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Why Everyone’s Suddenly Asking Me About Spanish

Okay so honestly I’m writing this because my phone literally hasn’t stopped buzzing all week. Like literally. My cousin Priya texted me yesterday asking about the Spanish language course online with certificate I’m taking. The day before that, my friend Arun called me. Like called me on the phone asking about it. Not a text, an actual call. Meanwhile, my wife’s coworker apparently mentioned to my wife that she heard I was taking a Spanish language course online with certificate and now she wants recommendations. Even my mom asked me about it because, apparently, she mentioned to her friend that I’m doing this course and the friend’s daughter wants to know which Spanish language course online with certificate I chose.

I was sitting at home having breakfast last Sunday and my wife just goes “Just write something. Write down that you did the course so people can read it instead of calling you every single day.” She was annoyed honestly. I don’t blame her. Basically, our home phone was ringing constantly.

How This All Started With A Netflix Show

Seven months ago on a random Sunday, I was doing absolutely nothing. Just sitting on the couch. My wife was watching something on Netflix. In Spanish, I think. Or maybe it was like a show from Spain? I don’t even remember the name. Some drama. I wasn’t really paying attention at first.

But then, something happened where I started actually listening to what was happening on screen. Getting interested made me want to know what was going on, but I couldn’t understand because it was all in Spanish and the subtitles were tiny. I kept asking my wife “What did they just say?” every two minutes. She got annoyed obviously.

“Just learn Spanish if you wanna watch it,” she told me.

And I was like, okay, you know what, maybe I actually will try that. Just casually. Not super seriously. Just a fun thing to do. So the next day, I downloaded Duolingo.

Duolingo Was A Complete Disaster

I opened it and started doing lessons. The first day felt cute. There were these little games and you’re learning words. I did like five, six lessons and was feeling good about myself.

However, day two arrived and it felt annoying already. The lessons were way too short. Like, you’d do one lesson and learn one word and that’s it. And there were so many ads. Plus, the mascot character was driving me absolutely nuts. It was trying way too hard to be funny.

Day three I opened the app and did like two lessons. That was it. Already bored out of my mind. Essentially, nothing made sense. I was just memorizing random Spanish words that had nothing to do with each other. Like “the cat,” “the fork,” “the house.” What am I supposed to do with this? Couldn’t say a sentence to save my life.

This went on for like two, three weeks. Opening it daily, doing a couple lessons, then closing it. My wife would catch me and just roll her eyes. She wasn’t saying anything, but I could tell she thought it was useless.

After about twenty days, I just stopped opening the app entirely. Don’t even remember when exactly. One day I realized I hadn’t opened it in a week and was like okay forget this.

Raj’s Wife Changed Everything

Three weeks after quitting Duolingo, I was at work complaining to my coworker Raj. “Everything is either too easy and stupid or too hard and confusing,” I told him. “There’s no middle ground.”

Raj perked up. “My wife did this course. It was actually good. She actually speaks Spanish now.”

I asked “Oh yeah? Where?”

“Some Berlin place? Berlin Institute or something? My wife kept talking about the teacher Maria. She was really good apparently.”

Maria? Teaching Spanish at a Berlin institute? That sounded weird but interesting. I didn’t think much about it immediately. However, that evening I was like okay let me just Google this and see what comes up.

Finding https://berliners-institute.com/spanish-language-courses/ was eye opening. It was a real thing. They had actual course listings. Different courses for different levels. I was scrolling through and I saw the beginner course. Twelve weeks. Three times a week. Live classes with a teacher. Certificate at the end.

Reading through it, I was like okay this actually looks real. This isn’t some app. This is like actual instruction from an actual person. Showing it to my wife during dinner was the test. “Look this is what Raj’s wife did,” I said.

My wife was skeptical. “Okay so are you actually gonna do this or are you gonna do Duolingo part two?”

“No I’m serious this time,” I replied.

“We’ll see,” she said. Clearly, she didn’t believe me, but that was fair.

Paying And Freaking Out Before Class One

I went to the website and registered. They had different payment options. Monthly or upfront. I decided to pay the whole thing at once because if I paid it all I’d actually do it. It was like 15000 rupees or something. Maybe a bit less. I honestly don’t remember the exact amount anymore.

Getting the confirmation email hit different. My login credentials were in there and my first class was Tuesday at 7 PM. I wrote it down immediately. Telling my wife “Tuesday 7 PM I have class” felt official somehow. She was like “Okay don’t forget.”

Night before the first class, I was actually nervous. Proper nervous. What if everyone in the class already speaks Spanish? What if I’m the slowest person? What if the teacher is really strict and makes me feel stupid? These thoughts wouldn’t leave my head.