Spanglish Part 2

I wanna be fluent in Spanish sooooo badly.  You have no idea.  (Okay, if you're also an expat or a snowbird and buying groceries or filling up your gas tank turns into a fumbly Spanglish mess, like, every single time...then maybe you do.)

I know I'm getting better at speaking it, and I'm actually able to string together entire sentences now without having to look up certain words (I always go back and look up what I said later to make sure I didn't say something totally embarrassingly wrong...and to also brag to Ty about how much more awesome I am than he is, duh.)  But the big thing I'm feeling excited about:  I'm getting a little better at understanding when our housekeeper or another native speaker is speaking to me.  Which is the most common complaint I hear from fellow gringos... "People just speak so fast!  I don't know what they're saying!"  

It's true.  Even if you can say a full sentence to someone or ask them a question...you still have to know what the hell they're saying back to you.  And more often than not, you won't follow...especially if you consider different accents, mumbling and slang words.  (Think about how we say "gonna" for "going to"...for sure Mexicans have similar abbreviations that aren't technically correct.)  And actually, if you say something in Spanish to someone pretty well, they'll assume you can also understand them pretty well and they'll rattle off their response.  So, I can study all I want...but if I can't learn to comprehend what is being said to me, my "skills" aren't gonna get me very far.  I naively thought I would be further along one year in because I have a crazy good memory and that that would be enough ("I'll just memorize every word!")  But, I forgot about that whole "comprehension" aspect of learning a new language.  Whoops.  

I'm not in the business of being a "helpful expat blogger" all too often because it's more fun (for me) being a pointless one, but while we're on the subject of responding to someone you don't understand (a.k.a. Gringo in Headlight Syndrome) let's cover a couple things our Spanish teacher taught us over the winter that I wish I had known months earlier:  (Thanks, Sean!!) 

• "Mande?" (pronounced MAHN-DAY) comes from the verb mandar (to send) and it loosely means "send it to me again"...it's like the English equivalent of saying "Come again?"  We learned in our class that saying "Que?" (What?) to someone when you didn't hear them, can come off rude or defensive... It'd be like saying, "What did you say to me?"  "Mande?" is a more polite version of "I didn't hear you...can you repeat that?"  We had never heard this word before, but as soon as we were taught it, we heard it everywhere.  I now say this several times a day...if only to buy myself a little time to figure out what the crap someone is saying to me.  
• "Repite, por favor" (pronounced RAY-PEE-TAY) is similar to "mande" in that you need them to repeat what they said...but if the speed they're talking is the issue say, "repite más despacio, por favor" (DAY-SPAH-SEE-OH) which just means "Please repeat slower."
• "No entiendo" (AYN-TEE-AYN-DOH) means "I don't understand."  I typically only use this one when I don't have the slightest clue as to what someone is saying to me (and if I have to resort to this one, I'm pretty bummed about not being able to communicate at all because this is usually where the conversation ends and the other person seems frustrated that I don't understand them.)  A lot of non-Spanish speakers like to use "no comprendo" (I don't comprehend) but this seems a little more casual to me since "comprehend" isn't usually a word I use too often in English. 

Unfortunately, I have to use all of these phrases much more often than I would like to, but hey... I'm trying.  Once our schedules open back up next week, I'm going to get better about studying Spanish everyday.  Mostly because I need/want to learn more, but also, if I don't find some hobbies to fill my time during low season I'm going to drive Ty INSANE whining about being bored all the time.  I have a big, giant, nerdy, college workbook that I bought on Amazon before we left the states, and my goal is to complete 10 pages per week this summer.  I'm currently on page 56 and there are 505 pages...so, I should be done in a like a million years.  Swell.  

It's funny (a.k.a. embarrassing and cringe-worthy) to think back how BAAAAD we were at Spanish when we arrived in La Cruz nearly a year ago, but I'm glad we waited 5 months after moving here to start classes because I was able to pick up on how the locals spoke certain words first...noticing differences between regional dialect and whatever my Google Translate app was telling me.  

You know how like in the States some people call soda "pop" or even "soft drinks" because that's how it's said locally and they just grew up saying it that way?  (Look at this crazy graphic I found on this exact topic...someone had waaaaay too much time on their hands.)  Or like how Canadians and Europeans say "going on holiday" and Americans say "going on vacation" but they both mean the same thing?  Sometimes I'd look up how to say a word and it was different than what I had heard locals say.  For example, all of our Mexican friends say "carro" and not "coche" for car, even though both are correct, but I choose to say "carro" now too because it's more commonly used in our area. 

And I'll never forget when I tried to say "piscina" for swimming pool to the groundskeeper and he looked at me like I was Dingbat Barbie speaking Chinese.  He's lived in the Bay Area his whole life and he didn't even know that "albercas" were ever called anything but "albercas."  But of course, this nuance, just overwhelms me even more...because not only do I need to learn Spanish, but now I gotta know the local dialect?!  Balls.  

   

Overall, we're (I'm) slowly but steadily improving at communicating and I'm exciting about getting better and better over time.... We have to go into Immigration next week to start the process of renewing our temporary resident visas for another 3 years (don't cry, mom!!) and at least Ty will have improved his Spanish enough since the last time we were there a year ago when he said to the security guard, "I made a mistake-o."  I'm not even joking.  And yes, I still make fun of him for it.

Oh, yeah!!  I almost forgot the entire inspiration for this (pointless) post!  A couple weeks ago I ran into a woman I had gone to class with for six weeks last fall and we talked (whined) about the process of learning Spanish, and how we were both coming along, etc. and she told me about this little school called Habla Hispana she went to last year in the super cute colonial town of San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajauto...which is about 8 hours east from us.  The school offers 4-week courses where you're attending classes from 9:00-1:00pm Monday through Friday and in the afternoons there are optional activities (all done in Spanish, of course) like walking tours, Mexican cooking classes, etc.  You even have the option of renting a small "dorm room" on the school grounds during your course.  As a giant nerd (and someone who wishes they could be a professional student) this has me all kinds of excited.  The idea of spending 4+ hours a day in a classroom studying something that really interests me...is like...Christmas to normal people.  It's okay to be jealous of my dorky prowess.  

I'm considering going for the month of September or October...but the only downside is that someone will need to stay at Jardin (especially if we have renters) which means I would most likely be going alone.  Say what????  Since Ty and I are super duper best friends and attached at the hip...the idea of being away from him and our perfect pup for a whole month makes my head a bit woozy, so I would definitely have to put on my big girl pants and be a brave little engine that could-ish.  

Ty, however, is probably thrilled at the idea of me being gone for a while, because he likes to pretend I'm clingy and annoying.  Which is, of course, completely "FAKE NEWS."  Duh.  I was also thinking it would be fun for us to take a road trip there a few days before my classes start to explore the town and for him to drop me off at school (how adorable is that?)...but we'll see.  

Also, if you'd like to read all the ways I've embarrassed myself while misunderstanding someone speak Spanish to me...you'll enjoy this post.  

Welp, I've bored you enough for one day, so I'm off!