I have been in Mexico a while now and my Spanish is improving. To be honest, I find it much easier to understand Mexican Spanish than any other form. It is very clear and includes many English words (Mayan too). Having moved to Central America from Asia, communication is MUCH easier here - for me anyhow. The tones of Vietnamese had me tongue tied and the cultural disparities are less distinct here. I don't FEEL so...well.... FOREIGN here.
Mexico is situated just below the USA and partly due to proximity and history, a lot of places feel like a Spanish speaking North America. Even the buildings and infrastructure resemble parts of the States, but it is still super important to learn the lingo. Communicating with the locals is what deepens your experience in a country. Without that, a part of the puzzle is always missing - to my mind anyhow.
Yes my Spanish has been improving, but my speaking fluency needs a LOT of work. Recently, I started watching Mexican films and TV series to improve my vocabulary, my listening, and my fluency. The photo above is my dog Marley and cat Rosie joining me in watching a Mexican TV series called 'Guerra de vecinos". (War of the Neighbours). I think the official English name is "The War Next Door".
You can watch it on Netflix or on other sites.
It's a very simple rich versus poor comedy full of stereotypes I am sure, but it's also easy to understand, to play back, to repeat and to learn the language, while also managing to laugh a bit. I so believe that laughter and play are the keys to learning anything. You can choose any film or series to help strengthen your language skills. You can play with subtitles, then without, or the other way. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to language learning. Like everything, it's an individual exercise.
And, as you can see, the animals like lounging with me while I learn! It's all cute in here!
Of course, having a cute dog to walk means I also get lots of speaking practice with people who love him almost as much as I do. In fact, I was thinking yesterday of different ways to compliment animals and to make conversation with other pet owners. I think I'll create another post later when I've tried them out about conversations with my dog...
What's your favourite way to learn a language? Any tips for us?
We'd love to hear from you.
Lots of LOVE, Marley and Me. xxx
Photo of series taken from Netflix on screen https://www.netflix.com/mx/title/81169148