Despite growing up in California, I decided to forgo learning Spanish in school and instead spent several years attempting to become fluent in French. While my studies were extremely useful while in France, there is much to be wished for in Spain and Latin America. I know my numbers 1-10 in Spanish. I can read about 25% of what is written due to my knowledge of French. I can speak some basics, such as “Donde estan los banos?” and “La cuenta por favor.” But, in general, my pronunciation of unfamiliar words is horrible because I have the habit of sounding everything out as if I were speaking French. Needless to say, being in a Spanish-speaking country has been a little more difficult for me than what I have been used to in my previous travels.
Thankfully, I have Andy around to translate for me. However, sometimes even a decade of learning a language (after over a decade of only intermittantly speaking said language) can go awry…or not so much awry as in produce a few smiles at our attempts to communicate. Our first night here found us asking for “liquido para los insectos” (liquid for insects). I thought it was pretty good…so did the hotel staff person who cracked a huge smile. Apparently, the word we were looking for was “locion antimosquito”. Go figure.
kl.
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