My first attempt at actively applying some of that Spanish learning

So one of the things I learned while doing my MBA is that if you have a class that moves too slowly, and you don’t need or want to engage with it, watch the video instead cause you can watch it in double time and get through life faster.

It is amazing to me how quickly this became very deeply imbedded in me.  So I’m trying this online course - that is taught in Spanish.   Terrifyingly it has class 2 days a week?!?!  I did not realise that when I signed up lol.   Anyways - the first class conflicts with dance.  So yeah, class I want to participate in vs one I would actively avoid participating in - this is not a hard choice.

Then I downloaded the slide deck — 69 slides?!?!  That’s a lot in any language.  Lol.   I read the first 10 or so though and decided that while I definitely didn’t get it all and had to look up a couple thing (although had to laugh that one of the ones I was most curious about cause it’s clearly a literary phrase and I’m reasonably good with those in English, didn’t translate to anything any English dictionary recognized.  So I felt better about my previous education.  And a slide later she went on to explain it so all good).

Anyways what made me laugh is today I signed in to watch the video and my brain immediately went "2h?  Should take about 1 to watch.  No problem".  Ummm no.  If anything, vids in Spanish take me LONGER to watch.  Fail.   Also, when I signed up for this I was counting on the ability to slow the video down.  This is not an option in this software.  Fail the 2nd.   

I will say, one thing I was really proud of - when there was a critical phrase I didn’t understand, I was able to spell it correctly into google translate - despite not knowing the words - and get the answer.  My next step was going to be to let my phone listen instead, but I was really pleased that my Spanish phonetics are WAY better than my English phonetics lol.  Arguably, to be fair, Spanish phonetics are also much easier.

I was amused one of the things she was talking about in the intro - essentially that one’s resume doesn’t define the person, nor does their citizenship or family - was a similar train of thought to what lead to one of my favourite writing exercises.  This is me - if you’ve never tried to introduce yourself without context of work, things you’ve done, or friends/family, give it a few seconds thought.  It’s an interesting exercise.

Overall, I could understand and follow the vast majority of the concepts.   I definitely did not catch every word and was occasionally completely lost (esp when she was reading parts of stories), but it wasn’t horrible.  Esp given that it was strictly listening - no CC option and no slowing things down.  

It was exhausting to focus that intensively.  I’m going to admit I just made it to the intermission lol which was at an hour and 10 mins.   I’ll finish the rest tomorrow ;)  Wow.  In a world of micro-learning, and task-switching, a 2h listening exercise is a challenge.  Thank god she’s an engaging speaker - if she were boring I wouldn’t have a hope.

So partially, this was incredibly frustrating.  And partially I’m thrilled I could follow as much as I did.