Blog Number 234

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well I have finally done it.  I have ordered some software that will help me (and my family) learn Spanish.  Ever since travelling to Argentina this year (actually right about when I learned that I would be heading to Argentina) I had decided in my mind that I would learn some Spanish.  There are cheap software titles that you can get at any computer store (I saw one for only $10 at Staples the other day) but I had my heart set on Rosetta Stone.  I have heard great things about it and have been to the booth at the most recent home school convention here near Dallas.  I had done the research during the spring and summer and had to put off the purchase month after month as it did not fit into my budget.  Today though I made the order and am looking forward to starting.

Everyone that I have dealt with thus far in Argentina (and recently Mexico) has spoke English very well but soon I will be working on a project where some users only speak Spanish (and Portuguese - which I have no interest in learning).  So, a little Spanish might come in handy.  I actually took 2 years of French in high school and 2 more years in college.  I won't go into the details of why I cannot speak any French but it has to do with the fact that my college professor showed up drunk to class a few times and actually took an entire class once to tell (in vivid detail) how he lost his virginity to a Mexican prostitute.  He even told the story in English (not that the same story in French would have constituted a lesson but I would have been a little more lenient).  At any rate, I cannot speak French or any other language other than my native tongue.  Hopefully that will change soon.  There are a few people in my local office that speak Spanish very well too so I should be able to get some feedback about my progress.

Another thing I have wanted to do for a long time is to learn to play the guitar.  My mother even bought me a guitar once but other than checking out a self teaching video from the library I have no guitar skills.  I did learn how to tune the guitar and I might still be able to do that if I needed to however since I do not even know the simplest of chords I doubt if I could tell if the guitar was tuned properly.  Maybe after a few months of practicing Spanish I might attempt the guitar again.  But it would need to be a spanish guitar I think.  I wonder if tuning a spanish guitar is different (man I hope not, if so I would truly have to start over).

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon