Today was the first session of my music theory class at the Poel music school.  I knew that it would be taught in Dutch.  I start Dutch classes in three weeks and my meagre efforts with the Babbel language app had not prepared me much.

I understood virtually nothing.  The other ten students seemed to be nodding a lot.  They asked questions. 

Arjen, a friend at Izy Coffee, had coached me about using the microphone function of Google Translate.  The teacher talks in Dutch and English shows up on my phone screen … supposedly.

Mostly this morning I’d turn on the microphone and the teacher’s spoken words didn’t appear in print.  Or they’d start showing up and then the microphone would shut off.  Arghh!

A couple of times Google Translate would show me a sentence or two from the teacher’s mouth.  Here’s an example that focuses on the difference between a major and a minor chord:

First of all, when I showed this to the teacher, the Dutch was incorrect.  And the translation was wildly incorrect.  So how exactly am I going to make sense of what I’m supposed to be learning here?

I don’t know.

For most of the two hours, I was searching on the internet for an app more faithful to the source language and the translated one, that won’t stop the translation when the teacher pauses, and that will still work when he moves to the piano on the far side of the room.

No luck.

So … my week until next Wednesday will be filled with app research. I’ll pay for good quality. I’ll pay for being able to stay at Poel. You see, if I can’t understand the theory spoken in Dutch, and if I therefore can’t be successful in the course, the administration will ask me to leave the school.

Therefore no group cello lessons either. (Sigh) I have to succeed in both courses to stay.

***

I will not give up

There’s a future for me at Poel

Do you know a good app?!