Expats and the Spanish Language

I do. I started studying it in 1988, and taught Spanish to Americans and Europeans, mostly from Sweden and Denmark, the first year of my arrival in the DR in 1992.

P.S. I am not an expat anymore as I left the country about nine months ago.

I'm far from fluent but if someone wants to understand me or wants me to understand them, I can get along very well. But I have no chance of understanding Dominicans talking to one another. It is too full of slang and too fast for me to ever understand or speak at their pace! What I find most frustrating is when someone decides they can't understand me before I even try.

Do just fine in the grocery store. A little rusty with other negotiations such as buying a car or dealing with insurance issues...fortunately, I have a gadget called "Travis the Translator" which is a pocket-size instrument that translates 107 international languages, instantly. It has been a lifesaver here in the D.R. For the small investment of less than $200 US, it has greatly eased the stresses of communication. It also improves my Spanish a great deal, because the phrases are clearly spoken by the instrument and printed on the touch screen.

I think my Spanish is great. Wife says it is terrible. How do you tell?
If I can get Dominicans to slow down I understand pretty well. The newer phone translators help unless the Dominican speaker is not recognized by the machine which seems to happen often. It understands me just fine. Is the phone translator saying something here?
Maybe I need to find a higher class of people?

I'm with everyone else. I CONSTANTLY ask them to slow down and they say "ok", and then keep right on talking at 100 words per minute.
The slang issue is very frustrating, and the different dialects someone on here has already pointed out dont help any.