Learn Spanish Blog

I recently went on a with my wife Melanie for our 11th anniversary to Ensenada Mexico. During the cruise, I learned a lot of new fun cultural information that I would like to pass on to you this week.

To start, I learned that the latest word for “cool” in Ensenada is “chilo” [chee-low].  I asked Miguel, our horseback tour guide, if that word is used just in Ensenada or in all of Mexico. (more…)

Lawsuits: United States vs. Latin America

In the United states many people sue other people over very small minor things as well as over large extreme issues. People in Latin America are not usually a sue-happy (litigious) people as in those in United States.

One of my Spanish professors at the university made this comparison (he was exaggerating somewhat, but it gets the point across).

In the United States, if someone is walking on the sidewalk in front of a home and trips, they might sue the homeowner. In Latin America, if someone walks on the sidewalk in front of a house and trips, the homeowner will laugh at them.

Forms and Meanings of the Verb “to drink” (more…)

In Spanish, there are four ways to say “you” – “tú”, “usted”, “ustedes”, and “vosotros”. If you use the wrong “you” at the wrong time, you might offend someone. Luckily, most people in Latin America will recognize that you are a “gringo” and give you the benefit of the doubt, but it’s still important to know how and when to use each form of “you”. Knowing this will help you seem more educated and possibly avoid causing offense to someone unintentionally. Some of you (newsletter subscribers) might have already learned about this concept in a classroom; hopefully this newsletter will help to clarify things a little more for you. Here are a few basic tips for the usage of “you”: (more…)

Just a few weeks ago, one of our newsletter subscribers asked me to address the differences between Spanish in Latin America and Spanish in Spain. This week, I will discuss a little bit about those differences as well as a few regional word differences from Central America to South America and so on. (more…)

Finally, the last hand gesture in our series. This is probably my favorite gesture of all the Latin American hand gestures. Being an American and not from Latin America, it took me some time to perfect it, but it’s fun and very expressive. As you can tell by the title, I like to call this gesture the “Someone’s in Trouble” gesture, however, it can also be used when you are in a hurry. Click here to learn Spanish. (more…)

Bienvenidos (welcome) to this week’s cultural tidbit. Before we jump into the culture topic for this week, I wanted to remind you to look into this week’s special offer on the Visual Link Spanish™ Level I course if you have not purchased it yet.

This week we will continue on with Latin American hand gestures. The Latin hand gesture we’ll learn today is useful on city buses and at public places in Latin America. I like to call it the “Thief Sign”. (more…)

If are planning to travel to or stay in Latin America, do not drink the water out of the tap! The water usually isn’t potable because they don’t use the same type of water treatment plants as they do in the United States. If you accidentally drink the water out of the tap, you may get what many people, over the ages, have affectionately called “Montezuma’s revenge”. Along with other symptoms, this condition will usually include many unwanted trips to the restroom. (more…)

For your own safety, in the streets of Latin America there is one major piece of information you need to be aware of—pedestrians do not have the right of way. If a pedestrian walks across the street at a cross walk (2 solid parallel white lines) in the United States, all vehicles are required to slow down to let the pedestrian cross. Most cross walks in the United States are at are at street lights or intersections with stop signs, but once in a while there are crosswalks in the middle of city blocks (far from an intersection). When people start to cross the street at the crosswalks, vehicles will slow down to wait for them even without street lights to stop the cars. If pedestrians are in the streets in Latin America, not only do cars not slow down, they seem to speed up. (more…)