There they are … two little electronic thingys that may hold my future at the Poel music school.

My friend Geert says that Google Translate is excellent at converting the spoken word from one language to another. The problem is that without a microphone the app can’t hear what the teacher is saying.

Amazon has provided a solution.

I sat in Izy Coffee this morning eager (and scared) to put Geert’s theory to the test. I unboxed the microphone and removed little plastic bits. And bonus (!) the instructions were in English.

“Why am I so nervous?” The answer was clear, as I’m sure it is to you.

My plan was to get everything set up and then wait till the barista Arjen didn’t have any customers waiting. I’d have him pin the microphone to his shirt and then talk some Dutch. Then the screen on this phone would show a marvelous English translation.

The instructions were simple but my mind was not. It was roiling in fear.

As I was about to approach Arjen, I realized that the microphone wasn’t charged. I found the company’s website and discovered it took two hours. So the moment of truth has been delayed.

I’ve been at home now for half an hour, and guess what? The little red charging light just went out. The beast is ready for action.

I’m about to pin on the microphone, plug the receiver into my phone and open Google Translate to English > Dutch. Wish me luck.

***

Success! (I guess) What I know is that the words I spoke showed up on the screen. Good. I don’t know if they were translated accurately to Dutch. The microphone was six inches from my phone. How will it do when the teacher is wearing it, and it’s five feet from the phone?

Everything was cool as long as I continued to talk. When I paused, the microphone shut off. I wonder what will happen if I press the “Conversation” button rather than “Microphone”? Let’s find out:

***

Nope. The microphone doesn’t stay on after the first speaker completes a thought, even though in real life there’s a pause before the second speaker starts.

Oh well … so far so good. Something has been accomplished. Now I’ll head back to Izy and pin the microphone on Arjen.

***

Arjen is busy so I asked Inge, another Izy employee, to help me. And there’s good news!

The Dutch and English that showed up on my phone was at least 90% accurate

The noise reduction button on the mic seemed to filter out the music from nearby speakers

I had the thought that Google Translate was learning Inge’s voice (!) She was later able to pause a bit longer without the microphone shutting off

***

And tomorrow is my music theory class at Poel. May I get enough of what Mattias is saying to allow me to stay at the school

All fingers crossed