"It's so hard!"

This is a now famous quote, coined by one of our students and repeated often as an inside joke between Luis and I whenever we are up against something in the business that is challenging us.  Luis and I do not have children together, but when we lament with this phrase, we look at one another with pride as though we were repeating something one of our children said.  If our student said this once, she said it 10 times a class from her first class through her most recent, and she has gone from 0 to advanced intermediate with us. 

It is always hard for her because she is always pushing herself and so it falls upon us to work doubly hard to reassure her that she is doing well, making tremendous progress and always moving forward.  As they say, when one is climbing  a mountain it is far more likely we will be focused on the effort it is taking, then the ever more beautiful view that is available to us with each step we take.

I found myself saying “It’s so hard!” once again today and decided to procrastinate my task and write this Blog instead.  I’ve said before that we developed our video program from a combined point of view; from the point of view of Luis, the teacher, and from my point of view, the student.  What we have put together more elaborately and in a more challenging way, contains all the elements that I would cobble together on my own to move my Spanish forward aggressively.  It worked for me and so of course we believe it can work for others as well…

…however!  The aspect of producing these video resources that had not been a part of my initial cobbled together program was the part where I have to transcribe word for word, accurately, what was being said on the tape!  You can’t believe how hard this is!  It’s so hard!

I understood what was being said when we tapped and I understand what is being said when I listen to the videos now but to understand word for word and to be able to reproduce what is being said word for word!  Yikes!  It’s so hard.

I comfort myself by knowing that with each video I transcribe, I have made my way a few more steps up the mountain and it is true that my ability to make out Spanish spoken in varied accents, with noise around me, maybe spoken not so perfectly or misspoken even is with every video improving dramatically. 

So here’s a learning tip for the really serious!  When you are working with the videos, hide the transcript and try to transcribe the conversation word for word yourself.  Then check the transcript and see how close you were!  It’ll kill ya in a really good way!

Okay, I gotta get back at it.  The only thing that is holding up this next cool video on Lima from going up is my transcription!   Hasta pronto,  Joan

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