Never Retire: I Need To Loosen Up And Not Worry About Making Mistakes
A lesson about taking pictures in Spanish markets, learning a new language and settling into a foreign country
The other day in the newsletter, I wrote something that my Spanish instructor read and mentioned during our lesson. Before we get to that, I must say that if you’re looking to learn or increase your level of Spanish, I strongly recommend that you check out Jordi on the Preply platform. That’s a link to his profile and this is my referral link, which will get you a discount when you sign up.
Jordi is Catalan. He lives in Cataluña, not far from Barcelona. And, for the last eight years, he has traveled extensively throughout South America, Europe and Asia. He’s an interesting guy, who also speaks good English (though he will make you speak Spanish 99.8% of the time), and instantly makes you feel comfortable. Once you get to know him, he will give you a gentle kick in the ass or two.
And—honestly—I need a little kick in the ass or two when it comes to the language. The other night—walking home from a jazz show that some people we met the other day invited us to—my wife and the wife of another (Spanish-speaking, German) guy were having an extensive conversation in Spanish. A conversation I understood maybe just half of—tops.
By the time I found a space where I could jump in with something constructive—constructive, as in the equivalent of a fourth grader raising their hand to ask a question in history class—they had moved on. It felt isolating and made me understand why so many people who move abroad gravitate towards people who speak their native tongue.
It also made me think that I should reconsider a language exchange with a native Spanish speaker who wants to learn English. We’ll see. We haven’t even been here two weeks. And I tend to expect too much from myself, too fast (←preview).
I did my best to follow what they were saying as I enjoyed how beautiful Valencia is at one in the morning. Calm and quiet alongside people standing outside of and walking home from recently closed and the bars that remained open. For the record, they were already out literally washing the streets at that hour.
Anyway, I wrote what follows prior to writing the last four paragraphs. And it certainly ties together.
For example—
Jordi asked about this excerpt that appeared in the newsletter the other day—
All of this said, we all have an obligation to be mindful of where we are, why we’re there and how we handle ourselves in the process. Originally, I had planned to make this post about our trip to Valencia’s Central Market.
However, as we walked through the market I just didn’t think it was appropriate to take a whole bunch of pictures of the market activity and stalls. This happens to me nearly every time I plan to take pictures in a place like that. I either take none or very few.
It feels invasive and like a bit much given the number of “content creators” who come through these places contributing very little as they take the same image and make the same video over and over and over again.
Do you really need to see another picture that features a row of out-sized bell peppers?
The way he positioned his thoughts made me think twice about this particular stance.