The other day, I finished reading a book called "La revolución de glucosa" ("Glucose Revolution") that was recommended by a French YouTuber I follow. I like her a lot as a person and the topic was of interest to me, so I became instantly intrigued and decided to give it a go. The book delves into the impact of glucose on overall health, claiming that having a regulated glucose level is of utmost importance for every single person, even for a non-diabetic/non-pre-diabetic person. The book is in French, so buying the original version crossed my mind, however, it was discarded at the speed of light because my French is still a toddler-with-a-diaper level (I'm not a newborn baby anymore!), and it's nowhere near the level of going through such a book. (If I imported it in LingQ, then yes, I could've read it in French, but it would've taken forever and a day to finish it.) I thought about buying the digital version in English, but then I thought it would be nice to read it in Spanish, since that language is closer to French than English. Besides, I needed to read more in Spanish.

This was only my second non-fiction in Spanish, so I was a little worried if I could understand it well. Luckily, it turned out that the book wasn't difficult. Naturally, I encountered a lot of technical/medical terms, but most of them were manageable with the help of dictionaries. The author really tried to explain everything in a simple manner, breaking down complicated biological functions into simple phrasing, analogies, and examples, along with illustrations. Still, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park. I read it slowly, taking extra time to understand the content. Thus, it took me two months to finish it. By the way, I bought the physical book so that I can pass it on to my family. I tried to keep the book devoid of my messy scribbles, so I did all the note-taking in an unused notepad. Seeing that I didn't intend to get the book back in the future, I annotated so thoroughly that I almost used up the whole notepad when I finished the book. Now, I need to type in the complete note on my Obsidian.

Here comes the dilemma. I started to take notes in Spanish at the beginning as to match the book, and then I switched to English since it was easier, faster and takes less space to write. My general note-taking is in English anyway, so I kept on writing in English, occasionally switching back to Spanish. Or rather, some parts are in Spanglish, and even in Jaspanglish (Japanese-Spanish-English). Now that I'm in the phase of making digital notes, I'm debating myself whether to write the note in English as usual, or dare to do it in Spanish. Actually, I haven't been able to shake off the voice that has been nagging me in my head: Shouldn't you try taking notes in Spanish, even though it's harder? After all, the book is in Spanish, right?

I really should. There were many terms that I want to be able to use in Spanish, and writing notes about the book in Spanish will give me the chance to get used to them. But, I have many words that I also struggle with in English, too. So, writing in English would also benefit me to a great extent. Dilemma, indeed.

This is the conference room inside my brain right now.🧠🤯

Larizita: Oye, but the book is in Spanish, why don't we take advantage and try to write en español?

Lariza-san: Taking notes in Spanish would be a disaster desu! There would be so many mistakes desu! Not that our English is perfect though…

Lariza: The goal of note-taking here is to build knowledge as well as retaining it. If it helps you to keep the info, it doesn't matter the quality of the notes.

Larizinha: Tá. The best way to go is to write the notes both in English and in Spanish, viu?

Petit Lariza: Non ! That would take double or triple the time… c'est fou !

Happy note-taking!

*Please do ignore the italics in this post😅

(the image is mine)

✔Corrected