How I used Evernote to capture my dad speaking his native language: Estonian

Dad returning to his boyhood home in Paide, Estonia in 2013.

My dad is in his late 70s and surprisingly, not getting any younger.  To make a very long story very short he was born in Estonia in 1938, fled Soviet occupation as a little boy, and learned English when finally arriving in the US in 1950. He regrets not teaching my sister and me any Estonian and we certainly regret not demanding it!  He thought it was a dead language - luckily, it’s not.  

Growing up I was around the Estonian language quite a bit, as his mother lived nearby.  We’ve been to Estonia as a family twice and naturally he speaks it there.  The last trip was in 2013 and I’ve heard nearly no Estonian since.  That’s why I was surprised to hear him speaking it a few weeks ago when I walked into my parents’ house.  He was on the phone with his distant cousin.  

I let my recorder run and ten minutes later, the conversation was captured in Evernote, safe and sound in my “Family” notebook.  I simply uploaded the sound file from my iPhone’s Voice Memos app.  I also could have recorded it directly into Evernote with their app.

As a little kid, Estonian just sounded like gobbledy gook. Unfortunately, it still does, but I want to always have access to Dad speaking it.  Never heard Estonian?  (Really, who has?)  Listen to my dad’s (supposedly very mundane) conversation in my note here.

Curious to finally learn how to use Evernote?  Already a user but want to know all of its tricks?  We can do that in-person or virtually.