A Grammar Exercise Is Not Just a Grammar Exercise

I did a bunch of grammar exercises on pronouns and prepositions today. I did them in the morning. I did them in the afternoon at Café Margot. I did them in the evening, with the TV on in the background.

I’ve been doing grammar exercises every day for weeks now, and I still love them. I really do. Especially the ones where you have to translate from English into Italian, which are far and away my favorite.

Translation by nature calls on all aspects of language skills: sentence structure, verb forms, vocabulary, etc. With each sentence, it is a pleasure to see how much I remember, to have weaknesses corrected and strengths reinforced.

It’s like a workout at the gym, but for the mind. Grammar exercises tickle my brain in the most enjoyable way.