Bonjhola

EP 45 - Aimee Passes Spanish B1, Crazy European Payment Systems, and How to Use Your Phone to Boost Language Acquisition

• Rebecca West

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Welcome to Bonjola, a podcast about two women, Amy and Rebecca, who each moved from the United States to Europe to become expats, Amy to Spain and Rebecca to France. We're here to share the highs, the lows, and the logistics of this adventure, encourage you to follow your own move abroad dreams, and remind you that you're not alone when the going gets tough. Enjoy.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Bonjola, Amy. I hear that we have something huge to celebrate, which is that you passed your Spanish test.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

took me all summer to learn this information, um, because I couldn't access the website because the password that they had me create, as soon as I created it, it didn't work. And that's because that is how Spanish websites work.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

So you passed quite a while ago. You just didn't know.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Correct. Correct. As of this recording, I have passed, I've been, I've been at, what was the word that they used, I have matriculated

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

See?

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

into level B2, so upper intermediate Spanish, but I had no idea. So I, when we came back from the United States in July, The first thing I did as soon as, you know, I had the wherewithal to think about it, which was probably only three or four days after we landed is I went down to the school because I still don't like to make phone calls. And talk to people in Spanish on the phone. It's like hell. So I walked down to the school to figure out, you know, did I actually pass this class? And I knew I needed to do it because they would totally be closed the month of August. Cause everything is closed in August. I arrive at the school, the school is closed because the school closes in July sometime. And. They're closed for six, eight, I don't know, they're closed for a bloody long time. So I was like, well, crap, I can't get into the website. I can't access the school. Alrighty then. okay. So, but I had received an email that said something to the effect of, if you want to access your certificate, upload your, passport information and email it to us. And I was like, that seems to suggest that perhaps I have passed. So I did that, but there was no response, probably because they sent that as they were shutting down for the summer. And, so I've, you know, kind of been in this limbo thinking, well, maybe I actually did pass, but I still don't really know for sure. And I can't sign up because I don't know what class I'm signing up for until September 2nd. So yesterday I went down to the school with my son in tow and he was so sweet because he acted as my translator, which was great. Yeah, it was really wonderful and was also a second ear to listen to them speaking Spanish at me. So, you know, he, he got to, he got to help out with that, which was really great. But, uh, I walked into the school and, figured out where I needed to go to look at the proof that I had passed. It was like, I can't get into the website. My password doesn't work. I need to see if I passed so I can register for, you know, classes. And, and she, she had said something like, Oh, you're a special case. And so she moved me like to the front of the lines, like you get to go into this office here. and so I had to wait. So, but I was at the front of the line of waiting to get into this office. She's like, you just want to look at it. It was like, yeah, I just, I need to know what's going on here. We, so we step in when it's finally our turn to be seen, but the, while we But while we were waiting in line, my Spanish teacher walks by. And I'm like, Hey, Paco. And he's like, Oh, Hey, how are you? And I'm like, good. I'm here to find out whether or not I passed. And he, and this was all happening in Spanish. Right. And he's like, you don't know whether you passed. And I was like, no, I couldn't access the website. My password didn't work. And he's like, you, so you haven't known all summer. I was like, no. And he's like, why didn't you message me? And I was like, oh, I didn't even think about that as a possibility, but I was so flummoxed by my own complete lack of that being a possible solution to this problem months ago that I couldn't, I kind of was like stumbling over my words and he was like, ah, you were a little afraid, weren't you? And I was like, oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's, there was that element too, especially in, in June. It was like, I don't even want to know, but I, yeah, that's funny that I didn't even think to reach out to him and be like, Hey, what's, can you give me the status on this? So, by the time it was, I was ready to go in and officially look at the, uh, at the sort of pass fail, results, she had put it, pulled it up on the computer. She found me. She's like, here. And she turned around her computer screen. So I could see it. It was in Catalan. So I couldn't even tell you what like the actual word was, but I didn't, I looked at it. Like, I didn't know what even. That means, but she's like, you're, you're good. You're good. It was like, excellent. And then I said, how do I register for the next class? And she's like, oh, you want to register for B2? And I was like, yeah, but, I know that we can't pay for that here. You have to go to the bank. And she's like, no, no, if you have a card, you can totally pay for it here. That was not what we were told last year.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

rules do seem to change sometimes, especially as our language skills improve, it also seems like the rules start to change.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

yeah, that's an interesting point I hadn't thought about, but maybe that has something to do with it. Because last year it was this whole rigamarole of, I had to show up with my passport to register for the class and then they printed out these receipts with barcodes and you have to take the receipts to a specific bank. They had multiple locations, but it was a specific bank and then go to the ATM and scan the barcode because the ATM had these barcode readers. To be able to pay for your class and that was a huge problem because I'd forgotten the pin for our Spanish bank account and so I accidentally locked us out of being able to use that to pay and they wouldn't accept my American credit cards. So I had to go to my bank, get my pin reset at the bank, and then try that whole thing again on a different day to be able to go to class, which had at that point already started. It was this whole huge deal. So I went to school yesterday with the intention of just finding out. Did I pass or did I not pass? And what is my next step? And here this woman is telling me, oh no, we can register and sign you up and you can pay for it right now. And I'm like, what world am I living in? This cannot be Spain. This is too efficient for Spain. But sure enough, she just pulled this up. She got up out of her desk chair and motioned for me to sit down at her computer, whip out my credit card, put it into the computer. And, uh, and then she let me print out the receipts showing that I had paid and informed me when classes were going to start. That was not actually written on any of the paperwork that I received when my next class is, but I have the receipts. I'm all registered. And good to go. Super exciting. One thing that is really interesting though, moving forward this year, is how much more rigorous the class will be than last year. So for beginners, for A level Spanish, classes

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Well, wait, let's actually pause for a second. So I think it's the same in Spanish and in French, but there's basically three levels, A, B, and C, and each one is broken into two levels, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. And we've been told that like C1, C2, that's like college level, incredibly grammatical, really all we all need is like B2 level fluency, pretty accurate to what you're finding in Spanish.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

I don't know, uh, the school that I'm going to only goes to C1. So when you finish C1, they don't have additional classes for you. my intention is to go that far because I think as I've said before, ultimately what I want to do is be able to read research papers in Spanish and the classic literature of Latin American authors, you know, Just the basics.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

So how do you know that B2 is going to be so much more rigorous? How did you get that information?

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

So the schedule for B1 last year was classes two days a week for two hours. And halfway through the year, I found out that B2 is actually two separate classes. There's B2. 1 and B2. 2. I'm not sure, I mean, based on kind of what I was overhearing last year, I think B2. 1 goes through January or February and then you can start B2. 2. But B2. 1 is four days a week. For 2 hours a day,

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Oh, wow.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

so it's double the amount of classroom time, which I'm actually really excited about because 1 of the things that's been challenging for me is to have the consistency and exposure and practice for enough time for it to really. sink in my brain the way that I had expected it to when I arrived. And the A level classes are also about that rigorous four or five days a week, two hours a day. So I thought, you know, I thought last year, that's what I was signing up for. Now I'm a year And a couple months into Spain, my client load is doing really well right now. I've got a fair amount of clients. we've got two podcasts, each of us that we're also doing on the side. Some of my episodes require quite a bit of,, digging into the literature, you know, the research. And now I'm adding eight hours a week of Spanish classes to this load. So it will require a lot of navigation. And, you know, now that I say that, that Out loud, I'm expecting maybe I don't want to do any travel for October, November, December, you know, maybe I want to keep it low key and figure out how I'm going to adjust to this, to the intensity of this period of time, but I'm still very pleased overall that

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

feel so proud.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Yeah, I feel good about that. I feel good about the whole thing. And, and really, just as much as I'm excited about passing, in a way, I'm more excited about how easy it was for me to sign up.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

It feels like you've leveled up in your Spanish experience in more ways than one, more, more than just the language.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

No, because, I mean, just, just, societally here, things don't go that smoothly. I don't know what happened to make registering for class be, Something I could accomplish, you know, to find out whether I passed and be able to register and pay and get the receipts proving I had registered for all of that to happen in, in an hour and a half or less, rather than four days is really, it feels like I stepped into an alternate universe. Where Spain was being run by Germans, you know, like Germany won in World War II.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

And the only thing out of that was efficiency.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

efficiency, exactly, but, um, it was just so wonderful,

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

The reason I'm like, but I feel like you should get some credit for this because I acknowledge that getting something done in one trip is unheard of and bizarre, but I mean, obviously can happen, but also feel like you should get some credit for this. When Damien and I went out to dinner last night to just a little noodle restaurant, we handled the whole thing in French and I literally sat there and I said, we, and it was just, fundamental ordering, asking for things, clarifying what we were asking for, you know, but we could not have done that six months ago. Now, Damien first looks at me, he's like, yeah, but that seems stupid. We should have been able to do that six months ago. Well, you can't, we all start out as toddlers and one day you wake up and you go, I just. I did that and it wasn't hard. And it doesn't mean tomorrow won't be bananas hard again, but you do get these wonderful little moments where you're like, I did it, I did it. And it wasn't hard for a second. And I think those moments should be really celebrated beyond the accomplishment and just really like soak in the moment of it too,

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Okay.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

or not.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

No, I, I, um, I, there was, there was a shift that happened several weeks ago. I noticed that it, it was feeling easier to recall words and verbs. That I know I would have struggled with earlier in the summer. Something happened. Something happened not when I was frantically focusing on my Spanish. But when I was doing other things where what I had been desperately clinging to earlier in the year, suddenly settled in and started germinating, right? So, and I would doubt myself and then. Go to Google Translate and sure enough, it's like, Oh, that was the correct conjugation of that verb. Hey, look at you go. So I guess I've, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've had little moments of that, of feeling like, okay, you, this is working, your brain is not actually made of Teflon. You do not have early onset dementia. It's just very different this time than it was when you were taking Spanish classes. In high school and college. So, and yeah, I suppose that I suppose that the conversations that I had with staff yesterday definitely would have reflected that better ease and integration of the language. Certainly from where I was a year ago, the first time I tried to sign up for class. Absolutely. But I, I guess it's hard for me. I've been, I've been slowly accepting and acclimating to that leveling up of my language skills, whereas something as efficiency, trying to get something done by an institution in Spain still just doesn't work. Knocks me flat on my rear

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Sure. I mean, there's still the bureaucracy aspect that,

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Yeah, and when that goes well, you're like, where am I? This is amazing Can we have this more often please and the answer is no take the win take the win when you get it Celebrate it enjoy it, but don't come to expect

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

yeah, definitely don't come to expect it. It's like AC, it is a unicorn. Um, but you know what, what your conversation made me think about was just payments in general. Some things have changed since our last, not even that long ago visits here in terms of like taxis went from the airport. They used to say, Oh yeah, we'll take card. But then they would totally, Kind of scam you into going and getting cash. Cause they really want to be paid in cash. I'm not seeing the cash requirement the same way I used to. I think it's partly COVID touchless systems. I think it's partly the Olympic games and just having to accommodate so much international. but I also noticed there's still differences from the States, like my Spanish and my Spanish. I'm not learning Spanish, my French tutor, and this videographer that I just hired to go to the interior design home fair, Maison Objet, that's next week. They don't. Like invoice me or use PayPal or Square or Stripe or all of the small business systems that I've come to know, they give you their bank account number called an IBAN,

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Yeah,

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

and then you do a bank transfer to pay these people. Totally not something that I've ever experienced outside of maybe doing like an investment wire transfer in the United States. Sounds like you were from something similar.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

it's so common here and the first time it was when I was getting health insurance and the guy asked me for my bank account number. And I was like, the hell you're going to ask me for that. Can we just do this through wise? Cause that's sketchy AF, but no people Pat, like I was just part of a, a text thread for, for a bunch of parents collaborating on a birthday gift for, one of Oliver's friends and. She was just like, yeah, if you don't have Bazoom, which is basically the Spain's equivalent of PayPal

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Zoo. BZ.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Bazoom,

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Like

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

B I Z U M, Bazoom, it's, um, yeah, it's, what is the other one that we use in the States now?

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

got Venmo and Zelle. Are the two brands.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Venmo. Yeah. It's basically Venmo for Spain more than it is PayPal. But if you don't have Bazoom, here's my bank account number. It's on WhatsApp, right? However secure WhatsApp is, uh, yeah,

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

I just found out they absorbed WhatsApp too. I didn't realize that.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

they did that several years ago. Yeah, right around the time Instagram got macrophaged.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Oh, I, yeah, cause I was well aware of Instagram doing it. It is sort of like living in a slightly alternate reality. the videographer that I hired, I found him on Fiverr, but he ended up, going outside the system for our actual agreement. And I was asking him about that and he's like, well, I'm really, I have a lot of reviews on, I think he said, Mon, which I think is meant. Because I'm pretty sure there is a French system, like Fiverr, called Mint. Not to be confused with Mint Money and a bunch of things that we know in the United States. So, they have, like, all the same systems. But they're all just a little bit different. So like, again, as we keep saying, everything takes like this recon and even knowing what questions to ask, like, how would you know to go look for an alternate app for finding a video? Like, you know, who's going to go down that rabbit hole anyway, but for those of us looking for that, you don't even know what to ask. It's so interesting that the layers of the onion that we keep peeling back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Yes. Yes. And there's so many things that we still yet don't know here

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Yeah.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

about what it means to live as the French do or as the Spaniards do.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Truly. And then, of course, that doesn't even go to the basic. Underpinnings of the culture. I was working on some Instagram thing on smiling and what I don't, I haven't fact checked it yet with my French friends, but they said for a French, for the French, a smile is the highest form of acceptance you can give somebody. And he's like, I'm not just going to give my smile to you. I don't know you, you haven't earned my smile. And it was such an interesting flip of a lens. Cause. For me, a smile is almost like social grease. It's a way of, of saying, I'm friendly. I'm not a threat. We can engage with each other. And I'm not promising anything to somebody through my smile. So to have something as simple as a smile, have such a different cultural lens, just is a tiny sneak peek into how much we don't know about what it means to be of the country that we're now trying to be part of.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Yeah. Wow. That is a really different take on a smile.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Which is why everybody will never, uh, confuse me for a French person, because I just wander around with a big old dumb smile on my face constantly.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

They probably think all, like, they'll probably, it's because you're probably, you're smiling and be like, Oh, she's an American.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Yeah. Yeah. We do everything big. It is the

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

That's true. It's

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

I am so excited for you. I know that you went through some dark times with us on this podcast, facing your language challenges.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

It got dramatic. Um, I, it, it was dramatic for sure. And how much, you know, how much of that was like exacerbated by simply everything else that's going on as. someone new in a foreign country trying to adapt, right? I don't know to what degree that accentuated what I was feeling. but I do feel there's a lot that I do feel a little bit more grace about overall that I was not feeling this time last year.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Yeah. Yeah. You know, it is. There's a difference between how you guys and Damien and I took on the start and for us taking our three month trip here for just language immersion. It really did separate all of the how do I do daily life frustrations from how do I ask where the toilets are frustrations. And you guys really did all of that at the same time. In addition to the pressure that you put upon yourself because your background is a Spanish speaking background. And so you have a lot of self doubt or self judgment about that.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Yeah. Yeah.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Yeah. But you did it!

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

But I did it. I'm doing it.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Have you written a letter to yourself?

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

I'm not reading Gabriel, Garcia Marquez yet. So I'm doing it. I haven't done it,

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Fair.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

but I acknowledge, I am reading, I am reading Roald Dahl, Las Brujas. So I am reading in Spanish, just not advanced literature.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

But you also really wanted to be able to communicate with your family and write them letters. How do you feel you're doing on that goal?

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Uh, the communication is getting better actually, with, with family. Like I do have an aunt that I'm in communication with through WhatsApp. Um, a bit more well, quite a lot more frequently since we went up to Alaska, I've been in communication with her back and forth on some things and that's gone. That's gone. Well, I usually have to listen to her voice messages. And this is 1 thing too. That's very different in Europe. At least in Spain and in Mexico, people can use WhatsApp for sending audio messages just as much, if not more often, than texting. It is more a voice memo app, back and forth to people, than it is a WhatsApp. You know, like you would use messenger on your

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Wow. I've gotten a few, but it hasn't been a really common thing, but that might just be because I'm not, like, nobody, people know better than to send me something in French. That's really interesting. So, great opportunity for you to practice language comprehension.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. At least from my aunt. I mean, everybody that I'm in communication with here via WhatsApp is using it predominantly as a text, sometimes with a little voice thrown in, but predominantly text usually because I think it's mainly because there's Catalan speakers and Spanish speakers. So, uh, text is probably just easier. And I, most of it is expats.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Yeah, and with a text, the nice thing is you can copy it, paste it into the translator, figure out what they were really saying, write your own message, re translate it, and copy and paste it back in

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Exactly.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

out there. The other thing, um, is, oh shoot, I just lost my train of thought. God, I hate when I do that. 47 year old brain moment. Oh, the other thing that I have found enormously helpful is I downloaded the French language onto my phone and so I can switch between keyboards and it's not It's not that the keyboard has changed, but it will help my spelling in the other language. So I am not a great speller in French yet. And when you text, you're just trying to get your message out. You're not trying to write a novel. And so just changing that feature, because I know the word I'm looking for. I know approximately the tense it's supposed to be in. And so all of that predictive text stuff that our friends have been doing for us all these years, In a new language has been fantastic. Yeah.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

realize, I didn't even think about that. I did not even think that my phone would do that when I had switched my phone from English to Spanish. I did that, um, several months ago in an attempt to just expose myself. More consistently to more words, because I'm, you know, often looking at my phone. And it really helped a lot in that regard. But then when I started messaging, I was like, Oh my gosh, predictive text. Yes. And it was such a win. And that also has been helpful for adding in additional vocabulary.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

And now I'm to the point with my language where I will actually type it the way I think it's supposed to be. And then I'll go back and use that translate system just to be like, did I say what I intended to? So that's really helpful. So, I mean, we're just so lucky to live now. There's so many tools literally at our fingertips and Damien, he switched over his, all his video games. To French. And so again, you start getting these random vocabulary words and he will pick, he will just say random words when, when we need them. How did you know that word? And it's because he was killing zombies with a frying pan or I don't even know what, you know, but it's amazing. These tiny little tweaks that don't take a lot of heavy lifting from your brain. really do add up over time.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

they do. One of the other ways I've been easing myself into the immersion is watching shows that I already know well. In Spanish with Spanish subtitles, whereas previously I'd been trying to watch new things in Spanish and that just felt really difficult and, and hard on my brain. So when I, you know, found Las Brujas. I made the correlation that, oh, I can also do this with television shows. I can also do this with series that I know so well that I don't have to think about the plot or the gist of what's going on. I can focus on the vocabulary instead. And that's also been really helpful. And so I'm enjoying that a lot more that I am listening to podcasts in Spanish, which is what I'd been trying to do before, but required a lot of focus and I didn't feel I was. getting a lot of content and ended up spending, you know, listening to it two or three times to understand what was happening. But I don't have to do that with, um, you know, with a television series that I know very well. And that's been super helpful also.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

I mean, I love that. I, I find it a little tricky because I don't like hearing the same story twice. My brain gets bored. But similarly, I signed up for a couple of newsletters in my industry. So specifically they were, they were marketing newsletters. Partly because I, I did it because I wanted to learn the vocabulary, but it had a similar effect. I'm like, I know what he's talking about. I know how to use Instagram well. So now I'm reading about these techniques that I already know, but in the other language. It solves the boredom problem that I get because I'm like, I know exactly what's going to happen at the end of this episode of friends. I don't care, whatever. But it is about experimenting too, because everybody's learning methods are different. Everybody's attention spans are different. And everybody's way of learning, the kinetic, audio, visual, all of that, that affects us in our normal language, affects us in our new language too.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Exactly. Yeah.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Well, I hope that we gave some people some new tools and some new ideas for them to conquer their own language goals this time.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Me too. Me too.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Anything you want to leave everybody with?

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

It gets better, folks. It gets better.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

Yeah, that about sums it up. We don't promise to not be crying next episode, however, because it feels a bit of a rollercoaster.

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Maybe after all, you have to find your new boulangerie and that may leave you in tears.

squadcaster-ahj6_2_09-03-2024_141739:

I know, I miss our, I miss our old baguettes. I, I am now definitely a baguette snob, so I'll keep you posted. Well, until next time, a bientot!

aimee_3_09-03-2024_051740:

Hasta luego.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Bonjola. If you did, the best thing you can do is share it with another person brave enough to move abroad. See you next time!