Okay, so after a handful of great audiobooks by Robert Ludlum, Terry Prachett, and Michael Chriton, I figured I’d try some audio books to learn Spanish and French. “Mais monsieur, j’ai pense que vous avez su deja le francais?” Well, yes, I already speak some French, thank you, but I figured that “le francais” and “l’espanol” were similar enough that learning both together would be fun.

Well, yesterday on the way to work I got through three 30+ minute lessons in Spanish and learned how to say things like “I only understand a little bit of Spanish” and “I’m from Chicago.” On the way home I got through two French lessons, which I breezed through.

On the way to work today I listened to lesson 3 of the Spanish lessons again to remind myself that I’m from Chicago, and lesson 4 was slightly more complex (I learned I’m really from Philadelphia), and for some reason my download of chapter 5 either got corrupted or went missing, ’cause it jumped straight into lesson 6, where I figured out that these “learn Spanish” lessons are geared towards tourists: thanks to chapter 6, I now know how to ask directions to my hotel or restaurant (but not how to interpret the directions given), and say “I have a lot of dollars and pesos” … something which I’m sure will come in handy should I ever have the desire to get myself mugged or opportunity to pay a ransom for a kidnapping while visiting south of the border.