I really didn’t think deeply about how far I’ve come until I was actually recording, so thanks to all of you for listening so far. Let’s keep going!
My Spanish introduction wasn’t perfect, but I’m so proud of it and my progress so far. I’ve tried everything in the book, including BaseLang, which I loved but found quite costly.
Yes! My sister made this animation and I love it.
Fun fact: I was having breakfast in between recording this episode, even though it was all done in one sitting.
In this episode, I share my Spanish learning journey, celebrate my progress, and talk about how simplifying my routine has helped me improve. I also recite the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 in Spanish and discuss my desire to practise more through conversations with other people.
I celebrate reaching episode 13 of Bathroom Musings and reflect on how far the podcast has come. I’m grateful to God and everyone who has listened so far, and I’m looking forward to reaching episode 26, which will mark one year of podcasting.
I also discuss how AI has helped me become more independent, how I built my own goals tracker, and how tracking my progress has motivated me to stay consistent. I share the new title of my upcoming novella, Kiri, and reflect on racism, bias, and the importance of seeing people as human beings.
Finally, I talk about the surprising countries showing up in my podcast analytics and invite listeners from Egypt, Japan, and the United States to reach out so I can find out whether they’re real listeners or just crawlers.
[Nessa Hagoz] Hello guys, how are you? I’m Nessa Hagoz and this is Bathroom Musings episode 13. Let’s go! Hello, hello, hello. Today, during the next minute or two, I’m going to talk about something interesting or interesting something, I don’t know.
But, I’m going to talk about learning Spanish. It’s interesting, very interesting learning Spanish with Michel Thomas, Busuu and Dreaming Spanish. I’m enjoying it, I’m enjoying it, I don’t know, but I like it a lot.
Well, that’s all. So, yes, that’s my very first update, my Spanish. My Spanish learning, or should I say, my Spanish has greatly improved, I can’t even lie.
Granted, I knew 80% of the words I said and I had to learn the remaining 20% before recording and I know I made some mistakes because some things I was just saying, I was just saying from my head, I didn’t get the correct way to say it. Yes, so, it’s been interesting because I was doing a lot, I was doing a lot, I was journaling in Spanish, I was doing Comprehensive Input, I was doing Michel Thomas, I was doing Busuu, I was doing, I got some Spanish stories to learn, I was cramming some Spanish words, I was doing a lot and I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere. So, I went to Claude, I said, see, I’m doing all these things, I think I’m doing, these are my goals, this is a time allocation for these things, tell me what things I’m doing here that can get me to my goals in this time period and it gave me four things to do.
Michel Thomas for 20 minutes, 10 minutes Recall Michel Thomas and 20 minutes Comprehensive Input, 10 minutes Busuu, so I do this one, two, every single day and I can tell you, because I have a lot I’m doing also, but just with 30 minutes, I am truly going far, I can’t even lie, truly, truly going far. So, if you find yourself in a situation where you are doing a lot but you’re not going anywhere, maybe you should try what I did, take all you’ve been doing to Claude or any LLM of choice, tell it, okay, these are the things, I have 30 minutes to one hour to do this every single day, these are my goals and it gives you things to do and thank me later, thank me later because you would really, really go far. Yeah, one thing I need to do more of though is that I need to speak more to people, human beings in Spanish, I’ve tried using LLM Voice and sometimes they just go too far and I’m like, guy, stick to the script, I’m just a beginner, but yeah, I need to talk more to people in Spanish, I joined this Discord group for some type of hard learning, language learning and I don’t know why I just suck at this whole social media thing, like I’m not even 90, I’m a young person but like, I have only spoken live with one person from that group but people have reached out to me to talk to me in virtual practise in Spanish but I just keep forgetting to go back to check and like, let’s say, two to three weeks later, I remember and I go back and I’m saying like, oh, I want to practise with you and I just think it’s so rude for me to even say I’m ready because excuse you as well, so like, I need to be more intentional about that, I want someone who speaks English and Spanish also, if there’s some things I don’t know in Spanish, I could actually ask in English and yeah, we continue.
When I do my recalling for 10 minutes in Spanish for Michel Thomas, I just recall everything I learnt that day and I speak in Spanish, now sometimes I use English words but my rule is to not use English words back to back, if I don’t know the correct word in Spanish, I use a word that can replace it and that’s how I’ve been doing it and it’s been going super well, so well. So, I also do some things on the side too, for example, like I’m currently learning Psalm 23 and every week I rehearse everything I’ve learned so far in Spanish, as well as to read songs and recitations, for example, the Lord’s Prayer last week, last year rather, but I still try to recite it every week so I don’t forget. Same with some Spanish songs that I learnt also, I just go on my YouTube playlist and I listen to them again, so I can remember, can I do this for you, please? Okay, so let me do the Lord’s Prayer, have I done it, I think I’ve done it on this podcast but let me still do it.
Padre nuestro que estás en el cielo, santificado sea tu nombre, venga a nosotros tu reino, hágase tu voluntad en la tierra como en el cielo, danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día, perdona nuestras ofensas como también nosotros perdonamos a los que nos ofenden, no nos dejes caer en la tentación y líbranos del mal, porque tuyo es el reino, el poder y la gloria, por los siglos de los siglos. Amén. And this is where I’m currently in Psalm 23.
El Señor es mi pastor, nada me falta, en verdes pastos me hace descansar, junto a tranquilas aguas me conduce, me infunde nuevas forces, me guía por sendas de justicia por amor a su nombre. So that’s where I’m currently in Psalm 23. And yeah, so these are the things I do on the side for my Spanish.
What are you up to? Okay, so for my podcast, excuse you, can we give it up for the girl? This is episode 13, do you know what that means? That means I’ve done this for approximately 26 weeks, you guys, I am so shocked. I do this once every two weeks and it’s just so amazing how time flies. I remember wanting to quit in episodes, after episodes I’m like, I’m not doing this again, but look at me here today.
I did not expect to be here. I didn’t see myself being here and I’m so grateful to God for everything, for the strength, for the wisdom and I’m so grateful to everyone. Those who support me, those who listen, I’m so grateful like you guys are the best.
Because if I tell you what I’m currently going through, you will not believe it but God has been here and he’s been faithful and he will always be faithful. Yes, so I just can’t wait to get episode 26 and that will be one whole year, you guys. My sister finished animation class like some weeks ago, some months ago rather and she said she’s going to help me draw the episode covers for previous episodes because I used AI.
I gave AI my image and then I just told you what to do for my podcast covers and she said she’s going to help me draw them. Yeah, I know some people are like, AI, image and whatever. Listen, this is a one-woman show, okay? I’m the only one doing almost everything so I need to cut costs, we need to cut costs.
And on the topic of AI, like some people just don’t like, sincerely speaking, I drew a line and my line is super AI, super what? Is it super intelligence? No, AI. I’m like, OpenAI people, Anthropic, all of you, please, I beg you, calm down, Meta people, you should just calm down. Please, let’s not spoil this world, okay? The things I used to depend on people for, let’s say if I used to depend on people like 40% because of AI, it’s now down to 4%.
I can’t even lie and I’m so grateful to God for this. Things I wanted to do but I couldn’t do, of course, because of AI. If I tell you what I’ve done, you wouldn’t even believe.
Even though I’m in this situation, I’m still doing these things like, oh God, I’m grateful. So before you start being so prejudgmental, come on, you don’t know the person’s story. That’s the thing at the end of the day, you don’t know the person’s story.
So I’m grateful to my sister for helping me draw because that for me, I would have kept using what I could until money was available to do it properly because I cannot come and kill myself, you guys. Yeah, but thanks, my sister. Okay, so for the podcast also, you can remember that if you remember episode 12 and episode 11, they were like guest episodes, not like guest episodes but you know what I’m saying.
And I’m trying to bring more people in because it fascinates me when I send a question to my friends and I get different answers from people that I’m connected to more than the other. And it’s so fascinating to see diverse answers from different people. So I want to do more of that coming soon.
I tried using Riverside FM, it didn’t work for me. I tried StreamYard, it didn’t work. So I’m just trying to think and find out more.
So please stay tuned, okay. But thank you to all of you for listening, you guys are the best. And this is just to write a certain thing you need to quit on but don’t quit early.
Just keep pushing. It’s like, it’s not like I’m at the top now giving you like, I’m still on this journey. I’m just saying I’m happy I didn’t quit and you will be happy if you don’t quit at the beginning.
Okay. There’s something I noticed when I went to check my analytics. I rarely check that but I tried to check it at least just as I was going on there and I saw something that truly shocked me.
Top three countries, you guys. Nigeria wasn’t there. Although, I’m a Nigerian living in Nigeria, publishing from Nigeria.
And okay, yes, I know that I don’t post, I have never posted my link as of, this is going to come out October 9th. So as of October 9th, I’ve never published my link on any social media platform whatsoever. I’ve never published it to any, like on my stories or myself or anything like that.
No, I’ve shared it with friends, but maybe four out of 12 times. So I don’t know where these three countries, I don’t know how. So please, okay, let me explain.
Top three countries. Number one, Egypt. Did I get it right? Number one, Egypt.
Number two, United States. Number three, Japan. How, you guys, like, listen, okay, I don’t know if these are AI crawlers on podcast indexes, like, I don’t know.
Or if they’re actually real people listening from there. So if you are, like, if you’re in Egypt, the United States or Japan, please send me a message on nessahagoz.com. Just scroll down, you should be able to send me a message. I want to know if these are real people.
Okay, now this is going to come out on the 9th of October. So give me 14 days, that’s 23. So October 23, this appeal will be closed.
So if you send anything after that, then you’re on your own. I just want to know if they’re human beings, if you’re actually there, or like, if my, if my podcast, whatever, is giving me, like, delulu. Okay, so that’s, that’s my podcast.
But if you guys are actual real people, thank you. Listen, you guys, like, Egypt, I can understand. I can understand Egypt because I’m, like, an African, but, like, I can’t even understand Egypt, but, like, maybe just try to understand it, like, 2%.
The United States, I can’t, like, I can’t even pretend I don’t understand, but let me say I understand 1%. Japan is one I don’t even understand at all. Listen, like, Japan is one country I really want to visit.
I even learned Nihongo, like, last year. Can I say? Okay, let me say. Konnichiwa desu.
O-namae wa? Nessa desu. Sensei desu. Hajimemashite.
Kankō desu ka? Shigoto desu ka? Kankō desu. Oh gosh, I love learning languages. Can you tell? I remember one time I joined one space and the guy was just speaking Japanese and I was just listening.
I was not understanding anything, but I was just listening. And then he said, Shigoto. I was like, yes, yes, yes.
I know that word. I know that word. I was so excited because I could, I could, I knew one word in, like, something he said, like, for, like, 10 minutes.
Well, I just love learning languages. Like, it’s just sweet and interesting. So, um, yes, that’s that for my episode.
So those people from those, these three countries, um, send me a message. It’s N-E-S-S-A-H-A-G-O-Z dot com. November, Echo, Sierra, Sierra, Alpha, Hotel, Alpha, Golf, Oscar, Zulu.
Okay. Yes. So, um, I’ve been tracking my goals since I can, like, since like 2021 now.
I used Atoms. I used Todoist. I tried one, something Loop Habit Tracker, but it’s, it didn’t just work for me.
Then also used, I had like a Google Form that I used where I would go track my goals there and then it would come up in like my Google Sheets. I did that also. And at a point I just had to stop because it was either the friction was too much or like, I wasn’t tracking those goals anymore.
Sorry for the noise, you guys. So I did. So I said, you know what, I, it was, I used Claude and Gemini to like do the goals for, to do what I’m about to talk about now.
And I deployed using GitHub and Vercel and it worked. The, the, sorry for the noise, you guys, like, sorry. Okay.
I hope it doesn’t. Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry for the noise.
I’ll try to see if I can clean it all up. I, I deployed and two, I tracked three things, right? Number one is planned and accomplished. Two is planned, but not accomplished.
Three is unplanned, but accomplished. And there’s also like a rating system. So I can go back, like I can go to what I did yesterday, two days ago and stuff like that.
At the end of the month, I, these things, they live locally on my browser. So at the end of the month, I download them, the files and I, and I clear my, my, my data for that month. And I start afresh.
So I would normally like go through what I tracked, but for the one for September, I decided to do for the month of September. I decided to just ask, I just sent it to Claude and I was like, tell me what you like, what you notice here. And I was shocked.
You know, when you live life day to day, you don’t really see things accumulate until like you’ve gone far. You’re like, oh my goodness. But I saw the, when I saw it, I was like, so I didn’t do these exercises.
I did these exercises, like some things I did every single day, but some things that I just skipped on, I was like, like, I was just like, oh my goodness, like I could have done better, you know? And so, I can’t lie you guys, ever since I did this from the 1st of October, I did it on the 1st of October. Ever since then, I have not skipped any goal. There are some times when I have like, it’s around after 11 p.m. I’ve not even done some things.
I end up doing them. Because I’m like, at the end of the month, you’ll see your progress, the things you did, your success and you’ll see your failure in achieving certain goals. You know, like that has given me so much motivation, like knowing that at the end of the day, these things accumulate, I’m going to see them, I can’t hide from it.
I’m not joking, like, I don’t know if there’s any other thing that has motivated me to stick to my goals like this knowledge. Yeah, so in case you answer, yeah, you can also do that as well. Okay, so I’m going to end this episode this way.
My novella was coming out. I told you guys the name was My Red, right? That’s Dreams Scrambled, but I decided to name it Kiri. And I like the name, I love the name.
I can say that all my names, like the name of my podcast, my newsletter, all the names of all my books, what else? And many other things I’ve named. I named them myself, like, I think I’m, not I think, I’m very good with giving names. Some of my friends back in secondary school, I gave them nicknames in secondary school.
Till today, they’re still using those nicknames as their Instagram handles. Like, I am so proud of that. Whenever my sisters meet someone new, I’d always like start giving them hashtags.
Like, I’m like, let’s say my sister’s name is like, let me say my sister’s name is like Solomon. Solomon is a guy’s name, whatever. And then, look, let’s say my sister’s name is, gosh, Fiona.
And then she meets Shrek. Listen, you guys, I did not plan for this, but like, let’s say Fiona and Shrek. Yeah, and I already have a name, hashtag Shrek.
Oh, gosh, hashtag Shrek. I don’t even know, like, we just came up, Shrek freak. Oh my goodness.
Like, I’m good. I’m just good like that. Okay.
I said, okay, you know what, I’m going to do Kiri, the name of my book, so it’s coming out pretty soon. And I know an author who, her readers don’t know she’s a Nigerian. And my sister was speculating that it was because she’s my sister’s friend.
I was speculating that maybe it’s because of the whole Nigerian, like the way they see Nigerians and stuff like that. I was going, I was checking something online and I saw like, there are three authors who got their book deals cancelled because people said, or the agents or whatever said that they used AI in the book. And you guys, these three authors are black people.
And I was just like, who are we kidding? You want to tell me that other people don’t use, like, I’m not even saying that these people didn’t use AI, but why? I think the last person was like, the person lost 1 point something million dollars. Like, how now? You know, so like, I understand why she doesn’t want people to know, like, if that’s what she’s doing, I understand it because like, there will be this deep scrutiny concerning your work because you’re from a particular place. Like, is that not like, is that not like, is that not like 200 BC thinking? You know, like, it’s truly sad.
Right now, you can’t even create this particular social media platform, you can’t even create something right now as a Nigerian living in Nigeria, living in Nigeria, you can’t. And I understand based on like, from a business point of view, I’m not talking about the racism now, please, I’m talking about like, from a business point of view, right, there’s a writing platform I can’t access right now as a Nigerian. I need to use VPN to access, a writing platform, you guys.
It’s not like they’re giving money though, a writing platform. And I understand because if I have a business, and I notice that there are bad actors from a particular IP address, I’m blocking my full chest. You know, because sometimes you’ll see some Nigerians, like maybe they found like, maybe this loophole, or like this.
I’m not talking about something illegal or like, maybe just a way to game the system or something like that. And it’s just, you get and there’s something to like racism is terrible because like I’m a guy I didn’t want to go there but like, you know I tried to that’s what there’s something I tried to understand right, there was something that a person from a particular race did like someday there’s this kind of vibe I was getting from a particular race online and I wanted to start feeling hatred in my heart I can’t lie, I want to start feeling hatred and disgust for those people because I’m like why are you why why are you guys talking about us like this like why, you know, and sometimes when a person like let’s say you are a Nigerian for example and you just keep getting this this kind of hate from a particular group of people or more you it’s you’re asking a lot from that person when you tell them to like we are not we are not all of us are not like this, you’re asking a lot from that person sincerely, it just takes the grace of God, you know when you’ve been when you when you’ve been hurt by a particular group of people ah it takes the grace of God for you to see someone from that place differently, I’m seeing from both sides both from the Nigerians and from the other people too as well, so like when I saw this I was I was like why are people behaving like that why are people doing like this we’re not all like this and I felt so much anger in my heart but I just said you know just leave it there’s no need like you can’t you can’t change people you really can’t change people and it’s so sad when you do something like this something you’ve achieved as a person of colour or as a person as an individual but because like anything at all and then people you get more scrutiny because of your because you’re from this place it’s annoying I can’t even lie it’s truly truly annoying and it’s sad and I was thinking about this I thought to myself like is this how is this how people that like people who have different is this how people who are judged because of their sexual orientation feel, this is how they feel because it’s so sad and it just takes God’s grace not to want to feel anger and disgust towards the entire group because at the end of the day sincerely speaking they are all they are not all like that, is that right, they are not all like that all of them are not like that whatever, you know, so yeah that’s just I don’t know really there is no neat bow to this because I tried, there’s no neat way to tie this up because I try to see things from both sides, yes we should love one another but if if this set of people you’ve been hurt by this set of people you you will I’m not saying that you you will interact with them you’ll be more careful in interaction with them, yeah racism is still bad at the end of the day okay, don’t don’t judge a person based on their race don’t judge a person based on their sexual orientation don’t don’t judge a person based on anything, I know I know I know I’m just making noise but like let’s just see each other as human beings, God loves all of us even with our bad behaviour, well that’s it though, thanks thanks to all of you for listening I’m so grateful God bless you all so so much I’m so grateful, those people from Egypt, Japan, the United States I’m waiting okay, and until next time see ya!