Learning Spanish – Part 8 – First Encounters in Mexico
Written by admin on December 8th, 2009 in Love.
In this text I wish to speak regarding what happened to me during my early makes an attempt at making an attempt to communicate in Spanish with the native Spanish speaking peoples of Central America. After spending six weeks ploughing through a basic level Spanish text book and learning as much Spanish vocabulary as my memory would permit I believed I used to be ready to take on the Spanish language for real!!
I really started my trip through the Americas in the U.S. I spent your time in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego before heading south to the Mexican border on route to Tiajana. Although I didn’t actually converse with anybody in Spanish in the U.S I did learn a heap regarding the Spanish conquest of this region before the English took over!
You might be wondering what that has to try and do with learning Spanish! Well, the purpose is that learning Spanish shouldn’t simply be about learning how to speak in Spanish. One amongst the best ways that to keep yourself enthused regarding your studies is to immerse yourself in all things Spanish. Learning concerning Spanish history for instance and in my specific case regarding the Spanish conquest of the Americas is a nice way of adding substance. It quite validates and provides purpose and added reason to why you are learning the Spanish language in the first place.
This might all sound a small amount deep however the reality is that cultural immersion very will help you to perceive certain things about the Spanish language that you would possibly not be ready to realize from a textbook alone! Plus, if your something like me you’ll simply love learning concerning Spanish history and the conquest of the Americas as a matter course.
Before I visited the U.S I didn’t realise just how a lot of of the Americas {that the} Spanish were originally in management of. Their rule extended the entire Pacific coast from Southern Argentina right the method up to fashionable day Alaska. I also didn’t realise {that the} names of some US cities are actually Spanish names! San Francisco (Saint Francis) Los Angeles (The Angles).
The further south that you just go within the U.S the more Spanish influence there is. In Florida and L.A, Spanish place names are common and some road signs are even translated into Spanish.
Therefore, with a little Pre-Columbian history below my belt and my self study crash course in Spanish I caught a bus south from L.A direct to the Mexican city of Tijuana simply over the U.S / Mexican border. To begin with I didn’t very get a lot of of a chance to test my Spanish out on anyone. The taxi drivers, the owner of the hostel I stayed at and therefore the bar employees in the slightest degree the bars I went to all seemed to wish to talk to me in English! This wasn’t that stunning but! Tijuana contains a name for being a little bit of a party city for young North Americans trying for a good weekend!
I tried to talk a little Spanish to the locals but couldn’t string sentences along quick enough. I suppose most people may see I used to be struggling and set to make it simple for the ‘poor gringo’ by talking to me in English! It wasn’t till I made a decision to move south again more into Baja de California that I got my 1st real opportunities to speak.
I went to a local bus company to book a bus to a higher city south, referred to as Ensenada. This time I used to be on my own; no-body spoke a word of English. I then attempted to clarify to the stunning young Mexican lady that attended me that I needed to catch a bus to the next town south. The sole factor was I didn’t grasp how to say it properly. I didn’t recognize the word for ‘catch’ or ‘get on’ and had forgotten even basic words like ‘to go’ and ‘price tag’. All I kept blurting out was ‘ummm…..bus…..ummm…bus….. Ensenada!’ I should have looked sort of a bumbling fool and I definitely felt like one!
Of course the beautiful young Mexican lady understood that I needed to go to Ensenada by bus, even from my mumblings, but the next challenge was working out the bus timetable and the way abundant it absolutely was visiting price me. If this wasn’t bad enough I couldn’t perceive a word of what the Mexican lady was saying to me in Spanish! In the end the Mexican lady had to jot down numbers down on a piece of paper (thank god numbers are the identical in each English and Spanish I believed!) When a amount of time, which seemed like forever I finally paid my pesos and reserved a seat on the next bus out, which was in a very few hours!
Admittedly I had solely simply arrived in the Spanish-speaking world and I hadn’t extremely done a heap of studying thus I most likely shouldn’t have expected much! Later I used to be told {that the} Mexican accent might be one in every of the toughest in Latin America to perceive as well. But, the thing was, I was pretty aggravated and shocked at just how useless I was! So from that day onwards I promised myself that I would notice a very little time each day during the rest of my travels, (not troublesome as a backpacker), to improve my Spanish skills. I knew I had an extended approach to travel but I was determined to try to to it!