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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4423 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes  Studies: Spanish | Message 129 of 154 14 July 2014 at 7:26pm | IP Logged |
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Hey Crush. It is interesting to look so much different than everyone else. It’s funny to watch kids push each other like, “I dare you to talk to him.” In the plant people are really surprised at how normal I am, almost to the point of disappointment. “He’s nothing special, just like me, but looks different.”
James, filibustering is a very strange thing. My Mexican buddies were like, “Wait, what?!? You just keep talking forever?!?” I’ve had a really busy week and a half. I went to a meetup last Tuesday and then I was in Arizona from Wed-Sunday to find a place to live and meet my new coworkers. The meet up was pretty awesome. I hadn’t been practicing/studying like I should, but I still was talking like a champ. There was one new guy from Puerto Rico, he was really cool. We had fun talking nonsense. He’s a single guy and our waitress was pretty cute, so I got a chance to listen in on Spanish flirting. It was interesting to experience. While the words were different, the body language was the same. I could tell that it was working and by the end of the event he had her phone number. We spoke about all kinds of things and just had an all-around great time. My Indian buddy said something that had me cracking up laughing. Since he is still learning Western culture, he asks questions that are serious, but sound so funny. He was in the Dominican Republic at an upscale bar. A lady sat by him and he struck up a conversation. During the convo he asked her something along the lines of, “This is a very nice bar, are you sure you have enough money for this place.” (lol @ him not knowing that that was extremely rude) The lady replied, “Yes, of course, why do you ask?!?”He said, “It looks as though your jeans have been eaten by rats.” Hahahahaha He jeans were ripped into a pattern… that was the look she was going for. Lol I ended up staying about an hour after the event ended just chatting with the Puerto Rican guy and my Indian buddy. We were discussing how fun meet ups are and how they are a great way to meet people. The trip to Arizona was a great time. My wife flew out to meet me and that was great for us to catch up and spend 4 days together. The first night we didn’t do anything because the flights and time change kicked our butts. On Thursday I went into the office and met my co-workers. It was a perfect day to come because there was a going away pot-luck for one of the German interns. Everyone was really friendly and it was great to finally put a face with the voices I’ve heard for 6.5 years. Just as they told me, Spanish is spoken everywhere in the office. Most of the staff supports the plant in Mexico so it’s all Spanish, all the time. I introduced myself to a few people in Spanish, but I stopped after a while. It felt kinda forced and I didn’t really want to work that hard being smart/witty when first meeting people. I just spoke in English for the most part and plan on blowing their minds when I get there. My buddy from Mexico was there and we had a chance to chat a little bit. His English speaking skills are much worse than I remember. I promised that we would have a language exchange everyday I’m in the office for lunch. We found a condo less than .5 miles from a state park and a big mountain. It’s alittle bit country in the area, but it’s only 4.5 miles from the office and about the same distance to downtown. I don’t like a long commute and my wife doesn’t really like the ultra quiet of the suburbs. It has a pretty big back yard. I was laughing because the “yard” is just small stones. We plan on buying some sort of tent or shade and using the area as a living space. Thursday night we went to a co-worker’s house for dinner. They have a beautiful home by a mountain and state park. He took my wife and I to a park to watch the sunset while his girlfriend finished up dinner. It was soooooo beautiful out there and teeming with life. I thought, “Well, we’re moving to the desert, I guess won’t see any animals.” Boy was I wrong, all kinda of critters are out there. Bats were flying all over along with humming birds and some giant beetles. We saw a few jack rabbits and I was bitten by a red ant. It really hurt! That little asshole got me right on my pinky toe. The people in the parks were so friendly. There’s a really large outdoor community and I’m looking forward to being a part of it, walking, hiking, running, or riding my bike. The only problem is that you have to do everything early in the morning or when the sun goes down. Friday I brought in bagels for the office. Everyone thanked me, but that’s because they don’t know my ulterior motives. When I move out there in August I’m going to tell them that everyone who took a bagel now owes me Spanish help. I have an office for the first time in my career. It was super cool to sit in it and think about how I will decorate it. However, while I was getting some work done, I kinda felt lonely in there. It’s weird. I ‘ve been working in a cube farm for so long I’m just used to being around people all the time. I’m sure it will just take some getting used to. I’m also leaving a huge campus, about 3,000 people in the area and going to an office with 35 on a busy day but normally a count in the lower 20’s. My only real use of Spanish came when talking with the maid. She wanted to clean the room but I was working and needed another 30min to finish up. I told her that she could come in and work around me. (Because she said housekeeping without an accent I thought she knew English) I could see on her face that she was searching for the right words so I just switched to Spanish and said that I was checking out in 30 minutes. Her face lit up and she explained their policy of not cleaning when someone’s in the room and that she’d just come back. I was talking with my boss and he told me that the company will probably open a new plant next year a little bit closer to the boarder. It’s perfect because I have wanted to help start a plant. I think it will be awesome experience, fun, and a great way to practice/improve my Spanish (might be a different dialect). I told the boss that I wanted to be involved with the start up because I was going to have to live with the parts that would be coming out of there. He totally agreed. How cool is that?!? I was thinking of trying the same thing at a plant in South America, but I would have to be away from home for too long and unable to get to my customers in a reasonable amount of time. It seems like everything is coming together. I just need to keep on practicing my Spanish and start packing. ( I hate moving!!!) Cya 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4423 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 130 of 154 31 July 2014 at 11:23pm | IP Logged |
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Hey everybody,
Things have been busy lately and I’ve had to rededicate myself to my Spanish studies. I’ve been using the language quite a lot but I’ve been slacking with my actual study (reviewing flash cards and the like) I had a Spanish meet up last week and it was super fun as usual. There were two new ladies, one from Colombia and the other from Germany. A German/Spanish accent is quite unique. I just happened to sit next to the Colombian lady so we got to chat a lot about tons of topics. She’s getting her masters in mechanical engineering which is super cool b/c that’s what I studied. So we did a bunch of nerd talk about that. I stumbled a bit because there are a lot of technical terms that I don’t know in Spanish. The German lady actually won a green card in a lottery and she’s looking for work now. Her Spanish was pretty decent but I wasn’t quite sure if she was translating in her head from German to English to Spanish. She was really cool and said that she was surprised at how friendly Americans are and how all their questions were about the world cup, weinersnitchel, and beer. She was concerned that people would be asking her questions about Nazis. Overall my language was flowing that night and I was happy. I hung out with my uncle last weekend and we went to a latin night club. It was amazing, I need to get back into dance lessons. People were having so much fun dancing, spinning, cheering, and everything. They had a dance show by a troop and the bartender put on a show juggling bottles and pouring drinks. One of the things I really liked was how everyone just wanted to have a good time. Short/Tall Skinny/Big young/old didn’t matter. It was all about the dance. Yesterday I had an 8 minute conversation with the program manager in Mexico totally in Spanish. It was cool how easily I was communicating, especially over the phone. I probably rely on lip reading more than is good for me. I know my co-workers were like, “Whoaaa! I didn’t know he was that good.” lol I found out that the town where the plant will open only has 12k people. Small towns are cool to visit. I have 16 days before my move to Arizona. I’m excited but alittle sad that I’ll be leaving my friends here. I’ve made some good buddies and had a bunch of fun over the last 4 years. Also my business is really starting to pick up. I was working on a friend’s computer and then we went to the bar together. He introduced me to his buddy who has 2 computers that need work. Then he introduced me to a guy who is the vice president at one of my customers. I’m hoping that I can start right back up once I get settled in Zona. I enjoy the work and get to meet lots of interesting people. Hopefully the tax writeoffs will be worth it as well. One of the people who attends the English class at the plant in Mexico sent me an instant message out of the blue. She said that she wants to improve her English. She can communicate but she makes tons of spelling errors. Here’s an example, “yes, I was study English in the high land but im not learn enough because can’t speack is difficult for me but im try.” We’re going to chat from time to time and also I told her to write an email once a week about current events or whatever she wants to talk about and I’ll correct it and reply. It’s basically the same set up I have with the plant manager’s assistant. I have a meet up next week and also a pool party/ pot luck with the group. Should be fun and good send off. I've found a meetup in Tucson that is 100% Spanish and English is forbidden. It's a private group so I had to fill out a ton of info and say why I wanted to be in the group. I'm pretty sure I'll make the cut. The reviews of the group are fantastic. Bye 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4423 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 131 of 154 28 August 2014 at 7:29am | IP Logged |
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Hey everybody,
It’s been a while. I’m now officially a resident of Arizona. I moved about a week and a half ago. I’m just about unpacked and my wife is coming out for a visit. Should be a super fun holiday weekend. Before I left for Arizona there was a Spanish meetup potluck by the pool. I brought my swim trunks but it ended up raining so there was no swimming. About 20 people showed up and we had a great time. There was a Colombian, Peruvian, a few Mexicans and a Spaniard and a gaggle of Americans. We laughed and spoke about everything and tried all kinds of food. After the party a few of us went to a bar and hung out even longer and just goofed off while throwing in some Spanish here and there. My new office is cool and as I mentioned before it’s about 70% native Spanish speakers. I haven’t been able to practice as much as I’ve wanted at work because people only want to speak in English during lunch and I’ve too busy to chat during the day. I’m going to have to travel a lot for the new position. I just got back from a 3 day trip in Mexico and will be on a plane next week. The trip to Mexico was pretty awesome. It’s the most Spanish I’ve had to use to date. My boss and I drove to the plant and I had to talk to all of the federales along the way (Boss doesn’t speak Spanish) When we got to the plant my buddies from my old position greeted me and we shared a few jokes and they gave me an update on how whiteherm (pronounced why-herm…their name for my replacement) was doing. When had a few quick meetings and we went to the hotel. I checked in all in Spanish and my buddies where all there. I chatted up the bar tender and the receptionist. I even saw my homeless buddy although I didn’t have much time to chat with him. The second day I wanted to go to the English class in the morning but I had a meeting that I almost missed. I’m still having trouble remembering that I’m in the pacific timezone now. I introduced myself to the product engineers that are on my new accounts and did a quick test on their English skills. One lady got lost pretty quickly so I switched to Spanish. My crowning achievement of the week was having a good 10min conversation with her on the assembly line about the implementation of a deviation. In my mind I was thinking, “ This is soooo cool!!!” Ohh yea, on the first night my boss was prepping for a meeting so he gave me the keys to the rental. I didn’t want to pay for international data usage so I found an app that only uses gps. I put in the address to a restaurant with the best tacos in the universe and I was off. I got there easy enough because it was only 4 miles away from the hotel. The food was excellent as expected and I had fun just people watching and feeling like I was just a weird looking Mexican dude. I ordered and did everything in Spanish. After eating I figured I’d just drive back the way I came. Nope! I ended up going the wrong way down a one-way street and then getting super lost. I wasn’t worried because I could have just turned my phone on but I decided to use my good ole boy scout skills and find my way using land marks. I ended up by some mountains and I was like, “ I know I didn’t see these on the way in.” So I turned around and eventually found the bridge that I knew I needed to go under. It took about 45mins for me to go the 4 miles back to the hotel. Another cool thing was when my boss and I sat in on a meeting about layoffs on the production floor to meet declining demand. We weren’t scheduled to be a part of the meeting so we just sat in the room while everyone spoke in Spanish. To my surprise I understood about 90% of the conversations. One lady came in late and she spoke lighting fast. I just couldn’t keep up with her. She was sitting right next to me and I couldn’t even read her lips. It was an interesting meeting. One boss was fighting hard to save the jobs in his department. It made me feel good to know that I’m working with compassionate people. We all have jobs because we make something or provide a service that someone wants to buy (unless you work for the govt, but that’s another topic). So when there’s a downturn you have to change your staffing, but the managers were being very creative trying to find ways to shift people and save jobs. I was able to attend the English class today and it was fun. They were learning about how to write essays. The students were having a hard time pronouncing the word until they realized it sound like the word “ese” like “ what’s up ese!?!” They were laughing and saying, “ Man I need help on my ese, ese” and things like that. It was funny. At the end of the lesson they gave me some time to talk about conferences. I tried to give them some career advice as well. Hopefully some of them took what I said to heart. I also had to talk to the HR director because the union contract is up in December and one of our customers wants to know our contingency plan if there’s a breakdown in negotiations and a strike. The procedure was written in Spanish so the guy was translating for us. I told him I knew Spanish so he started flipping through the book and I was reading the titles. “ What to do if there’s a pandemic. What to do if there’s a war. What do if there’s an earthquake. “ He said, “ Wow, you do know Spanish.” I was thinking in my mind, “ D#$% straight!” lol I had a good conversation in Spanish with a manager about all the critters that are in southern Arizona. There are a lot of things out here that can bite, sting, scratch, pinch, or poison you. One ant already decided to taste my baby toe. By far the weirdest thing happened today. There’s an old cleaning lady that loves me. She’s always trying to give me goo-goo eyes and stuff. I just try to ignore her other than saying good morning. A buddy of mine sent me an instant message today saying that she was looking at me from afar and said, “tanta carne y yo chimuela,” which means, “ So much meat and I’m toothless.” I about died laughing but was kinda weirded out too. I told my buddy that I didn’t care to know anything else she might say about me. I went to my new Spanish meetup last week. It was more fun than I expected. I was kinda bummed out because when I looked at the profiles almost everyone had a full head of grey hair and my old meet up was mostly in the 22-35 age range. Everyone was very nice to me and I spoke with a bunch of different people and levels. Most were retired and had always wanted to learn Spanish. There was a Spaniard, a Cubana, a Mexican, and the rest were americans. The good thing about this group is that they meet just about every week and they have some meetings at the members’ houses. I’m thinking that they will become my first clients when I get the computer business up and running out here. An 86 year old friend of mine died while I was in Mexico. I got the news in an email while in the office. It was a strange feeling. I just was hanging out with him on the 16th of August. I kinda feel that our friendship over the last 4 years kept him alive for as long as he made it. I was only gone a week and he passed away. I used to record our conversations and I was listening to my final one. It was very eery how it ended. " So Herm, will I be seeing you again soon?" " Nah man, this is it... This is it for a long time." I didn't realize how true those words were. Life is short. Do what you want to do with the little time you have on this planet. See ya Edited by HermonMunster on 28 August 2014 at 7:40am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4041 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 132 of 154 29 August 2014 at 1:40am | IP Logged |
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Welcome to Arizona!
Congratulations with all your success (in your job and with Spanish)! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4423 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 133 of 154 07 September 2014 at 10:02am | IP Logged |
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Hey everybody,
I was just sitting outside looking at the moon and thinking, "Everyone who has ever lived looked and this and wondered." Sometimes it's the little things in life that blow you away. El Espanol is going great. Long story short I had to visit a customer who was inquiring about a our union contract in Mexico that is set to expire at the end of the year. I received a document from the plant but it didn't contain any information about the contingency plan if there was a strike. At the 11th hour I got an email with the plan but it was all in Spanish. I would have been F@##@#ed if I didn't know Spanish. I was able to translate the document with relative ease and was soooooo happy that I had started studying Spanish a while ago. It's really paying dividends. Being able to translate saved me a lot of face at the customer. Yay me! lol I'll be going back to Mexico next week for work. I'm excited about the opportunity to spend a lot of time (8hrs in the car there and back) with the CEO. My goal is just to build confidence. Who know when this will pay off, but I want to be in the front of his mind when opportunities arrive. I was on a plane and picked up the sky-mall magazine because I was bored. It blew my mind to see that it's in English and Spanish. If you live in the states and aren't learning Spansih... you are doing yourself a huge disservice! Thanks for the welcome Lorren. I'm having fun. My old buddy passing away really made me reflect on life and I'm happy to say that I'm doing what I want to do at the moment. Off to bed. cya! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5165 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 134 of 154 07 September 2014 at 1:34pm | IP Logged |
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yes, you need to live your life the way you want to. It sounds like you do a really good job doing that and appreciating the little things.
Knowing Spanish in the US seems to me like a way to have more opportunities... it is like giving yourself a path with many more route options along the way... or a room with many more doors to walk out of. It gives you opportunities that other people simply don't understand are even available. One thing I teach my son is that there are ways in life to "make yourself lucky." People often look at successful people and say "Bob is doing well... he was lucky to choose his computer engineering major in college" or "James's business is growing... he really got lucky with that risk he took" or "Nobody knew Herm's old friend was a secret millionaire... Herm really got lucky to have befriended him." If you always try to do the right thing... work hard... do quality work... be nice to people... respectful even to those who are not respectful... be a pleasant person to be around... etc, etc it is funny how "luck will find you." The best part of it is that "doing the right thing" is usually quite enjoyable and more pleasurable than the alternative. So, when you do the right thing and luck does not find you it's still ok. Luck does not always find you when you are a good person... but it is always a good idea to maximize the odds. When you get promoted or find a great job that has Spanish as a requirement people are going to think "Herm got really lucky he studied Spanish..." ha! And if for some reason it doesn't do anything for you... think of all the fun you are having along the journey of your studies! 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4423 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 135 of 154 07 September 2014 at 7:42pm | IP Logged |
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Well said James. I can't remember who originated it, but there's a quote I like, " it's amazing how lucky I am when I'm prepared." Sounds like you're a good dad and setting up your son to prosper in this world.
Studying Spanish has enriched my life so much. It's great to see everything coming together. Going to meetups is expanding my social network and finding me more clients for my business. It's such an easy sell because I already have something in common with them and I can casually mention my business and almost every time the person I'm talking to has a computer in disrepair or their friend does. It's pretty interesting to see the country changing before our eyes. I'm amazed how most people haven't put 2 and 2 together and thought, " Man, more and more stuff is being written in English and Spanish, I should try to learn something." (I've seen billboards that are only in Spanish) Speaking of learning... I met a nice couple at and alumni football watch party last night. We were talking about a large range of topics and somehow learning Spanish came up. The boyfriend said he wanted to start learning but didn't have the $500 for Rosetta Stone. I about spit my drink out. The folks at RS really have people brainwashed into thinking that they are the only way. I tried to set him straight and let him know what worked for me. Sometimes I'm taken aback at the lack of go-get-itivesness (lol @ my made up word) in some people. Edited by HermonMunster on 07 September 2014 at 7:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4423 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 136 of 154 10 September 2014 at 8:34am | IP Logged |
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Hello from Mexico,
It's late so this will be brief. My hard work paid off. I was at dinner with the plant manager and I was talking about how I will attend the English class tomorrow. He said, " I've heard someone was going to the English classes.” I replied, “ it's me!” Operation increase my profile in the plant is was successful. I'm the only American it the 15 years my company has been in the states to ever try something like this. Now people in the plant are asking me, “ do you want to talk in English or Spanish?” How cool is that?!? I still have a long way to go , but it's awesome to have a plan, execute it, and have it work out just the way you wanted. I have more to write but i'm sleepy. Cya, Herm In other news, the old cleaning lady is giving me the "I want you," eyes again. It's all good though, when I'm an old man and if I stared a lil too hard or long at a young lady I'd hope she'd have compassion. Edited by HermonMunster on 10 September 2014 at 8:40am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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