Articles by mgedwards

iPod plunge

Dear Reader, this weekend my wife and I succumbed to the latest fad when we broke down and bought an iPod.  I know what you’re probably thinking, What took them so long?  I know, I know.  I’m probably the last American technophile who doesn’t work at Microsoft and had never used an iPod.  That’s right, I’d never used an iPod, let alone bought one.  If you’re my cousin Wade, a Microsoft loyalist, then you’re actually wondering why I didn’t buy a Zune, Microsoft’s rival product.  The main reason we didn’t invest in a Zune is that it’s a new product and doesn’t the clout that Apple has in the music download market.  iTunes.com and its $.99 downloads actually sealed the deal, not the iPod itself.  Zune will probably be successful in its own way, but much like the ongoing game consule wars between Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation (a war that Nintendo’s Wii is actually winning), it will be difficult for Microsoft’s Zune to unseat the iPod. 
 
We held out buying an iPod for the past few years.  I didn’t want to buy into all the hype surrounding this little unit that looks like a personal digital assistant (PDA) that only does one thing well.  I have a PDA that runs Microsoft’s PocketPC operating system, and I find it indispensible.  Like the iPod, my PDA also stores music and video.  However, it lacks sufficient memory to store more than a few dozen songs or one hundred photos.  It is well nigh impossible to store long video clips.  Memory sticks enhance the PDA’s storage capacity, but it cannot come close to the storage capacity of an iPod.  We bought one of those black 80 gigabyte video iPods and a TEAC iPod/CD player/speaker system. 
 
So far I have a positive impresson of the iPod.  It’s a pretty slick system.  My wife is already hooked and wants one of her own.  The iPod finally allows us to consolidate all of our music (including CDs) as befits our mobile lifestyle.  Instead of carrying dozens of CDs in cases, we can transfer the songs to the iPod and take them in one unit.  I’ve never owned an Apple product and stopped using Macintosh computers in college, but I realize now why so many people rave about Apple’s product designs.  The end-to-end configuration of the iPod, from synching with one’s computer to downloading songs, is fairly seamless and easy to use.  I’m very impressed…so far. 

Juggling language studies

Dear Reader, I’ve been busy wrapping up my Spanish course.  My class ends in two weeks.  I’m feeling good about my progress and am increasingly confident that I will pass my final exam.  I won’t know for certain until I take the exam during last weekend in May.  Wish me luck.
 
In June, before I leave for Paraguay, I will retest in French and German to increase my scores.  Although I have studied neither language in the past decade, I’ve learned the tools and techniques needed to increase my scores at this language school.  If I can pass a certain threshhold in both of those languages, then I will qualify for short courses in those language and additional assignments at posts that require those languages.  "World" languages such as Spanish, French, and German are spoken at multiple locations in many countries.  Other, more difficult languages such as Arabic, Chinese, and Russian are also useful languages from the perspective that they give candidates additional job opportunities. 
 
Next year I will enroll in the online Spanish-to-Portuguese conversion course in order to learn rudimentary Brazilian Portuguese.  Portuguese is spoken in eastern Paraguay, and it is also related to Spanish.  Learning Portuguese would allow me to pursue assignments in the six countries where Portuguese is the primary language.  (Here’s a quiz, Dear Reader.  Can you name all six nations where Portuguese is an official language?  Here’s a hint–Brazil is one of those countries.  The answer* is listed at the end of this post.)  Although I’ve heard that it’s more difficult to convert from Spanish to Portuguese than vice versa, converting my Spanish knowledge to Portuguese will be much easier than learning Korean after studying Chinese.  I’m happy that my Spanish has improved to proficiency, because Portuguese would be yet another language I speak and read poorly.  My Chinese, Korean, German, and French are all at the beginner-to-intermediate level.
 
Perhaps the most fulfilling aspect of studying Spanish is that it has revived my confidence that I can successfully study a foreign language.  After ten years of exclusively studying Asians, I found myself increasingly frustrated at language learning.  For western speakers, Asian languages can make you feel stupid.  I recall several times during my Korean language study when I felt like an idiot.  I’m frustrated a bit now by Spanish verb tenses, but the feeling is very mild compared to what I went through studying Chinese and Korean.
 
* The six nations where Portuguese is an official language are Portugal, Brazil, Angola, East Timor, Mozambique, and Sao Tome & Principe.

Paraguayan Independence Day celebration

Happy Paraguayan Independence Day!  On this day in 1811, Paraguay became an independent nation, the first in the New World after the United States (even earlier than Haiti).  The Spanish actually withdrew on May 14th, but Paraguay celebrates its independence on May 15th.  Last night my wife and I went to the Organization of American States (OAS) building near the White House and attended the independence day celebration in the grand ballroom.  It’s a gorgeous building with an ornate interior.  Guitarrist Dani Cortaza gave a wonderful performance, and the reception immediately following featured a Paraguayan buffet.  The evening was balmy, and we enjoyed the opportunity to break away from home for a change.  My mother is in town now, and she watched our son for the evening.  Although life has been hectic lately (hence, I haven’t been blogging), last night was a nice diversion from the frenetic pace of life that seems to have sped up in the last week.