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Nothing more humbling than thinking your pronunciation in your target language is good, just to schwa a vowel so hard the person you're talking to thinks it's a different language.
Is it a universal language learning experience to know exactly what you're supposed to say in a situation, down to like the spelling, and still feeling self-conscious to the point you check your notes, and then google just to make sure you didn't write it down wrong. And then still feel nervous to say anything at all.
a friend of mine told me to share this story so here goes
So while I was at work the other day, and I was closing with this old woman, who's a jerk to everyone and their dog, but thinks she's the sweetest little angel. Including me. She's bigoted and sarcastic and just awful to be around - refused to call me and other trans ppl at work our names until she got reported for it, just so you know what we're dealing with here.
We were closing the other night, and I got to do dishes. I was listening to my music, which this day happened to be Käärijä (love that man sm). And this lady walks in and she sighs real loud, and I look back to see what's up, and she's looking at me with this nasty look on her face.
"What are you listening to?"
"Uh. Rap?"
"Ugh, that's not even music. That's just noise, how can you even tell what he's saying?"
"He's speaking Finnish."
"Well you should listen to music in English. We are in America. Listen to American music."
Now I already don't like this woman. Idk how she's not gotten fired yet. SO I decide im not doing this with her. I don't speak very much Estonian at all. But I switch to it.
"Mida?"
"What?"
"Mida sa ütlesid?"
"Speak ENGLISH!"
"Ahhhh. Ei, ei. Vabandust, ma ei räägi inglise keelt."
And she gets pissed about this, but I stand my ground and don't switch back to English, which makes her even more mad. Eventually she leaves me alone, tho. And I get to listen to Käärijä in peace.
You know, the last time I attempted to learn Estonian, there were next to no resources. All I had in 2014 was Curly Strings and that sweet Estonian girl teaching grammar on YouTube. Looking back in now is whiplash bc now we got keeleklikk, Estonian tutors on pretty much every site I've checked, free courses from the university of tartu, etc.
I feel spoiled tbh.