática, vocabulario, pronunciación, etc tengo suficiente que hacer.
Pero hay una persona “real” detrás de todo eso – el profe Daniel, trabajando en el salón de su piso en Barcelona o en cafeterías en varias ciudades de España y el resto del mundo.
Así sin más, mi mensaje navideño…
My 2023 Christmas Message
It’s been a pretty exciting year around here.
Last Christmas I was in India, getting married. My beautiful wife and I had a wedding at a Hindu temple in her town in the south of India, and then we spent our honeymoon (and New Year’s Eve) in the Kerala backwaters. It was a great experience.
A few days later we returned to Spain and I got back to work helping people who want to learn English.
This year I made a new podcast every Monday, all year long, so this is the 52nd podcast of 2023. In this time, the Aprende Más Inglés podcast has had more than 1.2 million listens from people around the world. Thanks!
I also made about 35 new videos over on my YouTube channel. And I wrote a bunch of new articles here on the web. The top countries for people learning English are Spain, the US, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Chile – basically the biggest and most populous countries where Spanish-speaking people live.
My personal projects are also fun to work on, and might interest you: there’s Learn Spanish with Daniel, where I teach Spanish to English-speakers, and also The Chorizo Chronicles and Spain to Go, a blog and podcast in English about life in Spain.
Speaking of life in Spain, in October I was finally able to apply for Spanish nationality. I’ve been in Spain for a long time, but was never able to apply to “become Spanish” until now. The process takes months, or sometimes years, so I’m not in a hurry. Eventually, I might get a Spanish passport.
My wife and I spent the first half of 2023 travelling a lot: we spent time in the UK, as well as visiting a few cities in Italy and Sweden. And, as usual, I visited Madrid, and did a lot of hiking here in Catalonia.
Finally, over the summer, my wife and I bought a house here in Barcelona. As you may know, I lived in Madrid for many years, and I loved it, but now we seem to be in Barcelona permanently – so buying a house seemed like a good option. (Nothing in life is permanent, of course – I just mean that paying a mortgage will be better than renting, in the long term.)
All that’s pretty good. On the negative side, I’ve been having some health problems which are a bit annoying. But that whole situation has been a good motivator for me to improve my diet and to exercise more, so all in all it’s fine, and I’m fine.
I’m 41 years old, and if I think about it, I’m very lucky that my health is this good at this age.
Next year, I hope to do more of everything: more travel, more writing, more recording videos and podcasts – all to help people like you with their English.
Let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to talk about.
That’s all for today. Thanks for listening, and Merry Christmas!
Daniel.
P.S. Soon we’ll be at episode 300 of the Aprende Más Inglés podcast and I’m hoping to do another “Listener Questions” episode. So send me your questions about English or anything else on the contact page at aprendemasingles.com/contactar and I’ll answer them on the show. Thanks!