Language Skills

A few weeks back I bought a Spanish language-learning pack. 4 CDs and a pretty comprehensive book. They've been sitting on my desk looking at me with an accusing eye ever since... :-)

I could have used some Spanish skills yesterday. I had a phonecall from Peru, someone wanting information on a few things. I could understand what they needed - but couldn't answer! I had to call in my German boss - who also speeks Spanish - to help them out.

So why Spanish? Well, I'm still planning to do the Camino, though I haven't said much on it lately. In addition, many queries I get in my work line are from Spanish-speaking countries. And it's used worldwide. It's not a difficult language to learn. There are similarities to English if you look and listen properly. Written Spanish makes sense to me, and if I string together the words I do understand in spoken Spanish, I know what the general gist is there too. It should be easy to pick up.

Yet I keep putting it off... Why? Because it's like many things I need to do - I want an uninterrupted block of time to get to it, and that kind of thing is in very short supply. I'd have it running in the background at work, plugged into my ear, if I didn't have phonecalls to answer and people dropping in constantly. I'd have it running at home if I didn't have general household stuff to do at the same time.

But then I really should stop finding excuses. It's a language I've wanted to learn for ages. I'd better just get to it.

As soon as this upcoming meeting is done. (If I had a CD player I'd plug in an offside ear during it, as my dad used to do for the live cricket score with a pocket-size radio.. :-) )