It seems like you wrote this in support of the argument that homework is a waste of time, but it doesn't seem like you're describing a problem with the concept

It seems like you wrote this in support of the argument that homework is a waste of time, but it doesn't seem like you're describing a problem with the concept of homework or how it applies to learning a subject. You're describing a situation when the subject itself was not useful to you in retrospect. Presumably, from your point of view, all of the time invested into it was a waste of time, not just the homework part. That said, it doesn't follow from this that any homework is a waste of time. It doesn't even follow that Spanish homework is generally a waste of time. One cannot generalize from your example at all because you might be an outlier. You'd have to show that learning Spanish provided no value to the majority of kids who studied it, or that class time is sufficient to learn Spanish so homework isn't really needed, which would be a very hard thing to argue for a human language. For what it's worth, I took Bulgarian folk music - I'm not Bulgarian, nor do I live in Bulgaria, nor can I play any musical instruments. Was it a waste of time? Acquiring knowledge is never a waste of time for me. Typing comments on HN might be though.