Dear Ohh Love

Visiting Antwerp for a day. That was the birthday gift for my 16-year-old nephew. It happened at our first stop in front of Antwerp Central Station, and it took less than five seconds. I fell. My glasses were out of shape and my hand was sore, but we had a good day.

That same evening, while waiting in the Emergency Room, I realised that typing would be difficult. I told the nurse putting a plaster cast around my hand and wrist that I had always wanted to explore the possibility of dictating text and emails, and this was my chance.

Dictating was not that hard, I thought. At least it would be easier than typing with one hand. I have since learned that, in itself, dictating is not hard. Just four steps: 

1. Click Dictate button. 
2. Select your language.
3. Start talking after the bleep. 
4. Click Dictate button again, when you are done. 

But you do have to practice. If you dictate in Dutch despite selecting English (United States), your text will contain many surprises.

I worked on an e-mail in English for Olaf, a colleague I had never met. I dictated slowly, trying to be concise. I made progress, there were no mistakes in this short e-mail. Fortunately, my “Send email” command did not work. The salutation read: Dear Ohh Love. 

Together with two colleagues, we had agreed on using track changes while editing a document. I was not able to activate track changes while talking, though. I explained the situation in the accompanying e-mail, but it read “I could not use track change, maybe because I was ****tating?”

Although track changes did not work, reviewing by inserting comments worked well. I almost finished reviewing the last paragraph of an Educational Resources Pool (Dutch acronym: EMP) proposal when a family member phoned. We ended up in a conversation ranging from obesity to menopause, and from getting angry to weight loss. After she hung up, I heard a soft bleep coming from my laptop. Upon reviewing my notes, I discovered a two-page-long comment box. I never realised we had touched upon so many topics during our phone call and that I said "yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah" so frequently. 

The plaster cast is gone and my hand is healing. Dictating? That is not for me.