www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Okay, so after my virgin trip back in april, I decided to buckle down and really attempt to become fluent in speaking, reading, and writing spanish.

I purchased a program called called "speak in a week" that was functional for my trip and helped me get by (just barely) with basic phrases. But something was still lacking- the quality of my trip would have been ten fold if i'd been even mediocre with the spanish.

Forcing my hand, is my august adventure coming up in MDE. I hired a tutor off craigs list, and *gasp* she is 18, a student, and straight from Bogota colombia! hahaha! Talk about a wolf in a hen house.

Anyway, I am paying her $20/hr to teach me. She's a great teacher, and I plan on meeting her twice a week for a total of 4 hours per week of tutoring and conversation. Not only that i'm going to be glued to Univision, and study my a.zz off. Yes, you can post an ad on CL for a tutor. THe prices were from $12/hr to $30 that I was quoted.

I highly recommend getting some spanish lessons under your belt, even if it is learning from books or tapes. It will pay dividends!

- The bad guy

Also, if you are into Ipods, there are many free tutorials on itunes. Very laborious though!

PURA VIDA!

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Livin' & Lovin' in Key Largo....oh....And the one in The Keys, too!

Congrats. Push through in your learning you won't be disappointed. Imagine a CR trip where you're semi fluent, that should be motivation enough

Keep it up

Cujo

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"Pain is the fuel that fans the flames of my pyre. A battle plan is only as good as the general carrying it out on the field. This is my war son, and I have the biggest bombs and the smallest conscience"...

Geez, where ya been, Cuj'? I thought you would have posted hours ago!

_________________
"Your love gives me such a thrill
but your love don't pay my bills,
I NEED THE MONEY!" - John Lee Hooker

Disclaimer: The above is merely the opinion of the author unless specific scientific data is included.
Your mileage may vary. https://costaricaticas.com/phpBB2/viewto ... 978#206978

Cut me some slack, I was up all night with a crying baby...oh wait, that wasn't me

Cujo

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"Pain is the fuel that fans the flames of my pyre. A battle plan is only as good as the general carrying it out on the field. This is my war son, and I have the biggest bombs and the smallest conscience"...

Now that is a great idea

This board needs more of that

NYG

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Damm that water is cold!!!
And deep too!!!

I think that $20 per hour is a bit much, but the experience should be stellar. You might like her as a friend. You might meet her friends. Her friend might become your friends. You might have a great time and you might learn the language. All of that is very enriching. Life is a voyage, not a destination.

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

Congratulations, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and the rewards will make that $20/hr a pitiful sum. You are on your way to the deepest form of GFE and PSE that a Latina can give you.

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Hit them fast, Hit them hard and NEXT!
A good chica is like a good carpenter - No wood gets wasted!!!

awesome! thanks for the feedback. I think by retirement i'll have several languages under my belt (i'm early 30's)....

I was going to go for my MBA, but i'd rather travel and learn more languages.

If your career is on track without the MBA and if you are interesting and saving for your retirement years then you are on track. Learning a couple of languages will enrich your life more than an MBA IMHO. The experiences of travel and meeting different people beats the hell out of anything you can buy in a material sense.

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

MBA? today? Stick to the traveling unless you are talking Ivy league, and even then. The whole college diploma, unless very specialized, seems pretty worthless. And yeah, I have one and I am not sure it is worth the debt. I have learned way more on my own than I ever did in a campus.

PURA VIDA!

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Livin' & Lovin' in Key Largo....oh....And the one in The Keys, too!

Ditto all the above. Speaking Spanish especially but any other language is a truly transferable skill--advanced degress not so much. Of course put them both together (language skills AND the degree) and the business world opens up further...

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

I hope guys who become fluent over the years and have subsequent trips to CR tell their stories on the differences of their mongering experiences.

Over time it stands to reason that the more comfortable you are at a specific mongering destination the greater the experiences should be regardless if you know Spanish or not.

That being said, I would ask newly fluent speakers to focus on things like price, time, pse, gfe, etc.. Because its those things that will change that will eventually leave you feeling like you're getting away with something.

So it may be sometime down the road, but it would be nice to hear of guys tales of how things have changed. I would particularly like to hear in person at the SL someday

Cujo

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"Pain is the fuel that fans the flames of my pyre. A battle plan is only as good as the general carrying it out on the field. This is my war son, and I have the biggest bombs and the smallest conscience"...

Get the MBA, then get the languages. The MBA will allow you to travel more and learn as many languages as you want.

I, too, have have gotten the bug to learn Spanish. I have been doing things a little different:

I am taking a class at the community college. Its 7 weeks, three hours at a clip ($80.00).

I have also taken one-on-one lessons over Skype. My teacher is in Nicaragua. These lessons are taught by professional language teachers and are only $11.00 per hour

I am involved with Spanish Meetup groups. Most major cities have meetup groups that are free. These are usually excellent. Every one of these that I have attended are facilitated by a high school or college level Spanish teacher who is doing it just for the fun of it. Just go to Meetup.com and search for Spanish groups. These are usually free.

I can't say that I am getting good. I can conjugate a lot of verbs.