The Mistake Mechanic.

Anyone who has stuck with Duolingo for any length of time will be familiar with the “mistake mechanic”. A jaunty chap who occasional pops up and congratulates you on correcting, in my case, lots of mistakes.

I have been learning Spanish for, at time of writing, 421 days. My latest encounter with the said mechanic informed me that I had corrected 1000 mistakes. I am unclear if that is just this month alone or across the entire time I have been using it. It’s a lot of mistakes, but those have been essential to my learning.

The thing with Duolingo is, that you instantly know you have made a mistake because when you check your answer not only does it light up red, helpfully supplying the correct answer, but it also makes a noise that conveys, thinly veiled disappointment. I have no idea how it comes to be that a noise can make you feel a failure, but they have managed it.

The latest visit from the mistake mechanic got me thinking about real world mistakes that have more far-reaching consequences than asking where you might find a donkey, rather than a toilet, when on holiday.

I got to thinking how helpful or not it would be if that wee judgmental noise sounded when any sort of mistake was made. The thing is, that it kind of does. Sometimes we recognise it, we act on it and change course. Other times we plough on regardless, maybe because we feel we will get there in the end or maybe because our ego convinces us that the buzzer must be for someone else.

Of course there are all sorts of mistakes, some minor, some that impact others and some where we live with the consequences for long time.

Its my observation that we have become rather unforgiving of mistakes on a personal and societal level. Social media drives us to present a life of perfection, where only good things happen and always with our make-up and hair done.

Cancel culture makes us fearful of mistakes; being taken out of context or expressing a minority view. There isn’t much room for manoeuvre these days when you make a public blunder.

I can see it and feel it on a micro and a macro level. Whether it’s inducing road rage for not using my indicator, (admit it, we have all been on both sides of that), to governments taking decisions that impact our most vulnerable people. I’m not sure if the latter counts as a mistake or if it’s something much deeper than that, I suspect that it is.

The thing with mistakes is we all make them, but we have varying degrees of tolerance for others when their actions, judgments or decisions impact us. I guess that’s human nature and I’m not here to preach on the subject, its just a thought prompted by an avatar who is congratulating me for correcting my mistakes.

I dread to think what my tally of mistakes would be across my career and for that matter, my personal life.

On reflection, I think I, and probably most people, do have their own, internal mistake mechanic. Sometimes we know what the error is, but we don’t know how to fix it. In the case of Duolingo, they, very helpfully provide the correct answer then allow you to try again, and again and again. That’s not always the case in real life and some mistakes we must live with and move on from.

However, I do recognise that mistakes are an essential part of learning almost anything, including how to navigate relationships, develop organisations or effect societal change. They are just so darned hard to live with especially when they pop into your consciousness in the wee small hours. They can dent your confidence; they can make you second guess yourself and they can inhibit creativity and curiosity.

So, whilst it is debatable how much Spanish Duolingo is teaching me, (I forget everything when confronted with a real-life Spanish person), the mistake mechanic has taught me a thing or two; recovering mistakes is possible, persistence is key and focus on the progress not the bumps in the road.

Meanwhile, if you want to know the Spanish for “The owl and the cow take a shower in the forest”, then I am your woman.

While I am here, I would also like to apologise to the good people of Spain who were subjected to me mangling their beautiful language over the summer.

Image is of the Duolingo avatar. Figure dressed as a car mechanic wearing a hat and carrying a broken heart and a soldering iron.