Playa del Carmen: Using my Spanish skillz
Once we booked our tickets to Mexico, I started getting really serious with my Duolingo usage (currently on a 170 day streak!). I wanted to re-learn as much Spanish as possible before our trip. I knew I’d probably be around a lot of people who spoke English, but I wanted to give my Spanish a whirl. Why not, right?
Ha, the only problem was that I practiced by listening to the app and writing in Spanish (in the app and with friends, sometimes). Not so much spoken. So… there were a few funny incidences in Mexico, when my brain didn’t work fast enough. Or, almost worked right, but not quite.
There was that time Gina and I were looking at swimsuit covers in Cozuhel and I asked the sales clerk if I could buy two for a certain price. “Quiero comprar un vestido en rojo por mi hermano!” Ha. Ha ha. The sales clerk definitely laughed (in a nice way) that I said I wanted to buy it for my brother (hermano), not my sister (hermana). Oops! “¿Tu hermana, sí?” Yep, I meant my sister. But like Gina said, someone might go in and buy one for their brother (not my brothers)!
The time I couldn’t remember the word for tip, so just guessed and said tipo. Um, that would be type, Kim. It took the waiter awhile to figure out that one (“¿incluye el tipo?” made NO sense). He finally said “¿propina?” Ha ha. I remembered the word after a few days!
There was that time I thought I was doing really well with my Spanish, reserving una mesa por cinco at Babe’s, when the hostess asked for my nombre and I got really confused and thought she wanted my phone number. No, Kim, nombre = name. She didn’t say número.
But you know what? She didn’t give up on me! And that is what I liked, and noticed a lot – even though I was making mistakes with my Spanish, people were patient with me, and let me try, which made me feel empowered to keep trying.
There were quite a few times when I was practicing before the trip that Duolingo taught me a word I didn’t think I would use (or didn’t teach me one I thought I would need) and it actually came up in Mexico…
Like, escalera. Ladder. Why yes indeed, I did have a half English / half Spanish conversation with the man giving me a tattoo on the beach and ladders came up. “¿Cómo se dice escalera en inglés?” “Ladder.” “Ladder, like leather?” Ha ha. So I tried to explain ladder vs. leather pronunciation. Luckily, as someone said to me when I told them this story, “lather” didn’t come up. (This guy also wanted to know the English word for “little people”… interesting conversation indeed.)
The Duolingo app also wanted me to know the word for chain, cadena. Gah, it took me forever to remember that one. And while I did not speak it while I was there, yes, we passed una cadena on every walk to the beach or Fifth Avenue and I always thought about how good it was I learned that word. Ha ha.
It was also very important to Duolingo that I knew tijeras, scissors. When the heck would I need to know that? Oh yes, when the security on the way home stops me because of the knitting scissors in my bag!
Duolingo retaught me spoon (cuchara) and knife (cuchillo) but never fork (tenedor). I didn’t memorize tenedor before I left and was worried I would have to ask for one (just kidding… I didn’t really worry about that). Know what I did have to ask for? Tres cucharas, to share sherbet with Steven and Luca on our date night. It made me laugh so hard that I used the word I learned, not the other one. Duolingo, how did you know?!
Speaking of Steven, he didn’t learn any Spanish for the trip (he took German in college) but he did a fantastic job with it there. He asked me a lot of questions about what words were, and memorized them. I would tell him how to ask a question in Spanish (then he’d ask it), then I would tell him what the person said (more or less, of course) and how to answer back. It was fun to share my (very limited) knowledge with him!
And it took both of us awhile after we got back to stop saying hola and gracias to people! I still say sí, all the time, like I did before.
I am still continuing with the app, and have seriously thought about getting a tutor or taking a class to work on my skillz! Spanish is fun to learn! “¡Me gustan las reglas dela lengua!” I like the rules of the language… as I told our boat driver in Tulum after he mentioned how hard it is to learn English. Yeah, I said a bunch of messed up stuff to them in Spanish too. Ha ha. I could keep going and going with this post…
Themocracy
This is awesome! I am so happy DuoLingo worked for you and you were able to communicate effectively 🙂 I did notice people there would initially give me a menu in Ingles, pero I would ask them for one in Spanish and then they would be more patient with my espanol. Estoy muy orgullosa de ti por hablando en Español. Podemos hablar en espanol quando tenemos almuerzo juntos- proxima vez! Quero practicar espanol mas, y hablando contigo es perfecto!
Si si si! Me gustaría esto! Tenga la paciencia con mi, por favor! Hee hee 🙂
Muchas gracias por me dice sobre Duolingo!
Since you lived in Italy did you notice many similarities between Spanish and Italian?
Yeah, there are a ton. Since I knew a lot of Spanish when I was in Italy, I would constantly get in trouble in our flash Italian class for using it. Oops!
My middle son and I will be going to Berlin for a few days in April so I will get to dust off my very rusty German. Like you, I really enjoy using a different language. I’m pretty sure it’s good for our brains, too!
Ooo! I can’t wait to hear how it goes!!!
I don’t really have much to say, except me gusta! Very fun!
How fun! I always love language gaffs – they can be quite funny. I remember when I was in Spain I would occasionally go into the candy stores and get jordan almonds (“peladillas”) and one of the first times, after supposedly learning what they were called in spanish, I ordered “pesadillas” which means nightmare! “Me gustarían unas pesadillas, por favor” (I’d like some nightmares, please)
Ha ha ha! That is a good one! What did they say to that?!
How cool is this?! Is that app free? I took 5 years of Spanish in school, and had a blast being able to use it when we went to Cancun for our honeymoon but it’s been 10 years now since I’ve used the language. It is amazing how quickly it comes back to me though!
Yeah, it’s free! Check it out! I bet even more will come back to you!
Awesome, thanks for the information!!! I am going to download the app tonight! Thinking of trying Italian!!
Wow, Duo really served you up some useful words!! It’s awesome that you practiced so much–I love getting in a language groove when I have a trip to look forward to. It’s so motivating! And it’s even better that you want to continue now that your trip is over. (I can’t remember — did you learn Italian too? I know you studied abroad in Italy. I guess I forgot that you took Spanish.)
Speaking of Duo, have you see this Twitter account? https://twitter.com/shitduosays
It makes me laugh because some of the Duo sentences make NO sense, like “The spider is eating the apple.” Just like. What.
It WAS really motivating! I enjoyed it so much! I still am now, but definitely do not have the focus I did before. I would like to get back in the groove with it! I learned a little Italian in Italy – enough to get by! I don’t recall much of it though (Basta! Va via! sticks in my head (Enough! Go away!) ha ha).
Oh my gosh. There are some sentences that make NO sense to me that it has me translate. It makes so little sense I sometimes think I am translating wrong. Ha ha. Thanks for the link! I am going to check it out!
It is great to hear that you were able to communicate in Spanish! It’s is so nice that people were patient with you –even when you made mistakes! I’m going to brush up on my skillz before our trip! Even if I can only say a few things!
I bet you will be happy you did! How many days now?
Only 4 more days!
I downloaded duolingo last night! It’s kind of fun!
Yay! So soon!
The app is fun! And there is even more things you can do it you play on your computer, as well!
Let’s meet up for a run or to eat and we can practice.