Miami to Santo Domingo? Might as well!

cpaynego

New member
Mar 6, 2017
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Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster :D I live in Miami and I'm considering a yearlong move to DR. My primary motivations are to learn Spanish and to diversify my life experiences. I just touched down in Santo Domingo this afternoon and will be in town "testing the water" for a few days. I hope to connect with many of you and add value to this wonderful forum!
 

peep2

Bronze
Oct 24, 2004
581
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38
Welcome, looking forward to hearing about your Spanish learning project.
 

LTSteve

Gold
Jul 9, 2010
5,449
23
38
Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster :D I live in Miami and I'm considering a yearlong move to DR. My primary motivations are to learn Spanish and to diversify my life experiences. I just touched down in Santo Domingo this afternoon and will be in town "testing the water" for a few days. I hope to connect with many of you and add value to this wonderful forum!

You will definitely achieved both of your motivations in the DR however just remember if you stay a year you will have to pay exit fines when you leave. Your tourist card is good for 30 days and you can extend it but without residency be prepared to cough up some pesos at the airport. Also when you make your airline reservation most will require you to buy a round trip ticket. You will have to get a return ticket that you can change or cancel without a penalty. Ya no estas en South Beach!!! Buenos Suarte'.
 

ZC1

Member
Dec 8, 2013
179
6
18
Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster :D I live in Miami and I'm considering a yearlong move to DR. My primary motivations are to learn Spanish and to diversify my life experiences. I just touched down in Santo Domingo this afternoon and will be in town "testing the water" for a few days. I hope to connect with many of you and add value to this wonderful forum!

Welcome. One only need to move to Hialeah in Miami to learn Spanish.
 

ROLLOUT

Silver
Jan 30, 2012
2,198
35
48
Welcome. One only need to move to Hialeah in Miami to learn Spanish.

Pretty much ANYPLACE on Dade county (excluding the beach area. I asked one supermarket manager several year ago why none of his employees spoke english. "Because we don't have to" , was his reply.
That pretty much did it for me. As soon as I retired last year, Moved back to LA (lower Alabama). Livin with rednecks aint so bad after 6 years of that cacapoopoo
 
Sep 4, 2012
5,931
57
48
Pretty much ANYPLACE on Dade county (excluding the beach area. I asked one supermarket manager several year ago why none of his employees spoke english. "Because we don't have to" , was his reply.
That pretty much did it for me. As soon as I retired last year, Moved back to LA (lower Alabama). Livin with rednecks aint so bad after 6 years of that cacapoopoo

ROF...so true!
 
Sep 4, 2012
5,931
57
48
Pretty much ANYPLACE on Dade county (excluding the beach area. I asked one supermarket manager several year ago why none of his employees spoke english. "Because we don't have to" , was his reply.
That pretty much did it for me. As soon as I retired last year, Moved back to LA (lower Alabama). Livin with rednecks aint so bad after 6 years of that cacapoopoo

ROF...so true!
 

newViews

New member
Feb 14, 2017
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0
I'm in the same boat- 2 weeks into a month trip but for sure extending another month. As a solo traveler, not having Spanish skills has been a real pain in the arse. Damn Duolingo & Michel Thomas! I literally get head aches going about my day and my attempts at general interactions with locals. Today I checked myself into Spanish School, 2 weeks, 4hr/day @ IIC.

I thought I'd be able to "immerse" my way to decent conversational spanish, thought I'd be able to walk around and chat everyone up/get good practice. It could be me but it seems most people are annoyed when I try to converse with them.
 

Derfish

Gold
Jan 7, 2016
4,441
2
0
Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster :D I live in Miami and I'm considering a yearlong move to DR. My primary motivations are to learn Spanish and to diversify my life experiences. I just touched down in Santo Domingo this afternoon and will be in town "testing the water" for a few days. I hope to connect with many of you and add value to this wonderful forum!

If all you want to do is learn Spanish you can marry any one of thousands of illegal latinas in Miami and she will teach you Spanish since she has no desire nor advantage in learning English! It worked for me! But I had to do it twice!
Der Fish
 

cpaynego

New member
Mar 6, 2017
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Thanks for all the replies guys! I've tried Spanish classes 4 times in Miami and it just doesn't stick. Between work, family, and friends, I just don't make the time to study outside of class. And while there are plenty of Spanish speakers here, practicing with them breaks down pretty quickly when most can just explain things somewhat reasonably in English. By moving to DR, I'll be forced to learn, practice, and hopefully, retain!

By the way, any suggestions for making friends (locals and expats) in Santo Domingo? I'm in my early 30s and plan to live in Gascue, Piantini, or Naco.
 

alexw

Gold
Sep 6, 2008
1,091
118
63
NYC-SDQ BABY!
I'm in the same boat- 2 weeks into a month trip but for sure extending another month. As a solo traveler, not having Spanish skills has been a real pain in the arse. Damn Duolingo & Michel Thomas! I literally get head aches going about my day and my attempts at general interactions with locals. Today I checked myself into Spanish School, 2 weeks, 4hr/day @ IIC.

I thought I'd be able to "immerse" my way to decent conversational spanish, thought I'd be able to walk around and chat everyone up/get good practice. It could be me but it seems most people are annoyed when I try to converse with them.

How do you like that spanish school? Ive thought about doing that as well as their dance classes.
 

mtrick1664

Newbie
Jun 7, 2017
6
0
0
Hi buddy.
I would be interested to find out how you get on. I will be visiting piantini in september for a few weeks!
 

Kipling333

Bronze
Jan 12, 2010
2,528
829
113
I can not imagine a worse place to learn good spanish than Santo Domingo ,unless you go to a special school .Few can speak it correctly in SD and even fewer write it .Far better to go to Peru or to Colombia if you are really serious about it. At least they can pronounce the vowels, finish the words correctly and can use the subjunctive and conditional . But here you will learn the language of the uneducated ..it is interesting and mildly amusing .
I notice where you wish to live .. well, good luck
 

Julia31

New member
Jan 4, 2012
166
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I can not imagine a worse place to learn good spanish than Santo Domingo ,unless you go to a special school .Few can speak it correctly in SD and even fewer write it .Far better to go to Peru or to Colombia if you are really serious about it. At least they can pronounce the vowels, finish the words correctly and can use the subjunctive and conditional . But here you will learn the language of the uneducated ..it is interesting and mildly amusing .
I notice where you wish to live .. well, good luck



Casa Goethe, IIC in la Zona Universitaria is a good school to learn if you already speak some spanish. However from what I know only the manager speaks decent english, during the classes its spanish only.

I am learning Spanish in Germany now, we have a mothertongue teacher and speak spanish most of the time but tricky things and grammar get explained in german which seems like the best solution for me