Level 2

I have had several encounters in our 1 year of being in Spain. These events force me out of my comfort zone when it comes to speaking Spanish. The very first time happened when we just moved in and lots of packages were being sent to the house. I think we were still using Amazon in those days. I received the confirmation email that it had been delivered, but the doorman or porter had not brought it up. I remember thinking, ‘this is it, my new life in Spain and what I came here to do!‘. My Spanish at the time was bad and even though I understood a lot, speaking and having a conversation was even worse! Anyway, I have google translate as a local script and events like needing to ask the porter for my package; I would query multiple phrases and repeat them to myself before actually attempting something cobbled together on my own.

I remember being so proud after that encounter, as I did well! Even if I was straight to the point…

¡Hola! ¿Tienes mi paquete? si, si, si Gracias! Adeo! runs away

Cut to

One year later, our oven stopped working, and we needed to contact an electrician. My level at this point was proficient at ordering food, and a good vocab of items around the house. I’m still rough at putting phrases together on my own. Lucky for me, Orpha, who is fluent, was around to take the phone call and setup the appointment. But when it came time for gameday- she had another appointment out of the house. Nora was in school. I was home alone and a stranger was going to come into our home, and I would have to explain our situation.

The bad

Google translation app has a feature for conversations where it continuously records and live translates in two selected languages as text that you can optionally play back. This would have been good on the fly- but honestly when under the stress and wanting to talk quickly; the app feels like an ill timed party trick. It might be good when it’s an emergency, but in this slow train-wreck situation I had on my hands, I think it was testing the guys patience.

The Good

The day of the oven service, I was home alone for hours leading up until the appointment. I think this was part my problem- I worked up a neat little anxiety thinking about all the scenarios the conversation could go, and I practiced many words and phrases with the conversation mode, in the app- that I had worked up a list of things I could quick refer to when the service pro actually came. This was wrong lol, although I did have some items practiced, referring to my phone was jarring and when I tried to go back to live mode with the person, the mood was gone.

Lessons?

I think this feature of the app is best for practicing a conversation with yourself! I will do this in the future and keep track of a history in my learning notebook. I don’t think I will be trying to use this to actually speak live with anybody ever again, >just git good.