If you want to learn numbers in Spanish, don’t download an app.
Go to bingo.
Local bingo. No subtitles. No mercy.
The announcer fires off numbers at a speed that suggests urgency, confidence, and absolutely no concern for beginners.
“Cuarenta y dos”. “Setenta y ocho“.
I catch maybe every fourth word, not even full number, and even then I’m unsure. My card fills slowly, cautiously, incorrectly.
I cheat.
Not dramatically –just subtle glances, whispered questions, gentle taps on shoulders. The people around me are kind. They point. They smile. They don’t judge. One woman marks her card a beat slower just so I can follow. Another corrects me when I confidently mark the wrong square.
This is how learning really happens, I think. Not through mastery, but through community.
I don’t win. That’s not the point. The point is sitting there, surrounded by voices I don’t fully understand yet, participating anyway. Letting myself be bad at something publicly. Letting confusion be temporary instead of shameful.
It’s the best Spanish lesson I’ve had so far.
And no app could’ve taught me that.