www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Very good point. In addition to vocabulary and verb conjugation, the accent is very important.

Another place to "learn" Spanish is watching TV or DVD movies with sub titles.

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Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly!

I'm living up to the commitment I made to myself to know more Spanish the 2nd trip than I did my 1st, which was zero. I bought a language course, and am spending 1.5 to 3 hours a week with a tutor. I'm fortunate in that I have found someone who spent a year in CR and understands the differences between spoken Spanish in CR and other countries. I find it exciting from the standpoint that there is no doubt in my mind that not only will my new found skills be useful with the working girls, but with everyone I meet, service personnel, my dentista's staff, everyone. Will I be fluent? Nope. Will I know enough to not come across as just another gringo? Yup.

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Ice

I am sorry I should have titled this "Yes you need to learn Portuguese"

Oh Well Live And Learn

Mag

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Rio4Me4Ever is on a constant quest for premium trim.

Haven't been to Rio but have been to Colombia. And, yes, you need Spanish there...and not Latin American spanish. Sometimes, the differences between Castellano and LA spanish are worlds away. Gotta get to Rio though..next on the hit list.

dapanz1

I hear this a lot, and from my experience, the differences become less acute as you become more advanced. You begin to be able to fill in any blanks from word differences, just as over time you begin to be able to "guess" at cognates, and usually be correct. If your vocabulary is sufficently large, and you are able to communicate the majority of tenses (including conditional and a bit of subjunctive), dialect is minimized. For low intermediate speakers and below, regional differences are hard.

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I said hey baby, take a walk on the wild side.
Lou Reed

Even when you get to a fairly advanced level some fine points can continue to trip you up.

Not knowing local sayings (dichos) which are literal, but having underlying meanings can be tough.

Also, some people speak at ultra rapid speed and others such as Cuban's and Puerto Ricans frequently leave off the second half on many words.

Native fluency only comes when you get past those hurdles. But, a good basic vocabulary is worth it's weight in gold.

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Providing humanitarian assistance to self employed chicas, one cash grant at a time.

I HATE THAT. I was just having a conversation about this very thing at my workplace. I think if your vocabulary is ok but not great but your pronunciation is very good it can work against you. Case in point., when first greeting/speaking to people in spanish they may assume I speak fluently. then begin to converse with me at f**king warp speed.

ok i'll stop complaining.

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Enzo

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