In restaurants, shops, gas stations, etc., I can generally function as long as I control the interaction (“Hello. I want ___________. Thank you. Have a nice day.”) all sentences are in the present tense, and I don’t have to take questions. As you can imagine, that doesn’t allow for robust conversation. And yes, I have accidentally ordered over $25 worth of items from Carl’s Jr. in Mexico and still came away with no drinks.
The day we arrived in Bucerías we were met by a Mexican national family who gave us the keys to the Airbnb and showed us around the house. They have a daughter who is 10 years old and a son who is 8. Both have become Hobbes’ friends and we see them several times a week. Whenever the children come over, their mother (Liz) comes with them. While the children play, we talk as much as my limited Spanish and Liz’s fairly good Inglés will allow. While I enjoy it and I am improving, it is happening at a glacial pace. For now, I have to consider one new word or phrase a day a major success.
There are many issues to overcome. Some are physical. My ears are not attuned to the pace of normal Mexican speech and please do not let whoever is speaking have any type of regional accent. The words have to be slow and clear for me to have a chance at understanding the gist of what is being said. I am listening to Mexican radio stations and eavesdropping on other people’s conversations in an attempt to improve. At best, I can identify a couple of words per sentence, but more often than not, it is per paragraph.
I also have difficulty forming words. Years ago, I was flying alone from the Dominican Republic and happened to be seated near a woman from Puerto Rico. We exchanged some pleasantries and she said a few words in English. I complimented her and asked if she liked to speak English. She said, no, she actually hated it. That caught me off guard and I asked why. She explained that it made her jaw hurt. Her jaw muscles weren’t used to making those sounds so it was painful after a few minutes. I now know that feeling. Sometimes my facial muscles get tired and will no longer generate the sounds and syllables needed for longer words. I used to repeat words in my head to get the flow of pronunciation. I have decided that is of limited value, so I roam around (usually in the mornings) repeating difficult words over and over.
Then there is the word salad. My Spanish vocabulary is tiny in comparison to a native speaker. Usually, I can form very simple sentences with what are essentially word-for-word substitutions for English. I want ice cream becomes, yo quiero helado. Once a sentence moves out of strict parallelism, I falter. Learning new words and phrases will take time and people in Bucerías are happy to meet you where you are. Which is a problem in and of itself…
Because we are in a tourist area, there are a lot of locals who know at least some English. If you can speak a little bit of Spanish, they will speak a little bit of English and you’ll probably reach an understanding. This makes day-to-day living easy but learning the language harder. There is not the pressure to learn that we would have in some other locations. I can see the potential of being here for a year and not being much more proficient at communicating than we are now. I hope that is not the case, but I am afraid it may be.
If I had to rate myself on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), I think the following grades are fair:
Basic interactions – 7
Conversations – 1
Hearing/Comprehending – 2
Pronunciation – 2
Vocabulary – 3
Effort – 5
I’ll revisit these every 3 months or so to see if there is any noticeable improvement.
¡Hasta luego!