Typing vs Handwriting for Learn Spanish - How to Spanish Podcast EP 362

Hello how are you This is How to Spanish Podcast I am David I am Ana In this episode we are going to talk about writing What are the benefits or advantages of writing by hand or on a computer for learning languages Hello how are you Welcome here with us in the studio Maybe you're watching us in your living room listening to us in your car But it's a pleasure to accompany you for the next twenty or so minutes Today we want to talk we want to discuss a bit about the advantages and disadvantages Writing by hand against taping right In fact this word is common Many young people in Mexico now say "taipear" Instead of typing or writing to the computer or something like that because Spanish is a bit longer But anyway you can say that or you can just say write by hand instead of writing on the computer or the phone Right And they heard what Ana said We say it we say it or we use it I am young He pointed with the stick Yes that's right it's very important And it seems that nowadays no one writes by hand anymore right Yes yes it's a we could say it's a dead art No it's not very archaic yet Let's say it's an art on the brink of extinction And I also say this because now in schools I have seen many schools Where of course children carry their notebooks and books but they are also already required to do so at least in private schools I've had the opportunity to see people carrying an iPad Yes yes And on the iPad they do a lot of things they write they project their Yes my tasks and things like that Then I think that increasingly we have this tendency for the new generations to lose the ability to write by hand And indeed we see it in ourselves having been forced to write by hand since childhood and now having the ability to write on a computer or an iPad or whatever The truth is that you're becoming a bit weaker and more more comfortable with writing say in digital media And we are not saying it's wrong we just want to explore this topic of whether there are advantages to one thing or the other and so that you can make a choice What works for you to get the most out of it Because of course we're going to focus this episode on you To the people who are studying Spanish Well then let's start with the advantages of writing by hand first Because I think the advantages of writing on a computer are more obvious We will also mention them but let's start with writing by hand The most classic but it's true is that it helps retain vocabulary better Exactly It has been studied that when you use your hand to write you are making stronger connections between your mind Between you yes your memory and your hand because you are using movement and each movement traces a specific letter And then all of that helps you remember the word better Also something very important is that it reinforces the topic of spelling What is spelling Orthography is an art It is about writing well using accents correctly using commas and punctuation correctly Then something very common and I must be very honest about it The truth is that now I sometimes forget the rules in Spanish Because on the phone or computer it automatically corrects that part You type a word ending in "ión" and you don't put an accent And it puts it on the computer Exactly And maybe you'll realize those corrections But you won't remember to do it next time Because you're too confident in the spellcheckers Exactly Which is precisely what were talking about a bit about this dependency on tools As is the case with translators which we discussed in the previous episode Then I think yes what we said makes us weak really And something you may not have considered I want to tell you because I think it's a very important point It's that when you write by hand you develop a different awareness of the language Writing by hand is much slower than typing on a computer And it also forces you to think a bit more slowly because it's not as easy to erase right Like a computer Then you pay more attention and therefore you are noticing better what grammatical structures you are using What vocabulary are you using the syntax All these things make more sense or make more sense to you when you are writing with your little hand Yes and especially that topic of time as we have said in several episodes taking the time The truth is that it enables different things in your mind right We are so used to everything being so fast in our society If it's something like that right And maybe in a situation of a transaction through the language makes sense right So I have to go to the bank and make a payment I don't need to sit down and think about how I'm going to say it How I have to ask for the money I just do it and that's it But you who are studying and want to go further This topic of writing slowly and stopping halfway through a sentence and saying "why am I doing this " isn't it What you were saying about which grammatical structures will help you a lot to internalize this part of the language And something very interesting related to writing by hand is that writing by hand obviously does not involve a digital medium except when you write with a stylus Like a digital pencil a digital pencil on an iPad or a smartphone But usually writing by hand on paper you won't have The possible distractions in a digital medium That is whenever you are typing on your computer Suddenly you get a Facebook notification or you receive an email you receive an email or you get a notification New video of How to Spanish There you should pay attention Always click on that notification Then this advantage of writing has to do with the fact that you are 100 percent focused on writing right You don't have these digital distractions Obviously if you have any distractions from the environment But that one isn't going to come off even if it's in a digital medium Well the truth is that we also have to talk about the disadvantages Because we already said it's much slower Then if you don't have much patience or are used to At this fast pace that David mentioned it can be frustrating to have to take so long to write But also something important is that it's very hard to correct isn't it Because on a computer it's super easy to copy and paste or put this delete or do copy paste copy and paste But in a notebook what you write is what's there and you would have to use an eraser or correction fluid And it's not that easy to cross out or scratch It's not that easy to reorganize your thoughts And then this part can also be annoying for people who are very organized and like to see things very clean Always in her work because it can indeed be frustrating the fact that you have to erase and even when you erase with an eraser They usually remain as residues of what you wrote Then it looks a bit dirty so to speak But on the other hand this dirty part or this correction part can help you see when you go back to study Ah look I was wrong in thinking it was imperfect and it was past tense Then I think it also helps you to say OK if I've already made that mistake I will be careful in other scenarios where I might make a mistake So it is a disadvantage But I can see that it might also have an advantage there And finally it is also difficult to share what you wrote When you are studying a language you almost always have friends other students or teachers and you want to share what you wrote So that they can give you their opinion feedback etc And it's a little more complicated because you would have to write it You can now take a photo of yourself on a computer and share the photo Then yes let's be realistic There are times when it's not very practical to write by hand And here before we move on to the digital part I would like to talk about an interesting point It seemed interesting to me This whole journaling trend is very popular writing about your to-do lists what you think your fears etc It's very trendy and a good option to do it in Spanish as well It turns out there are many benefits to doing that kind of writing but also creative writing I know some of you might Okay the thing is I don't want to write my hello diary today I feel sad But maybe they would be more willing to create small fictional stories Or why not You can dream big Why not dream of one day writing a book in Spanish a poem in Spanish a novel That is you can dream and try This type of creative writing also has many benefits And if you combine it with writing by hand instead of using a computer you can gain enormous benefits For example you can reduce stress and anxiety and improve your well-being And this is very good because let's be honest studying a language They reach points where it's stressful where it's frustrating where it leads to burnout which we already have an episode about Then writing creatively in Spanish can help you keep studying Spanish because you're doing it in that language but also to relax Yes this is very interesting and the truth is I'm somewhat skeptical about these things but precisely because of tha We are looking for information that had a solid foundation And there is a study from the University of Texas that says only 15 to 20 minutes day by day and for several days that is not on the first day it will already have effects It was analyzed and verified that it can reduce symptoms of anxiety That is clinical anxiety and that strengthens the immune system That is very strange I think the relationship is clear because if you have anxiety Your body goes into a fight-or-flight mode and weakens your immune system Then as your anxiety decreases your immune system improves But it's incredible that we have something literally in our hands to strengthen our immune system and reduce anxiety And finally my last point on this topic is that it enhances creativity not when you are writing by hand and something fictional or even a journal And why can this help you Because when you are speaking Spanish outside the context of writing Your mind is more accustomed to seeking creative ways to express itself new ideas This can also help you develop a sense of humor in Spanish And when you have a conversation you will feel more fluent because you can think faster about what to say And as Ana said this topic of journaling became very popular so we decided to start a journal So if you're interested in writing in Spanish we have the information right there on our website You can have a digital copy or a physical copy that arrives at your home And if you don't know which page it is it's HowToSpanishPodcast com Well now let's move on to digital media because the reality is that we can't leave them out and they also have their advantages Sometimes it seems that everything that is old everything from other times was the best And it's a phrase this is a bit of a cliché Some things yes I would say for example pollution was clearly not as bad in the past Then well let's talk a little bit about the topic of using the computer the cell phone the iPad anything you want to write with And well first and most important is speed How long does it take you to write the word Popocatépetl on paper And that same word typed I think half the time easily Then when you're writing something a bit longer Well let's say it is wear one for half the time but you save 25 percent of the time It's been a very long time it's much more efficient Of course you have access to a lot of useful applications There you can open your dictionary and your translator because as we said it's not good to rely on them 100% But it's useful and good to use it to find words to ask questions search forums You tell me what you want because really a lot can be done With all the digital apps and dictionaries Yes and that's not even mentioning that I think it's also very useful now all these artificial intelligence tools For example now when you write an email on a Mac it can give you the ability to rewrite it that is You write down your idea and he will rewrite it with a different approach using other words although it's the same And that seems very useful to me in the sense that sometimes we want to make sure if I said it right if it would sound better another way Then these AI supports of course you won 't have them while you're writing by hand Another advantage is that it is much easier to share what we had already mentioned as a disadvantage of writing by hand Here it is very easy to share an entire text just one sentence just one word For example in the book club sometimes We want to discuss a specific phrase and it's very easy to select copy and paste into the chat instead of writing the idea completely Yes so even though you can type in any way on the computer you also have the option to copy and paste which makes it even easier It is infinitely faster And another point a little more detailed than what Ana said If you have access to applications and all that but I think something very useful It means you have access not only to corrections and all that but also to conjugations It's easy to switch to another tab on your computer and look up that specific conjugation because the truth is that sometimes You're still a bit confused between "ser" and "estar" and that And believe me on many levels we still get confused with specific conjugations Then the idea of having at hand very quickly a list of that specific verb that you struggle with in the subjunctive or in whatever area you have problems It's really useful and also gives you that confidence to say "Okay I'm writing it correctly right " Then sometimes the autocorrect won't change it because it assumes you're using a different tense But your idea was to use another time and this is where it's useful to use online conjugators right Yes And speaking of disadvantages we already said that it's less likely that you will remember the words It' s not impossible but it's less likely And it's much more likely that you'll get distracted Well then what conclusions do we reach What do we recommend for you I think what I would recommend is that you use both We never mean that you should never write on the computer it's bad Never write by hand because you would miss out on all the benefits of digital tools But we believe it is worth reintroducing it into your study routine Write by hand and if possible also write creatively For the benefits we already told you about I don't know what you think but what else do you think Yes I think it's worth writing by hand when you 're learning new vocabulary or new grammar rules New rules precisely for this reason because it's easier for them to stay with you just by reading them even just reading them I think they have a bit more impact Reading them in a book is better than reading them on a computer But if you are reading and taking notes that is also very important Because you are writing but writing your own ideas Then it will be easier for you to remember That is very important Or when you write new phrases or new things for the first time That will also help you remember them better Use the computer for longer tasks as we said the topic of time is very practical to do on the computer Then for writing long texts it is much more convenient to use a computer Obviously there is something about writing that we cannot avoid Because of the time we live in which is the part of emails and that and that obviously you won't do it on paper Then it's something you have to use definitely on a computer Well as always we're opening the discussion we want to know what you think And you know other benefits advantages and disadvantages of these two ways of writing We read your comments And we also invite you to join our Patreon community where each week we talk about this episode And about all the episodes of each week and where you can discuss just with other students your advantages and disadvantages Believe me they always come out New things that we ourselves had not even imagined And in addition we have an activity every month to write creatively in Spanish So join if you're interested See you next time Goodbye