A Spy in the Midst

After my rejection by the students from the schools, I got to thinking, what if I actually signed up for one week of a class just to get to know the students in there, and on the last day I could share my idea of Viglo with them? One week of classes costs more or less $200, so it's not cheap, but I will be amongst those willing to spend $200 on their Spanish. And if I can get just one believer, then I can make sure that that person continues to promote Viglo to new students once I'm gone.

UPDATE (JAN. 4, 2024)
It's official, I just signed up for a one-week class. It cost me $90 and will only take place Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for 2 hours each day. That's fine with me, as the classes themselves are not at all important to me. I just need to use those two hours to get the other students to like me to the point that they are willing to listen to me share my idea of Viglo with them. Obviously, there will be updates after each class. Time to go undercover

UPDATE (JAN. 8, 2024)
Today, I had my first Spanish class, and it felt funny to be a student again at a school after so, so, soooo many years (I cannot think of the last time I took a class inside a building). While I took notes about the Spanish I learned, the majority of my notes were about the other students in the class… specifically the things that they expressed interest in that I could use to start a conversation with them during our free time. This will allow me to build rapport with them and make them more inclined to try Viglo.

The main issue for me is going to be how I initiate a conversation about Viglo with them, while not getting the attention of the staff and teachers. (While writing that last sentence, I wonder if the teachers would really care that I'm building a tool for Spanish learning. I've been operating under the assumption that this would create conflict between myself and the teachers since the online presence that the school has does make Viglo a rival, but maybe the teachers just simply won't care, and in fact, might think it is pretty cool… Because Viglo is really cool. That is something I need to think about, but for now I'm going to finish this update under the assumption that they will not approve of me sharing Viglo with the other students). There's no obvious spot to put a computer that would only be within sight and sound of the other students. This makes me think that I will need to initiate the Viglo conversation outside of class. Is this something I can do during breaks or when we leave the school? I am thinking that my best chance is to get their phone numbers and make a point to meet with them outside of class.

That still begs the question, though, of how I initiate a Viglo conversation because I don't want to invite them for a sales pitch. While writing that last sentence, I got thinking that maybe what I need to do is try to steer a conversation towards what I do outside of class, and try to get the other students to ask me about it. At which point, I initiate the Viglo conversation under their request.

I also identified an ideal individual to share Viglo with other people after I leave. This woman is extremely personable and funny, and it's clear that people in the class enjoy her company, as I also did. I think that if she were to tell other people about Viglo, they would really listen to her. Therefore, maybe I need to focus on getting her to enjoy Viglo.

I just got thinking, maybe I could talk about how I memorize vocabulary words, and then use that to introduce the Viglo Mnemonic Tool. (here's an older post about the Viglo Mnemonic Tool) From there, maybe they will ask me about Viglo when they see the logo at the top of the page.

UPDATE (JAN. 10, 2024)
I arrived at the school with an updated Viglo Mnemonic Tool loaded on my phone and ready to show off, but then was derailed when my teacher informed me that they had put me in the wrong class on Monday, and I needed to go to a different classroom. Well... time to start building rapport again from the beginning. But it didn't take me long to think of this as a lucky break, because now I had the chance to get to know two different classes of students who I could potentially share Viglo with.

This class was definitely far more advanced than my class on Monday, and this group of students, though much smaller in numbers (four students in total compared to 10 in the Monday class), could get more use out of Viglo than the Monday class because of their more advanced Spanish level.

The question once again goes back to how do I introduce Viglo to these new individuals. Obviously, I could go with sharing the Viglo Mnemonic Tool with them, as I planned to do with the Monday class. But then, another idea popped into my head. This weekend I had wanted to test out the idea of using an online Spanish competition to introduce people to Viglo, but for reasons mentioned in the update of the previously linked article, I was not going to reach my target date for testing the idea. But there were four of us in the class… exactly the amount of people I wanted to have to test out the competition idea. So on Friday, when I have my final class at the school, I'm going to ask the other guys in the class if they would be interested in trying the Spanish competition idea. (Something that just popped into my head while I wrote that previous sentence… I should make a list of potential competitors and write down their name and phone number on the list. It won't be a legitimate list, but the fact that I have a list with other people expressing interest in the idea should grant me slightly more credibility with the students).

Whatever happens, Friday is my last opportunity at the school to make something happen, so I need to make sure I come in with a solid plan and take action… though I'm still trying to figure out what that action is.